Yesterday we bought a new Nissan Versa Note to replace our 2002 Camry. I should be giddy - a new car at a decent price. But instead I'm grumbling because it seemed like the dealer kept adding on charges.
Conventional wisdom for buying a car is you first negotiate the price of the new vehicle, then negotiate the financing, then negotiate the price of your trade-in. But given the availability of zero interest financing, I had a different idea - just negotiate the 60 month payment. Whether that meant they were giving me more on the trade-in or taking a cut off the MSRP didn't matter to me.
But it turned out the dealer was having some kind of special sale on the model we were interested in - only we had to take it in black. At 0% financing, the monthly payment was below my target - which made it tough to say no. Unfortunately, we later learned that the given price was the cash price so wasn't available with 0% financing. (And while the salesperson said it was his mistake, I'm not sure that was true as he was a had been with the dealer for over a decade so should have known.) However, even with interest the difference between the monthly cost on the sale car and the 0% MSRP was more than I would likely be able to negotiate - and all we'd be getting was a choice of color.
But then things started going downhill. Part of the problem was I didn't have a solid handle on what was included in the various "purchase prices". But my big complaint was with the dealer's $398 "platinum program" which I would have rather had done without - but seemingly couldn't avoid unless I was prepared to walk away. And I really didn't want to do that, both because of "sunk cost" psychology and because I though we were still getting a good deal.
And now that I'm home and can go through the purchase agreement and can compare it to both the MSRP & "invoice price" I got off the web, I know we got a good deal.
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