How to buy a New Car online? Best Practices!

One of the biggest questions consumers face when they start shopping for a new vehicle is where should they go to get the most information about the new vehicles their interested in, what is a fair price for this vehicle and if they have a trade,how much can they expect against the vehicle of their choice. The answers!

Well this hub will provide you with step by step instructions to help you get the most out of the internet and prepare you for your visit to the dealership.

Your first move is to visit the manufacturer site of the Make of car or truck you are looking to get information on so you can see exactly how each model is equipped and what options are available also find out the estimated cost of the vehicle. Then visit your local dealership to test drive the vehicle of your choice to make sure it meets your need and expectations, then we get your best price.

Here are links to the most popular New Autos sold here in the United States:

DOMESTIC MANUFACTURERS:

Ford www.fordvehicles.com

Chevorlet www.chevrolet.com

Lincoln www.lincoln.com/

Buick www.buick.com

Dodge www.dodge.com

Chrysler www.chrysler.com

Jeep www.jeep.com

GMC www.gmc.com

Hummer www.hummer.com/hummerjsp/home.jsp

Imports Manufactures:

Nissan www.nissanusa.com

Honda automobiles.honda.com/

Mitsubishi www.mitsubishicars.com

Toyota http://www.toyota.com/

Volkswagen http://www.vw.com/en.html

Volvo http://www.volvocars.com/se/Pages/default.aspx

Hyundai http://www.hyundaiusa.com/

Saab http://www.saabusa.com/us/en/start#/home/

Audi http://progress.audiusa.com/

Mazda http://www.mazdausa.com

Suzuki http://suzukiauto.com/

Kia http://www.kia.com/

So you've researched your vehicle on their site. You narrowed your search down to a specific model and trim. Now it's time for price. This is a very important step. On the manufacturer site, you will be able to submit your information and get prices from several dealers all at the click of the button. See illustration below:

Before you give out your information to a car dealer, let me give you a word of advice. If you don't want phone calls and spammed emails, do not submit your phone number or your private email address. What you should do is set up a car shopping email address specifically for this endeavor. You can get a free email address online almost anywhere, gmail, mail,yahoo,etc... Any of these will suffice. It would be o.k. to use your real name if you would like, but I have seen some people just enter initials or use an alias. Once you have all this set up it will be easier for you to access all the information sent to you from the auto dealers. Now to the next phase... I will be sharing lots of tricks and gimmicks along the way, so pay attention.

Now you can submit your request for a price quote to the dealers. Most tools on the manufacturers websites ask for your zip code and will send your request to dealers within your immediate area. How many quotes should you expect, I would say about 2 to 3. I think you should get at least get 5 different quotes from dealers within 75 mile radius of your home. As soon as you send out your request, expect auto response emails to hit immediately. In some cases, depending how the dealership's internet department is run, you may not get any. But most are on the program now. The estimated number of shoppers looking for information online about a specific vehicle is up to 80%. So the internet department is now becoming one of the fastest growing sectors in the auto industry. Now it's a waiting game. BE PATIENT! Get your price quotes and then we can compare them to sites that give invoice estimates and current incentives. Yes, you will be able to access information dealers don't want you to know about.

Within 24 hours we should have some correspondence from the dealers. Some may give you a quote on the exact vehicle you're looking for and some may ask for the exact vehicle with exact options and exact color. If they do provide them the information. To make it easier, set up folders for each dealer that respond to you. This is avoid confusion with all the emails you get from them and make it easier to go back and reference them. After you receive your quote, email the dealer back and acknowledge that you have received their quote and you will be getting back to them if you are interested in their quote. This will get the dealer fired up, trust me. They get many leads that go replies and that fact that YOU will get back to them if YOU are interested in their quote makes them think this "I HOPE I SENT A LOW ENOUGH QUOTE"! You may get a response to this saying that they will beat anyone's quote. Give the dealer a ranking based on the quote. Rename their folder with a 1,2 or 3, based on the quotes, 1 being the best down to 5 the worst.

