Does it have to be new?

I hate dealerships as well. I do all my car buying and selling private party. Takes a bit of time to do the shopping but I always get a good deal and have had good luck with the cars I buy.

Costco has a service if you are a member. My credit union has the same thing. You won't get the best deal, but it will still be pretty good.

The biggest problem is if you want to test drive cars you still have to deal with the salesmen.

No, not necessarily new, but I want to be as hands off as possible. Basically tell someone what I want and let them work it out.

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"I keep hoping for you to use your superior intellect to be less insufferable. Sadly, you continue to disappoint." - gofigure

I'll loan you Mrs. LT. She is brutal!

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

CarMax. Search their website. Find the car you want. Have them transfer it to your nearest lot. Go sign and pick it up. They don't negotiate. Price is what is listed.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Im a fan of Carmax as well Ive never bot a vehicle but the couple times Ive gotten a bid from them for my trucks they have been solid offers and the folks I've spoken with are very no-nonsense. The vehicle inspection process they go through seems pretty thorough as well.

CarMax doesn't put cars any older than 10 years on their lots (but most are much newer than that) so their stuff is usually in pretty good shape. You're right, they do inspect the cars really well. I've bought 1 Ford truck, 1 Chevy truck & 1 Jeep Wrangler from them in the past 5-6 years. Traded in a car with them, also.

I've been really happy with my experiences with them.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

I did the same thing for the last two cars I bought and got extremely good deals - like less than a 1 year old used car. I'm about to be in the market and was wondering the same thing about websites. If I can't find one, I plan to just email every "local" dealer with exact model I'm looking for and see what happens. I did read an article about car purchasing on Motley Fool which wasn't too bad. http://www.fool.com/car/car08.htm

USAA do this if you bank with them. Judging by how white the salesman's face went when I handed him the deal I think I did alright.

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"Are you sure we're going fast enough?" - Emil Zatopek

Amen. We've bought about 6 cars from them. Never had a single problem with any deal. That type of peace of mind is priceless.

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"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

Roadster does what you want if they operate where you live. I tried everything last year as I didn't have time to argue with every dealer in SoCal and roadster came out cheaper than usaa, Costco or any of the others I tried. I was happy enough with what they came up with and gave them the deposit as only one dealer locally had the spec I wanted. However it turned out when the dealer pulled the car from the lot they'd screwed up the listing and the spec was wrong. So I cancelled and got my deposit back. Then the same spec appeared at a dealer a bit further away and I called them up and offered them a grand less than the roadster price and they accepted. Took that car home that day. Then the original dealer still tried to deliver the first one with the wrong spec but that's a different story.

TLDR the service can get you a lower price than the widely advertised one but they are taking a fee in the process so they're never going to get you the lowest possible price that a dealer might take. That's going to involve you doing your own dirty work.

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Forget speedwork. Speedwork is the icing on the cake and you don't have a cake yet. - MattinSF

Basically they have 9 tenants, live life to the fullest, do not turn the cheak, and embrace the 7 deadly since. - TheForge (on satanists)

I just compared Carmax prices to another website - OffLeaseOnly.com Carmax is considerably higher. Now, the OffleaseOnly cars are located in Florida, but so am I - so that is no problem for me.

If you're going used, I go with the others that have mentioned Carmax. The no-negotiation price was right in line with other dealerships "sale" prices when I was shopping for a new or slightly used car last year.

Personally, I prefer to buy new and that's what I ended up doing again last year. Buying new simplifies the negotiation because you can negotiate off of invoice. Offer them something slightly over invoice--I always go $200 over invoice and have never had to walk away. I've sold cars and understand about the factory to dealer incentives that mean that they're making more than $200, but I feel it's more than fair when you're talking about a $20K+ vehicle.

I know you wanted to be hands off as possible, but when you simplify the negotiation to simple terms like this it really takes away the unpleasantness you're talking about--with the stupid back and forth they try to pull you into. It's either you take it, or I'll go the next dealership and they will.

Have fun!

I found some online advice (risky, I know, but you're doing the same :) ) around an easy negotiating tactic to get the best price. I'll be going through this process in two weeks for a 2017 Forester and can check back in here if you're still considering options at that point.

First find the make and model you want, any options that are non-negotiable, and if you have a color preference. Then look up invoice for the vehicle and the options, won't take that long but you get a baseline of what your goal will be. Finally, the last legwork is to round up dealers in your area within an X mile radius; the suggestion is 100 miles, which seems reasonable.

The last step: e-mail all the dealers with a stock form: "I will be purchasing a YEAR MAKE MODEL + OPTIONS + COLOR in three days and would like your lowest out-the-door price". If you want to go through the process of finding the head salesman's name at each place include it in the e-mail. Keep it short but include all the details for the car you want. If you plan on financing through the dealer (0% APR deals available now for new models), include that info as salesmen get a bonus for in-house financing and give them your credit score (don't lie, no reason to because it could sabotage the deal). If you're paying cash (or financing through a third party) mention that as well.

Then see what offers roll in. End of the month is great, end of a quarter is better, end of the year is the best. They're hitting targets and sometimes need to get cars off their lot, if you have enough dealerships in your distribution you should get 2-3 serious offers. If the lowest is at/below invoice then jump all over it. If not then respond to the second-lowest bid, see if they'd chop X dollars to get the deal done.

Then make sure you're getting an official offer, that you intend to come in today/tomorrow to sign the paperwork. When you're in there you can negotiate a trade-in (if necessary) and any financing (if necessary) but you'll have a locked-in price, and it should be about as good as you'll get negotiating on your own.

