The last car I bought was a Mazda 6. I got a lof of info from carbuyingtips.com and edmunds.com

I used an offer sheet and used all the invoice costs for the car and options to come up with my offer instead of using msrp prices. In the end I got a good deal.

How is Scion as far as negotiating? The TMV on edmunds seems to be the same as the msrp so I figured that scion doesn't budge.

 

Scion is like Saturn... no haggle...

 

agreed...scion = no play

The prices are low enough already. One thing that a lot of people dont think of is that if you dont want the options to be on your contract then you can actually leave them off of and pay for them straight up. Exactly the same as having them on the contract, but it will keep your monthly payments down a lot if thats what your worried about.

 

used tCs often sell at or above new tC prices because theres no price cap limit on used scions. but all new scions have pure pricing. you pay the MSRP, not a cent more or less.

 

scion is great, with the pricing, you buy a car and add what you want, your not paying for a car that has extras that you may not want..........

dont want side airbags? dont want a 6 disk changer? well then you dont have to buy one.....

 

Theres NO haggaling, but this guarantees that you are getting a good deal, since the dealer isnt able to mark up any new tC's.

Used tC's are a different story...

 

Agreed with the rest, no haggling. I just got a new tC on Saturday. You can however, haggle with the options. Depends on who you talk to.

 

Also keep in mind dealer documentation fee's vary (I see $95-$200), some charge extra money to locate a new tC in the color you want, and trade in will vary by dealer.

That is how I shopped. Called each local dealer and asked about the fee's first, then tried them all out. Highest number (Trade value - fee's) got the sale. I picked up my Scion tC last Friday. 455 miles on it now.

 

the dealership I got mine from has an offer that if you get options installed after buying that there is a 25% discount, so I just got it stock and got all my options added after words with the discount to save some $

 

You can go back to college, get your degree within a month and then go back and buy the car for $400 off.

 

Great idea if the college degree you get doesn't cost anything more than $399.

 

if you have a trade thats where you can haggle. they are going to be tough about it. but lets say your trade is worth 10,000 tell them you want 12,000 for it and see what happens. they might reject 12,000 but they might give your 11,000. there you just got 1000 more dollars towards the car

 

Trade-ins are always bad. You lose money no matter what. I'm speaking for those of us who are smart or are living on the edge (or close to it).

 

Agreed. When I bought my tC, they wanted to give me $300 for my 93 Cavalier RS 5-speed. This car got 38-42 mpg and still ran great. It had a few dings in it, but what do you expect for 142,000? I sold it myself for $750 and could have probably got more...but I just wanted to get rid of it to have money to put into my Scion. Sell private party if at all possible.

 

it's like going to the store and picking out something....you can't haggle the price down, it's the price of the item and thats what you'll pay.
the good thing is that you will not feel cheated because everyone pays the same price on a new car

 

Trade in isn't "always bad". I value my time, and after selling one car privately I said never again.

I sold my WRX privately. It took me about 2-months, countless test drives from folks who never called me back and I can't even remember how many times I left work early to show the car to have folks not call or show up. It was 2-yrs old, had 25K miles, and I was asking $18K for it.

At the time I decided to sell it, I called the dealer where I purchased the car. They would have paid $15K-$16K for it. I laughed, Two months later I sold it for $17,500. Guess what, the car cost me about $500/month with insurance, so I really didn’t gain much of anything in my opinion. The time and effort was crazy. Trying to keep the car clean to show, etc..

When you trade the car in many don't realize you pay sales tax on the difference between the new car and trade value. AKA:
New car = $20K
Trade = $10K
Diff = $10K (this is what you pay taxes on).

So, if your sales tax rate is 5%, you can add an additional $500 in my example to the trade value. If you sold the trade yourself, you'd have to pay sales tax on the $20K.

And, if your trade has a history of problems (like my most recent trade for the scion did), trading in is much better. You are not liable for selling to someone privately who can come back and try to sue you. The "as-is" deal doesn't hold up as much depending on where you live.

So, I don’t knock trading a car in. I agree that sometimes it can yield more money to sell the car on your own, but one has to consider all the factors (your time, effort, and taxes on a new car, etc..) and then decide how much extra that $1K-$1500 of more money is worth.

When I bought my tC, I pushed for kkb trade value on my Impreza, which was $6800. I know if I sold it privately I wouldn't get much more than that.

Paul G.

 

Dealer will not even throw in a free key chain. Pay MSRP for what you get