fracmeister
Petroleum Engineer
- Joined
- May 26, 1999
- Messages
- 1,686
Some observations on buying a new car. For what it is worth.
First, my bias when trying to buy a Lexus LS430, Mercedes S430, S500 or BMW 745 was to buy a 2004 or 2005 with less than about 25000 miles in excellent shape. When I went over it and over it I wound up buying a new Lexus and from my local dealer!
I used a variety of internet resources checking the going prices of late model, lightly used vehicles and found ebay motors to be as dynamic a marketplace as you could want. I bid on over 50 cars, typically bidding 95-100% of the Kelley Blue Book excellent condition wholesale price, the Kelley Blue Book Trade-In Value
(see http://www.kbb.com/kb/ki.dll/ke.kb.sp?kbb&&&usedCars;slp ).
My observation was that truly first rate cars dont sell that low on ebay and in fact sell above the Kelley Blue Book Trade-In Value. The best cars sold pretty close to the Kelley Blue Book Private Party Value and (for the very lowest mileage cars from the most reputable dealers) somewhere between the Private Party and the Kelley Blue Book Suggested Retail Value. They never seemed to sell as high as this latter price.
The discount on the very nicest cars from the new price I thought I could get wound up being no more than about $0.50 per mile. I wanted something closer to $1.00 per mile, but decided to see how low I could get the new price. Then I discovered www.fleetrates.com (and I imagine there are many others out there). Basically, for the $29.95 joining fee you can buy a lot of cars at dealers invoice. In my case, that meant a Lexus listing for $63,284 could be had for $55,409. Then I would have to pay shipping from California to Texas. The purchase would be directly from a dealer in Southern California. The fleetrates guys (very helpful on the phone) all claimed this would be no more than 600$ going through them. Of course Id have to register it here, get it inspected here, etc. Texas was going to get 6.25% of the purchase price no matter what.
My Lexus dealer provides free maintenance for the first 25,000 miles and I would probably do most of it at the dealer even if I bought the car elsewhere. I made up a spreadsheet, starting at $55,409, adding shipping, the 29.95 fleetrates cost, and 75% of the first two yearss maintenance (after confirming with a separate dealer that they didnt do the free maintenance for cars purchased elsewhere). My salesman gulped a little, but said hed do what he could.
He made left one offer on the phone that was 1600$ higher than my net price. Then he said that all the cars he had also had pinstripes, tinted windows (which I wanted), and the 3M invisi-shield product. I sort of liked the pinstripe but not much and my own research on the clear bra invisishield says it is pretty good but not worth the 750 $ retail. These three items retailed (on the sticker) for 1650$ but I nnew they were all very high margin dealer add-ons. But truly first rate tinting on a car like this might well run 4-500$, so I was astonished when he offered to match the fleetrates delivered net price + 600$ for the three options. Conclusion: I recommend going to fleetrates.com for a new car. If you want to go to a local dealer let them try and match their offer + shipping.
At the end of the day, I bought a new car for less than I saw some cars on ebay (with identical equipment) go for on ebay that were used and had 3000-10000 miles on them. Amazing.
First, my bias when trying to buy a Lexus LS430, Mercedes S430, S500 or BMW 745 was to buy a 2004 or 2005 with less than about 25000 miles in excellent shape. When I went over it and over it I wound up buying a new Lexus and from my local dealer!
I used a variety of internet resources checking the going prices of late model, lightly used vehicles and found ebay motors to be as dynamic a marketplace as you could want. I bid on over 50 cars, typically bidding 95-100% of the Kelley Blue Book excellent condition wholesale price, the Kelley Blue Book Trade-In Value
(see http://www.kbb.com/kb/ki.dll/ke.kb.sp?kbb&&&usedCars;slp ).
My observation was that truly first rate cars dont sell that low on ebay and in fact sell above the Kelley Blue Book Trade-In Value. The best cars sold pretty close to the Kelley Blue Book Private Party Value and (for the very lowest mileage cars from the most reputable dealers) somewhere between the Private Party and the Kelley Blue Book Suggested Retail Value. They never seemed to sell as high as this latter price.
The discount on the very nicest cars from the new price I thought I could get wound up being no more than about $0.50 per mile. I wanted something closer to $1.00 per mile, but decided to see how low I could get the new price. Then I discovered www.fleetrates.com (and I imagine there are many others out there). Basically, for the $29.95 joining fee you can buy a lot of cars at dealers invoice. In my case, that meant a Lexus listing for $63,284 could be had for $55,409. Then I would have to pay shipping from California to Texas. The purchase would be directly from a dealer in Southern California. The fleetrates guys (very helpful on the phone) all claimed this would be no more than 600$ going through them. Of course Id have to register it here, get it inspected here, etc. Texas was going to get 6.25% of the purchase price no matter what.
My Lexus dealer provides free maintenance for the first 25,000 miles and I would probably do most of it at the dealer even if I bought the car elsewhere. I made up a spreadsheet, starting at $55,409, adding shipping, the 29.95 fleetrates cost, and 75% of the first two yearss maintenance (after confirming with a separate dealer that they didnt do the free maintenance for cars purchased elsewhere). My salesman gulped a little, but said hed do what he could.
He made left one offer on the phone that was 1600$ higher than my net price. Then he said that all the cars he had also had pinstripes, tinted windows (which I wanted), and the 3M invisi-shield product. I sort of liked the pinstripe but not much and my own research on the clear bra invisishield says it is pretty good but not worth the 750 $ retail. These three items retailed (on the sticker) for 1650$ but I nnew they were all very high margin dealer add-ons. But truly first rate tinting on a car like this might well run 4-500$, so I was astonished when he offered to match the fleetrates delivered net price + 600$ for the three options. Conclusion: I recommend going to fleetrates.com for a new car. If you want to go to a local dealer let them try and match their offer + shipping.
At the end of the day, I bought a new car for less than I saw some cars on ebay (with identical equipment) go for on ebay that were used and had 3000-10000 miles on them. Amazing.
