American car buying guide [2024 dry goods] practical sharing+preventing pit strategy

Buy a car in the United States It may be the largest family investment in addition to buying a house and for children to go to college.

How to make this investment is of great significance to a family.

At the same time as buying a car, you may also need to consider how to deal with the existing car, whether to sell it, or TRADE-in to the dealership, please read: US car sales strategy and precautions

I want to know clearly before buying a car

Question 1: What type of car should I buy?

This question does not have a unified answer, and it is completely different from person to person.

Some friends have just added new babies and need a large space car, then minivan is naturally the best choice;
Some friends are pursuing the comfort and quality of driving, so buying BMW and Mercedes in the United States is also a very affordable choice.The exposure of the BMW X5 and Mercedes -Benz GLE on the road is extremely high.
Some friends like to be economical, so choosing Toyota and Honda will definitely not be disappointed;
Some friends like Yahe and spacious cars, you may have to consider FORD, DODGE and Chevrolet;
Some friends like pickups, especially the Texas people, then you choose Ford, DODGE, GM.

All in all, you have to follow you need and Budget To determine the model you like.At the same time, you need to further reduce the range in the process of early research and finally determine your choice.Of course, the two most important ways to determine the model are:

Test drive: Feel it yourself, better than anything.The price of the test drive must be separated, and it must be completed in different days.At first you go to the dealer, only test drive to understand the price range, but do not talk about the specific price, just to determine what brand and model you want to buy.
Trial of car rental: For example, you are hesitant between Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna.The best way is to use the opportunity to travel to rent this model.If you are not ready to travel recently, just rent it for two days and try it at home.The price is tens of dollars, but it can help you make the most correct decision, so as not to buy the car home before regretting it.

Question 2: Buy a new car or an old car?

This is also different from person to person, there is nothing good or bad, each with advantages and disadvantages:

Buy a new car: There is the best quality guarantee, and the transparency of the price is high; but the value of the value of the first three years is extremely high.
Buy old car: Relatively cheap; but quality requires professional verification, and the final price is difficult to master.

= “If you meet the following characteristics, you may be more suitable for buying a new car:

Virginity;
Pay attention to the car condition of the car;
I will not change the car for a long time, such as 6-10 years.

= “If you meet the following characteristics, you may be more suitable for buying a second-hand car:

Valuity ratio;
Can have conditions to identify the quality of the car;
Change the car in a short time, such as within 1 to 5 years.

Question 3: When is the best to buy a car?

Generally speaking, One week’s week As well as One month at the end of the month and One year It should be the best time to shot.However, early surveys need to start earlier.

One week’s week (such as Tuesday and Wednesday): The more people watching the car, the more difficult the price is.There are generally fewer people in the week, and the sales staff has more time to take care of every customer, so you may get more preferential prices;
At the end of one month (such as No.30, No.31): For a car sales staff, sales is naturally a very important KPI indicator.The end of the month is the last timing of the sales staff’s sales.Therefore, you are more likely to get the best price;
At the end of the year (such as December): For the same reason, the salesperson will give you the greatest benefit to sell the car in order to sell the volume and the final performance bonus, in order to sell the car.The price difference with you entangled, compared with the performance bonus, the little witch sees the big witch.

Question 4: Where to buy a car is the cheapest?

The more population, the larger the city, the more dealer, the cheaper to buy a car.

There are many Dealer, and natural competition is large, so there is room for discussing the price.You can use a low price to talk about lower prices with different Dealers.Under a strong competitive environment, Dealer can only give some profits for you.

Friend experience: A friend of Texas once departed from Lubbock in Texas to Houston to buy a car.You know, there are nearly 9 hours of drive from the two places.But because Houston is a big city, he can get better prices.

Question 5: How long does it take to buy a car?

There is no certain answer, which can be rang from one week to several months.This depends entirely on your time, patience, how much homework you do, and the eagerness to buy a car.

Generally speaking, the longer you do your homework, the longer you do, the more the number of DEALER you touch, and the more time you spend, but often you will get more affordable prices.

If you are not in a hurry to buy a car, then leave a 1 to 3 months of investigation!

