Have not purchased a vehicle in 10 years... need help

[barbaralee]

I am sorry if this is not the best place to ask, but I am looking for an insight and experience. My 2006 Suzuki Vitara is starting to show its age, and on a recent trip to Michigan we were having trouble with accleration. We just had a baby 8 months ago, and our mothers have been on us about getting a new car. My husband and I are still on the fence on whether we want to purchase a vehicle, but here are the basics:

We are looking at purchasing a new Ford Escape S, and I want to keep the price of the car less than $20k

Hubby is only ok with 0% offer (this is fine, Ford has 0% for 60 months going right now).

Hubby's grandfather retired from Ford. His grandfather called me today and gave me the pin number for the Z Plan discount. I don't know much about this plan, but I do know it discounts the documents fees from $250 to $75 (one of the dealers told me) among other things. 

I will be trading in my Suzuki Vitara. Ford is currently running an incentive that they will add $2k to whatever the trade in value is. 

We will be putting down about $8k, but I can do more if pushed (I would rather not).  

So best case scenario, I am hoping to not have to take out a loan for anymore than 10k. 

These are the dealerships I am dealing with who I will be meeting with next week:

Dealer A - Right down the road from me. The salesman sounds quite young. He was very affable, and not pushy at all. They have escapes right around $21k. One of the internet sales people at this site told me I could not combine the Z Plan with the promotions. 

Dealer B - Very nice guy as well, he was the most open about financing, incentives, rebates, what not. He told me I *could* combine the rebates and incentives with the Z Plan.  He has Escapes that he is advertisting for $19,985

Dealer C - Older gentleman, said he has been working at that particular dealership for 25 years. SUPER fast talker. He also kept throwing different numbers at me, which was highly annoying. He would say one thing, and then said another. He told me he could not get me into an Escape at what I was asking for and insisted no one can. I actually couldn't really get a good idea of pricing from him, but looking online it appears they start at 24k.  He didn't really talk much about the Z Plan. 

So here is where I am at:

My husband more than likely will not be with me. He is behind at work and really has no interest in cars, much less shopping for one. So when I speak with the salesman I will be on my own. 

We have plenty of time on our hands. I am not in too much of a rush, but our mothers are tag teaming me and pushing hard for a new car. 

Questions:

Dealer B's price for the Escape is incredibly low. He said it is well below inventory price. Should I even attempt negotiating with him? I am afraid he is going to laugh me out of his office AND I don't know how low I should go. 

I don't know what to do about my trade in. I figured I would be thrilled with 2k as a trade in. My mother said do not accept anything less than $3500. How flexible can the salesman be with the trade in value? Should I be very firm with what I want in a  trade in? When I ran a Kelley Blue Book value on my car it said anywhere from $1500-2559. 

My husband said that he read that I basically need to start a bidding war between the dealerships. I don't have confidence that I would be able to do that. 

Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks!!

 PS. I will be meeting Dealer B on Monday and Dealer A & C on Tuesday of next week. 

[Anonymous]

I have not purchased a new car in 18 years. The last time I bought a car the one thing I did was lock down a price before going into the dealers. In retrospect I also wish I had paid attention to interest rates and financing as well. This time I have a pre-approval from Capital 1 which from what I have read here is typically pretty accurate and fuss free.  Based on the information you have presented I would go with either Dealer A or B. C would automatically be crossed off my list for too much double talk.  

I bookmarked this post to use when I begin to negotiate. I will not be trading in my car. I just want a straight forward sale. I plan to sell my car mysself afterwards or donate to charity and use the tax write off. (There are pros and cons to that).

[settleordelete]

First thing to do... Get the rock bottom price. This will be the best price from all three dealerships on the Escape (incentives and discounts) you're looking at before taxes and fees.

Next, make sure that you can get the 0% APR if you finance $10k or less. 0% for 24 to 60 months might have a minimum amount that has to be financed. Just ask BEFORE you tell them your down payment amount.

I just sold an F150 back to the dealership. The salesman who appraised it kept asking me how much I want for it. I didn't say anything until after the appraisal numbers came back. So let them appraise your trade without knowing what you want for it. You could get more than you think.

[Anonymous]

IMO, go with dealer B. Z-plan + Ford discounts, rebates, incentives, cash-back etc will give you the best price.

Ask to see the invoice, the real invoice, not some fufu dealer created invoice. It will show invoice, holdback, X-plan, A/Z-plan prices, etc. Subtract all the rebates, incentives and cash-back you qualify for from the z-plan price shown on the invoice. Also, don't bring trade-in value into negotiations until you have agreed on the actual price of the car, IMO.

Some dealers will try to confuse you by negotiating by monthly payment amount.

There may be a rebate to finance with Ford Motor Credit but usually at a higher interest rate than you would get otherwise. You can take the higher rate to get the rebate and then refi a week or two later at a bank or CU for a better rate, but be sure to check the contract you are signing to make sure there is no penalty for doing so. The dealer might tell you you need to make x number of payments but it needs to be written in the sales contract.

Also, if they try to sell you an extended warranty, ask for a week to decide, get any brochures they have, and do your research. Some dealers will push aftermarket(non-Ford) extended warranties that can be a rip off.If you do want an extended warranty, there are online dealers selling Ford extended warranties for a fraction of the cost but some states will not allow you to purchase a warranty from an out of state dealer, Florida is one I am aware.

Good luck.