Bought a car today

[bjl584]

Yep. They had the cars tagged as no-haggle prices. Trust me. I tried. They wouldn't budge a dollar. I still think it was a fair deal plus a good price for the trade. And it commands a premium for being factory certified for what that's worth.

Actually, I wish the whole industry would go to fixed pricing. It would make the car-buying experience much easier.

Probably too late for it, but the way around fixed pricing is to negotiate on your trade (ask for more) and/or to ask for extras (a better extended warranty, a few free oil changes, floor mats, pretty much anything they are willing to give you.)

[bjl584]

So now that you bought a "new" car what will you do to replenish your car fund? I'm assuming that you have had some money sitting aside for a car for quite some time now. Probably more than the $16K that you just spent. Do you have a plan to replenish it in some specific amount of time?

[disneysteve]

Probably too late for it, but the way around fixed pricing is to negotiate on your trade (ask for more) and/or to ask for extras (a better extended warranty, a few free oil changes, floor mats, pretty much anything they are willing to give you.)

I got all new floor mats and a nice discount on the extended warranty. They also gave me cash for gas money when I initially left to go look at the Hyundais.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

What is the depreciation hit over hit over the past 6 years? Was it minimal being a Camry? Or substantial? What's a new carmy running where you are? I saw base camry's where I am for around $20-22k. It didn't seem to get hit that hard.

[JoeP]

Yep. They had the cars tagged as no-haggle prices. Trust me. I tried. They wouldn't budge a dollar. I still think it was a fair deal plus a good price for the trade. And it commands a premium for being factory certified for what that's worth.

Actually, I wish the whole industry would go to fixed pricing. It would make the car-buying experience much easier.

Did you actually walk out after offering less? If not, then they had no reason to budge on the price.

[disneysteve]

What's a new carmy running where you are? I saw base camry's where I am for around $20-22k. It didn't seem to get hit that hard.

This isn't a base model. It's an XLE fully loaded with pretty much every option they offered at the time. A new XLE V6 lists for about 30K.

[disneysteve]

So now that you bought a "new" car what will you do to replenish your car fund? I'm assuming that you have had some money sitting aside for a car for quite some time now. Probably more than the $16K that you just spent. Do you have a plan to replenish it in some specific amount of time?

We live below our means and save upwards of 25% of our gross. Much of that goes into retirement. Some goes to DD's 529. The rest goes into general savings and car money comes out of that. So we'll just continue on course. I've also been prepaying the mortgage but will put that on hold for a little while to replenish the savings more quickly since my wife's van is 12 years old with over 150K so that might need to be replaced in the relatively near future as well.

[bjl584]

Did the dealership pitch the usual sales questions to you like, "What would you like your monthly payment to be?"


Also,
Did you check on interest rates at all, or wasn't financing even a consideration?

[greenskeeper]

They gave me $1,000. I was fine with that. I don't have the time or desire to try and sell it myself and considering I know it has several current and potential issues, I would be uncomfortable selling it anyway.

Should have PM'd me (haha). Fix and resell is something I do on the side for fun (and profit)

[Stump1000]

I like the no haggle pricing as well. I think for the mileage of the car and with it being loaded, you got a great deal.

[disneysteve]

Did the dealership pitch the usual sales questions to you like, "What would you like your monthly payment to be?"


Also,
Did you check on interest rates at all, or wasn't financing even a consideration?

Since the price of the car was fixed and they were offering special financing, there weren't really any numbers for them to play with.

I did finance the car. As I've said in other threads from time to time, sometimes for convenience or cash flow reasons, taking a short-term loan isn't unreasonable. In this case, I wasn't planning to buy a car. I really decided Thursday night to go looking on Saturday, which wasn't enough time to collect money from various accounts and have it in one place. So I put down 5K and borrowed the rest at 2.9% for 36 months. I have no intention of keeping that loan for 3 years but having it right at the moment is convenient for me. I'll likely knock it out within a year.

[snafu]

Looks like a gorgeous car with the bells and whistles you'll use and enjoy. Drive in good health and without problems. Toyota's warranty is valuable as they fix even tiny, silly things that can go awry. Before it expires, check sites like Lemon-Aid for any call backs, weaknesses or repair recommendations. Mazeltov [sp?]

[laurend1985]

Congats, I will be doing the same soon.

[bjl584]

Steve,
How is the "new" car so far? Any issues? Are you satisfied with it?

[disneysteve]

Steve,
How is the "new" car so far? Any issues? Are you satisfied with it?

Sorry. Haven't been around much lately.

Thanks for asking. The car is fine. I've noticed some little cosmetic things that I didn't see when I bought it but nothing of any substance, and nothing out of the ordinary for a 6-7 year old car. I've put about 3,000 miles on it so far and it drives great, gets good mileage, is very smooth and quiet on the road. We took it on one somewhat far trip, about 3 hours away, and it was very comfortable to travel in.