Tried to buy a new Caravan

[HunnyPots]

Just wanted to chime in and say, not all Caravans are "lemons" or maintenence nightmares. I bought mine new in '99 and only this year have I had any siginifigant repairs. The a/c went out and cost me $1000, but this is Texas and I refuse to drive around without it. So I spent the money and got it fixed and now it's in great shape again. It has 135k miles on it and I plan to keep it at least another four years.

 

[mjkacmom]

Before you go car shopping again, you need to know the dealer invoice price (including ALL incentives to both the dealer and buyer) and the fair market trade-in value for your car. NEVER negotiate from a monthly payment standpoint. That is simply playing into their hands. Have your own financing set up ahead of time through your bank or local credit union, negotiate the price, negotiate the trade-in (it can be done) and then negotiate the payments. Payments always come LAST not first. Of course, you do have to know how much of a car you can afford before you shop but most banks have rates online along with loan calculators.

You can get new car pricing from places like Edmund's Car Guide (www.edmunds.com) and trade-in information from Kelly Blue Book (www.kbb.com).

This is exactly what I do, and I go to at least 3 different dealerships, to get the best deal.

 

[Becky2005]

The hang onto their keys for 2 hours thing is the oldest trick in the book. They'll make it even worse if you bring a kid with you. The idea is that you'll be so flustered by the end that you'll just sign the papers to get out of there. It sounds ridiculous, but it really is a sales trick.

The closest big dealership to me lost my business for life because of stuff like this.

I was just thinking, if you had a 2nd set of keys on you. You could just drive off the lot & deal with the 2nd key issue later. My car came with a valet key, so I have that on a seperate key ring that if I have to give strangers key to my car, that is the one they get.

I also agree with Hunnypots -- we have a '99 basic Caravan & it has never given us any problems. We just had some standard maintenance done on it (and also had to have the A/C recharged) but other than that, it runs just fine. Ours only has about 75K on it though.

 

[runwad]

Well although my experience is a little different then yours we still had the outcome....not buying now. We were looking for a used mini van..my DH went to 5 dealers after talking to them on the internet. None of them would budge from their listing price. Tell me does anyone here pay sticker for a used car? Well we don't so instead of gaining a sale they can just go bankrupt.

 

[corndog]

I would not expect the same painless buying experience from another company as you had with Saturn. Saturn was really known for their no-haggle easy buying policy. They asked a certain price for a car and virtually everyone paid the same price. Every other dealership works from a negotiation standpoint. They negotiate down from the MSRP and you negotiate up from the dealer's cost.

If you are negotiating up from the dealer's cost, you are paying too much. The single most important advice I give people when buying a new car is to educate yourself about holdback, and then share it with the dealer.

 

[JerseyMamaBear]

We never had luck at the big name dealerships. Same stories of the same ol' BS. Last May we went to Autolenders in TOms River near where we live and for the same price I was paying on my chevy I got an suv. We did the same last week and turned in my hubbies truck and walked out ahead of the deal. The were straight up, up front honest and worked with us like I have never seen. We send all of our friends there and they report recieving the same respect. PM me for our dealers name and number. He is amazing! They have 4 dealerships in NJ.

 

[hppy2bhome]

negotiate over the phone! much easier.

just tell them the kind of car you drive and what's wrong with it. They can get a ball park figure on trade with out seeing it.

hppy2bhome

 

[swilshire]

We went to four nearby Honda dealers one day in March. Three of them I would be happy to do business with at any time. The fourth made me so mad that I stormed out of the dealership and even tried to find a contact for the owner to complain.

Choose a dealer with a good reputation and you will have a much easier time of it.

Sheila

 

[mitchwebb]

We just bought a new car and Edmunds website was a great help. You can find out what the True Market Value of the car you are looking at. You can find any rebate, dealer incentives or specail financing. You put in your zip and it will give you dealerships in your area that you can email and get a quote from their internet sales manager. Then you can email back and forth with the internet managers to get the best cost. Edmunds also has a great dis board that people report the cost they have bought their cars at across the US. This helps you know if you are paying more than you should.

I have overcome my fear and my I say Loathing of car buying.

Oh yea decline the $2000 extra they try to sell you once you have agreed on the car. The extended Warenties they sell at the dealers are marked up a long with all the other extras.

 

[robinb]

If you are negotiating up from the dealer's cost, you are paying too much. The single most important advice I give people when buying a new car is to educate yourself about holdback, and then share it with the dealer.

You're right ... that's why I said "dealer's cost" not "dealer's invoice" . IMO "cost" includes the holdback.

 

[corndog]

You're right ... that's why I said "dealer's cost" not "dealer's invoice" . IMO "cost" includes the holdback.

