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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Tips for carshopping
We were hit this past weekend and our car is totaled. Sucks but thankfully we're all ok. So, we need to start car shopping. Any tips you'd be willing to share?
Re: Tips for carshopping
I'm so sorry you were in a car accident, but I'm glad that you and your family are all right!
Good luck car shopping! I don't have a ton of experience, other than to say that you want to compare prices between dealerships and compare dealers. If you are a AAA member, you can search for cars and dealerships in the area and get the "average" price on a vehicle. My family has used Bobby Rahal Toyota (on the Carlisle Pike) several times and I still bring my car there for maintenance because they have been so good to me in the past.
We just bought a new car a month ago. Here are the suggestions that I found VERY helpful:
1. Test drive everything you are interested in. Ask about things that are important to you. Don't let them sell you on aesthetics (Nissan in York was bad with this).
2. Compare consumer reports on cars. I really had good luck with edmunds.com when it came to reviews, but there are others as well.
3. When you find the car you want, call around to dealerships to see the prices they are offering the car for. Tell them they have a chance to get you to come to their dealership if they give you a good price on the phone. Some weren't willing to deal on the phone, but we got our car's price down because of a price given to us over the phone, which was the lowest we got over the phone.
4. Don't let them talk to you in terms of payments. Get the overall price and the interest rate down, but have a price in mind when you get there and stick to it.
5. Be willing to walk out. Even walk out if you have to and come back later or the next day. It will bring the price down.
6. Play dealers against each other. Let them know you are willing to go to the other dealer who will offer this price for the same car (same as above with calling... we just called instead of went to other dealerships). They want you to stay a customer at their dealership before. We also let him know that there was another car that we were interested in with another brand altogether and that if we didn't get the price we wanted we were willing to buy that other car. That really helped us. We just played that we were torn on which car to buy.
7. Don't share the price you are aiming for. They will ask. Instead tell them that you want to see what they can give you.
Have fun! It is so thrilling to buy a new car! I love our car! We are buying another next year and I am so excited to do that! Test driving was so fun!
What kind of car are you looking for? I can tell you what we liked and didn't like with cars if it is around what we bought.
Oh also make sure you get on to Kelly Blue Book so you can see the average of what the cars are selling for. This way you don't have unrealistic expectations.
We used York Kia and really liked them. My parents used Lancaster Kia and had a great experience with them as well when they bought my mom's minivan a few years ago. People will tell you not to check out Kias, but I find they are usually people who don't own them. Everyone I know that has a Kia *LOVES* it and hasn't had any problems with it. We bought the new Kia Soul and are so happy with our purchase. We liked that everything that was options in other cars was standard in this one. They also have a great warranty and my mom hasn't had one issue with her Kia and ours has been great so far (knock on wood!).
My tip: let your DH do it, lol. Seriously, I get sick to my stomach when it comes time to start the negotiating and dealing with the finance stuff, so I always like to stay out of that part. I pretty much say if I like a car or don't like a car, test drive it, and my part is done
And we only buy used (certified), which I'm not sure if that's an option you're looking at or not? Steve researches a lot on AutoTrader.com (I'm not sure if you can shop for new cars on there or not, possibly) and our last 4 cars have been found through this site. Good luck! and try to have some fun
I was going to add mine in... until I realized Abbie's list is what my DH told her, so there you have it.
If you're a Costco member, try getting the Costco price for it - dealerships in the Hbg area have agreements with Costco (I know Faulkner Honda is one of them) and they give you the invoice price on the car, or something similar, I believe it was. Even if they don't have the car you want on the lot, you can then use that price to play off another dealer. DH did this when we bought my Civic from another Honda dealer two years ago. This, of course, only applies to new cars.
It sucks that your car was totaled and you have to deal with this at all, but at least you're striking at the right time - they want the '09s off the lots now because the '10s are going to be rolling in, so you should be able to snag a pretty good deal, and buying at the end of the month also really helps to negotiate down so that they can get closer to hitting their monthly quota.
GL!
... every single day of forever.
TTC since Jan 07. Dx with PCOS Jan 08
This is the absolute best advice anyone has ever given me about car shopping. You really have to stand your ground and make sure that you're not getting pressured into something you don't want/can't afford.?