I want to understand the above five issues, especially what model you have decided to buy, and also decide to buy a new car or an old car.Below, we can come to talk about the specific steps of buying a car:

Question 6: Buy a car in 2022, will the car price be much higher?

The new crown pneumonia in 2020 and 2021 caused a large number of factory stopping or reduction of production, which caused the situation of serious electronic chip shortage (Microchip Shortage).The output of the car has also been seriously affected.Then, the price of the car in 2022 will be greatly increased.You are very likely to use the price of MSRP to buy a new car, which was difficult to imagine before.

In 2022, we found a Toyota Dealership for a Price Quote of Sienna, and found an amazing one called “Market Adjustment”.Decer was based on MSRP and added $ 5000.It is really hard to imagine.[The definition of MSRP, you can see the relevant introduction later]

I consulted some Ford and GMC DEALERSHIP, asked some SUV prices, and found that the price of MSRP can still take the car directly.However, it is difficult for Dealer to make any concessions on the basis of MSRP.

Consumer Reports It is believed that the shortage of this electronic chip may last until 2023.Therefore, if you plan to buy a car in 2022, you may need to pay a higher fee, but if you also need to sell existing cars, you may also get a better Trade-in Price.[You can read: American car sales strategy.

American car buying steps

Step 1: Do your homework in advance
Step 2: Select DEALER
Step 3: bargain with dealer
Step 4: Visit the dealer
Step 5: Complete the procedures for buying a car

Step 1: Do your homework in advance

The most important step of buying a car in the United States is to do my homework.Here I recommend three online resources for everyone.You can fully understand the price, configuration, advantages and disadvantages of the vehicle:

Edmunds: Suitable for the price of the vehicle.At the same time, you can compare different models of different brands or different models of the same car.
Keller Blue Book (KBB): Suitable for the reasonable purchase price interval of the vehicle and the feedback of previous customers;
Truecar: Suitable for the reasonable purchase price of the vehicle.At the same time, you can view the real evaluation of users who have purchased the vehicle.

When viewing the price of the vehicle online, you may find three prices: MSRP price, Invoice price, average market price.

Invoice price is the most important, the average market price is second, MSRP can completely ignore Essence

MSRP: The manufacturer recommends the price, the full English name is M anufacturrr S uggestd R etail P Rice, this price does not make any sense.If you buy this price enough, then congratulations, you’re right;
Invoice price: The price sold by the manufacturer to Dealer should be the lowest price.But don’t think that your purchase price must be higher than this, because car manufacturers generally give Dealer about 1%to 3%bonuses at a price of Invoice, so even if the Dealer is sold at the price of Invoice, they also make money.
Average market price: This indicator indicates that the average transaction price of this type of car recently purchased this type of car may be higher than the price of Invoice.It is a very useful reference indicator.

Take Honda’s Odyssey as an example.We use the three websites above to check the price of the vehicle in detail, related configuration, and the feedback from previous customers.

Edmunds

As I said earlier, the price of Invoice of the vehicle is the most important price indicator.Let’s take a look at how to use EDMUNDS to view these prices.

Enter Edmunds homepage, We click on the New Car Pricing at the top;
Select Honda, ODYSSY and your zip code;
Find the “Build & Price” link in the figure below;

Choose the configuration of a car, such as heating chair, and so on.Here we choose the most basic configuration to view the corresponding Invoice Price and the average market price.

In the figure above, the red box is Invoice Price, the price is $ 29,262; the average market price in the blue box is $ 30,798.

Keller Blue Book

Clicked Enter KBB homepage, Select Price New/USED;
Select car brands and models, such as Honda Odyssey, the website will automatically determine the postcode according to your IP;
Choose the year of a car, 2020;
Select the model, such as the basic version of Odyssey;
Select the configuration of the car, for example, choose the basic configuration.Please check the SPECIAL option, there are more discounts for college students and soldiers;
In this way, you can check the reasonable purchase price range of the model.

The Fair Purchase Price given by KBB is $ 29,264.This number is similar to the price of Invoice given by EDMUNDS before.

At the same time, KBB provides the scores and comments of previous consumers, which is of great significance to our purchase of vehicles.We recommend that you read the comments of each consumer carefully, so that your understanding of each car will be deeper.

Truecar

Truecar provides free vehicle evaluation information, and also provides scores from previous customers.

