As a first time car buyer one and a half years ago TrueCar gave me confidence during negotiations. In my case I didn't use it to determine a no dicker price with the dealer. Instead it was the basis for my walk away price and counter offer.
I used the TrueCar price as a starting point for negotiation. I emailed a bunch of dealers asking them to beat the out-the-door price until I found the dealer offering my the best price. I walked in with a certified cheque and bought it after a short test drive. I got my car below TrueCar. The dealer claimed that I was getting it below invoice and he was only making money because of incentives. I brushed it off as a negotiation tactic.
I think it's easier to do this for a popular car so your mileage may vary.
Nah, I went in on an advertised special defined price on one and even had a TrueCar listing in hand another time. They made up a bunch of mumbo-jumbo that the cars they had aren't exactly like what they advertise. After I said ok to a price, I still had to wait around for hours with wife and two young children to finalize all the paperwork and get the car prepped. Wanted to stab myself in the eye from frustrationand swore I'd never buy new again. It appears there is still a wide space between the negotiated price and driving away.
I think TrueCar is mostly for newer cars, but is it possible they apply the same method to used cars in the future and try to take money off your increased price?
Do you think
It's very frustrating, I bought three over the last couple years. I think the biggest help to consumers is TrueCar.com which basically uses the information they gather about prices people recently paid for cars to negotiate a fair price for both parties. Whenever I mentioned TrueCar the salesmen were kinda disappointed because they knew they couldn't squeeze any extra money out of you. I started a website to help people get good deals on cars and then just decided to quit because TrueCar was efficient enough. Even the dealers that didn't participate still respected their pricing. At that point it was just a question of making sure not to get screwed on the financing and trade-ins.
I used TrueCar (and other similar services) as a starting point, but was able to negotiate a better price in person (~6% lower) than what TC quoted (what they considered an 'excellent' price.) I actually didn't find the process to be painful at all. My salesman was friendly, willing to work with me, and gave pretty close to the final price right out of the gate.
You're never going to do better with car-buying services than just communicating with the dealers, especially their fleet or online managers. That said, one should figure out what they value their time at, and realize that they can easily spend hours/days trying to haggle that last $500 when it doesn't make sense from a time investment standpoint.
I bought a car a couple months ago, and as soon as the sales manager saw a TrueCar page open on my phone, the negotiation ended and I paid the price on the phone. Pretty amazing how easy it was.
My bank and credit union both offer car buying services via TrueCar (which my bank actually owns around 10% of so they really encourage people to use it). In my case I paid around 5% less for my car than the "best" price I was able to get by visiting a dealer and going through the traditional song-and-dance routine. It seems like one of the big benefits is that they make it really easy to check the prices at a bunch of dealers. I don't remember if they actually offered any substantial saving at my local dealer compared to the price I "negotiated", but I was able to find a dealer that was willing to do a cheaper price around 70 miles away.
Almost every online car purchasing service at major brands is a white labeled truecar. Don't assume that, say, the "AAA" or "Costco" brand is giving you any special treatment. Your lead goes into a lead queue, a price that is better than floor/sticker but not as good as you may have gotten from negotiation is given, and you, saving time and stress instead of money, buy the car.
I was a huge fan of truecar until I did the experience, and now I'm hugely disappointed. I felt like the experience hid information and shepherded me to a dealer to let it take advantage of me; I saved some time and hassle, but I spent more money in the process and at the end, wasn't all that happy. YMMV, so check out the tool (directly or via AAA or Costco etc.), but be realistic over what it can do: it makes money from the dealers, not you, so be aware of biases.
I haven't tried non-online services (personal negotiators, etc.) so can't speak to those.
A lot of car salesmen ignore buyers like this. They see it as a waste of time to get pitted against each other. I’ve gotten the best results by starting with the dealerships with the lowest prices on TrueCar and then baiting them to invest time in me. Then they’re more committed and eager to close. Show your teeth later in the negotiation.
Dealers use term "Hold back" (dealer incentives) that will give them a hint You know how it works.
Also, has anybody used truecar.com - does it really work with prices or its just to get you in dealership to tell you they are out of that specific "deal".
I used to be the Internet Sales Manager for a dealership in the bay area and I can second that TrueCar is a powerful asset for the consumer.
