Buying a car

I just sold my car after owning for 10 years.

Depending on your needs for a car, and depending on your proximity to a "car sharing" garage (zipcar, hertz-on-demand, mint) and the frequency of renting (sharing) you may be better off not owning.

Not to take your very important question OT, but car own vs. rent is related to real estate own vs. rent -- factor in depreciation and transaction costs to sell vs. just paying zipcar

The people who are more likely to see that renting an apartment is the better option will probably agree that renting a car as needed makes LOTS of sense...

For me, the answer was simple, since my new building has a hertz-on-demand in the garage (direct elevator access). I also have a zip membership.

NOT paying for car insurance and garage and fuel and never having to deal with parking at home...I did the math and I am going to be WAY ahead by not carrying the car. Factor in your time for maintenance. Factor in your time taking care of car related things...

UNLESS you rent for days at a time (and then this is still better for many people) it's worth doing the math and really analyze if owning is really better for YOU.

There's no benefit to buying in NY vs outside Ny. The dealer must take you in and best deals change minute to minute. Just make sure it's worth your time in aggravation, in case there's something wrong that requires the action of the original dealer. Literally , when I bought, I took the list price knocked off what I believed was a no brainer and dealt with a Manhattan dealer.

My savings were primarily composed of not taking options I did not need. Over the long run you waste far more money on changing models too frequently and buying options you you you don't need.

In most cases, there is no price difference among dealers, and all of the dealers are falling over themselves to service your car, since that is their primary source of income, whether paid by you or the factory. Tax is paid upon registering, so that is irrelevant. Shop around, by internet or otherwise, and bring the best price you can find to the local dealer and tell them to meet it. Bear in mind car sales folk are just another crooked broker. A few years ago after much back and forth price negotiation with a nameless dealer on 11th Avenue, I went on their website and pressed the "get the Internet price" button for the vehicle I wanted, and I was instantly sent an automated email with a price $800 less than the salesperson said was the absolute bottom line. The best part: the auto-email came from the same salesperson.

I love my R8. Some douche paid $149k in 2009. I bought it for $90k. Buy since I am up $90k on my sprint trade. The R8 is free.

Moving heaven and earth to save $5k on a car riverturd. But can't conceive of the idea of 'what if I sold my coop in 2007?' and rented....

Driving to jersey to save on clothes sales tax but not counting the toll, traffic and gas.

>but not counting the toll, traffic and gas.

Yeah, the $12 (for those who don't want to be tracked by the government), the $7.00 for gas (bought in NJ no less), and all that traffic to Secaucus or Paramus.

Prices vary hugely from dealer to dealer-manhattan dealers are always useless-just bought a new car using truecar.com--have bought several over last few years for kids, after divorce, etc

never pay more than sticker minus 10%--seek to pay sticker minus 15%

figure out what the exact car is that you want, incl all options, packages etc--know the sticker price for that car--have one or prioritized color preferences--call around to dealers within a reasonable distance and give specifics of what car and price you want, if they cant do your price get their best, in case it's close so you can call back--go to the best deal--never go to dealer to get paperwork--insist they fax you a deal sheet and take a deposit off your credit card--this prevents bait and switch--do not finance or lease--riddled with cheese games--tell them to fax deal sheet, you will look it over and call back with cc#, and then come with cashier's chk for balance due--all else equal buy from a nys dealer, so you dont need to get an inspection sticker

buy where the specific car you want is cheapest--whether using truecar.com or calling
always insist on a deal sheet over the phone, with aclean pickup with cashier's check
some cars are hot in a given year and underproduced--avoid otr wait til next year--they usually overproduce in the next year--cut deals right before month-end and esp quarter-end where a dealer may be close to an incentive threshold, and very motivated to add to their gross sales

the only reason to visit the dealer is to sort out what car you want so you know specific when dealing on phone--and of course to pickup your new car with cashier's check in hand

Thanks - appreciate all the feedback!