Enter Truecar homepage, Select “SHOP New” or “Shop USED”, here we choose “SHOP New”;
Choose a car and model that is interested.Here we choose Honda’s ODYSSEY;
Enter the zip code of your city;
Choose the model of the car, here we choose “lx”;
In this way, you can view the average market price of the vehicle.

As can be seen from the figure above, the average market price is about $ 27,585.This price is much lower than the previous EDMUNDS and KBB.

Summary and comparison

According to the above price analysis, we draw the following form:

	Invoice price ($)	Average market price ($)	Information Sources
Honda oadyssey, 2020 LX	29,262	30,798	Edmunds
Honda oadyssey, 2020 LX	N/a	29,264	KBB
Honda oadyssey, 2020 LX	N/a	27,585	Truecar

It can be seen from the above table that the price given by Truecar is enough for 1700 knives less than the above two valuations.We judge that it may be that the website data is wrong, or it really has such a good deal.We need to contact the dealer first to make further judgments.

Step 2: Select DEALER

You can use the following two methods to contact the dealer:

Take the initiative: Use Google Search to find the dealer around your location.There are many Dealer in the Dallas-Vosburg area, as shown below.Please choose according to far away, scores, scores, and comments.But please choose a number of people, so that you can get the three companies and get the most affordable price;

After choosing a good merchant, please check their main station in order to check the vehicle interested.For example, we choose one of them: HONDA of FORT WORTH.We reach this dealer’s website to find the inventory of all cars.

For Odyssey in 2020, there are 27 vehicles in the inventory.Please visit each car and find the one you think is suitable, mainly color, module, configuration, and so on.For example, we find a following one:

Please click on the red button “Get Today’ s Price “above.At this time, you need to use your name and mailbox to enter the phone.Soon, sales staff will use emails to contact you.Note: You may see different expressions on different DEALER websites, such as “get quote”, “quote”, “price” and so on.

In the same way, please click the button “Get Price Alerts” above, and enter the name and phone number at the same time to track the price change of the car.For example, a email sent to me below, listing the detailed information of the vehicles and vehicles I am interested in.

We use the same method on 10 different Dealer websites to do a good job of “Price Alerts” and Quote for vehicle prices.

please remember: Just give the mailbox and don’t call.Let the dealer send the offer of the vehicle through the email.

Passive attack: Fill in your personal information on Edmunds or Truecar.After that, these websites will send your information to many of the Dealer around you.These dealer will use emails and telephones to contact you.Taking EDMUNDS as an example, click “get dealer quote” in the figure below.

You need to enter your name, mailbox and phone number.

After that, you will receive a large number of telephones and emails from Dealer.Please just read the email and do not answer the phone.Even if you get it, let them send Quote to the mailbox, saying that they are busy now, look back.

Compared with the active attack method, this method is relatively saving time, but there will be a lot of junk phone calls and emails.Dozens of calls and emails a day are possible, which makes you unable to fight.

Whether it is active or passive attack, the purpose is to use the email to get the price of a large number of cars.

Step 3: bargain with dealer

Compare the price sent to you different dealer, and use EDMUNDS, KBB, and Truecar to evaluate the price evaluation according to different models and configurations at the same time, in order to determine the target price of each car, that is, the price you expect.

Our job later is to gradually approach your target price to the price sent to us.Of course, for each car, the target price will be different because the configuration is different from the model.

How to operate?

On the basis of the target price, reduce $ 1000, and then send this price to the dealer.
Generally, the dealer does not agree.You may need a few back and forth to do Negotiate.
If you refuse to give up temporarily, you say: “I can wait.Please let me know you have a price cut or promotion.” Or, “if that car does not have deal, do youHave any Other Similar Cars with A Promotion? “
This process may last for a long time because you will contact multiple Dealers and there will be multiple email back and forth.
If you find a good price, but the color of the car is not good, you can use this price to let other Dealers do price match.
The ultimate goal is to make Dealer’s quotation closer to your target price to the maximum target price through a large number of email negotiations and your own research.At the same time, through a large number of email back and forth, you can quickly master the price range of this car.

In the end, please choose a few better prices so that you can prepare the next step and play in person.

