A Good Time to Buy a New Car

kiya@evpl — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:18:00 GMT

A customer was in today looking for the book she used many years ago to buy a new car. The book gave a breakdown for each model, what the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price was, and what the vehicle actually cost the dealer, showing her how much room there was to negotiate a lower price.

We finally decided that she was looking for Edmund's New Car Guide, which isn't available in print anymore, but only because Edmund's offers a free car-pricing service online that is more up-to-date, and can offer more features.

When you look for Edmund's New Car Guide in our catalog, you will be directed to the website "Don't Get Taken for a Ride! at www.edmunds.com . When we went to the site, the customer found the details she remembered, including a feature that allowed us to specify exactly which options or option package she desired. Then, after giving her the MSRP and the Dealer's Invoice, it also used her zip code to look at market data to see what customers in the area have actually paid for the car recently, which turned out to be lower than the Dealer Invoice. Then it gave details on the various discounts and rebates available. Finally, it offered her an opportunity to send her contact information to local dealers so they could call her with a deal, knowing that she had seen this information, and had contacted other dealers as well. She decided to forgo that, but was quite happy to have the printouts from Edmunds in her hand to help her negotiate.

Other sources of information:

Another useful website: www.carinfo.com
Buying a New Car from the Federal Trade Commission http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps71484/newcar.pdf
A fun site for kids from the Science Education for Public Understanding Program http://sv.berkeley.edu/showcase/flash/car.html
Buy or Lease a Car without getting taken for a ride from Entrepreneur Press
Don't Get Taken Every Time by Remar Sutton

Research Blog : websites, automobiles

A Good Time to Buy a New Car