Hi everyone!

I've recently decided to buy a Caliber. It's going to be my first new car and I'm very excited (I'm trading in my Honda Passport for an SXT). I did all my budget work and figured out how I'm going to pay for it when I realized that I forgot to add taxes and dealer fees and what not. Taxes were easy to figure out but can anyone tell me what I can expect for dealers fees? I've never bought a car on my own before so I have no experience with this. Thanks!

 

The only fee's are Taxes and Registration. The dealer's fees are on the sticker price. A word of advise on buying a new car. Go online thru MSN or Edmonds and build your car then have it e-mail to local dealer in the area, the dealer will e-mail you there price. You will deal with the fleet manager and will pay just a few hundred over dealer cost. It saved me over 4 grand on my Dakota that way.

 

You'd really have to negotiate that with the dealer. If you complain enough, they may waive the dealer fees as far as advertising fees and things like that. Remember that the dealer is a business as well, so they're there to make money. Where my dad, brother and I get our cars, if you don't have a trade in, you can get a new car for $500 over invoice (they're cost, not MSRP). Trade-in's are obviously a little different, but still a great deal. I don't know if they do that for everyone, but they do for us. But anyways, like I said, this is something you will have to negotiate with the dealer.

 

Ahh thanks. I used autobytel to contact the local Dodge dealers so I should be hearing from them soon I hope. Any advice for my first car negotiation?

 

Here is what I would do first BEFORE you go to any dealer. First, do your homework! I would go to www.kbb.com and spec out the Caliber you want. This will tell you what the dealer is making off the car. For example, the one I spec'd out on KBB is a Caliber SXT Sport with the options I want, which comes to an MSRP price of $19,860.00, with an Invoice price of $18,571.00. The Invoice price is how much it costs the dealer for the car. The MSRP is the price Dodge suggests the dealer sells the car for. So if you take the MSRP and subtract it from the Invoice, thats approx amount the dealer is making off the car which comes for the options I want comes out to, $1,289. So the dealer is making nearly $1300 if they want to sell it for the MSRP price. For the options you want, the dealer profit may differ. Now that you know that, you can use this against them to negotiate a price. This will also give you the Chrysler codes for the different options (ie. Quickorder Package 24e (SXT Sport), ATJ=MusicGate Sound System, AJV=Convenience Group, etc.) which may be handy and also show that you know exactly what you want and that you've done your homework. If you can show this, most dealers will reward you with a good deal. Also, have an idea of how much you want to pay per month as a monthly car payment and consider any down payments you may want to put down as well, along with any trade ins. Note that if you have a trade-in, you most likely won't get as good of a deal than if you just walked in with no trade.

BTW, to get to the Caliber in KBB do the following:

1. go to www.kbb.com

2. under the new car section, click on Wagon

3. Click on the Dodge Link

4. Click on the Caliber Link

5. Click on the 2007 Link

6. On the Caliber page, you'll see someplace where it will say, "Price with options", click on that link.

7. Select the Model you wish to have (SE, SXT, or R/T).

8. Then select the options you want. Notice on the bottom of the screen while selecting the options the MSRP and Invoice pricing and how it changes.

Hope this helps!

 

I just got a reply from my local Dodge dealer, they said that they'd give me an "internet special" $100 over invoice, so $18,300. On KBB I got the invoice (without the soundgate system, it's not there for some reason, anyone know the invoice of it?) of $17835. So that sounds reasonable for me. A question about my trade in too, I own my trade in outright does that make a difference since they won't have to pay it off?

Thanks again for the help!

 

The Musicgate Sound System is there. Its just not called that. Its called Premium Sound or something like that. Look for the Chrysler code of ATJ and thats the MusicGate Sound System WITHOUT the Leather Seats. I think the Invoice price is something like $469 or there abouts.

 

Thanks, I just did it again and realized that I was looking at the wrong figure for the invoice. With all the options I want the invoice is only $17,654 not the $18,200 the dealer said it was. Just so I can double check that figure before I send out another email to the dealer is there another site that will give me the invoice figures?

 

Tell them you want a copy of the invoice before you sign out. Make sure you get to see the original first. The paper should be clean and free of any copier black spots.

 

Some dealers (not all) will give you a quote based off the Invoice, not the MSRP. Like I said, not all dealers do this. KBB is the most respected placed out there for vehicles and is what all dealers based things from. These are the exact prices the dealer pays, so its pretty much 100% accurate.