Car Buying Guide - IX

The car buying guide topic today is a BIGGIE... negotiating or buying based upon your monthly payments...

**********************

If I had to definitively say what the biggest mistake is made by car buyers, it would be buying/negotiating a car deal based upon liking the monthly payments you are being presented with. If not the most financially imprudent mistake, certainly the most frequent car buying mistake made.

Automobile sales people salivate over customers that "just want to be able to get to a certain monthly payment." If you're one of these types of buyers, you are going to lose and probably big.

Buying your car based upon a monthly payment figure just about gives the car dealer a blank slate to work you with. Don't be one of those people. Remember, mathematically any amount (selling price) divided by a large enough number (length of your loan) will get you a small enough number (your payments) that you will be comfortable with.

Now throw in your trade in, dealer incentives, and customer rebates into the mix, and you'll soon not only be confused, but you'll be paying way too much.

I'm not saying that you don't need to have a monthly payment figure in mind that will stay within your monthly budget... all of us do. Of course you do to. It just has to stay within your mind, not blathered out all over the car lot in front of the sales person.

Know your numbers.

Calculate your monthly payments ahead of time - and know bottom line amount financed what you can afford.

When it comes to negotiating your car deal... NEVER discuss your desire to buy the car in terms of monthly payments...never.

If and when you leave the dealership with your new car, neither your car salesman, nor the sales manager, nor the finance manager, not anyone should know or not whether they met your monthly payment goals.

Buying based on a monthly payment is a trap that way too many buyers fall into.

No matter how much you want the car don't rationalize yourself into buying on a monthly payment and certainly don't ever tell the salesperson...

"if you can get me to this monthly payment then I'll buy".

And don't answer the question when the salesperson asks you... "If we can get you to this monthly payment, do we have a deal?"

Redirect the conversation off the monthly payment and back onto the selling price of their car and keep it there... stay focused.

In fact, in my car buying guide eBook, I show you a real life example of just how big. And well... isn't for the faint of heart.