How to find the best deal in today's market...

Hello everyone, this is my first post. I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts and experience with you for everyone’s benefit.

To begin with, I am not a salesperson or expert on trade. I learn from others, mainly by talking to friends who purchased a vehicle recently, also I listen to YouTube channels where people make sense in their presentation, and I read a lot.

I find the car market as crazy as it can be and easy to be taken advantage of if I am not paying attention. So here is my input on finding a Tundra that suits my needs, some of you may find it beneficial, others won’t:

-Watch as many reviews as you can to get an idea about the Tundra trim that best suits your needs, and don’t take everything you hear for granted, some bias is there

-Decide on the color (Exterior and interior) and be specific in your selection, you may choose 2 colors to make your research easier.

-Decide on the truck add ons and accessories that best suits your needs, i.e., TRD off road package, running board, dash cam, safe...etc. keep in mind that some of these extras are mandatory as they are already installed, likely won’t be removed.

-Surf the net looking for dealers around you and in the neighboring states, look at google review, how many reviews they have; 200 reviews vs 2,000, look at their inventory

-Look at dealer’s management, you are likely to get easy and fair deal with family-owned dealer rather than a corporate.

-Search https://www.autotrader.com/ or https://www.cargurus.com/ look for the truck you’ve decided on and arrange them by prices or distance from you if you wish.

-Make a list of your preferred dealers.

Now the fun part begins:

Once you locate a dealer (s) that has the truck of your choice send them an email asking for availability and I advise you to add the following: (you can re-write it the way you feel suitable):

*Do you charge market adjusted price over the MSRP?

*Is there any new purchase fees that I should be aware of?

*Do you require mandatory package (s) to be purchased upon selling cars in your dealership?

*Ask if they have available Tundra similar to the trim that you are looking for, and if you can come check it out?

I had one dealer who required body film protection for 1200+$, another required purchasing oil change package for 3 years

-Be prepared to put down refundable deposit: 500-1000$

-Be respectful to salespersons and their time, that will get you a long way.

-I personally won’t include my phone number during my initial inquiry due to my work schedule. But if I like what I read in the dealer’s reply, then I will call them myself.


Take multiple offers and enjoy the hustle. Some of us find it stressful experience but hey; you are spending your hard-earned money wisely; you and your beloved ones will be proud of what you do.


Please correct me if I am wrong and I appreciate your contribution.

Good luck everyone

 

All good advice. I’d add: Get pre approved on the loan through your bank, credit union, etc before setting foot in the dealership. It’s another layer of profit for the dealership.
Basically they get you approved for say 3.5%, tell you it’s 4%, and pocket the difference.
Having the pre approval keeps you from overpaying. If the dealership can beat the rate you already have, good. If not, use the bank you got the approval from.

Capitol One can give you this without taking a credit hit as long as you put the correct info in.

 

sometimes its beneficial in the deal to take the dealer finance to get additional discounts and redo the loan yourself after the fact.

 

That sounds like an illegal scam—how does that work?

 

Be prepared for warranty markup they try and get you on--I was quoted 4500 on warranty extended for 6 year 125 K and was able to get them down to almost cost from what I got from a member on this forum..

 

If you’re financing through the dealer, always triple check your numbers. Financing will “massage” the numbers and actually add to the principal amount you have to pay back over the loan term. They figure you won’t care to check as long as your monthly payment is in the range they told you. Even if you insist that you don’t care about the monthly payment and you only care about the amount to pay back and the interest rate, like I repeatedly did.

I had it worked out in writing with my salesman at Toyota of Cool Springs that I would finance $10k at a specific interest rate and pay the rest in cash up front. The finance guy added $1200 to that amount and tried to hide it from me while I was signing. I caught it, and he tried to play it off.

Never will I ever do business with that place again. Don’t know how typical this is at other dealerships, but buyer beware.

 

I've heard of dealerships trying to do that, but not where I'm from, for sure.