A fair point, but one with which the masses are not familiar.

 

[01spirit750]

Interesting reading.

Our last new car was a 2003 Ford Explorer. I requested quotes over the internet. Only one dealer actually responded with a price. The others responded with "come in an we will talk", no thanks.

I went to the one dealer who quoted a price and test drove a model they had (they didn't have the exact model we wanted but they could get it).

The salesmen handed us the keys and said leave them in his office when we were done. Talk about no pressure.

We decided yes, and he had the vehicle brought over from another dealer the next day.

The only funny part was that we opted for the 0% interest for 72 months and the finance guy tried selling us a bunch of add ons with a "low" add on cost to our monthly payments. Like the extended waranty was "only" $50 per month. Dude that is $3,600? I had found an internet warranty company that quoted $850 for 7 years.

Oh, I normally don't buy warranties but I knew the transmissions and rearends on the new Explorers had problems. Yup the rear end went out this year and cost $2900 to fix. I was out $100 to pay the deductible.

 

[The Iron Giant]

Interesting reading.

Our last new car was a 2003 Ford Explorer. I requested quotes over the internet. Only one dealer actually responded with a price. The others responded with "come in an we will talk", no thanks.

I went to the one dealer who quoted a price and test drove a model they had (they didn't have the exact model we wanted but they could get it).

The salesmen handed us the keys and said leave them in his office when we were done. Talk about no pressure.

We decided yes, and he had the vehicle brought over from another dealer the next day.

The only funny part was that we opted for the 0% interest for 72 months and the finance guy tried selling us a bunch of add ons with a "low" add on cost to our monthly payments. Like the extended waranty was "only" $50 per month. Dude that is $3,600? I had found an internet warranty company that quoted $850 for 7 years.

Oh, I normally don't buy warranties but I knew the transmissions and rearends on the new Explorers had problems. Yup the rear end went out this year and cost $2900 to fix. I was out $100 to pay the deductible.

Do you mind sharing the name of the warranty site?

Thanks

 

[tiggertabi]

Oh man, do I have a story for this. We put a deposit to hold a car for teh next day since we had to transfer car seats and such, and the dealer was closing. We went home, came back the n ext day, and they bring "the" car out to us. I'm looking at it, and it's not the same car. it didn't have AWD and the one we signed/negotiated for did. It didn't have all the upgraded stuff we were paying for. We said "you brought the same car" thinking (naive) that they didn't realize it, as it was the same color. He said "Nope, here is the information right here - your name is in there." So we argued about it for a while, and then he finally admitted that they sold "our" car to someone else that morning and this was the only one they had left. I demanded my deposit back, and the contract we had signed so we could rip it up. I was so furious, we had negotiated for HOURS and gotten a great deal. We're pretty sure they realized we were getting the WAY better end of that deal and tried to pawn off this other car, worth about 3,000 less, on us. I wrote to Honda corporate but they never wrote back. I filed a claim with the BBB too...

 

[disneymomofmyca]

That reminds me of how much I HATE car shopping!! Sorry you had to go through that. We're driving the cars we have now into the ground. Just the thought of shopping for a new one, and another car payment, is enough for me to be more than satisfied with what we have! We have a 2000 Grand Caravan, with 96,000 miles on it, and I just keep repairing it. I can't imagine having payments on a Caravan for 72 months, but 84? They're out of their minds!! And I thought there were supposed to be some great deals on American cars right now??!

I drive a 2000 Grand caravan sport and it runs like brand new! Not a problem yet...knock on wood...and guess how many miles it just turned over to today?...167,000!!!!!!!! Holy crap! Guess I got a good one!

 

[princesslily]

Sorry to hear about your experience! My husband has been selling Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep for the last 15 years and I've maybe heard about 3-4 customers being upset with him. He believes in straight up honest selling. You have to remember sometimes it's the manager that's snakey. He's been the top sales for the last 14 years and now just tells his managers no way if he doesn't agree with it. He believes strong customer service equals repeat business. Too many greedy sales people out there.

 

[patsal]

Sorry to hear about your experience! My husband has been selling Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep for the last 15 years and I've maybe heard about 3-4 customers being upset with him. He believes in straight up honest selling. You have to remember sometimes it's the manager that's snakey. He's been the top sales for the last 14 years and now just tells his managers no way if he doesn't agree with it. He believes strong customer service equals repeat business. Too many greedy sales people out there.

