Many used car dealers are honest and reputable business people.  However, some are simply manipulative liars.  Consequently, there are few considerations when buying a used car as important as the credibility and reputation of the dealer.

Carsala’s technology accesses millions of listings on a daily basis and our professional negotiators have negotiated hundreds of deals.   We’ve worked with some great dealers, while others have earned well-deserved spots on the Carsala blacklist.  Here are a few stories:

The “Clean” Clunker

You Never Want to See This!

Even if a dealer describes a car as “clean” and the price is right (or lower than “right”), be careful!  Carsala had looked at over 200 cars for a very kind woman in her late 40s.  In order to get her the best price possible, we called close to 20 dealers to negotiate the price.  We always ask the dealer about the condition of the car, look at the car’s vehicle history report, and then arrange a mechanic inspection (if instructed by our client).  In this case, the dealer conveniently omitted any indication that the car he was trying to unload for close to Kelley Blue Book retail value was a total clunker: salvage title, odometer rollback, etc.  Though vehicle history checks aren’t 100% foolproof, they are generally a good indicator of car quality.

On another occasion, a dealer offered Carsala a sweetheart deal (so it seemed).  The problem was he only provided a 16 digit VIN in the listing.  That just might be a red flag (read: sarcasm) given that VINs are 17 digits.  Sure enough, the car had been wrecked.  Minor oversight?  Could be.  You be the judge.

The Botox Beater

1 Owner Looks Good; but Look Deeper

There’s no fountain of youth for used cars, despite what the odometer may say.  We were looking for a Hyundai Sonata for a local school teacher.  One deal stood out – it exactly met the client’s requirements, was a great price, and even had a clean CARFAX report (with 1 owner).  Luckily, Carsala’s technology raised a flag that the CARFAX mileage was notably different than the mileage in the listing itself – 30,000 miles.  Not only was this suspect because of the large difference, but also because the listed mileage was such a round number.  Our professional negotiator asked the dealer for written evidence that the car had 30,000 miles and had not been subject to a rollback.  The dealer subsequently acknowledged that the odometer had a “discrepancy” he couldn’t explain.

The Sleezy Saleman
We were negotiating a deal for a graduate student who was willing drive a long distance “if the deal was right.” So we put Carsala’s technology to work, found a number of good opportunities, and our professional negotiators hit the phones.  The #1 deal was just a steal – perfect car, clean CARFAX, etc.  But something didn’t sit right with the negotiator.  Normally, we get the deal in writing from the dealer after the customer selects a car.  In this case, because of the negotiator’s intuition, we opted to request confirmation in writing before presenting it the customer.  When the negotiator called the dealer back, he was informed that the salesman he’d been communicating with had been fired earlier in the day and there was no way they could honor such a low price from a clearly disgruntled former employee.  Virtually anyone without such extensive experience in the auto space may very well have driven 300 miles to buy a car for an imaginary discount.

Carsala can help you lay all these concerns to rest.  Our technology is world-class; our negotiators are even better.  Or if you are a true do-it-yourselfer and don’t want to turn over the whole process to Carsala, stay tuned for product announcements!

What should I do about corrosion on a car battery?

Don’t eat it.

Seriously, though. Despite the fact that it looks vaguely like powdered sugar, the white fluffy stuff that you see attached to the terminals of your cars battery should not be used to sweeten your coffee, or used as a topping for your favorite pastry. First off it tastes terrible, it isn’t sweet like anti-freeze is. Second it is extremely toxic and can cause chemical burns because it is basically concentrated sulfuric acid with lead residues in it.

The technical stuff: The reason why you have powdered acid on your posts is because as the alternator of your car charges the battery the water/acid catalyst inside of the battery can become very hot. The water will evaporate and the acid will become a vapor which, due to the polarity of the battery terminals, will stick to the battery posts and other parts of your engine compartment. Over time the corrosion and powdery build up caused by this will disrupt the connection between the battery and the terminals preventing you from starting your car.

