My New Baby!

Did I shock you with the title? Nope not pregnant and no new children in this family. My baby is our new (new to us) minivan. Yes I LOVE being a "soccer mom". Don't know why I ever switched from a minivan to a Rav4, but it was time to go back. We did that and did it in style. Over the weekend we purchased a 2006 Chrysler Town & Country Touring. My "New Baby" comes with all the bells and whistles. Installed "babysitter" (DVD Player) and not just any DVD Player, its a 6 disc DVD Changer. Leather HEATED seats. Stow and Go and Tailgate Seating. Sunroof. And to top it all off..it only has 28,400 miles. WOW. So I am sure your wondering what this has to do with SAVING. You can SAVE so much while shopping and purchasing a vehicle. HOW?? You ask.

Purchasing used is a great way to save money. Most, if not ALL, vehicles depreciate a TON right as you drive it off the lot. So why pay all that money on a brand new vehicle if your just gonna lose value in it, in such a short time. If you purchase used, you can get alot of the bells and whistles at a fraction of the original cost.

Make sure to research the vehicle your interested in. Check reviews on the vehicle. Check the value of the vehicle your interested in buying. Also check reviews of the dealership your considering buying from as well.

Sit down and do a budget for yourself. Get your own figures. What payments you can afford a month? How long you want to pay off your loan? Check your credit scores to see where you stand before you even step into the dealership. If you are able to put some cash down, make sure you budget that in as well. If you have a vehicle you wanna trade, check the trade in value of your vehicle before you bring it in to the dealer. http://www.kbb.com/ is a good place to start. It will give you an idea of what your car is valued at as a trade in, as well as what the suggested retail value of your vehicle is. This is the price dealers will most likely resell your car for. It might help to bring it to a few different dealerships to get an idea of what you could get for your vehicle.

After you have done all your research and have come up with all the numbers that work with your budget, take all that to the dealership with you. I prefer to shop online and see what vehicles are available to me in the price range I am looking at before I ever step foot into the dealership. That way I can research that vehicle and get my own numbers in my head for that specific vehicle. Saves time and hassle of trying to find the car by just showing up with no ideas in mind.

Be FIRM with what it is that you want. Just like you do with your coupons and weekly shopping budget and shopping lists, it works the same at a dealership. Use your research as your coupon. Make sure to find out what the dealer cost is for the vehicle you are interested in. This is the cost the dealer paid for the vehicle. This will give you a good place to start your negotiating at.

Be patient and be courteous if what you want is not what they are able to do for you. You just take your numbers and research to another dealership.

There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to save THOUSANDS off the list price of a used vehicle, if you do your research.

When we purchased our new minivan, I wanted to trade in our Rav4 (which we have only owned for a little less than a year and still owed money on). I wanted to have the dealer pay off my loan for the Rav4 then refinance a new minivan, no money down and keep the same payments or pay a little bit more per month. My payment for the Rav4 was $224.00/month. I basically wanted to do an even trade. Not unheard of, I was told. But it did take alot of work for me to do this. I had to do alot of research on what the current value of my Rav4 was. I had to find the perfect minivan that fell in with the mileage I wanted and the price. After coming across the Town & Country, I took my research and numbers to the dealership. The asking price for the Town & Country was $15,865.00. Above the budget but worth a try right??

They did their thing and told me that they would give me less than what I owe on the Rav4 and if I put $2500.00 down on the minivan my payments would be $259.00/month. I stood my ground and told them I couldn't do that. I reminded them that I did not want to put any money down. The salesman, then said "Do you have anything to put down, like just $1000.00?" My response was.."Yes I have money, I just don't want to use it". Ask hubby, those were my exact words. Of course the salesman had to go talk to his manager again. Don't you just love the back and forth. He came back, said if I put $1000.00 down my payments would be $279.00/month. I am not sure what he was having a hard time understanding. LOL. At this point, I said no again (politely) then I told him what I wanted, Yet again. Then explained that there was nothing wrong with my current vehicle, I was just looking for something with more space and if it couldn't work the way I wanted it to, then that was ok and we would just go. So I asked for the keys to my Rav4 (they still had them from apprasing it). He walked away, 15 minutes later, brought back the manager. Manager asked me. "Could you do $500.00 down and payments of $249.00/month?". My response was. "To be honest, the van is just not calling to me. I am gonna have to say no." Manager then says, "Would it call to you if it was no money down and $249.00/month?" I said "Yes". He said "Give me 5 minutes and I will see what I can do". Well I am sure you know what happened next..I got my van MY WAY! They paid off the loan on my Rav4, took $1500.00 off the asking price of the van.  Hee hee. I would have been perfectly fine with no van and walking away with my pride and my budget :).

Just goes to show you, that with a little bit of research you can save THOUSANDS on the purchase of a vehicle.

Also..never EVER underestimate a WOMAN buying a car.