To be clear, I live about 20 miles outside an Army post, and the dealership is maybe 4 miles outside the post. As such, for the most part, they won't try shady sh*t, or else post would simply give them all kinds of hell.

When I bought my truck, we got the amount down to $30K. The exact amount I financed was $30,002.50 - and the sales guy caught it. (The $2.50 was that processing fee or something or other...the exact name fails me right now.) He was pretty pissed @ himself - I had to almost physically stop him from reprinting all the paperwork LOL. I just said "Meh, it's two and a half bucks. I'm fine with that."

Have bought two vehicles since then and all of them were on the up and up.

 

It’s not illegal, but not all banks allow it. It’s called dealership participation, or rate participation. Think about how hard a dealership usually tries to get you to finance through them. Why would they bother if there wasn’t something in it for them?
My half a point example was probably low. I’m betting they try to get at least a point or two. They may or may not split the difference with the bank.

One thing I always try to tell people is to not let their guard down once they hit the finance office. Those aren’t accountants in there, they are salesmen. Moving from sales to the finance office is considered a promotion to a lot of these guys.
Their job is to tack on as much as possible once the deal is agreed to. Interest rates, warranty, service contracts, etc are all things they make commission on. Otherwise they wouldn’t argue when you have your own financing, decline warranty, etc.. They’re usually more pushy than the guy on the sales floor is.

They figure (correctly in most cases) that by the time you get there your guard is down, you’re exhausted, and emotionally invested in the vehicle. There’s a reason they tend to leave you waiting a while before they call you in.
A lot of people walk away on the sales floor, but almost nobody does once they get to the finance office. It’s definitely a place where you can be taken advantage of if you aren’t careful.

 

i usually run the numbers before hand, you can download an app that will figure most the numbers for you right off the bat so you can check the paperwork.

the down payment amount includes : $1000 deposit to order, and $3250 best pricing discount from the dealer (5%)

 

what's the name of this app? please share a link
Thanks

 

https://www.fncalculator.com


it has crap ton of calcs for everything. you just select which ones you want turned on in the app. has ads (very minimal) or you can buy the pro version.

 

I get that, but flat-out telling someone their rate is higher than it actually is seems pretty sketchy. If there are fees built in then I would imagine that has to be disclosed separately, then the APR might be reflected as 4% vs 3.5%. I just can't imagine it's legal to just say the rate is 4%.

 

https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/litigation/closed/gmac-faq.pdf

explains some general info

 

It’s absolutely sketchy, but legal. I’ve never talked to anyone who was aware of it before I told them. I don’t even remember how I found out about it. This is why I mention it anytime someone I know is buying a vehicle, and always advise them to get a pre approval.

With the access we have to information nowadays, and the ability to easily get competing quotes from multiple dealerships online, it’s not difficult to get a fair up front price on a vehicle. But very few are aware of how much you can get screwed in that finance office. Like the old adage says, “That’s where they get you”.

 

Another thing to watch out for, that I’ve caught more than one dealership doing:
Usually the salesman / finance manager will leave you and your spouse alone at their desk at some point. A trick a lot of them like to use is to have their phone on speaker, connected to another phone somewhere else.
Them “going to check with their manager” is them actually going into another room to listen to you two talk when you think they aren’t listening. Couples tend to talk things out in that situation, and unknowingly reveal how much they’ll pay, how bad they want the vehicle, etc.

Had this happen in the finance office a few years ago. The rate I knew I qualified for was under 3% at the time. Finance guy says I’m approved for 5%. Bullshit, not happening. He goes to talk to his manager.

When he left I see a green light on his phone, looks like an open line. Knowing what rate I already had pre-approved, I tell my wife “If they can’t get under 4% we’re out of here”. He comes back right after that telling me “Great news, I got them to lower it to 3.99%”.
At that point we just laughed and left.

At another dealership in the same situation, I told my wife if they even try to sell me an extended warranty we’re leaving. Only time in my life a dealer didn’t even offer me one.