meyer@waltz.UUCP (02/18/85)
I have just discovered a most wonderful and inexpensive way to purchase
any American car for cheaper than you will ever be able to get one from
a dealer. Its called Automobile Brokers! Yep, just look in your yellow
pages -- there are a whole list of them.
I called one up just to see how it worked -- they apparently work out
arrangements with local dealers to get cars at fleet rates. This guy
had representatives for all American cars -- there may be those that
handle foreign autos. I told him what I wanted as he went down the list of
possible options. You probably should do your homework on getting familiar
with what you can/cannot get before hand. He totalled it all up and gave
me a price about $1100 off of list, which was better than any deal I
could strike myself. If I were to opt for it, he places the order in
my name with that dealer -- warranty and service are handled by that
dealership. Ofcourse, you can go to any dealer to get service and
warrenty work done on a new vehicle.
I have heard stories that a broker bought a guy a plane ticket to
fly to Houston (from Dallas) to pick up a car for less than the
dealer invoice! In any case, this is something to look into for
all you folks that are shopping for new cars. If you try this out
and have exceptionally good or bad luck, please post on the net so
we all can hear about it. I can't believe that I had never heard
about this before now!
==============================================================================
Dane Meyer (Texas Instruments, Dallas site)
ARPA: ==> Meyer%waltz%TI-CSL@CSNET-Relay
CSNET: ==> Meyer@TI-CSL
USENET: ==> {convex!smu, ut-sally, texsun, rice}!waltz!meyer sdo@u1100a.UUCP (Scott Orshan) (02/21/85)
I bought two cars through an auto broker. The last one was four
years ago, so I can't say whether the procedures are the same.
The broker can get a car for $100 above the factory invoice price.
I believe that the $100 goes to the dealer that handles the
delivery.
What the referenced article didn't mention is what the broker charges.
My broker gave two options. The first was to shop around for the
car and then come to him. Assuming he could beat the price,
you pay 30% of the difference. The other option was a flat fee
which saved the trouble of shopping around. (The flat fee was also
the maximum charge for the first option.)
The main advantage that I saw was that I didn't have to talk
to a salesperson to buy the car. Certainly one should shop around
and test drive cars and see what the options look like, but
the broker can look up all the options and tell you what they
really cost the dealer.
The first car I bought was American, so I got to choose an
exact configuration and the broker ordered it from the factory.
The second car was Japanese, so I just specified the color
and he found one at a dealer. Japanese cars typically come
with standard equipment that would be optional on American cars.
--
Scott Orshan
Bell Labs Piscataway
201-981-3064
{pyuxi,houxm,ihnp4}!u1100a!sdo