When a dealership signs up with TrueCar they agree to give full access to their sales database. Now TrueCar has access to every car you buy and sell, new or used. They then aggregate this data to create their pricing information.
truecar.com (and other similar sites), for better or worse, will be the downfall of the traditional car dealership... The price they give you is generally free (or very close) of ANY profit for the dealership.
They have a contract with the dealerships to honor the price, but b/c they cut so close to the bone there are instances where dealerships end up not honoring the price and try to negotiate anyways. I've seen it first hand, it doesn't work (people generally just walk out, as they should...)
Car dealers have haggling advantages over purchasers:
- You buy a car perhaps once every three years, perhaps once every ten. They sell a car at least once a week.
- You are basically alone; they are a team.
My sister started buying cars via fax quotes about 12 years ago. When she's figured out what she wants, she sends requests for quotes to every suitable dealer within 100 miles. (Now she uses email, of course.)
They still don't expect this minor effort to put them into competition with each other, and it seems to have worked in her favor every time. It's nice that TrueCar is automating this; perhaps more people will use it.
It certainly seems like an easy to understand value prop. I've done ok on negotiating cars, but only after a lot of research and through a lot of frustration. I've told a friend of mine (an aggressive attorney) that I'd gladly pay her to go negotiate a car for me.
One of my worst experiences was trying to play the "let dealers compete" game online. I'd get 4 to 24 hour turnaround times on emails, which just wasn't going to work. As a bonus, I still get several emails a week from dealers still trying to get my business. (Thankfully on my semi-throwaway account.)
+1 to forums and research. I found one where someone straight-up said the price dealers paid for the vehicle in my area. Some more research and it seemed to be true.
I went to one dealership and they wanted 10k over. So I walked out and right into another who seemed spooked I had that number and sold to me for x+$1. After we’d signed the documents and were prepping to leave the salesman came over and asked where I’d found that number.
Every time I’ve bought a car the prep-work was the most important. And, like you said, the ability to say “no”.
I did something similar with my last car purchase, with a little bit more back-end research. I found dealers with the exact car I wanted on their lot. I put copies of the window stickers of these cars onto my iPad, which I brought with me during the negotiations. I also knew the exact MSRP and margins of each of these cars, as well as the price paid for similar cars in the area (truecar.com was very helpful).
I walked into the first dealership and showed them the sticker of the car I wanted and said, "I want this car, this exact car, I'm paying cash, and I want to drive it off the lot today." We talked (argued) for at least 30 minutes about price and they wouldn't come down. At one point there were two other salesmen and a manager at the table with us right in the middle of the showroom - apparently we were the main event. Each of them tried their own pitch (one actually tried to sell me some random used car that wasn't anything close to what I wanted). For each of their arguments I showed them the data on my iPad and said my offer was fair, I wasn't budging. They got angry, they yelled, they called me a liar and a thief and talked about their kids who had to eat. Eventually I just stood up and started walking out without saying a word, at which point they called me back and said they would do my offer. The salesmen tried to give me a pep talk while the GM approved the offer (at which point I caught him in a huge lie and I thought the kid was going to have a breakdown right there). They presented me with a written offer and I picked it up, folded it and put it in my pocket, and said I would be back (they're not supposed to let you out of the dealership with their written offer). I drove straight to the next dealer, presented him with the window sticker of the exact car I wanted on their lot, gave him the offer sheet from the previous dealer and told him I would be paying cash today. 10 minutes later I had the exact car I wanted at the price I wanted to pay. If you're informed and persistent, there are deals to be had. Also, everything you hear about all the tricks car dealers use are completely true, yet not difficult to overcome.
The problem is that you feel like a chump if you don’t negotiate. No one wants to feel like they didn’t get a deal especially on a used car. But the last time I bought one it was from a dealership that didn’t negotiate, a fact I discovered when I started negotiating. And then to see if it was true I started pushing pretty hard and they stood firm and the end result was great, I left very happy with my purchase.
I just compared 3-4 different cars and configurations with pricing on TrueCar.com and TrueCar was always cheaper. In one case TrueCar was cheaper by almost $4k.
It is a known fact now that you can go directly to a dealer and get a better deal than TrueCar these days so wonder if this service really adds any value!!??
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