How to Negotiate a Better Deal for a New Car

The average new-car price is nearly $30,000, but you may not need to spend the amount on the window sticker. Most dealers are willing to negotiate to knock something off.

Instructions

1

Know how much the dealer paid. Edmunds is a good source for this information. When you look the car up by year, make and model on Edmunds, you will be able to see the dealer cost for the car and the list price. Edmunds also has a data base of the current holdbacks for car dealers. These are rebates that the car manufacturer pays the dealership for each car sold. You can also find out the dealer incentives on Edmunds, which is additional money the dealership gets for selling a car. To determine the true cost for the dealership, subtract the holdbacks and incentives from the price, then add $300 to $500 for advertising costs and $800 to $1,000 for the delivery fee. This will give you a ballpark figure of what the dealer has to pay the manufacturer. You now know how low your offer can be without the dealership losing money.

2

Get internet quotes. Internet quotes will help you determine where the best deals are in your local area. You enter your zip code and the make and model of the car you want. You will see the price of the car at local dealerships.

3

Email dealerships directly for a quote on the car. Sending a direct request to a dealership can have a beneficial effect. Depending on how badly someone wants to make the sale, they may knock a few hundred dollars off. Keep in mind that the salespeople at car dealerships work on commission, so they have a little bit of money that they can forfeit if they really want to move the car.

4

Get the pricing information from the sticker on the car once you are at the dealership. You have a good idea of what the dealership has to pay for the car. Now you need to know what they are asking for the vehicle. This will give you a basis to begin your negotiations.

5

Give the dealership a firm offer, which should be the invoice price minus the rebates, or the number that you figured out with the help of Edmunds. The salesperson may tell you that your numbers are not correct, and in fact, they may not. You can ask to see the invoice to verify. Some salespeople will show you the invoice. Others may refuse. If they refuse, you can assume that your numbers are correct and continue your negotiation from there.

6

Walk out. If you continue to sit there even when the negotiation isn't going your way, the salesperson will likely assume that you are planning to buy regardless of how the negotiation comes out. Starting to leave shows them that you are serious about the negotiation and that you are not going to accept just any offer that they present to you.