There is a really easy way of taking care of it though. You will need the following:

-1 pair latex or nitrile gloves..

-1 wrench to remove battery terminals..

-2 battery post corrosion preventative felts, preferably saturated with NCP-2 preventative compound (Noco part# D313). .

-1 can battery acid detector/ corrosion removal spray (Noco part# E404). or 1 box baking soda and a cup.

-1 wire brush

-1 pair safety glasses or goggles

-A water supply.

1. First, ensure the engine on your car is off and cool.

2. Open and secure the hood.

3. Locate the battery.

4. Put on gloves

5. Remove anything that prevents access to the battery posts. (battery covers, heat shields etc)

6. Using the appropriate wrench, remove the negative battery terminal.

7. Using the appropriate wrench, remove the positive battery terminal

8. Put on safety glasses

9. Using Acid detector/ corrosion removal spray or a thin paste of baking soda and water, apply liberally to all white powdery residue areas.

10. Using wire brush, brush battery posts where the terminals connect.

11. Using a modest stream of water, rinse off battery.

12. Put one battery felt on each post

13. Attach positive battery terminal to positive post. Tighten until terminal cannot be wiggled

14. Attach negative battery terminal to negative post. Tighten until terminal cannot be wiggled

15. Rinse off battery cover, heat shield, etc

16. Re-install battery cover, heat shield etc

17. Clean up your mess

18. Remove gloves and safety glasses.

19. Close hood.

20. Crack open a cold one, you’re done!

Oh, and by the way, the spray and/or baking soda neutralizes the acid so don’t feel bad about washing the battery off.

p.s. Anti-freeze does taste sweet, but it is deadly. Do not drink or taste it. So just take my word for it.

Ah, the age old problem: You are looking for a car, but you want it to look good with the minimal amount of effort. I have seen and experienced black car ownership and it can reduce a normal person to a neurotic mess. There are actually 2 ways to go about maintaining the look of your car, and when you use them together you can be assured that your vehicle with always look it’s best.

1. Color. White is hands down the cleanest color choice. There is a reason why a vast majority of the fleet vehicles in service today are white: It is low maintenance. A white car hides dirt, grime, water spots and the like better than any other color with the exception of camouflage. 
Typically the darker the hue of paint, the harder it is to keep clean. The scale rises exponentially between gray and black simply because black acts very much like a mirror. It reflects and magnifies everything including smudges, over spray, fingerprints etc. 
If you are set on a gray color (including the popular silver paints), try to find a lighter gray as it will be less maintenance than a dark gray. Nonmetallic cars are easier to keep clean, especially in dusty conditions as they do not sparkle. A metallic car must be kept very clean to get full benefit from the metal flakes in the paint.

2. Upkeep. Every six months have the exterior of your car detailed. You will be surprised at how much less effort you will have to put into your car’s appearance when you have a pro apply a high quality wax and buff it to a shine. Even if it rains it is not uncommon to not have any water spots on a black car provided it was properly cleaned, waxed and polished prior to the rains. Detailing is expensive but worth the expense if you can afford it.

There are a few products available that will help you keep your car looking factory fresh. 3M makes a clear adhesive coating that is applied over clean paint to guard against rock chips and the like. It must be applied by a professional but it is a lot cheaper to replace than getting the car repainted. American Racing offers wheels that have Teflon baked onto the surface of them which almost eliminates brake dust (which is why the front wheels on some cars are much darker than the rear). Meguiars makes a clear plastic polish that helps take small scratches and light oxidation out of clear plastic (i.e. headlamp lenses)

Naturally, all of these products and services cost money and/or time so it is up to you to decide how clean you want your car to be, once you decide on a color, that is.

I would really like to buy a car now but I don’t have any credit yet even though I have a job. At least I don’t have bad credit but what should I do? My current car is a real clunker and I am 25 and want a nice car!

