<p>Another vote here for the Sonata</p>
<p>We have a Subaru dealer here that sounds like your awful Toyota dealer. I’ve been there TWICE looking for specific cars on their website. Each time I have called the day before after 5 and told them I would be there at 9 on the morning. Each time they have claimed that the cars were sold and were no longer on the lot when ingot there. Each time I have had not one, but TWO salespeople. Each time I have given them information of the type of car I’m looking for. They have NEVER contacted me. I wouldn’t consider buying a car from them…not even for a minute.</p>
<p>
You can do this a few ways - </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Go to the website for the particular dealership (not manufacturer) you want to get a quote from. Ideally do so for several dealerships in your area and don’t be worried about driving to one 20 miles away if needed - it’s worth it for a big purchase like this.
The dealer website should have a link for ‘internet sales’ or something like that. You can then either deal with them via email or through their web interface, i.e. click the link and fill out the form for what you want and leave them your email. In my case I didn’t plug in my phone number initially because I didn’t want them calling me - I only wanted a quote.</p></li>
<li><p>Alternatively, go to Costco’s website, AAA, your credit union, USAA, or some other organizations, and check into the car buying service. With Costco I think what they’ll do is essentially have the dealer in the area they deal with contact you via their internet/fleet department. They should confirm what you want and then provide a price and that price should be a decent one since it’s set by the program (Costco, AAA, etc.). I’m sure there’s a Toyota dealership in your area that deals with the Costco/AAA programs. Don’t let the Toyota dealer up-sell you.</p></li>
<li><p>On the trade-in - this is where dealers get you. They’ll never offer anywhere close to what the car’s worth. Sometimes they try to sense where you’ll be satisfied - a lower price for the new car or the bigger price for the trade-in and as long as you’ll pay more for the new car they’ll give you more for the trade-in but in the end they never really give you what the car’s worth. You’re better off selling it yourself if you can. Think about it - they have to pay you for the car, clean it up and make sure it’s mechanically sound, then put it on their lot, and sell it to someone else - all at a profit. If it’s too old for their lot they’ll wholesale it to a used car dealer for a low price. You can also try selling it to Carmax or on consignment or if it’s thrashed/old/high mileage, donate it and take a deduction (but you won’t get much this way either). You should set the deal for the cost of the new car first and once that’s all done, THEN ask what you can get for the trade-in.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Get two “no haggle” quotes from a couple of competing dealers from their internet sales depts., then haggle with them and get their final best deal in writing, then take that best proposal to a traditional dealer’s sales lot and get them to beat the haggled 'no haggle" internet quote from the other dealer. If you don’t like their deal, walk out, and if they still hang on to your car’s door handle as you’re pulling out of the dealer’s parking lot, floor it unless they yell they’ll come down in price. I use the hard buy method!</p>
<p>mimk, did you get a chance to check out the Lancer that I mentioned by mitsubishi? I am not sure if they have the blind spot monitor but I do know they have the rear backing alert system - not sure if that’s the same or not.</p>
<p>GladGradDad,
"That sounds like an awful Toyota dealership " - I did not mention at all that it was Toyota dealership. Not sure howe got this impression. I mentioned though that we never buy band new car, so we just go on-line, check out cars / prices. In this specific case, we drove for whole hour to see specific Toyota. They had it, it was gorgeous, but did not have one feature that I was looking for and we could not buy it without. I do not like to shop at all. If I am buying a car, I go to the place to buy, not to shop around. I do not go shopping voluntarily, only if I absolutely have to.</p>
<p>^^ My response wasn’t to your post - it was to the OP’s post #30 where she indicates the following and then elaborates some more on it - </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>^Sorry!!!</p>
<p>The deed is done! I drove a lot of cars yesterday. I also drove a Lexus for fun and really liked it, but it was a lot more money than I wanted to spend. I drove a lot of other cars and then pretty much settled on a new Camry (found a much better dealership) thinking I would buy it today. Then, on a lark, this morning I called the Lexus dealer and asked about pre-owned cars and found they had some that were less money than the Camry. Gamechanger. I called around and got a listing of what was out there and read up on how to buy a pre-owned car. (By the way, the car I wanted to trade-in could only be traded in, donated or given for junk because in my state you can’t sell without passing a smog check and a major, expensive repair was keeping it from passing which meant I could not sell it). So anyhow, went to the Lexus dealer knowing they had a car that had not yet hit the lot or their website that was a 2009 car with only 13,000 miles on it. The body of the car is almost perfect. The inside is in really great condition. I bought the car for less than I would have paid for the Camry and I got a better price on the trade-in than I thought I would. Last week I launched my fourth and final kid to college; this week I end almost a quarter of a century driving a minivan and graduate to a car that I think I will be really happy with.</p>
<p>Congratulations! It’s going to be so fun for you to drive a car after driving around in a minivan all these years. Good luck with your car!</p>
<p>Enjoy your Lexus. It sounds practically new. Your car has almost 200K fewer miles on it than mine so relatively speaking, it’s spanking new. Buying slightly used like this saved you thousands.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t mind getting a Lexus as my next car. Have been driving my mini-van for about 13 years now, with intermittent driving of a few other vehicles as well. Hmmm. Will see how long the van will continue to perform well.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the good advice!</p>
<p>congrats! on your new Lexus! Enjoy!</p>
<p>Congrats on the car purchase. Purchasing a car is a big deal in our house so I sympathize. We recently bought a Honda CRV to replace the van. The Honda dealers, not being the top dog anymore, are much easier to deal with and we bought new for the first time ever. Though, with extensive research, I think we got a fair price. Our Toyota dealer is also great and have true “no haggle” prices. In contrast to other posters, our Mazda/Hyundai dealer is awful to deal with. </p>
<p>Most of my car purchases come from Hertz. I have yet seen prices as good for used cars and purchases are easy. Anyone know of a better deal than Hertz?</p>
<p>We’re in the process of dealing with dealers to get the best price on a Subaru Outback. We’re not so invested in getting that car that we won’t walk away from all of them and decide to get something else instead.</p>
<p>Congrats on the Lexus.</p>
<p>My dad used to buy cars from the rental agencies. He had pretty good luck overall. I think they take a lot of abuse though.</p>
<p>When I last bought a car, once I figured out what I wanted, I used the feature on edmunds.com that lets you request offers from local dealers and they send them to you in email. After I collected several offers I went to the closest dealer and told them “take it or leave it.”</p>
<p>They took it. Very painless overall.</p>
<p>Congrats on the Lexus!!</p>
<p>mimk6,
Congrats! My H. has Lexus (pre-owned also) and likes it a lot.
I still love my Audi (and it was cheaper too)</p>