“Invoice and MSRP are completely irrelevant,” says Scott Painter, founder and CEO of truecar.com. “Some cars sell well above MSRP, some cars sell well below invoice. And the dirty secret in the car business, and where the frustration comes from, is we all have a sense that there are hidden layers of profit in auto retail. The reality is that there are about 13 of them.”
Some Quick Tips:
One factor that helps consumers get a deal on the car of their dreams has to do with popularity. When a particular luxury model isn’t super hot on the market, dealers have much more wiggle room in order to cut a deal.
If you do plan to bargain for a new car, there are a few things to keep in mind. The most important: Don’t assume that the sticker price is the set price. It’s not.
The most important thing to do before buying is to research a vehicle before you hit the dealership. Know your transaction prices, invoice prices and potential fees, and then negotiate from that spot–not the other way around.
“If somebody comes in and starts trying to negotiate down from MSRP, well that’s the dealer’s dream,”
Here is a list from Yahoo and Forbes on some of the cars that were deemed “worst ” from a compilation of lists.
To determine the list of the worst-made cars on the road, they started with the lowest-rated vehicles from four reliability and performance studies conducted this year.
Those studies are all from Consumer Reports:
1)The Most Reliable Cars Report
2) Best and Worst Values Report
3) Best and Worst Safety Performance Survey
4) and the CR overall scores for 2010 vehicles.
The biggest surprise on the list, given recent automotive news: It includes no Toyota made vehicles. In fact, Toyota reported a 40.7% gain in sales last month over March 2009.
Subaru, Hyundai and Kia Win Big
Who were the winners and losers in the auto sales race last year? It’s easy to list the winners, because it’s such a short list.Only three brands posted sales gains in 2009 — Subaru led all automakers with a 15.4% gain while Hyundai increased sales 9.8% and Kia 8.3%.
Chrysler LLC sales plunged 36% in 2009 and General Motors Co. watched its sales drop 29.9%. Ford Motor Co.’s 2009 declined a more modest 14.7% but its December numbers jumped 23.9% more than December 08.
Neither Chrysler or GM sales posted increases in December, although their sales declines were a less painful 10.3% and 12.4% respectively.
Honda’s sales decreased 19.5% in 2009. Nissan posted similar declines at 19.1%. Both automakers improved sales in December — 15.6% for Honda and 9.7% for Nissan.
Getting a good price depends on how much research you do and how effectively you negotiate. Car shoppers should start by researching the fair market value of a car they’re interested in at sites like Vehix.com, Yahoo! Autos, or KBB.com, U.S. News’s car-ranking site, Edmunds.com , or Intellichoice.com, then try to push the dealer below that price.