The first step is to start shopping around banks, credit unions and even insurance companies like State Farm who can offer financing. Get a good idea of what their rates would be with your credit currently undeveloped. Interest rates can legally be as high as 29.9% but you shouldn’t accept anything more than 8% with rates as low as they are right now or you will be a slave to the lender.

The second step is to ask yourself, “What does a NICE car really mean” to you? For some, nothing less than a Mercedes will do but something less glamorous and more practical like a basic Honda or a Ford may be a better choice. Keep an open mind! Manufacturers are getting better at basic comforts in cars so some brands may surprise you! Cars are ultimately tools so don’t buy so much that you don’t get the value out of your hard earned money!

Consider keeping the clunker for a while and starting a program to improve your credit:

1. Take out a credit card or two that you pay off in FULL every month.

2. Ask your parents to add you as aresponsible party to a credit card of theirs (but do not use it yourself- just gain the revolving credit history but only do this if your parents are actually paying on their cards).

3. Make sure that you have no outstanding debts to any bills like utilities from past rentals, medical bills, etc and if you have those- pay them off and ask the collection agency to take them off your credit. (if they say they will then they have 5 business days to notify you that they have done so).

4. Don’t repeatedly apply for credit. You can pull your own credit report but applying for multiple cards outside of a week or so can knock points off your score.

After even 6 months you will start to gain a solid credit history that lenders will like.

Patience is indeed a virtue and jumping ahead will bite you where it hurts so take the correct steps to do this the right way.

Good luck!
MMM

I just bought my first new car (my dream car!) from a dealer and there are some things that I guess I just didn’t ask in advance. I was wondering what the difference between sticker price and final out of pocket cost is? How do you estimate how much you will really pay? Now I am wondering if I really got a good deal?

Susie G, Colorado Springs, CO

Welcome to the table post negotiation and signing on many, many dotted lines. Don’t beat yourself up! You may have still done yourself proud without even realizing it!

MSRP: Called the Monroney or window sticker is required by law and indicates the manufacturers suggested price including the base price with factory warranty, standard equipment, transportation costs, engine specifications, estimated fuel economy and can only be removed by the purchaser. Sometimes erroneously referred to as Mostly Suckers Really Pay, it is not always the case that you shouldn’t pay full sticker price. There are exceptions!

In the case of recent “hot” cars such as the first released new Camaro, demand will keep sticker price right on the money, if not above sticker. Cars are emotional purchases and demand from drivers needing to have the latest and greatest can temporarily maintain MSRP as the going rate for many months. Waiting until a car isn’t as “hot” can save quite a chunk of change. A new, not “hot” car can generally be had for 7-22% below MSRP.

When financing, it is important that you never negotiate according to what you would like your monthly payments to be. In fact, don’t even mention that you will be financing until you negotiate to a price that you feel comfortable with based on research done prior to walking onto a car lot.

Your final out of pocket pain will be the final price plus sales tax, title transfer fees and the interest on your loan spread over the number of months that you chose. All of them are unavoidable and part of the process.

Don’t stress! Enjoy your new ride and keep in mind that research is always key!

Confidently,

M

A study done in the UK by MoneyExpert.com showed that almost 25% of parents have had to help their adult children with their car debt when they have become delinquent in their payments. The expensive reality of raising a child has now extended beyond childhood, into adulthood and threatens parents who are now in their 60’s to compromise their hard earned savings and ability to maintain their retirement and health care needs. The real irony is that adult children today are beginning to literally spend their own inheritance at the cost of compromising their very alive parents.

Of course all of this starts with the devastating news coming from the financial and mortgage industry of people over-borrowing for their homes or getting into loans for which they were not qualified in a lenient lending market. This crisis is not limited to the housing market: it also quickly became a problem with the way that we buy our cars.

