Comments on: Experience At The Settlement Table http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/experience-at-the-settlement-table.html personal finance blog with anecdotes, advice and commentary. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:04:27 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: jim http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/experience-at-the-settlement-table.html/comment-page-1#comment-443 jim Tue, 31 May 2005 03:50:54 +0000 http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/experience-at-the-closing-table.html#comment-443 Thanks for the advice, this is the exact same strategy suggested by the Motley Fool for buying a car. My girlfriend is doing research on Ebay, Cars.com (and a whole host of other online sites), and local classified ads. I think she has her eye on a Honda Civic (because of mileage and cheap maintenance)... we'll see how it goes. I'll send me suggestion along to her. Thanks for the advice, this is the exact same strategy suggested by the Motley Fool for buying a car. My girlfriend is doing research on Ebay, Cars.com (and a whole host of other online sites), and local classified ads. I think she has her eye on a Honda Civic (because of mileage and cheap maintenance)… we’ll see how it goes. I’ll send me suggestion along to her.

]]> By: nickel http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/experience-at-the-settlement-table.html/comment-page-1#comment-442 nickel Mon, 30 May 2005 17:50:34 +0000 http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/experience-at-the-closing-table.html#comment-442 I realize that the following experience is probably make/model specific, but... We bought a new 2004 Honda Odyssey last Spring (May 2004). We negotiated our best price by faxing/e-mailing all of the dealerships within 150 miles and asking for their best price on our specific model/color via fax/e-mail. We then shopped the best quote around in a second round of faxing/e-mailing and then gave the dealerships nearest us a chance to beat our new best price. It worked great, but the real lesson was that we ended up paying ~$1000 less for a brand new car than we would have paid for the same make/model/year at CarMax. Granted, it was pretty early in the year, so current year used models were still perhaps scarce. But if you're looking for the latest model year, CarMax may not be the way to go, especially for something that depreciates as slowly as a Honda. <a href="http://www.fivecentnickel.com/" rel="nofollow">fivecentnickel.com</a> I realize that the following experience is probably make/model specific, but…

We bought a new 2004 Honda Odyssey last Spring (May 2004). We negotiated our best price by faxing/e-mailing all of the dealerships within 150 miles and asking for their best price on our specific model/color via fax/e-mail. We then shopped the best quote around in a second round of faxing/e-mailing and then gave the dealerships nearest us a chance to beat our new best price. It worked great, but the real lesson was that we ended up paying ~$1000 less for a brand new car than we would have paid for the same make/model/year at CarMax. Granted, it was pretty early in the year, so current year used models were still perhaps scarce. But if you’re looking for the latest model year, CarMax may not be the way to go, especially for something that depreciates as slowly as a Honda.

fivecentnickel.com

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