New Car at the Lowest Price

A question on the minds of most car buyers searching for a new car is "How do you buy a new car at the lowest price?" You may know to look online for information about current pricing, but you might find yourself wondering what all the different terms mean and how to best use the information you find to your advantage?

Invoice Price

The invoice price is a good place to start. This can usually be found online at sites such as www.kbb.com or maybe even a dealership's website. This is the easy part.

Incentives

Incentives are equally as important to look at. You can find current incentives being offered online as well. These are often available on dealership's websites and are usually broken down into national and local incentives. You also can learn of incentives by analyzing price quotes you might get. Incentives are designed to make a particular car more attractive to buyers, drive more traffic into the showroom or both.

Rebates

Rebates are usually simply cash. The manufacturer provides money payable to the buyer at purchase. Be careful as some dealers will try to get buyers to sign away this money, or simply won't disclose it if you don't ask. Rebates can be applied to the purchase and lower the overall cost.

Dealer cash

Dealer cash, dealer rebates and dealer marketing support are all names for basically the same thing. They are money given to the dealer upon the sale of a car by the manufacturer. Essentially, these have the end result of lowering the cost of the car to the dealer, which can be passed on to the well-informed buyer.

As more and more buyers become aware of invoice price, and dealers create new ways to generate profit that don't rely on the traditional markup of the invoice price, careful analysis of all incentives, rebates and dealer cash becomes critical to getting a good deal. In some cases, paying invoice for a car will only mean a discount of a few hundred dollars. Some dealers now openly advertise selling all cars for invoice, but this, in reality, may not be as good of a deal as they would like you to think it is.

Now you can take all of this information you have gathered and use it as a guide to determine what you believe is the best possible price on your new car. Get quotes from local area dealers, and make sure that they give you quotes in writing or via email for the exact model you are shopping.

Now it is time to make an offer. The best price is usually achieved when making an offer in person, so visit a local dealership that has the car you want. With the information you have gathered in hand, you'll be prepared when the time comes to deal.