Rated 9
Buying a 2011 Subaru Outback, and saving $5000 off of MSRP.
No extra advice, other than the fact that everything worked pretty much as suggested: I used the retail/wholesale guide, figured out the markup, divided it in 2 (which seemed fair to me), used the "black book guide" to figure out the rough cost of my trade-in and wrote up an offer. I think that this last thing, making an offer rather than going through several steps of asking what they would do for me with both the vehicle I wanted and then again with what they would give me for the trade-in, was a good idea. It simplified things and I could just say, "this is the cheque I want to write." I put all of this in writing, indicating the retail cost, the wholesale cost, the mark-up, what I considered a fair profit (in this case, 5%) subtracted my trade-in, added the taxes, and then subtracted the factory to dealer incentive. I had a discount of $4700: they offered me $4200 and I accepted gladly. Probably the best experience I've ever had with buying/trading in a car.
Michael from Kelowna, BC
reported on Friday, February 11, 2011