Buying a Sienna purchase question-negotiating

[kinntj]

For those of you who haggled and negotiated prices of Toyota Sienna's, I have a question for you.
Background:
Right now there is a great financing deal 0% on 36 months 1.9 on 48 months and 2.9% on 60 months. Our lease is up on our Buick at the end of April. I've heard through the Sienna club that deals in April/Spring are better; which I have no idea. When I asked the sales guy on the phone if there's a history of better deals in April, he didn't answer my question and that makes me think...hmmmm.

He wouldn't give me a quote because we won't be buying until April, but we wanted a general idea of the price for the model I want. He said the cost of the vehichle will change in April. Say what? I want to negotiate off on invoice, so how does invoice change? I guess I don't understand salesman tactics and talk.

He said he could give 2% over invoice with a factory and dealer incentive about $1,110 (I'll have to get this figure from him again). Of course he wants me to buy before 3/3 when this deal ends and he wants to absorb the cost of the lease so we can get it now. I don't like being under pressure, because we want to try to get a better deal/quote from other dealers in the area. The other dealers are about an hour drive, but I'm willing to do it if I can save a substantial amount. We haven't even test driven the Odyssey's or the Sienna's yet, so we can't make that decision until after we do that.

What would you do? Any advice you can give would be great. I've learned a little about what fees not to pay on invoice from Sienna/Odyssey clubs.

 

[bnorm27]

Car sales are slow in general right now due to the great economy! Toyota doesn't offer too many incentives, so it may be the right time for you to move on this. Toyota and Honda vans are best sellers, so they won't move too much on the price. But, if things are slow, and I'm sure they are, you could probably get a better deal if you wait till the end of this week. They do have those monthly quotas to make. Do some research on a site like edmunds.com, and see what other people are paying for those vehicles. This way you can go in armed with information. Plus, sometimes there are manufacturer to dealer incentives that they neglect to mention to consumers.

Go to the dealer with your checkbook, and all of your paperwork for your current vehicle. Let them know you want to buy a new car today, and you'll get it from them, or someone else. If you don't like what you hear, WALK OUT THE DOOR! You have the power in this transaction. Go on Saturday, and see what they can do. Then go back on Monday, when the pressure is really on them. Don't rule out another dealer either. You would be found business for them, and they are also up against quotas.

The end of the month is always the best time to buy a new car. I do think you should go and test drive both vehicles. Good Luck!!

 

[corndog]

The number one question I ask anybody looking to buy a car: "Do you know what holdback is?"

If not, look it up. You have to let the dealer make some money on the car, but make sure that comes from a portion of the holdback only.

 

[Mono~rail]

The number one question I ask anybody looking to buy a car: "Do you know what holdback is?"

If not, look it up. You have to let the dealer make some money on the car, but make sure that comes from a portion of the holdback only.

Interesting.

http://www.edmunds.com/advice/incentives/holdback/index.html

 

[bnorm27]

Here is information also from Edmunds.com:

Toyota Sienna: They mentioned the financing that you stated in your OP, but the cash incentive cannot be combined with the financing.

Honda, has $1000 marketing support for Odessy purchases.

As this is the budget board, I will also suggest checking out the Hyundai Entourage, and the Kia Sedona vans. Hyundai has $1500 cash back, and Kia has $1500 cash back, or $500 cah back and financing of 5.75% for 24 or 60 months, or 6.75% for 72 months.

I rented a Kia Sedona back around Christmas time to cart the family around. I was very impressed with everything about it, and it was just as nice, if not nicer, then my brother in laws Sienna. Same features, much better price. Plus the 100k mile warranty isn't to bad either!

 

[kinntj]

Yes, I do know what dealer holdback is. Doesn't the dealer recoup some of that back from the manufacturer when vehichle is sold?
One thing I love about the internet, is I can be an informed shopper. I want the most for our hard earned money and I want the best deal that I can get. I also know that a dealership is a business and they do have to make a profit and I'm sure they wouldn't sell to me unless that was happening. I guess we'll test drive this weekend. Suppose to be a nice warmer weekend to do that (a whopping 37 degrees).

I live in Lansing, so this is GM country. My IL's are even upset with us even looking in another direction than a GM product. The salesman did say this is a huge van month (February). I'm not falling for it though.

When if comes to our money though, I want to get as much car for my money that I can and I want it to last past the 5 years I'm making payments and have more life on it to keep going.

Thank you guys for your information.

 

[corndog]

I posted on another thread earlier, but after working a summer at GM and getting to tour the plants in the Detroit area, and after reading Rivethead, I said I would never buy an American car.

I'm really torn right now, though, because I really want a Sequoia. And even though it's Toyota, it's made in the US.

 

[kinntj]

Yes, they are made in the US, but my IL's don't care because they get a pension from them and want to keep the money pouring into GM. They glare every time I mention it, so I don't anymore. I love the Acadia, but the starting price is too high for just a base model.

