dbattery.com » Cars

Frankfurt Autoshow

Dave — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:37:02 +0000

Check out Autoblogs coverage of the Frankfurt Autoshow, so far my faves are:

Euro Ford Focus, Ford why can’t you bring this one here!

and

Honda Accord Tourer, this is beleived to be the next Acura TSX.

Best Deal on a New Car e-mail template

Dave — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:47:20 +0000

Here is a nice template that you can use to get you the best deal on a new car, use this inconjunction to the tips from mrblackpcs2 which you can find here or you could use the e-mail template I have here that I used to get a good deal on my Honda Odyssey.
———
Dear Dealer,

I am ready to purchase a and would like a quote from your dealership.

I have done considerable research and know invoice price, holdback, dealer cost and the average purchase price. I’m contacting a number of dealers in my area and expect very attractive offers, as well as a
pleasant buying experience. While I know there are no incentives at this time, I’m ready to buy now from the
dealer with the most competitive offer.

Please respond via email with your lowest total price for the van (excluding tax, title and license). No calls,
please.

Thank you,
————————-
You would need to customize the email with your desired trim level, geography (you could say something like a number of dealerships across the state), and you’ll need to investigate incentives at Edmunds too. I put the name of each dealer in the salutation and emailed each dealer through their own web site. You may want to set up a spam email account, and even though it says no calls, a few will call you anyway. I made an Excel spreadsheet with the dealers and their offers.

I spend a few hours working on writing and sending the emails on a Saturday. Got a lot of responses Monday, and by Tuesday had 2 dealers with an identical low bid. By Wednesday I was ready to go and only needed to decide on color, which the dealer I purchased from found for me. You need to make sure that service(doc) fees and delivery is included in the pricing, so it’s an apples-to-apples comparison.

Most important, don’t go into a dealership until you’re ready to sign, and handle things via email and phone. Also don’t bother to negotiate until you are truly ready to purchase.

If you want to get accessories, ask them to match online pricing too.

Let me know if you find this useful and read the fatwallet thread linked above.

Chrysler Premiere Night, Nothing Premiered But The Food Was Good.

Dave — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:57:34 +0000

So I went to “Chrysler Premiere Night” expecting too much. I arrive to valet parking, a nice touch, and I proceed to walk past a 2008 Town and Country. This was the exact vehicle I was there to see but this was an LX with a cloth interior and no “swivel seats”. I said to my wife “Oh they have to have more inside. To my disappointment I walk into absolutely nothing. I went expecting to see all the 2008 models there to be viewed, touched and fondled , nope. 2008 brochures and other literature, nope. A loaded 2008 Town and Country OR Grand Caravan, showing off all the features that will win customers back to Chrysler from Toyota/Honda, nope. They had none of these things, this night was really pointless except for the food, the food was actually pretty good. So Chrysler, Please Please Please next time can you make sure you dealers have the best you have to offer so we can see, in person, while at a dealership why we should buy one of your vehicles.