Buying your new vehicle
Jul 24 '00
Be prepared! The old Boy Scout motto sure applies here. My wife and I recently purchased a new 2000 Ford Ranger truck, and it was an experience not to be forgotten soon.
I started off by researching current models online at Kelley Blue Book's site (www.kbb.com); this gave me a lot of good information on different models, pricing- dealer cost and sticker price, options..
So then we started to visit several dealerships to do some comparison shopping. We were looking at Ford, Dodge and Chevy trucks. I liked several models that we saw- but the salesmen were a different story.
While many of us might consider a car salesmen to have about the same reputation as a politician, drug dealer or lawyer -- no, they are not all bad! I knew a nice drug dealer once.. just kidding! Actually, we found our ideal truck at the same place where I found one of the best sales personnel- coincidence? This made all the difference in our experience. We went to this dealer after visiting maybe 10 others; and by this time, there were several dealers who had tried to pressure us into buying something less than what we really wanted. BAD move- we will never go back to them again!
We had found our truck at a lot about 70 miles from home, and when we got there, at the end of a long day of going from dealer to dealer, they were closed. We looked around (under the watchful eye of the security guard) and decided to come back the next day- Sunday. We were there when they opened. This is where we met our sales person, and it really made his job easy! I told him that I wanted the truck- had not even driven it!- if he would give me a good price. Now, most of the other dealers that we went to acted like they were doing you a big favor by coming down $1000 or so off the sticker price. We had seen all the deals- $100 under invoice... so I let this fellow know that all I wanted was his best price; I was already familiar with the truck; and I had my mind made up- if he would not come down at least $2500 off sticker,we were outta there.
So I guess that I was more than a little surprised by the way we were treated- very nicely, NO pressure- and I got the truck for under $22k, when the sticker price was over $25K; a saving of about $3200.
I could not have gotten this deal if my wife and I had not shopped around and done our research. While we found a couple of dealers who I will never go back to, we did find one that we will certainly go back to the next time we are shopping for a truck!
Good luck with your purchase.
Bill
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Epinions.com ID:
bill8643
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Member: Bill Luberger
Location: Fayetteville, WV
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 22 members
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