So true, I will never return to that dealership or any owned by the same parent co. I will make a phone call to my usual dealer for a clean deal with trade in (over the phone) plus a few others so I can wiggle a little. As I said though, I have a grand caravan now that is in great shape and is still under extended warranty with just under 70.000 miles on it. I know my last basic carvan got to 95,000 before I traded it and I only traded it because I wanted the space in the Grand as the kids and their stuff outgrew the regular caravan. If I hold out long enough I won't need a mini van anymore anyway!

 

[PrincessKitty1]

For the last car we bought (2003), we did ALL negotiating by email. We decided on the car we wanted, then emailed all the Honda dealerships within a 2 hour drive of our house and asked for an out-the-door price including tax, tag, and all fees.

It was relatively painless. I did all the emailing and then DH did a couple of follow-up calls once we found the best price. Once we got to the dealership (70 miles away) they tried to pressure us into financing through them (we had already gotten financing from our credit union) and tried to pressure us inot gap insurance (we made a hefty downpayment so we didn't need it), but we held our ground and got the car for the price we expected.

You can look up new car prices on Edmunds, Blue Book, etc. to see what the dealership pays and what the average retail price is of any car you want with whatever options you want.

For the first car I bought (1986 Mazda truck), I had to wait a few days for them to put on the options I wanted. When they called me to pick up the truck, my financing wasn't quite ready through my credit union and the dealership told me I HAD to finance through them. They said if I didn't, I would have to GIVE THEM CASH on the spot for the options they had put on the truck and leave without the truck.

I walked out (but I was was scared and trembling because they were very threatening and I wasn't sure what they were going to do), and they called me back within the hour and told me it was "All a big misunderstanding" and to come get the truck.

 

[RitaZ.]

Today, we went to our local Dodge/Chrysler dealership that is going out of business. DH test-drove a Jeep and didn't like it. Then, he test-drove a minivan (4.0 engine), which he really liked. We found a Dodge Caravan that we liked, the price is almost $29K. I've been doing some research and found that people have paid less for the same van with more options. Anyway, there was no harassment from the salesman. I'm sure we'll get a call tomorrow, but I doubt they will be able to give us the price we are looking for. This isn't a "have to" purchase, so there is no urgency. We are looking for a good deal.

This is our 3rd attempt at buying a Dodge product. Maybe someone is sending us a sign. Anyway, our first experience with a Dodge dealership was in 2000. The salesman wouldn't give us our keys. From reading some of these posts, I guess this is standard practice. After we test-drove the van that we liked, we went in the showroom to talk "numbers". The salesman started with some ridiculously high numbers and DH wasn't having any of it. DH, normally a calm and collected person, kept asking the salesman for our keys. The salesman wouldn't comply. So, DH walked out of the office, stood in the middle of the showroom and loudly yelled, "Will someone get me my keys?" Everyone stopped and began staring at DH. Managers came running to help him. I grabbed DS's hand and walked outside. The keys were given to DH right away. Then, the idiot salesman ran after us in the parking lot. As we were walking away, he kept asking us to come back in and said that he would take us to the 2nd floor where they had "good food". I guess we must have looked hungry. It was insane! I've never ever been subjected to anything like that when purchasing a car. The sales manager kept calling our house offering us a much lower price for the van. We wanted nothing to do with them.

We'll see what happens this time. Monday is their last day of business. The prices on the vehicles have been reduced twice so far. I asked the salesman if they will be reduced any further and he said that he doubts it. He said that the price on the window is the best we can get, but we can always make an offer.

 

[arobeen]

We had a horrible experience yesterday at another dealer, not Dodge, and I really did not want to go through it again today. But we worked with an amazing staff that did not discredit my research and knowledge of the process, as what happened yesterday. For those of you interested in a Dodge Grand Caravan, I highly recommend you visit edmunds.com and print out the information you find, like TMV price, invoice price, etc. Also, print out the incentives page. I threw my salesman off when I mentioned the manufacturer marketing support of $1,000 to $2000 off Green and Red Dot inventory. We also got $2000 cash back, $500 bonus cash, $1000 loyalty, and dealer cash of $500. We also knew our FICO score going in. The first monthly payment offered was so high and I asked about the interest rate. I was told 7.5% for 72 months. I told him I could secure financing through my bank at 5.44% for 60 months due to our excellent credit score. After talking to his manager and finance guy, we ended up financing through them because we received 5.0% for 60 months plus received another $500 cash from the creditor to apply towards the van. We had a large down payment and our trade-in, which wasn't much. At the end of it all, we paid close to $4,000 below dealer invoice. This was not a dealer going out of business either. Now, did they lose on this - no, because most of that cash back came from the manufacturer and not the dealer. Plus, they do have their hold back. I'm trying to help an American company, not rob them. I'm happy with my end of the deal, they are happy with theirs - it was a good day!