How to save hundreds or thousands when you buy a car

If I'm not too late, I talk to the client before he goes to buy the car. I can warn him about things like mechanical breakdown protection. Huh?, you say. It's a little thing the finance guy likes to add to your financing, the sales contract.

After spending all day with the salesman, you're finally about to buy the car, and you're sitting in a nice air conditioned office...relaxed. you just got a good price on the car and now all you have to do is sign on the dotted line.

But you're not done yet!

The fun is just starting. The finance guy has all sorts of goodies to add to the cost of your car, and if you're not aware of this fact, you could end up spending literally thousands of dollars more than you have to or want to.

For example, the dealer will add a mechanical breakdown policy to your contract. He may not call it that. It could say Service contract or extended warranty. It's the same thing. And the amount he will charge you could cost you $2,000 or more.

I have the same product in my office for half the cost.

The question becomes do you really want this type of coverage for your car? If you do want it, then call me before you go to the dealer.

The extra warranty is fine. But you need to know about it before you go to the dealer. Not when you're in there ready to sign on the dotted line.

Oh yes. Many people think that after they negotiate the price and they have a deal, they are done being sold to. But you're only halfway there.

The finance office is a whole other sales opportunity for the dealer, and they routinely make huge profits selling you things like extended warranties, prevent a theft, interest rate, etc.

One sales contract I looked at had all the bells and whistles. They charged the guy $500 for something called prevent a theft. It's merely etching a code in the window. They sold him a $2,000 alarm system, even though the car came with an alarm.

He also had the mechanical breakdown, the high interest rate (yes, they get paid on that, too.), and they charged him $800.00 for GAP coverage. If he'd gotten gap on his own policy through me? Maybe $40.00 a year.

The point is to know these things before you go to a dealer. In the instance above, the client could have saved over $4000.00 on this transaction if he had just been prepared to just say no to the finance salesman.

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