Buying a New Car Part 1

Buying a New Car Part 1

Buying a new car is a hassle. My trusty Lexus GS 300 (vintage 2003) gave in to 150,000 hard driven miles. My dashboard looked like a string of Christmas tree lights. When I took it to the mechanic, we were staring at a $3,000 repair estimate for a car that would sell for $6,000 if it were in top condition. AND, my birthday is in August which means my car has to pass the Metro Atlanta emissions test if I want to buy a new tag for the upcoming 12 months (mandatory to legally drive the car in Georgia). What to do?

My husband and I are not car people. We love cars because they get us where we want to go. We do not enjoy reading about cars or owing the latest and greatest model. We do not enjoy buying a new car but we were definitely “buyers”.

We started the search “online” at Carmax. Our first stop was the trusty Carmax find a used car website, where we have bought cars over the years for our three daughters. I looked over the current inventory but did not see an obvious replacement. I wanted a Lexus GS 350 say 2012 or newer. Apparently people driving that car are happy with it as there were none listed for sale on Carmax. I signed up for a saved search that would email me any new listings that fit the criteria.

My email inbox was very lonely. No new listings of a Lexus GS 350 hit my inbox. Dang Gena, now I was going to have to do some for real car shopping.

I called a friend who is a sales person at a Lexus dealership. Yep, the model I wanted was hard to find. He does occasionally have one but my timing was not good. He promised to keep an eye out for my dream car.

Then I started searching Dealer websites: Auto Trader, other car dealers, random car websites. I found very little encouragement. We were getting closer to my birthday deadline, two weeks in fact. I started to feel the cold, chilly breeze of desperation creep into my thoughts about buying a car. Even worse, when I signed up for information on these websites I had to list my phone number.  Yes, creepy cold calls from car dealers started coming in.  Even though I just wanted to communicate online, car dealers still feel the need to make a phone call.  This experience just affirms my practice of not pestering home buyers with phone calls.

My husband Tim reminded me the current car needed to be sold by my birthday or we would no longer be able to legally drive it on public streets. I caved in – I visited a new car dealer. But my budget does not fit the Lexus “new car” price. I had to improvise. How about the Toyota Avalon. Same manufacturer but at a much lower price point.

I stopped in at World Toyota at 5800 Peachtree Industrial Road Atlanta GA 30341 and test drove an Avalon. It has most of the features I have on the Lexus. Heck, I really liked it. When we sat down and started to talk price, I got a rude shock. I was offered $3,000 as the trade-in value on my Lexus and hardly any discount off the manufacturer’s suggested retail price on the new Avalon. I had a house showing appointment so I had to hit the door at the dealership.

The next day Tim helped out with some logistics. He took my Lexus to Carmax Norcross 1975 Beaver Ruin Road Norcross GA 30071 where they gave him a purchase price for the car. With no obligation to buy a car from Carmax, they were still willing to pay $4,500 for the Lexus. Done.

Next the salesman at Carmax showed Tim where they have a Carmax Toyota dealership in Maryland that sells the new Toyota Avalon at a set price – no negotiation necessary. Just pay the price listed on the Internet website – this price was substantially lower than the price I got at World Toyota. You do have to take delivery in Maryland so there was a downside. But I have a daughter living in Washington DC so it could work.

Tim then swung by the World Toyota dealership to talk price with my salesman. His timing was bad as a group was in the middle of buying a car. The salesman checked in several times and finally broke loose for a test drive. After the test drive the part of new car buying we very much dislike, the haggle, started. It is a slow process designed to slowly break down a car buyers “will” to achieve a better price. Even though Tim knew the sales range of the car from

• The Carmax dealership in Maryland

• Kelly Blue Book website

It still took a couple of hours to get a price point struck.

Stay tuned as we venture into the Car loan arena in the next blog post.