This month marks my first anniversary of owning a Prius HB II that I bought for $22,188 (before tax). If I were to do it again this year, I'd follow a simple three-stops (2 online and 1 offline) shopping process:
- Go to TRUECar.com for a price reference.
- Sign up to CarWoo.com to get three or more real offers a day. Pick one.
- Go to the dealer to complete the transaction and drive away with the car.
I concluded that my last year's car hunting ended with high satisfaction, measured by how little time I wasted in negotiations and other nonsense. In my case, that year-ago car buying experience wasted record-low time in my entire car-shopping experiences that I can recall, and beat my expectation of the time it took to close the deal. In fact, I spent more time in the final paperwork process (in which I had to deny all the warranty up-sale as usual) than spending on confirming the offered car price. It took me one and a half hours on the closing paperwork; before that, I spent half an hour on confirming the pre-agreed non-negotiable price and checking out the car.
In the simple three-stops process I outlined, the first step of visiting TRUECar.com is not necessary, but just for reassurance for a later time that you'll be given a price range that is reasonable. TRUECar.com gives you a clear idea of how much the car you're interested should be priced in your local region, which is usually lower than the invoice. According to TRUECar.com, if I were offered $22,555 on a Prius II, the price would be reasonably acceptable.
In the simple three-stops process I outlined, the first step of visiting TRUECar.com is not necessary, but just for reassurance for a later time that you'll be given a price range that is reasonable. TRUECar.com gives you a clear idea of how much the car you're interested should be priced in your local region, which is usually lower than the invoice. According to TRUECar.com, if I were offered $22,555 on a Prius II, the price would be reasonably acceptable.
Source: TrueCar.com
The second step is to head to CarWoo.com, and sign up for their online service to get quote by email from dealers. I was a bit skeptical at first about this service that I had never used and never heard of before. I signed up anyway. After telling CarWoo the specific car I was seriously interested in buying, within 24 hours, in my case, I got more than 3 offers via emails from local dealers. Among them, I chose the lowest offered price which also happenned to be near my work place.
source: CarWoo.com
KZ, the salesman, set up a time with me to pay him and the car a visit. Upon arriving to the dealership, I checked the car that he had pulled out from their fleet and set aside for me to inspect, re-iterated the offered price, but I told him I'd be back the next day to complete the transaction. You don't want to rush through as if it was too smooth to be true. However, the very next day I was even more sure about the offer and we completed the transaction in a 2 hours time frame.
You are probably not aware that the car price of the same car of the same dealer may vary depending which representative you work with. The sales representative may belong to a dealer's traditional sales department, fleet department, or newly established internet department. It is the person in the internet department who may potentially offer you the best offer at the dealership. Using CarWoo helps you to reach out to those representatives dedicated in the internet channel. Or more precisely speaking, they can now reach out to you.
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by Charles Gwa
You are probably not aware that the car price of the same car of the same dealer may vary depending which representative you work with. The sales representative may belong to a dealer's traditional sales department, fleet department, or newly established internet department. It is the person in the internet department who may potentially offer you the best offer at the dealership. Using CarWoo helps you to reach out to those representatives dedicated in the internet channel. Or more precisely speaking, they can now reach out to you.
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by Charles Gwa
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