New 2013 Chrysler Town & Country - HELP

Muddy Rivers

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 16, 2006
Messages
618
We are looking to purchase a new Chrysler Town and Country; however, when we went to the dealer yesterday, they had a brand new (9 miles on it) 2013 Town and Country with all the options we were looking for and more. In fact we like it better than the 2014 model although they are very similar.

My question is, the sticker price is $36, 995 and the dealer was willing to go to $30,900. At first I thought this was a good deal until I looked online at True Car and saw that most were paying about $31,000 for a new 2014.

Since this is a new 2013 that the dealer said he would offer very aggressive pricing to get it off his lot and the 2015s are coming in soon, what should I reasonably expect to pay? I was told all incentives do not apply to the 2013 models.

(If it helps it is a Touring L with:
Driver Convenience Group
Dual DVD/Entertainment Package
UConnect 430N Package
Customer Preferrred Package 29J)

They have listed $995 as a destination charge (we are in NJ if it makes a difference).

Can anyone offer any experienced advice for us? I really like to be prepared and know what is true and just a sales pitch.

Thanks so much to all DIS people, they are always so nice and helpful! °O°
 
That is what I have almost exactly. I bought it in Jan. 2013 and DH says that I got a really good deal. I'll ask him what I paid, but I really don't think it was over 31K back in Jan. 2013. I really think they could do better for you at this point seeing as it's July 2014.
 
I'd spend the money to get a Consumer Reports Wholesale price report. They will have the latest customer incentives, and more importantly, dealer incentives since it is last year's model Chrysler has to be kicking in a ton of money to get it sold.

KBB says a fair price for this car is $31,813 which seems high to me.

While you always want to work up from wholesale price in negotiating a price, I would expect at least $7,000 off sticker price on any vehicle in that price range.

And given that Carmax wants $21,998 for that vehicle used, I would certainly expect the final price to be somewhere below $30k new.
 
Another option (one we've used for years to buy our cars - and current Town and Country) is to buy a former rental from Enterprise. I just checked and they're offering 2014 T&Cs for 25K - I just popped in a random NJ zip code to bring up availability. They typically have 15-20K mileage on them, but you get the balance of the factory warranty and the cars typically look and seem brand-new. We'd never buy a "new-new" car again - love the savings! They'll do financing, but you could also just arrange your own or bring $...! Good luck! I'm sure the other rental companies have similar programs - we've just always found Enterprise to offer the best prices for us on what we're looking to buy.
 

FWIW, Truecar pricing bids almost always include every possible incentive, even if you leave the boxes unchecked (recent college grad, military, etc). So, the real price is often higher. Still, no reason you can't get aggressive & ask for another $2-3,000 off. Worst they can say is "no".
 
I dont know where you live, but I just took a quick look in the Trenton, NJ area and people are paying as low as 21.8% off MSRP on a similarly equipped 2014 Touring L model. The price he quoted you on the 2013 is only about 16.5% off MSRP. There is no way in the world I'd pay more for a 2013 over a 2014. The incentives dont mean anything. If he wants to sell that 2013, he can make it happen.
 
We are located in the Union County area. Thank you everyone for your help. The dealer will not like me too much after I now have lots of useful info to bring with me.
Thank you guys again!!
 
We are located in the Union County area. Thank you everyone for your help. The dealer will not like me too much after I now have lots of useful info to bring with me.
Thank you guys again!!

Remind him we are just weeks away from the 2015's rolling in :thumbsup2
 
Nevermind i saw 9000 miles not 9
 
Any idea how I can get them to negotiate on the $995 destination charge? Seems to be high. Any suggestions ?
 
Any idea how I can get them to negotiate on the $995 destination charge? Seems to be high. Any suggestions ?

You can tell the car representative that he has a deal at $30,900 as a total which would include the destination fee.
 
Do not buy this car

I've had 2 and they are the absolute worst cars we've ever owned.

The first one was a nightmare with the transmission going out, being repaired, going out again, being replaces and going out a third time in less than 7 months.

I spent 4 of those 7 months driving a rental. We had to sue the dealership to buy the car back from us since our state doesn't have the Lemon Law.

They gave us a brand new, ordered from the factory vehicle, and I've had just as many problems with this one. Including transmission problems as well.

There is always something going out, breaking, not working, having to be updated, re-programed, software updates, sliding doors not work, video screens not working, electrical problems, etc.

Now my W.I.N. has been working on going out, but they won't replace it until it does O U T. When and if it ever goes out, the car will not be drivable, but they won't help with anything until it does actually go out.
 
Do not buy this car

I've had 2 and they are the absolute worst cars we've ever owned.

The first one was a nightmare with the transmission going out, being repaired, going out again, being replaces and going out a third time in less than 7 months.

I spent 4 of those 7 months driving a rental. We had to sue the dealership to buy the car back from us since our state doesn't have the Lemon Law.

They gave us a brand new, ordered from the factory vehicle, and I've had just as many problems with this one. Including transmission problems as well.

There is always something going out, breaking, not working, having to be updated, re-programed, software updates, sliding doors not work, video screens not working, electrical problems, etc.

Now my W.I.N. has been working on going out, but they won't replace it until it does O U T. When and if it ever goes out, the car will not be drivable, but they won't help with anything until it does actually go out.

