I purchased a new minivan a couple months ago. I hate buying cars. The whole process seems very confrontational. To speak in terms of 7 Habits, it feels very win-lose with me being the loser. That is probably why I put off making the purchase for so long. I am happy to say that I actually nailed it this time. I do not believe I took the dealer to the cleaners, but I feel good about what I paid and thing I negotiated well. I ended up paying $12,000 for a $17,000 car. Here's how:
- My wife did a lot of research about minivans and narrowed us down to Siennas and Odysseys. By limiting the "serious" search to those two the search space became tractable.
- I shopped at the end of the month. The dealer specifically referenced this as we were going back and forth, in that he wanted to make the sale before the end of the month.
- I researched the prices of cars the night before, so I knew the internet price prior to stepping on the dealership. I do not know if they would have tried the higher price if I didn't know, but knowing the price on the web took the first $1000 off immediately.
- I enumerated the available cars in our area and graphed the mileage vs. the price:
| Car | | Year | Miles | Price | Town | Dealer |
|---|
| Sienna | LE | 1999 | 87391 | $8,765 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | LE | 2004 | 79136 | $11,763 | Woburn | Woburn Toyota |
| Sienna | LE | 2004 | 77313 | $12,686 | Woburn | Woburn Toyota |
| Sienna | XLE | 2004 | 87501 | $12,889 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | | 2007 | 74353 | $13,997 | Framingham | Direct Auto Mall |
| Sienna | XLE | 2004 | 96191 | $14,555 | Lexington | Lexington Toyota |
| Sienna | | 2006 | 76846 | $14,597 | Framingham | Direct Auto Mall |
| Sienna | CE | 2008 | 83783 | $14,986 | Woburn | Woburn Toyota |
| Sienna | | 2005 | 59732 | $14,988 | Woburn | Woburn Toyota |
| Sienna | | 2007 | 63706 | $14,997 | Framingham | Direct Auto Mall |
| Sienna | XLE | 2006 | 88967 | $15,678 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | LE | 2006 | 51593 | $15,953 | Woburn | Woburn Toyota |
| Sienna | LE | 2006 | 80134 | $15,995 | Tewksbury | Tewksbury Toyota |
| Sienna | LE | 2007 | 61517 | $16,988 | Woburn | Woburn Toyota |
| Sienna | CE | 2007 | 57668 | $17,317 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | LE | 2008 | 68134 | $18,378 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | | 2008 | 53970 | $19,222 | Lexington | Lexington Toyota |
| Sienna | LE | 2008 | 54830 | $19,730 | Woburn | Woburn Toyota |
| Sienna | | 2008 | 65614 | $19,877 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | LE | 2009 | 49274 | $19,987 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | | 2008 | 63053 | $19,995 | Tewksbury | Tewksbury Toyota |
| Sienna | LE | 2007 | 57863 | $20,996 | Hyannis | Hyannis Toyota |
| Sienna | | 2009 | 36132 | $21,322 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | LE | 2009 | 44968 | $22,487 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | LE | 2010 | 33505 | $22,679 | Hyannis | Hyannis Toyota |
| Sienna | XLE | 2007 | 42937 | $23,782 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | XLE | 2008 | 63772 | $23,999 | Lowell | Lannan Chevrolet |
| Sienna | | 2008 | 40786 | $26,588 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | | 2008 | 80244 | $27,634 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | | 2011 | 25508 | $28,566 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | XLE-L | 2008 | 37135 | $29,834 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | XLE | 2007 | 58888 | $31,255 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | | 2008 | 19025 | $31,255 | Burlington-ish | Herb Chambers |
| Sienna | | 2004 | 96708 | ? | Woburn | Woburn Toyota |
This enabled me to to draw a "best fit" line and point to where the price for certain cars should be at certain mileages. The scientists among you may notice some problems with the graph, but I believe it still sends the right message. By pointing out that the price for my car was on a peak, I had some clear math to get another $4000 off.
- Probably the most important is that I was willing to walk away. I made it very clear that I did not care if we bought a particular car at a particular time. I did not try to act like I didn't care, I really didn't care. That takes work.
Of course, this doesn't work for every dealer or every car. I could not have used my nifty graph to negotiate a price down if the price was one of the local minima. Also, the graph only allowed me to pull the price down to where it should be. I didn't get a "steal" on the car. I did walk away feeling good about it, which is worth a lot in my book.
Thanks for sharing this. We'll be looking to buy a new minivan in the next 6-12 months. And let's be honest, the only two minivans even worth looking at are Siennas and Odysseys. We love our little 1995 Odyssey and will probably get a newer one.
ReplyDeleteWe went to test drive a new Odyssey, and the only one the dealer had was a brand-spankin' new Touring Elite model. Ohhhh, it was so nice. It had everything you could ever possibly want or need in a car, including an entertainment system that will play two movies at once, or a movie and a video game. It's going to be really hard to buy an older used one after driving that!
Haha that is an awesome (engineering) approach! Thanks for sharing it and congrats on a fine looking new car :)
ReplyDeleteI'm curious - what dealer did you deal with? I'm wondering if you know anything about how Woburn Toyota is to deal with. I'm actually looking at a used car there.
ReplyDeleteWe did not end up getting our car from Woburn Toyota, although we did visit there earlier in the day. We worked with Mark T. Spinos while we were there and he seemed very nice and not pushy. The main reason we walked away from the car there was it had some hard to diagnose engine problem. They claimed they were going to fix it prior to releasing it, but we felt uneasy about it anyway.
ReplyDeleteWhile I had a positive (or, at least, non-negative) experience with sales, I will never take my car to be serviced there again. I took my Echo there a couple years ago and it was not a good experience.