In an article in the LA Times just 2 years ago, at a time when the economy was not yet as mired in foreclosures and repossessions as it has been in 2009, it was ominously pointed out that the amount of people who couldn’t make their car payments for 60 days was up by 20%. Additionally, the average car loans are being paid off over a much longer time period than in the 1980s and 90s. 45% of all car loans are for 6 years or longer. It is common that these longer loans are, in reality, for more than one car because many buyers drive cars for 4 years or less and then trade in that car, debt and all, for newer and more expensive cars. The debt owed on the old loan is rolled into the new loan and the cycle begins to spiral from there with some consumers these days paying for 3 loans or more in a single car loans and owing, in some cases, $30,000 in debt on a single car worth far less. This is especially true with car owners who were forced in the last months of recession to downgrade to a less expensive and more fuel efficient model while trying to lose a large monthly payment.

These statistics may begin to uncover a inevitable time bomb for the spoiled babies of the Baby Boomers but a similarly frightening reality is beginning to reveal how this affects the parents that raised these consumers who over expected so much for themselves!

So what is the solution for protecting our Gen X  dollars and, as importantly, our parent’s money? We should take a ticket from their book: our parents drove their cars for much longer after they were paid off and took on much shorter loans. It is may be common today to get financing on a car for 6-8 years but our parents usually had 3-4 year loans thus reducing the amount that they were paying in heavy interest. Additionally, new cars are still very expensive these days so foregoing a need to have a brand-spanking new car and instead negotiating a car that is 2 years old at least (so has lost the majority of it’s depreciation) is realistic for long term goals and financial stability.

Buying smart not only protects your hard earned money but the savings of your parents.

My battery on my car died and now my radio will not work. I have been driving around without any music for days now and it is driving me batty! The screen is flashing a bunch of dashes and I know that I am supposed to have a code somewhere but can’t seem to find it anywhere. Should I just buy a new one?

Julieta I., Seattle, WA

Dear Soundless in Seattle,

It must be so difficult having to endure all of that silence! When your battery went dead, your car’s stereo was unable to get any power so it enabled it’s own anti-theft mode. Pretty clever, huh?

Well, it is only clever if you can find the security code which should be printed on the stereo manual in your glove box. It will be a 3-5 digit code and you will need to either enter it by pushing the pre-tune buttons or scrolling with the tuner knob or toggle. If you do not get it entered correctly within the first couple of tries, the stereo may lock you out for 30 minutes to an hour until you can try again. In some brands of stereos you may have to leave the car running and the stereo on for the entire period that you are locked out before your next attempt.

If you cannot find your original code you could just head to the nearest dealership (provided that it is the stereo that was installed by the car manufacturer) and ask if they can print the number out for you to do it yourself. Some dealers may want to see your registration and ID so be prepared to show them. If they insist that they need to have a technician fix it the cost will be around $40.

If it is not a factory stereo then a qualified sound shop might be able to help you with a little persuasion.

Once you have the code make sure that you stow a copy in the glove box so that if it should happen again, you will not have to listen to yourself hum!

Audibly,

M

With the world at our fingertips now courtesy of the internet it really is quite easy to educate yourself about just about anything. But, just as reading every opinion on real estate can make you quite educated about neighborhoods’ square footage and school districts, signing a deal on the perfect house at the right price is not so easy. In fact, it can be extremely intimidating whether you have done it before or not.

In the online world of cars it is easy to trip over experts on everything from tuning to collecting, from buying to selling and from torque to trunk space but what seems to bind them all together besides their love of things with wheels and engines is an unabashed insistence that they can bring a salesman to his knees, begging for mercy when negotiating for cars. What all of these people often forget, myself included, is that buying a car is a very personal process and asking for help getting the best price on a car is not so simple. Sometimes folks like to pick their own car and figure out how to deal with negotiations on their own.

A recent third party study for Carsala has revealed that in reality, car geeks aside, 73% of used car buyers dislike the negotiating process and a majority of them rate themselves as being poor negotiators. What is shocking is that almost 20% indicated that they had not attempted to negotiate the price of the car that they most recently purchased.

