Five tips on negotiating a new car (and shopping with my dad)

Okay, let’s catch up. My old crap car was decaying around me and it was time to buy a newer car. I had decided on what I could afford and was ready to get serious.

(Click here to read part one, Mikelann Wants a New Car: I Want What I Want When I Want It!)

I was at peace with the prospect of buying a good used car. (Again, see my previous post on my initial emotional tantrum.) As they say, “every car on the road is a used car”. And I knew cars lost value the moment you drove them off the lot. And leasing a car is definitely a bad idea financially. (Leases only make sense if you have to have a brand new car every two years.) But I wanted a really good car- a car I loved and was in great condition.

I wanted a newer Honda Civic two door coupe. A little sporty car that was quality and beauty all rolled together. (Okay, and my new single life with one ten year old child meant I could leave the “family car” behind. Hee hee! )

I confess that I felt on my own. I had read about how many women were taken advantage of at car lots. I thought of renting a large silent man to make sure the dealer would treat me fairly. How irritating is that!

I started reading about how to negotiate for a car. Now, mind you, I do teach negotiation. I also felt the pressure of doing a good job- practice what I preach and all that. Well, the first key to negotiation is doing your research and learning what you can. But before I continue my story, let me give you five tips.

Five tips to buying/ negotiating a car:

1. Research what the car should sell for. Check out Kelly’s Blue Book value. The internet is a great place to do research on cars. You can input your zip code and the year of the car as well as the condition etc etc. (I started looking up the value of Honda Civics’ in my zip code, 2002- 2008 models)

2. When talking to a salesman, DON’T tell them how much you can spend. For example, never say “Well, I can’t spend more than $8,000.”

3. Don’t tell them you are most worried about the monthly payment. They can finance anything to make a monthly number look good. Of course you’ll pay a ton in interest.

4. Don’t tell them if you have your own financing, will use them, or you’re paying cash. Don’t bring any of that up until you’ve settled on a price.

5. Bring a friend. Bring anyone. It doesn’t have to be a man. But you’ll be talking to someone who negotiates for a living. You want someone with you you can talk things over with, privately. Someone you can bounce ideas off of or someone who can help walk you away from a not-so-great deal. Make sure your friend knows your bottom line so they can keep you on the straight and narrow. (And it doesn’t hurt if he or she can pretend they know something about cars…)

Like I said, I knew the stories about women and car lots. It’s a bad combination. So many of us don’t know *#$% about cars, and we don’t like to negotiate. Bad, bad, combination. (“Good girls” especially don’t like to negotiate. I know because I’m trying to reform my inner good girl- people pleasing ways.) I really don’t know crap about cars. I’m a little more comfortable with negotiation.

And now let me share that once I did my research on price, primed myself on car negotiating and located four cars I wanted to see…. I called my dad and convinced him to come with me. (Remember point number five- bring a friend.) Yes, he’s that amazing super man who has been working on my house and just installed two new electrical outlets in my living room “because you can never have enough outlets”. So true.

And I also confess that a part of me felt like I wimped out by bringing my dad. A “real woman” can go buy her own car! I really wrestled with this one. But I also reasoned that bringing my dad was like bringing a friend to an important doctor’s appointment. Do we really have to do everything alone?

I’m the one who did all the research on car prices and I would do all the negotiating. More on that in a minute. But to be clear, I brought dad for three reasons:

1. I really like my dad and we had a great time cruising dealerships and just visiting.
2. My dad knows cars. I don’t. And my dad knows Hondas, which is what I wanted to buy. At every lot I would pop the hood and stare at the engine and really scrutinize it like I knew what I was looking at. Yep, there was that bright shiny engine. There it was. Then when the car salesman wandered away, I would ask my dad what he saw.
3. I read one too many articles about women getting ripped off at car dealerships. And as good as I thought I was at negotiating, I couldn’t make up for my lack of car knowledge. As much as I wanted to prove my negotiating might, I wanted to also be smart. (Underearning is caused by our internal patterns around underselling ourselves- and one common way we do this is by not negotiating. But there is also real societal discrimination out there, to be sure. Get it?)

So off we went. It was interesting. One car salesman kept telling my dad that he should test drive my car. My dad actually did very little talking to them. But he carefully looked at the cars, the engines, the mileage etc. He knew my bottom line. I also said very little to the sales people. I played my cards close to my vest, not revealing what I liked or didn’t like. When a car salesman would go along for the ride in the backseat, my dad and I would talk about parenting and funny grandchild stories- give no information!

After four cars, we went to Starbucks and debriefed. It was obvious at that point what car was best- a sweet Honda Civic LX- two door coupe- perfect car fax history, only one prior owner, lower miles, great maintenance records, “Honda certified” etc . It felt brand new. (Though I’m sure they spray that “new car smell” around quite liberally. Hmmm. Just inhale it. There’s probably some mind numbing chemical in it, now that I think about it.)

I knew the Blue Book value and I knew what they were asking. Their price was quite reasonable, actually, and I could afford it even if they wouldn’t come down. But you’ve GOT to negotiate a car price.

So back we went. Dad played the somewhat “silent” bad cop in the back, sharing a few pre-planned reservations so the guy wouldn’t get to sales happy. (You and your friend can pre-plan this too. Have your friend show concern over the miles or whatever.)

“What are you asking again?” I asked.

He tells me the price and why it’s such a great deal.

“Hmmm. Well, as you know, I’m looking at some other cars too. Can you make me a better offer?” (Dad is silent during all this part, inspecting the office woodwork so the guy doesn’t get caught up in talking to him too.)

“Well, what were you thinking?” He asked me.

“Hmmm, would you consider—“ And I named a price about $1500 under his price and well under bluebook.

He hemmed and hawed. “Well, I’d have to call the owner on that.”

“Okay.” And I just sat there and said nothing more. (Dad is still inspecting the wood work and the guy looks at him anxiously from time to time but can’t get his eye.)

He dials the powers that be. “I’ve got this little lady here who’s looking for an early Christmas present, Jim…” (Why, oh why, do they always call you “little lady?”)

I actually got up and moved around his office while he was on the phone. I thought for a moment there was no one on the other end of the line, which wouldn’t have surprised me. But there was.

Long story short, he came back at $500 over my offer.

I drove my new car home that afternoon.