That's what I'm hoping, anyway :) I'm doing this on the 27th, purchasing on the 30th as long as everything goes well.

Yes, please let me know how that goes. I don't mind the internet search type of legwork, but do not want to get into a negotiation discussion....

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"I keep hoping for you to use your superior intellect to be less insufferable. Sadly, you continue to disappoint." - gofigure

I pretty much do what Brownie28 does on all of my latest car purchases. I do everything via email now. Everything is locked in before I set foot in the dealership. You can even have trade in value pretty much done as long as you are honest about your trade-in's condition and you do your homework on its value. Like you, I came to despise the dealership experience; now I just do it all online. Much less painful, and you can very quickly find a dealership that wants to make a sale.

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

If buying new look into carbargains, it is a division of consumers checkbook. If you know make and model you want they will contact around ten dealers in your area and get price relative to invoice. I used them for past four car purchases and was very happy with price. Significantly less than Costco deals. Last time I used them service cost $199.

I got the Costco price, then did what Brownie did. Then I took the best offer and replied to all of them to ask if they could beat that offer. Over that process, I dropped the price about 5% with the only negotiation being sending out 2 emails to 5 dealers. Showed up and went straight to the finance guy to sign the paperwork.

I agree that's the easiest way, but I don't tell the dealerships what the lowest offer is as I figure they will just undercut it by whatever they think it would take.

I figure out what I'm going to buy. I bought a CRV after driving everything comparable, from every manufacturer. I don't mind since I own my cars until they die (>10 years). I told the sales people "I'm not buying a car today, just a test drive, give me a card and I'll be on my way". Once I knew what I would buy, I went to 3 dealerships, got the lowest price and then called the sales guys to get it lowered again.

It's time intensive but in the end I put in about 10 hours of work, got to drive a bunch of different cars, and walked away with a deal I was very very confident in. When I bought my next car, I knew what I wanted and still had the cards of the sales guy (another Honda, this time an HRV) and did the whole thing over the phone in about 2 hours. Bought from the same dealership as the CRV which I think will help in the future as well.

It's just so sketchy though. They passed me off to a guy to "sign the paperwork" and I told him up front "What you're selling, I'm not buying". Undercoat, extended warranty, fabric protection etc. The whole process of buying a car is brutal. I look forward to the future when it's almost all online.

Here's a simple writeup on the 'strategy' that a few of us have been talking about:
https://www.nerdwallet.com/...ng-email-car-quotes/

I'm not going to ask for delivery, seems unnecessary. My opinion: you take their e-mailed out-the-door offer and head to the dealership to sign on the dotted line. If ANYTHING doesn't match what they sent you walk out the door. If they stop you then you get what was quoted, if they don't then you probably don't want to be dealing with them anyway.

That said, I wanted to chime in again because if I were you I wouldn't drag my feet. End of the year is the best time to buy a car, I've done a lot of research on this and ESPECIALLY if you're using the e-mail approach you want to get dealerships when they're most incentivized to move cars, and that is 100% the end of December as most dealerships still have FYE on the calendar year. You might even get below-invoice quotes from places willing to move a car at dealer cost (minus holdback) just to hit their numbers.

If you have the time to get the legwork stuff done in the next few weeks do it, you'll probably save a few hundred bucks.

Keep it short but include all the details for the car you want. If you plan on financing through the dealer (0% APR deals available now for new models), include that info as salesmen get a bonus for in-house financing and give them your credit score (don't lie, no reason to because it could sabotage the deal).

Are you saying there is an advantage to go with 0% financing rather than all cash? I'm also looking at a Forester. Liked it a lot more than the CR-V.

Benefit of all cash: If there's a dealership in your area strapped for cash they may go well below invoice to get your business. It's a riskier play, because you're hoping for that one dealer that's in trouble and needs money to operate, but a better potential reward. That $18, $20K may allow them to keep their doors open so they might be willing to lose a grand or two to get your business.
Drawback of all cash: For every other dealership, the salesmen would prefer financing because they get bonuses for that. So they may not be willing to give you their rock-bottom price without that added financing incentive.

This, again, is simply what I've read online, some people on various sites who claim to be (or at one time were) in the business. But it does make logical sense, and I've seen enough people chime in on the 'all cash' route to believe that you may hit on a legitimately great deal - though it's unlikely.

To me, if you have the cash I'd say go for broke and hope to find that one dealer who'll give you a fantastic deal; if that doesn't happen I'm sure you'd still find a few offers that are comparable to what you'd get with financing the car.

Check out www.automatchconsulting.com

The guy also writes for Jalopnik.

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LLLEEEEEEEEEEEERRRROOOYYY JEEENNNNNKKKIIINNNNNS!!!

Most dealers here in SE MN have a "Best Price". It's like going to Target or Home Depot. Always less than the internet price.

http://www.truecar.com

I used this method last time I bought a car, a couple years ago. It takes all of five minutes to send the same email to several dealers, then take the lowest price you get and email the rest of them again asking if they can beat it. After a couple rounds, I ended up buying from the first dealer that had responded, with an offer ~10% below invoice. Why do all the work of negotiating or spend the money on a car-buying service when you can make the dealers compete directly with each other for your business?

Man oh man, my mom should do this. She is a *tough* negotiator and thoroughly enjoys it. She breaks car salesmen like you or I might open a pistachio. I'm in your boat: I don't like the hassle/experience.