Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

ast Updated: 1/16/2014 06:52 PST Share on emailShare on facebookShare on twitterShare on myspaceMore Sharing Services How to Get The Best Price on a New Car How to Get The Best Price on a New Car Buying a new car can be both exciting and nerve-racking. After all, beside our home, it’s the usually the biggest expense we have. But, the process of negotiating with a car salesman at the dealership can also be a highly aggravating and depressing experience. That’s because we never truly know if we are paying a good price or not. In fact, the entire process often seems designed to confuse, frustrate, and wear out the buyer – until eventually, we just give in. This leaves us second-guessing ourselves whether we could have bought the car for less. Worst of all, it mars the excitement of buying a new car. In any case, nobody wants to wonder if they paid a lot more than the last guy, just because they didn’t bargain hard enough. Now, however, an innovative free online service is literally changing the way people negotiate for new cars. It’s called TrueCar, and we think it’s a real breakthrough in the car-buying experience. The concept behind TrueCar is remarkably simple. They research and publish on their website the actual prices that people have paid recently for specific cars in local areas. You just enter the make, model, location, and options you want, and TrueCar will instantly show you exactly what prices people paid for that car in your chosen area. Their information is gathered through a huge variety of sources, and they have price data on most every make and model. What’s most impressive is the concise, easily comprehensive way the website presents the pricing data. After you enter the vehicle you are interested in, TrueCar generates a really cool graph that incorporates a huge amount of information in a snapshot visual; including the vehicle’s dealer cost, factory invoice, sticker price, and most importantly, the average price paid by buyers. You can look at this pricing on a national, regional, or local basis, and also see things like how the average price is trending (up or down), and the number of vehicles sold during the period. Armed with this information, the consumer is in a much stronger position to determine if the final price they are being offered is fair—or, if they are going to overpay. Another advantage of TrueCar is that it’s plugged in to a network of over 5,000 TrueCar Certified Dealers across the country. These dealers have all committed to post their best, no-haggle price on TrueCar so you can instantly compare it to the average in the area. If you choose to contact any of these dealers, they guarantee to honor the price they quote on the TrueCar website. TrueCar is completely free to use and you don’t have to create an account or provide any personal information to use the site. To check out this extremely useful site and see what your next car should cost you, click here. Learn More