Question:  Should I go to a car dealer or go through one of the direct sellers you have on your website?

November 21, 2001

Tony-

Thanks for the reply regarding the 4Runner. I was pretty sure I'd get reamed on the truck, but the way I'm thinking about it now (to make my wife and I feel better about our rash decision) is that if we can trade in the 4Runner for a less expensive minivan and maintain the same monthly payments I'll be happy (not really happy, but resigned to the humiliation).

Should I go to a dealer or go through one of the direct sellers you have on your website, like Edmunds or CarsDirect?  Is going with the latter really going to help me get as much out of the 4Runner as possible?  Are they pretty good at the trade-in side of things as well?

Thanks again for your help,

All the best,

Josh

Answer:

Hi Josh,

You should at least get some free price quotes from the sites you mentioned and use them for comparison shopping.  As far as your trade goes you'll be much better off if you sell it yourself.  This way you'll get the most out of it.

If you go to a car dealer work your deal in the following manner to save the most money:

Go in and find the van you want and negotiate a selling price only.  Don't tell them you're trading, if indeed you are!  Don't negotiate a payment either.  Just the lowest selling price you can get.

Compare their price with the free quotes you got on my site.  Stay in control of the dealing process.  If they keep trying to turn things around to get you to work the deal the way they want, get up and threaten to walk out.  They'll stand on their heads to keep you from leaving.

Now, once you have a commitment on a firm selling price spring the trade on them!  Just get them to give you their best trade-in figure.  Don't tell them your payoff either.  Just get the best trade-in allowance you can get.

IMPORTANT:  Keep track of the rebate if there is one.  Some dealers will try to include it in the trade-in allowance so it looks like they are giving you more than they really are!  You'll need the rebate later to reduce your total amount financed.

One last thing.  Arrange your own financing.  Check out the financing links on my web site.  Especially RoadLoans.  They'll give you a RoadLoansCheck to go shopping with, and their rates are super low.

Also, if you have credit life insurance, accident and health insurance or an extended warranty on your current loan you can get a refund for the unused portion of those premiums when you pay your loan off early.

You'll have to apply for them through whoever got you the loan on the Toyota.  If a dealer handled the financing you'll have to apply through them.  Just contact the Finance Manager.  This can amount to a lot of money so if you have any of these coverages be sure to get your refunds.  Don't let them talk you out of it.

Good luck...

Tony