That last sentence just makes me shudder but friends and family are constantly buying cars around me and never ask for my help despite knowing what I do in the car world. At first I would take it personally but then I realized that they were taking their investment in a car personally and wanted to do it themselves. I can tell someone over dinner or the phone which car I think they want because maybe they really do like the Malibu or an X5 and I would try to get them to consider something else comparable or better. They might listen. But what about when they really want help with the act of buying the car and the dreaded negotiation game at the dealership? Unless I have a good several months to help them search the car lots and an entire day to spend at the dealership while the sales guys play their game, I have my own house to clean and job to do so they don’t want to bother me. Fair enough!

Now if only real estate agents representing you actually were like Carsala, we would be moving in the right direction!

How do you feel about the car buying process?

VIN Locations on a Car via checkmyvin.com

My mother emailed me and told me that I need to cover the VIN number in my car window because if I don’t, thieves will steal my car! How can they steal my car just by being able to see the little tag that every car has inside?  -

Laura C., Bakersfield, CA
Dear Bewildered in Bakersfield,

Don’t you just love those Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: emails that our mothers all seem to think we just have to have? As with any of these, approaching it with a bit of skepticism is always a good first move.

The 17 digit VIN could, in theory, be used by a thief if they copied the VIN, created fake registration and identification for themselves, went into a dealership and had them create a new key. That is not as simple as it sounds! There have only been a few cases of this ever happening and they were stealing the VINs from used car lots where the cars would be sitting still for some time.

Covering you VIN may not only be a futile exercise but also illegal. Several states have laws regarding the VIN being visible at all times and never obscured. Also, that little plate is not the only place where you can find your VIN. Manufacturers now put it many places including on the engine and inside door panel to dissuade thieves from being able to hide the identity of stolen cars.

My suggestion is that you ask your mother to stop forwarding you these urban legends and feel confident that your car will not end up in a chop house.

There was a study that I came across recently that was done on consumer behavior and how touching an item physically dramatically increases their chance of buying that item regardless of price. Now you know why dealers want to get you on the car lot!

There are a bazillion tools for doing online research when you want to buy a used car. Professional reviews, consumer ratings, industry value reports and referrals to car lots that might have a car that you are considering are all pretty easy to come across while surfing the web. As much as you like to think that you are prepared when you arrive on a lot there is always that moment when you see a car that you weren’t considering; it could be a newer model, have less miles, be a different trim or be completely different than anything you had every considered and now you are second guessing yourself and all of that armor of research you did.

Carsala now has a free tool that you can use on your iPhone while you are standing in front of the car that is making your mind race and help you answer some questions quickly. By going to http://www.carsala.com/pricecheck/ on you iPhone you simply enter the 17 digit VIN number found on the driver’s side of the dashboard, your ZIP code and the sticker price.

What next?

• Carsala will tell you if this car’s make/model/trim/mileage is common in dealership inventories
• The dealer’s asking is price is rated out of 4 possible stars & if the price can be had better elsewhere or be negotiated better by Carsala, it will tell you
• Carsla’s Self Service or Full Service tools for finding and negotiating similar cars of the same year, make, model, and color (if selected), with equal or fewer miles, and the same number of doors within 200 miles of your ZIP are offered as a next step.

Just to show you in more detail how the site will work, I put a VIN for a 2005 Honda Civic in my area in the Price Checker and when I followed the link to the self service tools, the Carfigurator showed me that there were 639 cars in my area that matched that search. Maybe the one in front of me isn’t such a good deal at $13,995.00 because it indicates that 3 Killer Deals can be provided to me to go see for $9.99 on my own.

What if you had just gone with that car in front of you? Now you know that armed with an iPhone, BlackBerry, Google Android or any other phone that has browser capabilities, you can know for sure that you have choices and are paying the best possible price for a car in your area.