I think a Kia and Hyundai would be good if you wanted to have a car for under 100,000 miles, but I want the van to last at least 140-150k miles. My Dh won't have a car payment, so this will be the only car we pay on for awhile. It's a budget board and that's why I'm trying to post here to get the best deal for my money on the make and model I want.

Thanks for your help.

 

[kinntj]

We've decided to gamble and wait it out. One of the cars.com suggestions is to not be in a hurry. I feel very out of control when there's too much pressure. When we look for future deals, we'll be more prepared when we walk in and ready to deal.

DH said we could live with one car for a little while, so there's no problem. Our lease is up April 29th and my class is over May 8th and we go to WDW the following week and our preschooler will be out of school too. We have time to wait it out and see what March, April and May's deals are.

Sound good?

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

Definitely don't be in a hurry. We went in to buy our Sienna the Saturday before Christmas. We were absolutely ready to walk out, but we knew Toyota had $1000 cash back until the end of December, and we have traditionally gotten great deals in December. We asked our salesman if there were any incentives (knowing already that there were), but he said he wasn't sure. Sure enough, the price from the manager was just over $1000 off sticker - what a great deal! We said we would think about it and had plans to go drive the Odyssey. The salesman didn't want us to leave (of course) and said "What would make you buy now - $500 over invoice, $1000 over invoice?" He clearly wanted to sell a car that day and was ready to cut through the back and forth to the manager. We came in under invoice (doing better than Edmund's TMV for our area) and did better on our trade-in than any of the online sites said we should have for our car. Car buying is still my least favorite activity, and we might have left some money on the table, but we were happy with the deal and happy with the minimal amount of games and stress that usually goes with buying a car. We might have been able to shave another hundred or two off the price, but not without spending more time. We went in well-prepared, knew the invoice cost on the particular vehicle we wanted, knew Toyota's inventory at other dealerships nearby (available from the Toyota website, as well as the invoice prices), and knew what price we had to get to feel that we had a good enough deal.

Definitely check Edmunds to find out what others are paying in your area, and check Toyota.com to find out what is out there and what is expected in soon. I wanted a particular model but didn't care about the color (except that I didn't like the light green). Your dealer could swap to get a particular car if necessary, but it has to be available somewhere. When my DH bought his Avalon last year, he bought from a dealership several hours away but they delivered it to him and picked up his trade. When we saw the sticker on the car, we discovered that the car he bought had come from our local dealership who hadn't wanted to deal with him!

 

[kinntj]

As long as you're happy with your price in the end and the vehichle, I'm sure you got a good deal. It might not be worth haggling over $200 if it costs you more time and negotiating with a manager. I have a top out the door price I will pay, but they won't know that.

Thanks for sharing your story. It's amazing how the car negotiating/buying process is. Not one of my favorite things either. I'll go to Edmunds.com next and look around.

Definitely don't be in a hurry. We went in to buy our Sienna the Saturday before Christmas. We were absolutely ready to walk out, but we knew Toyota had $1000 cash back until the end of December, and we have traditionally gotten great deals in December. We asked our salesman if there were any incentives (knowing already that there were), but he said he wasn't sure. Sure enough, the price from the manager was just over $1000 off sticker - what a great deal! We said we would think about it and had plans to go drive the Odyssey. The salesman didn't want us to leave (of course) and said "What would make you buy now - $500 over invoice, $1000 over invoice?" He clearly wanted to sell a car that day and was ready to cut through the back and forth to the manager. We came in under invoice (doing better than Edmund's TMV for our area) and did better on our trade-in than any of the online sites said we should have for our car. Car buying is still my least favorite activity, and we might have left some money on the table, but we were happy with the deal and happy with the minimal amount of games and stress that usually goes with buying a car. We might have been able to shave another hundred or two off the price, but not without spending more time. We went in well-prepared, knew the invoice cost on the particular vehicle we wanted, knew Toyota's inventory at other dealerships nearby (available from the Toyota website, as well as the invoice prices), and knew what price we had to get to feel that we had a good enough deal.

Definitely check Edmunds to find out what others are paying in your area, and check Toyota.com to find out what is out there and what is expected in soon. I wanted a particular model but didn't care about the color (except that I didn't like the light green). Your dealer could swap to get a particular car if necessary, but it has to be available somewhere. When my DH bought his Avalon last year, he bought from a dealership several hours away but they delivered it to him and picked up his trade. When we saw the sticker on the car, we discovered that the car he bought had come from our local dealership who hadn't wanted to deal with him!

 

[bnorm27]

What makes you think that a Kia or Hyundai would not last 150k miles? These two companies are partners, and they are here in the US for the long haul. They want to be the next Nissan and Toyota here in the US.

This is not the Hyuandai of old. Wait until you see the luxury models they roll out this year to start competing with Lexus and Infiniti. You don't invest that much money in producing a vehicle to have it fall apart after 100k miles.