Yan at ProBargainHunter has some great tips on how to get the lowest price on a new car. He summed up his tips with 3 main points:

• Never trust the dealer. Everyone would agree on this one. I still need to decide which one is worse — insurance salesman or the car dealer? They are capable of using all the ripoff techniques — all at the same time! They should have BUYERS BEWARE tattooed all over their forehead.

• Do your shopping online. For us Aussies we have the Redbook (not to be mistaken with this one) which lists out all cars ever sold in Australia, their features and their price. Then you have car websites, or the “dealers aggregators”. My favourite would be Drive.com.au, simply because my friend Glenn works in there :)

• Use shopping tricks. You needs tricks. Lots of tricks, when you are dealing with car dealers. Yan pointed out a great article here that outlined a few things you can say.

I don’t consider myself “having lots of experience”. It was completely opposite actually. I have only bought a new car once, more than 7 years ago, and made all the mistakes. For example,

• Only shopped at 2 dealers (should have rang up more dealers).
• Thought the first price the dealer gave me was a good deal (bah! Never trust the dealer).
• Did not bargain for more accessories (accessories are common chips people used to haggle when dealers refuse to budge anymore).
• Paid the dealers to do tint and engine mobiliser (should have done it elsewhere).
• And laugh at this — bite the “fabric and under-body protection” offer (best $500 wasted. Period).

Well. Young and naive. Anyway…

The only way to learn is learning from the experienced, which I really do not qualify. However there is an interesting thread on Whirlpool forums at the moment, bargaining for new car (I think you need an account to access this thread). Some of the tips I’ve gathered from the experienced:

• Never go into a car dealer without knowing the maximum you are willing to pay.
• Go an see a car broker before going shopping.
• Phone/email dealers and ask for their best price. No point to talk to all of them face to face.
• You need to be prepared to walk away if the agreement cannot be reached, and go to the other dealers that are not part of the same company.
• Things to ask/haggle with: Accessories. Drive away price. Extended warranty. Fuel vouchers.

However, face to face haggling is not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s definitely not mine, nor am I experienced with haggling the price for a new car. As how this person has put in the discussion thread:

You do it once every few years but the car dealers do it every day… Who’s going to win?

A car broker is recommended if you don’t like that “intimacy” with the car dealers. What car brokers do is haggling on your behalf. You tell them the specific model that you wish to buy, and they will try to get the best price for you by ringing up all the dealers and negotiating with them. To get an idea on how much you can save, just browse around Discount New Cars — these are the prices that they can definitely get for you, even before haggling.

However, a fee-based car broker is usually better, as dealers are more interested when they see you have already committed yourself by showing the money. This forum post compared 4 most popular car brokers:

I contacted the best 4 from what i could see as i had to purchase 6 new novated cars. Interestingly enough, the one that costs the most to use, actually saved me more than the others which are free or charge a minimal amount.

And he showed the result — Better Deal has saved him almost $12,000 from the next best broker on these 6 cars. Take the Nissan X-Trail 2.5 Manual for example, that’s around $6,000 saved from the price stated on DiscountNewCars.com.au (which is already cheaper than RRP).

So how should I conclude? Personally I don’t think I am the type of person who enjoy front-line battle with the car salesman. In this case I’ll take the broker approach — letting someone else doing the hard work for me, and the price you pay for brokerage would be far less than the discount you receive.

On the other hand if you are brave, gifted, and enjoy watching the salesman cried for help — then go for it! Get out there, equipped with all the tips and techniques, and share with us how much you have saved from your new car purchases.