Do you have time to wait?

If there is no priority for a new vehicle in your life, but you'd like one regardless, a factory order is a good way to ensure you get the best possible arrangement with regards to pricing or financing. When doing a F/O, you are locked in at the incentives (think 0%, employee pricing, etc..) at which you order, however if the incentives are different when the vehicle arrives, you are free to switch if you want.

For example:

• I want to finance and it is currently under employee pricing with a fixed rate of 6.99%. 

 If ordered order now, under employee pricing, chances are by the time it gets here the incentives will have switched. You can verify this with your sales rep (we are NOT supposed to tell you, or lead on to the fact that we DO infact know which incentives will be running until when). I even have a calender style time table of the different yearly incentives and their start/finish dates.

With this knowledge in hand, order at the end of the incentives you are currently in. This way, you are locked in at the current incentives, but have the option to switch afterward. One piece of advice though:

• The salesman and his/her managers are going to try and convince you that the incentives you bought under are clearly better, regardless of your situation/requirements. This is because is does take a decent amount of work to swap into new incentives. You should find the new incentives, understand them and compare with what you ordered under. You might find the dealer very difficult to negotiate with at this point because they feel you are already committed; your car is here, you are all hyped up to get it. Stand fast! If you ordered at 0%, but wanted all along to pay cash, check the new incentive! If you were at $40,000 sale price before with 0%, chances are the new incentives will be cash off and a shitty rate!
• So if you ordered at $40,000/0% with $0 delivery allowance and now it's 6.99% with $5,000 delivery allowance you could easily swap to $35,000 cash + tax (the delivery allowance is ALWAYS before taxes).
• Figure out what makes the most sense for you and go from there!

Cheers.

SC2 Streams.

Don't really have a decent post to make right now, so here is a link to the best SC2 streams website out there. Most people will probably have it bookmarked a long time ago but here it is regardless:

www.teamliquid.net

>Video
>Live Streams
>Profit.

End of the month? Better deals? Yes!

A lot of people will tell you that going in near the end of the month will probably result in you getting a better deal. This is 100% TRUE. With some exceptions.

• Don't wait too long. If the dealer is trying to make a quota, once they reach it your retarded deal goes flying out the window.
• Don't be afraid to be unreasonable. If it's down to the wire and the dealer could potentially make or break a $50,000 MFG bonus with one or two deals they WILL lose money on yours.
• Only go in near the end of the month with expectations if it's something out of stock. Dealers do NOT get MFG incentive to sell factory orders and will be much less likely to F/O you a retarded deal. Losing money on something that isn't even made yet doesn't make sense. Losing money on something you need to move off the lot doesn't either, but has to happen sometimes.

Cheers.

Don't wait for 0% just because it's 0%.

I see A LOT of people that specifically wait until financing/leasing is at a 0% rate (typical rate is 6.99%). I don't understand the logic myself, but for some reason people just cant stomach paying interest. Let me clear the air here:

If there is 0% there isn't any cash off. When there isn't 0%, there is a fuck ton of cash to make up the difference. Most of the time I find it's actually CHEAPER to finance or lease during cash incentives simply because of how much cash they actually give off. For example:

Vehicle has 0% financing, gets $0.00 delivery allowance (factory discount). Vehicle costs $30,000.

Vehicle has 6.99% financing and gets $5000.00 delivery allowance. Vehicle costs $25,000.

NOW. Unless you are financing for 7 years OR have a huge upside down trade there is NO way you're going to pay $5000.00 in interest throughout the term of the loan. The amount of the delivery allowance typically increases as the type of vehicle gets more expensive (IE. midsize car vs truck), However, this does not always apply. I'd recommend the following:

• Go in during cash incentives:
• Have your sales rep give you a finance or lease number at the current incentives.
• Then have him/her take away the delivery allowance and change the rate to 0%
• Compare numbers.
• Go in during 0%:
• Have your sales rep give you a finance or lease number at current incentives.
• Have him/her look up previous cash model incentives(they can be found online by any salesman dating back for years) and compare vs the 0%.

This really depends on who you get, as some sales reps might just not want to waste their time with you if they think you are going to buy in 3-4 months. I had a lady come in today that told me she was shopping for a vehicle for June, 2011 and I seriously wanted to falcon punch her in the throat when she still wanted finance and lease numbers on two different vehicles in varying trims EVEN THOUGH I TOLD HER AND INSISTED THE NUMBERS WOULD HAVE 0, NO, NOTHING, NONE AT ALL RELEVANCE IN JUNE 2011.

Holdback.

If the salesman tells you he is pricing at "invoice" on the vehicle and has no room left on it, there is still the "holdback". This is money the dealer generally won't give up unless absolutely necessary, but if you are persistent you can get something out of stock for invoice LESS the holdback (typically another $800).

Small tip.

Don't get the manager involved in the negotiations if you can. The salesman is 100% commission, whereas the manager will be salary and therefore less motivated to make the sale. If you can stick with your sales guy, try to have him act as a middle man fighting with his manager to take the deal. A manager is more likely to get flustered and give you the flat out "no" then the sales rep is.

Used Car Tip

This shouldn't have to be listed as a tip on here, it should be common knowledge. When you are buying a used vehicle from a dealership, make sure you confirm a few things before you throw down the cash:

• 100% ALWAYS EVERYTIME view the CarProof/CarFax report. Many times I've had a car sold and not even known it had a hit until the customer wanted a CarProof. Dealers are required (in Ontario) to disclose damage over $3000.00. 
• Was it a daily rental? Lease return? Trade in?
• How long has it been on the lot?(You can use this to your advantage if it's been there forever)
• Has the safety been done? If yes, what did it need?
• Check the price vs others on Autotrader.com/.ca
• Clarify before you buy what will be replaced.
• Check the tires and the windshield, lots of times mechanics will miss small cracks in the windshield which you can use to get a brand new one at no extra cost.
• Ask if you can take it for a few hours, or overnight.   

After you are cool with all of these and determine the price you want, right before signing, ask for a full tank of gas. Most dealers will only give you 1/4 or 1/2 tank with used cars. There is 100% no way they will deny you this request and you just saved yourself potentially another $30-$50!

Cheers.

Leasing

Thinking about something fairly expensive? Like to upgrade all the time? Stop wasting fucking money and lease! This depends on a few things and is not applicable to all vehicles. For example, at Ford, our std leasing rate is 11.00%; so if it doesn't have leasing incentives just forget it.

Let's go over my leasing checklist shall we?!

1. Figure out the price (same as financing) before getting into payments.
2. Double check the fee's after you find your lease number.
3. If you currently lease, check if there is a loyalty offer.
4. Make sure you verify:
1. How many KM's/Miles per year? (I often put people into 20k/year leases because it lowers the payment)
2. What are the overage fee's (EG, $0.12/KM)?
3. What is my residual rate (Determines what the vehicle is worth at the end of the lease)?
4. What is my buyout (The price you'd pay at the end of your lease to own the vehicle**Is ALWAYS + Taxes)?
5. What is my leasing rate?
6. What is the term?
5. Make sure you check what your options are for early opt out. In almost all leasing cases you are required to pay the balance of the payments in order to be released from the lease.
6. Is it an in-house lease or through the manufacturer?
7. Can you add extra KM's after you take delivery?

Remember, leasing isn't right for everyone but it is great for some people!