Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Entry 41302
Berkeley CSUA MOTD
 
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2025/07/08 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
7/8     

2006/1/9-12 [Transportation/Car] UID:41302 Activity:nil
1/9     How do you buy cars these days?  Do you still haggle with a
        salesperson?
        \_ I emailed the closes N dealers for a quote and did all but the
           final negotiations by email.  The final negotiation was by phone.
           Then I went to the dealership to pick up the car.  I'm giving up
           a few % on price, but it's a more pleasant shopping experience.
        \_ It also never hurts to go to http://carsdirect.com and print out their
           quote as a starting point to the bargaining.
        \_ I did everything by fax two years ago, until I went to the dealer to
           write a personal check and pick up the car.
           http://www.fightingchance.com

 LocalWords:  dervived
           \_ http://www.fool.com/car/car.htm (free)
              \_ This site tells you how to negotiate and how to trade-in,
                 while fightingchance's idea is that don't even get into a
                 negotiation process and don't trade-in.  Different approach,
                 I guess.  Plus fightingchance provides current (well, at least
                 up to the month) numbers on holdbacks, dealer incentives, and
                 the state of the market for your particular make and model,
                 which helps you choose your price.  But like you said,
                 fightingchance is not free.
2025/07/08 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
7/8     

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2012/7/9-8/19 [Transportation/Car] UID:54433 Activity:nil
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	...
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2011/7/10-8/2 [Transportation/Car/Hybrid] UID:54141 Activity:nil
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2010/8/4-25 [Transportation/Car] UID:53909 Activity:nil
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www.fightingchance.com
Bragg's Banter WELCOME TO F I G H T I N G C H A N C E Fighting Chance Level The Car Buying & Auto Leasing Playing Field With This Unique and Empowering Information Package For New Car Shoppers (Which We Can Email To You as a PDF) (It's The Only Car Buying Guide That Comes With A "Coach" - Someone To Talk To As You Go Through The Car Buying Or Auto Leasing Process) If All You've Got Is The Dealer Invoice Price You're A Prime Candidate To Get Taken As one customer put it, "Shopping for a new vehicle without the Fighting Chance car buying and auto leasing information package is like going to the beach without sunblock. Here's the answer those customers would give: The five elements of this unique package will enable you to negotiate with levels of knowledge and self-confidence you'll never develop from knowing just the dealer invoice price, which is only the first step in your preparation. Fighting Chance isn't just the most comprehensive informationpackage you'll find, it's a step-by-step plan for using that information most effectively. Perhaps most important, you'll be able to do all your negotiating using our"Fax Attack," without going anywhere near a car store! Most customers tell us the "Fax Attack" information alone is worth the price of the entire package. Our business has grown very rapidly and is now about as large as we can handle and still maintain our customer orientation. Whenever the demand for our product exceeds our ability to deliver, we limit the number of orders we will accept. Usually we can get orders out the next working day, but there are times when we have a two to three-day order backlog, which means we'd ship Regular mail, Priority mail and Email orders in two to three working days. Federal Express and fax orders typically leave here the next working day, not the day we receive them. Current security precautions can result in slower delivery timing. Our customers indicate that it can take a week or more for first class mail to get from us to the midwest or the eastern US Priority mail delivery is not much better. This means that you should place your order well in advance of need, and you shouldn't expect the mail to get from us to you in just a few days or even a full week, because often it won't. Like Regular mail, this would typically be sent the next working day, depending on our order backlog, but you would receive it much more rapidly, and at no extra cost. Here's what you'll get in the package that 78,547 people have used to negotiate from a position of greater strength: 1 The complete pricing data for the vehicles you're considering, showing the suggested retail "sticker" price and the dealer invoice price for each specific model you order, including all trim levels and optional equipment. Fighting Chance Vehicles 2 The Fighting Chance "Big Picture" analysis of how the manufacturer and the specific model you're interested in have been doing in the market, updated every couple of months. Does the average dealer sell a lot or just a few each month? For most popular vehicles, these two-to-eight page summaries also include the actual transaction prices (in relation to dealer invoice) reported by Fighting Chance customers across the country, to give you a target range for your own negotiations. For some vehicles, $2,000 over invoice would be a terrific price; The "Market Summary" information you'll find if you click on the icon in the left column isn't current, but it's a sample of the kinds of insights you'll find in our package. There is nowhere else, on or off the Internet, where you can get this kind of candor about who's up, who's down and who's in the tank in the auto biz. You'll see the offers on all vehicles, not just what may or may not be there for the one you're shopping. CarDealstypically lists about twice as many offers as the Incentive Watch column in Automotive News,the industry's weekly trade paper. Understand, however, that many dealer cash incentives today are geared to specific sales objectives set on a store-by-store basis, and