Am I crazy or is this the worst time ever to buy a vehicle?

[pheoxs]

So my mom is looking at downsizing her vehicle to save on fuel and prices are looking pretty good right now. Anyone got any advice for the best way to go about this. Private sale and buy is probably not an option as she'd rather just do a trade in and be done with it or a straight across trade.

2015 Jeep Cherokee Sport, 99k km on it and pretty much mint / babied / serviced on time for everything

She's looking for something a bit smaller and better on gas but not a tiny sub compact car. Something along the lines a: Legacy, Outback, Mazda 6, Camry, etc. Or maybe a CUV even.

[Power_Of_Rotary]

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Cars never quite do for you what you want them to. That's why Shak flips so much. You're right, I've never regretted NOT buying a car.

Boy, am I on the other side of the spectrum. I regret not buying (back 10-15 years ago): 2001 ITR, 86 coroilas (dirt cheap back then), NSX (reasonably cheap back then), s2k, and the list goes on.

Also, regret selling my old cars too.....

[Rocket1k78]

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So my mom is looking at downsizing her vehicle to save on fuel and prices are looking pretty good right now. Anyone got any advice for the best way to go about this. Private sale and buy is probably not an option as she'd rather just do a trade in and be done with it or a straight across trade.

2015 Jeep Cherokee Sport, 99k km on it and pretty much mint / babied / serviced on time for everything

She's looking for something a bit smaller and better on gas but not a tiny sub compact car. Something along the lines a: Legacy, Outback, Mazda 6, Camry, etc. Or maybe a CUV even.

I would at least check around to see whats available that she'd like. If she steps foot into a dealer without knowing what she wants theres a good chance shes leaving with something the salesbro will make the most on.

If its a new car that she wants then deal by email if you can, way better buying experience unless you like playing 4 squares

[pheoxs]

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I would at least check around to see whats available that she'd like. If she steps foot into a dealer without knowing what she wants theres a good chance shes leaving with something the salesbro will make the most on.

If its a new car that she wants then deal by email if you can, way better buying experience unless you like playing 4 squares

Well I'm going to take her in and see what a few dealers offer as trade in and what they have as similar options to plan from there. She likely won't buy new as she doesn't want to add any money into the deal, I'm just not sure how it works trying to do a straight across trade without adding money on.

[Tik-Tok]

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Well I'm going to take her in and see what a few dealers offer as trade in and what they have as similar options to plan from there. She likely won't buy new as she doesn't want to add any money into the deal, I'm just not sure how it works trying to do a straight across trade without adding money on.

She'll end up with a lesser vehicle that gets marginally better fuel economy.

[ExtraSlow]

ES rules for buying a car:
1) Don't talk about trade until you know what you want to buy.
2) don't discuss payment, frankly ever.
3) don't "see what the deals are like" until you know what you want to buy
4) Always "be too busy" to sit down and discuss prices
5) do the real deal by email later.
6) become verbally abusive with anyone who shows you a 4-square sheet.

[bjstare]

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She'll end up with a lesser vehicle that gets marginally better fuel economy.

Exactly. It's going to cost her many thousands of $ in vehicle equity to save her hundreds of $ in fuel. Not to mention giving up something that has been well maintained for a vehicle with questionable history. It's a bad idea.

If she wants to change cars for the sake of driving something different, that's another story.

[zechs]

To reiterate, for a painless car buying experience, refuse any dealings except by email.

This actually goes for almost any business in life, but car buying is especially emotional.

As a plus, the dealer may give you a surprising amount of money for your trade in. A lot of us have been bitching about dealer straight up buying our vehicles.

They seem willing to get closer to private sales value if you sre trading in, which makes sense with the shortages, so if your mom is already willing to pay MSRP, she should do alright.

[jutes]

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2) don't discuss payment, frankly ever.

Meh. Once you go through the calculators on the manufacturers sites and play with interest rates, terms and downpayment, you should know what X payment over X years = vehicle cost (that you want) after taxes. The mistake people make is saying "i can only afford $600/month" and dealers will finance you at 6% over 84months to make it happen.

[Pauly Boy]

It makes me laugh when I email dealers exactly what I want or about a specific model and they try to get you to come in or 4 square you over the phone, rofl.

I’m completely turned off from buying a Mazda ever again just from the shitty dealers in Southern Alberta for this very reason - Sent in requests with trim/colour/options, timeline for purchase & requested all-in price. Sales Managers either ignored the email completely or passed it off to a lackey who ignored my very simple request that since I was out of town I would prefer to deal via email.

Bought the TLX cheap lease with 2 phone calls and 2 emails. The only reason I ended up on the phone was to confirm they were in fact honoring the prices talked about here and the second one when one of you fuckers stole the white one from me & I had to settle for silver. Cheap lease 2.0 was even quicker, lol.

I’ve found the luxury dealers to be much better at this btw than the Japanese/domestics (have not tried the Koreans). I assume it’s because they have a lot of clientele from outside the city…

Edit: Dunlop Ford in Lethbridge matched the F150 deal no problem. They are an exception to the norm though.

[Buster]

Canadian car dealers are morons. It's not apparent until you start buying cars in the US.

[BigDL]

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6) become verbally abusive with anyone who shows you a 4-square sheet.

Ugh this made me so angry when I was shopping for my car, fuck you give me a full breakdown.

[Buster]

I've bought lots of cars and I don't think I've ever even seen a four square

[rage2]

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I've bought lots of cars and I don't think I've ever even seen a four square

Humble brag detected.

[ExtraSlow]

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I've bought lots of cars and I don't think I've ever even seen a four square

It's a wonderous sight.

[dirtsniffer]

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canadian are morons. It's not apparent until you dealing with the us.

ftfy

[tonytiger55]

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So my mom is looking at downsizing her vehicle to save on fuel and prices are looking pretty good right now. Anyone got any advice for the best way to go about this. Private sale and buy is probably not an option as she'd rather just do a trade in and be done with it or a straight across trade.

2015 Jeep Cherokee Sport, 99k km on it and pretty much mint / babied / serviced on time for everything

She's looking for something a bit smaller and better on gas but not a tiny sub compact car. Something along the lines a: Legacy, Outback, Mazda 6, Camry, etc. Or maybe a CUV even.

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Well I'm going to take her in and see what a few dealers offer as trade in and what they have as similar options to plan from there. She likely won't buy new as she doesn't want to add any money into the deal, I'm just not sure how it works trying to do a straight across trade without adding money on.

To be honest, its not going to a case where she can go in and just swap her vehicle for something smaller and better.
She is going to lose money on the trade in. She will have to put some money down. If she buys used, it wont be a good deal with the current market. If you calculate interest and payments. Its cheaper to buy new.

As for the whole 4 square paper thing. I thought that was a myth untill I went to a Nissan dealership. They pulled out a blank sheet of paper and started drawing four boxes... WTF..

[88CRX]

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and the second one when one of you fuckers stole the white one from me & I had to settle for silver.

Sorry, not sorry.

[Buster]

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Humble brag detected.

Not on purpose? What does not seeing a 4 square imply?

[jutes]

If you can do basic math on your own, does it really matter if it’s a 4 square or 3 triangle?