Before I bought the Prius I test drove a Scion xB. Scion uses no-haggle pricing. I got quotes for a bare-bones no add-ons vehicles at a few dealers. The were all consistent at around $19,200. Give or take a $100 dollars because I lost my note sheet.

However, the internet guy at Sunnyvale Toyota asked me if I had a color preference. I said “anything but white.” To counter my hatred of white cars, he offered to sell me a white Scion xB for $300 off because he was overstocked on white Scion xB’s. That would have been ~$18,900.

Therefore, if you aren’t picky about color and you think a dealership may have too many of an unpopular colored car (white), you may be able to get a discount.

When I bought my Prius the finance guy offered me a pre-paid maintenance plan for $1,275 and the Toyota Platinum Extra Care plan for $1,375.

After briefly perusing the web I found that the Prius Chat forums offer a Discounted Toyota Extended Warranty plan through Warranty Shack. Don’t be fooled by the website’s shoddy looks. It is actually a side website offered by Troy Dietrich from Toyota of Greenfield, Massachusetts. It is the exact same plan as sold by my dealer, but for substantially less at $990. Many people in the priuschat forums and Yahoo! Prius owners group vouch for this discount so I figured I’ll give it a try to save myself some cash for the warranty and service work. I also called the dealership to confirm that Mr. Dietrich is in fact a real person (he is). I sent my check. Now we wait to see if I get ripped off.

Being a car buying novice I hear all this talk about holdbacks, invoice, rebates, chargebacks, and a jillion other supposed ways to get a good price on a car. Truly, I don’t know if any of that shit works so I just walked into a dealership just to see how much cars cost. Now I realize that is a mistake. Edmunds has a Prices Paid – Buying & Leasing forum where scores of car buyers share their actual out-the-door (or OTD) prices paid. With this kind of information, how can I lose or overpay? I should have looked at the Honda Fit forum before my trip to the dealership.

This afternoon I spent about 90 minutes at my local Honda dealer — Serramonte Honda in Colma, California scoping out the 2008 Honda Fit. I took a solid test drive including a near accident turning left out of the parking lot. We went around the block and up some hills. I am mildly disappointed in the Fit’s lack of uphill power. However, the price is right and I like the interior space. Knowing all this I go into the dealership thinking I will probably buy this vehicle if not today, this month.

Inside the dealership I realized I hadn’t done enough homework to know how much I should pay. The dealer’s initial proposal was $17,700 out-the-door for base Honda Fit with some of the necessary add-ons like power windows, cruise control, AC, etc. I knew the MSRP sticker of $16,100 I thought car prices are supposed to sell for BELOW the sticker! Am I right? I said $14,500. The manager came over to show me what the dealer paid in invoice of about $14,800 — which matches the Edmunds invoice price — and that they would need to sell for $16,885 just to make out OK on the sale of the car. I said no way, knowing that I was sitting there unprepared on price information.

The Edmunds forum would have confirmed me that a regular Honda Fit can be had for less than $16,885. No remorse for passing on the dealer’s offer.

This is a useful rundown of the types of problems that people have been having with their Mountaineers. Mind you, only the people with bad experiences are posting here but my Mountaineer is starting to have very similar symptoms that match those found in the forums at this link.

I may be looking at about $3,000 to plop in a new transmission. Ohhhhh shit.

2002 Mercury Mountaineer Forum

http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/2002-to-2005-mercury-mountaineer-6.htm