Uh oh. Mine is a year old, and it is shifting HARD for no apparent reason. It is going in tomorrow to have the transmission looked at. Now I'm worried.
 
Long time lurker here, and I had to throw my terrible experience with a 2008 Grand Caravan in because it is similar to this model. I had to get rid of it earlier this month at only 100k miles because of transmission problems the dealer could not diagnose. It started going into "limp" mode (locked into second gear) for no apparent reason, and no recorded codes to help the dealer diagnose. After it's last 5 day stay at the dealer, their best guess was that the "car-area-network" data cable was going bad. Replacing this would cost us approximately $1k-$2k in labor to remove the interior of the van, which is necessary to access it, and upwards of $3k for the new wire bundle.

Looking back on it, this explains several other service issues we had with the van that were likely miss-diagnosed, and many couple-hundred-dollar service trips that never solved the problems. Occasionally power windows wouldn't work, or the horn would "stick" on, there seemed to be a huge delay between switching the high-beams on and the lights actually coming on, and many other little "quirks". All of these can be attributed to this network according to the service manager as every single vehicle control and signal is handled through this cable.

The smaller problems aside, a transmission dropping into second gear at highway speeds is a safety concern and unacceptable. It had to go. This was really disappointing since I usually keep vehicles for around 10 years/160k miles. Usually not a problem for garage kept, well maintained cars.

I understand the appeal, though. We have three kids and the mini-van size was great. The other two viable mini-vans on the market (Sienna and Odyssey) are much more expensive.
 
Any idea how I can get them to negotiate on the $995 destination charge? Seems to be high. Any suggestions ?

The destination charge is going to be $995, regardless of what state you live in the lower 48. It's always the same.

But that doesn't matter, you need to negotiate the total price lower, doesn't matter where the "cut" comes from.

Personally, even $28,000 is too much for a piece of junk Chrysler that'll start giving you a lot of trouble in six months time.

Best advice: buy a Nissan Quest - built in Japan and not as popular as the Toyota and Honda, so easier to get a deal. Plus it will last forever and is powered by the Nissan VQ engine, which is widely considered to be the best mainstream car power-train in the world, having made the annual Ward's 10 Best Engines list almost every single year since the award was started.

A Quest SL starts around $33k with backup camera, bluetooth, power tailgate, leather, etc. all standard, and you can probably knock that down to under $30k. And if you don't need the luxury touches, a Quest SV starts at around $29k and still come standard with Bluetooth, backup camera and power sliding doors. You can probably knock that down to maybe around $26-27k.

Don't get me wrong, I love Fiat-Chrysler and think the new products they are pumping out, like the new Cherokee and Chrysler 200, are stellar, but the Town & Country was engineered and designed back during the dark days in the late-2000s, and it's absolute junk. A new one is coming out in about a year.
 
This thread officially has me nervous about my 2013 Town and Country. It is definitely having a transmission issue that began 1-2 months ago (so about 10 months into owning it). I will cry if this thing turns out to be a lemon that I have to get rid of after a few years. I didn't want an American car, but I was sold on the "stow and go" feature of this vehicle. I use it daily. I didn't want to have to physically remove a seat like I would have in the other minivan models.

OP, my friend has a Kia minivan that has held up well. You might want to consider one of the other ones also (Odyssey, Toyota), as I can vouch for the fact that something really is up with my transmission already in my 2013 Town and Country:worried:
 
Wow - surprised and sorry for the folks having trouble with their T&C. Ours has 80K on it (earlier model, not a 2013) and has only ever needed routine maintenance like oil changes, a new water pump, and a new gas cap (?). We're planning to run this sucker into the ground many years from now, so hope it continues to run well. We too, LOVE the stow-and-go - a great design feature.

Good luck, OP!
 
I bought a 2007 in 2009....thought it would last me another couple years but it's time to get rid of it....starting having troubles about a year ago and needs more work...

can't wait to get rid of it.
 
I have a 2010 dodge and we can't wait for it to meet it's maker!

It doesn't drive straight and always veers to the right. Yes took it back with in a month and they said it's normal. Ok so it's normal for me to keep the steering wheel to the left to drive straight?

More recently the a/c has failed. That would be an OOP payment which isn't happening. My dh was able to add something (he knows cars...) and it works again.

When we turn the steering wheel at times it makes this got awful sound.

Now the electrical is a bit screwy. If it is super hot, and I start the car, I have no working radio/no display. The clock doesn't even work. There are times when the radio will work but there is no display. Finally when the car has cooled down it works.

We just took it in about a month ago for something and I can't remember what but it was a warranty thing and something with the engine.

Oh and the key fob. Yeah that lovely thing. Well there are times the car won't start because of it. My dh has checked the battery and it's not that! We put the key in and it won't turn over. I swear that I have to roll up the windows and turn off the radio (assuming it has a display and is working) and push it in really far and then it will work but it sometimes takes me 5 min to start the car. Again the dealer has no treatment for that!

Oh and one time it wouldn't start was in April. We were on our way to the autotrain. We were at a rest stop on the NJT and went back into the car and it oh... Luckily we were early and the car started.

I know there are more things but I just can't remember.
 




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