Car Buying Advice

• Set a target price
• Getting the best price
• Auto-pricing terms
• No haggle prices
• How dealers make you pay

"No haggle" prices

One-price, no-haggle, no-hassle, upfront pricing, and value pricing are all different names for the same practice: selling a vehicle at a nonnegotiable price. It’s marketed as a way to take the stress of haggling out of the buying process. No-haggle outlets often discount their prices below the MSRP, but you can often get an even lower one by negotiating.

GM’s Saturn division and Toyota’s Scion brand use no-haggle pricing exclusively in their dealerships. But some individual dealerships and outlets associated with other brands also use this approach.

At the CarsDirect web site you can choose a single, no-haggle price for the vehicle you want or get price quotes from contracted dealerships, just as you can at other Web sites.

Other options are places like Sam’s Club, Costco, or BJ’s Wholesale Club, where you can get a set price that’s been prenegotiated with local dealerships. Once you make the purchase, you then go to the appropriate dealership to get the car.

Not having to negotiate a vehicle’s price may seem to make things simpler, but you still shouldn’t go to a dealership unprepared. There are other variables that can cost you extra money. If you don’t get the full value of your trade-in, for example, it could substantially alter the effectiveness of your deal. In addition, you can still be pressured to buy options and/or unnecessary extras that will inflate the overall price.

Even if you intend to negotiate the price, you can use no-haggle outlets just as you do comparative price quotes. If you know that a dealership is willing to sell a vehicle at a set price, then you know that no matter which dealership you talk with, you don’t need to pay more than that price.