there is no way to learn where any individual dealership stands vs. The solution to this problem: casting a wide net via the "fax attack," which almost always smokes out these incentives by making dealers bid competitively for your business. com and the dealer gave me a great deal, just $500 over invoice." He would have learned from our package that more than half of our customers were routinely buying that vehicle for less than the invoice price ? obviously because there was hidden dealer cash that was turned up by the "fax attack." The bottom line: he was a lamb led to slaughter, probably paying at least $1,000 more than he should have. That's because their deals frequently aren't that great. Titles include: * "Exactly How To Use This Information" (what to do and say and when to do and say it) * "How To Avoid The Big Leasing Rip-Off," showing you exactly how to calculate the right monthly payment (and inviting you to call us to go over the numbers and check residual values before you sign the lease) * "What They Don't Want You To Know About Product Quality" Fighting Chance Articles * "How To Take Advantage Of One-Price, No-Dicker Dealers" * "How The 'Fax Attack' Can Help You Save Time, Money and Aggravation," including sample faxes for buying and for leasing (Today you can do all your negotiating by fax for over 90% of vehicles. Customers may call our customer service number and ask any questions of author/radio commentator James Bragg or his assistant, Greg Santucci. The main reason Bragg started this business was that he saw the world becoming increasingly automated, voice-mailed, digitized and impersonal, and he felt there was still room for a consumer service business that actually provided a knowledgeable real person that you could talk to. If your purchase gets postponed, you may also call to ask for updated information on incentive programs or price changes on your vehicle. And if you have any questions about the information we send you, we'd be happy to answer them. pricing and ordering details, including a secure, encrypted order form you can e-mail to us and an alternative form you can fax to us. If you want to order but hate filling out forms, you may also call our order desk at 1-800-288-1134 between 9:00AM and 5:00PM Pacific time, Monday through Friday. If you have questions that aren't answered on our web site, you should call 562-433-8489 during normal business hours (9:00 to 5:00 Pacific time, Monday through Friday) and talk to James Bragg or his assistant, Greg Santucci. Important Note: This is a service for NEW VEHICLES ONLY. Here's what a San Francisco customer wrote: Subaru "I am writing to let you know how well your service worked for us. You faxed us information last Thursday on several models. We followed your "fax attack" instructions and faxed 15 dealers in our area. By the next day, we had three dealerships competing for our business at $15,700 (the invoice price was $15,600). Finally, one gave us a price of $15,600, including floor mats and cargo tray. We asked him to give us the keyless entry system at dealer cost ($150), and we had a deal. The dealer was very courteous an d professional when we arrived. We offered to take it at 50% of the cost ($400 instead of $800). Our finest testimonial actually came from new-car dealers: On May 22, 1994 the San Jose Mercury-News published a great article on how to buy a car the smart way, quoting us liberally - including our line, "One reason G od gave you feet was to walk away from car salesmen". The article rated the major information services for new-car shoppers and gave Fighting Chance the highest score. The next day all the dealers in the market pulled their advertising, and they boycott ed the paper for a full month. That one article cost the Mercury-News over $1,000,000 in advertising revenue, a sad commentary on the state of editorial integrity in the media today. A tough economic blow for that paper, but we were honored. When the dealers reacted that vehemently to what we were doing, we knew we were doing something right.
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www.fool.com/car/car.htm
Buying & Maintaining a Car Up to now, we bet, buying a car has not ranked near the top of your list of treasured moments. In fact, when you contemplate the prospect of wrangling with some cagey car dealer, you probably find your eczema flaring up. "I'd rather be sucking down stale air in a sealed plastic cubicle with a card-carrying member of the Halitosis Club of America," you muse, "listening to long-winded explanations of term insurance." home or a diamond-studded cell phone for every member of your family, a car is one of the larger items a Fool will purchase. Unfortunately, it is also an item on which money often gets misspent and has been at the root of many a migraine headache. DriversWay) -- put down every last morsel of car-iana (auto-thoritative, car-fully auto-thored) he has learned in his 15 years in the biz to aid you, Fool, in your hunt for a set of wheels. In this Foolish Car Buying area he lays out a step-by-step plan for coming up with a budget, finding the best fit, taking control of the test drive, arranging a trade-in, developing a Foolish Price, and, finally, striking the best possible deal and actually taking possession. He shows you how to turn the tables and take the high ground. Now it is you, the canny customer, who gets to rain volleys of arrows down upon the heads of the dealership personnel, rather than the other way round. We don't expect you to click on every last glossary term and web link (although a shiny gold cyberstar goes to those who do). Step 12, where we tell you a brilliantly simple way to negotiate the lowest price on a car without setting foot in a dealership, or hop straight to our leasing worksheets to find your way through a labyrinthine lease agreement, we won't look down our noses at you.
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carsdirect.com -> www.carsdirect.com/home
If you prefer to buy from a dealer, we will match your needs with a member of our authorized dealer network near you. Your VIP dealer representative will work with you to find your vehicle and negotiate a low price.