You are probably hearing about presidents day sales and such from your local dealers telling you to buy now because they just lowered their prices. Although it may or may not be a good buy at a 1 off used car lot, for the actual dealerships lots (Ford of... Chevrolet of... etc.) it actually isn't the best time to buy. These dealerships get their vehicle directly from the manufacturers and have quotas if you will where if they sell X amount of vehicles in the month, they get a bonus. During this presidents day sale, a lot of people are buying so they are pretty much guranteed to get their bonus. On other months with no sales it's another month where people may or may not buy and they may not reach quota which will equate in a better deal for you because they will lower the price to meet quota.

As far as time goes, the end of the day is generally when you want to buy because the sales person will do just about anything to get out of there. If you're buying a used car this may be risky as it's hard to go over a car in the dark ad you may over look something. Going along with the monthly quota's, buying at the end of the month will work out in your favor as well. Near the end of the year is also a great time to buy because more people are saving to buy Christmas presents so November / December are probably slow months for the dealers. Also if you're in an area that gets a decent amount of snow and are looking at a RWD car, you can probably get a better deal in the winter because a car that isn't good in the snow generally doesn't sell when the snow is around.

The sales person tries to keep you talking so you don't look over the car too much and see it's real issues. In the mean time they try and act like they're your best buddy, but trust me, they aren't going to add you on Facebook and after the day you buy your car, you won't see them again. Bring someone else with you so they can distract the sales person, or if they're more knowledgeable in vehicles, have them look at the vehicle while the sales person blabs off to you.

When you're out on the test drive, they usually want you out for like 10 minutes then it's back to the dealership to discuss a price. Weather it's by dealer or owner, stay out there for a while. Get on the freeway, spend some time doing city driving, and spend some time driving around and parking in a parking lot. Of course if you're comparing several vehicles on the lot, do the little test drive to weed out the ones that don't fit you as well then do the big drive with the top 2 vehicles. Also any mechanic will have an OBD II scanner which can clear codes from a check engine light (turn it off if it's on), so by driving it a while you can make that code come back if there is one.

If you know exactly what vehicle you're buying, look up some facts about the vehicle that the sales person probably doesn't know. For example, if you ask the dealer about what transmission this car has, they may simply say "automatic" or "manual". This is where you'd say "well is it a CVT, or DCT auto trans?". Or like my F-150 had an option of two transmissions, either a 4R70, or a 4R100. This is just jibber jabber but it makes it sound like you know what your talking about and they'll take a step back.

Another super easy thing to get them on is ask them what gear ratio the vehicle has. You can look this up online to see what ones they came with, then memorize the codes and look at the door sticker for the code so you know what it is so you can say "yeah according to this code it's a X axle". My F-150 has 3 options for gears, the codes where 19, H9, and B6. 19 is a 3.55 non-LSD (limited slip differential, not the drug), H9 is a 3.55 LSD, and B6 is a 3.73 LSD. My truck has the H9, so I'd tell the sales person "yeah the sticker says it's an H9 axle which is a 3.55, but I really wanted the 3.73's". Even though you may be sold on the vehicle, this will show the sales person that maybe your not intrested so he needs to get that price down to make a sale. This may sound like a bunch of crap you don't care about and for the most part it is, it's just to make the sales person think you're in charge and to take a step back because he's just not that important.

My brother bought a '13 Mustang that was listed at 15k by a 1 off dealer ship, we did everything I mentioned above and all the sales person wanted to do was 13k. My brother wasn't financing so we said 11k green cash money today, you take what you want out tax free and we're both happy. The guy countered 12k and we settled at 11,500. Not too bad for a vehicle that blue books at 16k.

Now if your financing, I'm sure on the ads you see that big 0% APR financing. That is garbage, remember that money isn't free. Remember that the lower your percentage, the less you'll be able to talk the car down. They still need to pay the finance guys so you'll be paying extra up front with the 0% financing so they get paid. The average new car loan APR is about 4%, so if you're buying a 30k car at 4% financing (let's say your financing for 1 year because I don't want to have to do more than one equation lol), you're paying 1,200 to finance it. You could probably talk the guy down to 25k, so 26,200 at the end, but if you do 0% financing, add another 1,200 dollars because you have to pay the finance guys, so you'll be paying 27,400 roughly for the same vehicle just at 0% financing.

This may sound stupid, but show up in the most expensive vehicle you have, but try to make it opposite of what you're buying even if you have to borrow the vehicle. For example if you're buying something that gets good MPG like a Toyota Prius, Chevy Cruz, Ford Focus, etc. show up in a big ole lifted truck (preferably diesel because why not?). When the sales person comes out, tell them that's your big fuel guzzleing vehicle that gets 8 MPG, and you're just looking for a vehicle that gets better MPG because although you can affor the fuel, you don't have to. This will imply you have a lot of money so they think if they don't make a sale to you, there are plenty of other dealers in the area so you'll go with them. If that's not an option, oh well.

Right before you start talking about price or maybe right after they say a number say you're un decided between this vehicle and a different vehicle (say your at a Ford dealership, tell them you're looking at a Chevy, Dodge, Toyota, any other brand that they won't have on their lot). This will make them think they might lose your business and will make them work harder for your money.

Of course look at everything on the vehicle and bring up maybe the ball joint looks a little weathered, maybe the CV boot is torn etc. and say "maybe I don't want to get into something that I'll have to put a lot of work in to". This might make them say they'll replace the ball joint / CV axle or lower the price by what it'll cost to fix those. Look up common issues for that vehicle so you can say "yeah I know these cars are known for having bad" fill in the blank.

Keep the words "out the door" in mind. When buying a vehicle you generally have to pay for tax tabs and licensing. The words "out the door" means they pay for that so what ever price you say, that's what it'll cost you for that car sitting in your drive way with no other expenses. Usually it's about 500 bucks, so if you're looking at a used car and you say 5k, they say 6k, then you say 5,500 out the door.

Maybe you notice that the gas was low, tell them "come on man, make me feel like I'm getting a deal. I'll do X price if you fill up the tank". Also if you notice the oil is starting to get mis colored or doesn't smell right then ask them to do an oil change. Same thing with trans fluid. Keep in mind though that they may not use the best oil, instead of a high quality synthetic, they may use a traditional oil that you may not want if your spending a lot of money.

On 1996 and above vehicles, manufacturers where required to put an OBD II port in for system diagnostics. This is basically to read trouble codes your car is sending you. If your check engine light is on, that OBD II scanner will tell you why. You can pick one up for 100 bucks or less and it's well worth it. I didn't notice it but when I bought my truck my check engine light didn't work. Someone put tape over the light because it had 3 trouble codes they didn't want me to see.

The Carfax app is free and is actually a very valuable resource to you when buying a car, or even keeping up the maintinence on your current car. Look at the following picture, this is of the app I have on my phone for my truck. It shows me if there's any open recalls, how long until my oil change, tire rotation and registration are due, it tell me service history and even gives me the manufacturer maintinence schedual. I can also check out repair costs on my truck and service shops in my area. This way you can decide if the car has been properly cared for. Any time a (legal) shop does work for you, they record it by vin and or lisence plate number. This app doesn't show repair history, but it shows maintinence history which is nice so you can see if the vehicle was cared for. If you do the oil change your self you won't see it on there, but you can report it on the app if you choose.
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