Now that you have all your price quotes. There is a part of the auto business you must know about. Usually, they send quotes including all incentives. Read carefully! If there is an asterisk on their price quote make sure you find the reference to the asterisk. Usually it leads to a disclaimer which can change the whole complexion of the the price quote. Here is an example of a disclaimer:

"All prices quoted after factory to dealer incentives. May require financing with a specific bank. Contact dealer for details"

If you see this, you better email the dealer back and ask for a specific break down of the rebates applied to the price. This will take away one of their tricks of the trade from the beginning. If you are dealing with a transparent dealer, they will gladly oblige. If not, cross them off your list. They are not being upfront from the get go, you can expect more deception as the process continues.

One of the most important steps in the process to get the best price is to make sure you are getting all the rebates available to you and also, find out if the vehicle you're looking at has dealer cash available. What are dealer incentives?

Dealer incentives are factory-to-dealer cash-incentive programs. Dealers are not obligated to share with consumers the factory incentives received for selling particular vehicles. It's up to you to get the dealer to pass along part of the incentive in the form of a more competitive price. This is above and beyond the markup available to make profit. How can we find out if there is dealer cash?

How to Find Out if Your Vehicle Has Factory Incentives
Currently there are only a few places to find out about factory-to-dealer incentives. Depending on whether you live in Canada or The United States there are a few companies that provide this hidden information at a nominal fee. In Canada there is Car Cost Canada a company that provides factory incentive information along with their new car invoice pricing reports. In the US there is FightingChance.com, a site that emphasis’s on factory-to-dealer incentives. Last but not least is Consumer Reports, a company known for delivering relevant information to consumers of every industry. Their website, Consumer Reports.org, offers reports to both US and Canadian customers.

How to Find Out What Rebates are on your Vehicle

While you're on the manufacture's site, usually there is a tab or button that says "see offers on this vehicle" or "special offers". You can also gather this information from third party sites like cars.com,Autotrader.com,Edmunds.com and KBB.com.

What is Dealer Hold Back?

All dealers participate in this. Hold back extra profit to the dealer when the car is sold. It's paid by the manufacturer to the dealer. Sort of a cushion. How much hold back usually does each vehicle have. A good rule of thumb is 2% of the base Suggested base retail. ($20,000 = $400.00).

The information you need to get the best possible price on your new car is out there, the choice of using it is up to the customer. But when educated buyers are saving four, five or six thousand dollars off their purchase, why wouldn’t you want to be one of them?

What is Dealer Invoice?

The dealer invoice is the amount the dealer pays for the vehicle when it sells. This is the price most dealers use when they send out a quote of sell their vehicle online. Then they deduct factory incentives off of this price and walaa, you have your internet price quote. You can find dealer invoice on websites like Cars.com, Edmunds.com, etc. Your can Google Dealer invoice and hundreds of websites with this information will pop up. Compare invoice prices from 2 to 3 sites. Keep in mind that some sites do not disclose shipping charges from the factory. Make sure when you're looking up the invoice this charge is included. It can affect negotiations. It's one thing to get a great deal and have realistic expectation, it's another thing when your pricing is off by a thousand or two.

We gathered all the rebates and incentives, we have all the price quotes, now we compare notes. This is the elimination stage. You narrow it down to the top 2 or 3 quotes that sent quotes that match up close to the invoice price less the incentives on that vehicle. After you have selected the 2 or 3 dealers that have given all the information you requested, email them to let them know that they are in the running and that you plan on purchasing withing 48 to 72 hours. Of course this step is if you are ready to purchase within this time frame. In this email you will ask for specific information like having the car of your choice in the color you prefer, along with interior color and options you are requesting. Also mention that you need an out the door price with a tag transfer and new tag. Why you ask? Many dealers have hidden fees that they don't disclose upfront. Your ultimate goal is to get the total price you will have to pay for the vehicle when you get there. The bottom line is what you're after and after it's all said and done this will be the dealer you will purchase your new car from. If you do this, you will have save an additional 1 to 2 thousands dollars. If you have any questions about any of these processes, feel free to contact me, even if you run into a brick wall. I will help you break through. Happy car buying!

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