Step 4: Visit the dealer

In this step, you need to visit Dealer.There may be two situations here:

Case 1: You have finalized the final price with Dealer: Please print the price and email you talked about before, make the final confirmation with the dealer, and complete the purchase.

If, when you talk, Dealer increases the price at a good price at any excuse, please leave immediately.

If you did not finally confirm the price with Dealer: you still need to bargain with the dealer.However, because in the third step, you have clearly grasped the price, so the purpose of the price is to approach your target price as much as possible.

Tips: You have to prepare for leaving at any time.If the price cannot be talked about, please leave decisively.Wait a few days to see if Dealer will call you: If you call, it means that the price you proposes is not high; if the Dealer does not call, you may not accept the price.

With this information, if you talk to another dealer, you can do it in your heart.After talking with different dealer a few times, you know that the price is getting tired.

Tips: If you feel that there are any deceptions or disrespectful behaviors in the process of buying a car and talking about the price, please leave immediately without entanglement.

Step 5: Complete the procedures for buying a car

This is the last process, and there are a few pits to pay attention to.You will be taken to Finance Office to sign a bunch of words and complete the first batch of payment.

Tips: Do not sign on any documents that you do n’t know; the basic principle is unclear without signing.

Car loan interest rate

If you are not paying in full, then you need a car loan.Before seeing the dealer, you need to check the car loan interest rate that the bank can provide, so that you can compare it with the car loan provided by the Dealer.for example Bank of America The loan interest rate currently provided by the new car in Texas is 60 months 3.09%& nbsp; apr, as shown below.

At the same time, many DEALER websites also stated their car loan plans.For example, the loan plan provided by a local Dealer is: 1.9% APR for 24-36 MONTHS or 2.9% APR for 37-60 Months.It seems that BOA’s car loan interest rate is better.

In order to encourage you where to loan from Dealer, Dealer will give you a certain Cash back as a preferential condition.Please calculate which one is more cost-effective.

If the APR of the Dealer is lower and Cash back is provided, you can choose a Dealer loan company;
If the APR of Dealer is high, but you will give a certain Cash back, you can consider using Dealer’s loan company first, get Cash back before transferring to other loan companies;
If the APR of the Dealer is not good at all, go to the car loan company, such as BOA.

All in all, you need to calculate yourself, which is more cost-effective.If you do n’t know, do n’t decide hastily.You can do it until the next day.Research it well that night.Do n’t pick it easily.

The warranty plan provided by the dealer

Dealer encourages you to buy a car warranty plan.In my suggestion, for the new car, as long as you need to add money, don’t.

car insurance

Before taking a car, you need to give the car a good insurance.It is recommended that you do not get a car on the same day and book the car time with the dealer.

After returning, use your existing car insurance companies to get on the new car insurance.In this way, everything is ready.

American car buying summary

Buying a car is an exciting thing.Regardless of the result, please enjoy this process.

If you buy a used car, you must check the historical record of the car before buying, and see if there is an accident in the car, you can be in Carfax Find the historical record of the car.At the same time, you’d better ask a friend who knows the car to go together to see how the car condition is.

Tips: For second-hand cars, the price is difficult to grasp the price due to different car conditions.Second-hand cars are also one of the most profitable projects.

We have been committed to writing the most real, practical, and most detailed US Raiders.If you like our articles, please enjoy a sharing so that your friends can also benefit.

Please use the mailbox to subscribe to our channel below, and keep up with each of the latest articles published by the Guide of the American Life!

= American merchant recommendation =Yingyou Certificate: Support multi-market, multi-financial transactionsFutu MOOMOO Securities: Give 15 U.S.stocks to open an accountWeibiu Cycling e Webull: Send multiple US stocksFirst Securities: The favorite of the Chinese in the United StatesRobinhood: Novice Xiaobai’s favoriteTradeUP Securities: Tiger’s Syndrome in the United States

Subscribe to American Life Guide

We have been committed to writing the most real, practical and detailed US Raiders.

The detours and losses we have walked will really share with you, so that you will take less detours.

If you like our article, you can consider joining the American Life Guide Twitter community And share this article with your friends.

At the same time, you can use mail Subscribe to our channel Some strategies, we only share with our subscribers!