Car Negotiation Coach

Most people automatically assume that if a driver collides with a parked car, it is always the moving vehicle’s driver who is at fault. It’s true that the drivers of moving vehicles are usually responsible for avoiding parked cars, no matter how illegally or annoyingly they are parked. There are exceptions to the parked car rule, however.

States, cities and counties all have different traffic laws, so it’s hard to cite a blanket rule on accidents involving parked cars. However, a vehicle owner is certainly not allowed to turn a parked car into a safety hazard. Keep the following information in mind if you ever have an accident with a parked vehicle. You’ll want to know what to tell your insurance company and the lender of your car loans.

Parking Just Beyond a Curve

Let’s say, for example, that a young driver pulls off the road to text someone. He parks just beyond a curve in the road and the shoulder is narrow enough that the rear end of his car is sticking out in traffic. A driver coming around the curve would have no warning and no time to stop. The driver of the moving vehicle can either veer into oncoming traffic or rear end the parked car. In this case, the young driver turned his parked car into a safety hazard and should assume, at least some, responsibility for the collision. [CONTINUE READING]

Cars and snow are not a good mix together.  And with the bad weather plaguing the nation this year, you may find your car stuck in the snow this winter.  Besides making sure you have the best vehicle insurance available, you should remember these steps to get your car out of the snow and back on the road.

Getting Your Car Out of the Snow

If you do find your car trapped in the snow, make sure that you stay warm and follow these steps.

1. Check your tailpipe before you start your engine.  If there is snow covering it, you need to clear it first.  This is to prevent the exhaust gases from backing up into your car.
2. Dig away the snow and ice.  This sounds like common sense, but you may have to improvise if you don’t have a shovel.  Make sure you look first at snow and ice around the tires.  If you don’t have a shovel, then a screwdriver, pen, or an ice scraper can help with the worst build-up by the tires.  Finally, remove any snow in the direction your car is trying to move.
3. To get into your car, make sure your locks aren’t frozen.  A trick I’ve used is to run an extension cord and plugin a hairdryer to unfreeze your locks to allow you to get into your car.
4. Once you’ve cleared the car, you will need to make sure you have enough traction to get your car out.  You can try to turn the wheels to break up any last pieces of ice, and you can pump your brakes if you feel that one wheel is turning faster than the others.
5. If you are still having problems gaining traction, you can take out your floor-mats and put them in front of your tires.  While not ideal, if you’re in a pinch this could help get you going.
6. Make sure that until you get onto a plowed road, you use your low gears.  This will make sure that your wheels have more torque and spin slower. [CONTINUE READING]

Where should you research and compare cars when you are getting ready to buy?  Edmunds is one of my favorite websites because they have so many different tools for car buyers.  And since I recently did a TrueCar review, today I thought I would do a review of Edmunds.

But in the spirit of being impartial, while I explain the cooler features of Edmunds I’ll also list out a few areas that need a little work.

Edmunds Review

Edmunds has four very interesting services within their website that I’m going to review.  There’s a Compare Cars tool, New Car Price Quotes, Edmunds True Market Value®, and Edmunds True Cost to Own®.  Each of these components are very helpful to car buyers but there’s still room for a little improvement.

Let’s take a look under the hood and maybe someone from Edmunds will read my tips for improvement and make the site even better .

Edmunds Compare Cars Tool

What is it?

A side by side comparison of different cars.  Choose vehicles and see how they compare across a range of categories like price, safety features, available options, measurements, and  Edmunds True Cost to Own®.

What I like about Compare Cars

• It’s intuitive, well designed, and easy to compare the features of four cars at once.
• You can compare photos of specific car features on different models all at once.  For example, you can view interior photos side by side, engine photos, rear views, tires, etc.
• You can change the trim levels to compare different options packages for the same car side by side.
• If you don’t know where to start, the Car Finder feature allows you to start by entering a price range, features, and car type to narrow down the list of vehicles to compare.

What needs improvement

• You can only use the Compare Cars tool for new vehicles.  I’d like to be able to compare used vehicles and have the ability to look at the differences between model years for a single make/model.
• In addition to the Edmunds True Cost to Own® value that is shown (more on that below), I’d like to see an estimated residual value for each vehicle.  I’d also like to see the residual value expressed as a % of purchase price as well since car prices will differ in your comparison.
• I don’t like the “sponsored cars” mixed in with the results of the Car Finder feature.  You can ignore the sponsored cars, but they can be a little confusing.  For example, I narrowed my results to Acura’s and the sponsored cars still included a Chevy and a Nissan.

Edmunds New Car Price Quotes

What is It?

Edmunds sends your request for car prices to local dealerships who email you with free price quotes.

What I like about Edmunds New Car Price Quotes

• I love that you can contact up to 5 dealers at once.  This is the highest number I’ve found and most websites only offer 3 quotes.
• Most car dealerships are listed on Edmunds.  Dealerships have to sign-up and pay to use each different car price website.  As a result, other websites may provide slightly different results.  By looking on Edmunds you have the best bet of finding all your local car dealers.
• Before getting dealer prices you can see each dealer’s rating and comments from other car shoppers.   Edmunds also shows the distance to each dealer from your zip code and a handy map link.
• Before getting dealer prices you can also see Edmunds True Market Value® pricing (to see what others have paid for that car).  More details on TMV® below.
• In the Edmunds price quote screen, you can easily tab between car reviews and a variety of car photos from different angles.  This is much better than many other sites that only show one stock photo per car.
• You can check inventory to see what’s listed in stock at local dealers.  Just keep in mind this may not be updated by dealerships very frequently.

What needs improvement

• On top of requesting car prices via email, I’d like to see an instant quote that dealers must honor like the one provided by TrueCar.
• Phone number should not be a required a field when requesting car prices.  I understand why car dealers want contact information, but I prefer to keep all negotiations over email and I don’t want to receive calls.
• I’d like to see an online method of tracking the various price quotes you receive, but for now you can use this car comparison spreadsheet I’ve created.

Edmunds True Market Value® or TMV®

What is It?

Edmunds TMV® is the average price paid for a car based on local sales.  TMV tells you how far below MSRP® most people have been able to negotiate.

What I like about Edmunds TMV®

• I love that the True Market Value® number is shown at the time you request new car price quotes.  In the old version of the Edmunds website you had to hunt around for this number and it was not displayed where you need it most.
• TMV® Alerts show you predicted price trends for all models each month.  This is handy to help you figure out whether you should buy now or wait a month for prices to go down.
• The Edmunds TMV® number is automatically adjusted to include the options and colors you select as well current incentives.  If Edmunds didn’t do this, there would be no way to compare apples to apples.

What needs improvement

• Edmunds TMV® is very similar to a TrueCar Price Report, but  TrueCar does a little bit better job graphing prices and categorizing what should be considered a bad, good, or great deal.
• Edmunds TMV® reflects manufacturer incentives, but they are not broken out.  So if you want to know if there are current incentives and when they expire, you have to check a separate section of the Edmunds website.
• You can view price information based on your zip code, but you can’t compare that to national price information.
• Edmunds doesn’t show you exactly how many car sales are included in the TMV® number or the time frame of car sales that are used in calculations.

Edmunds TMV® gives you a good target price for your negotiations with car dealers.   However, since TMV® is that average price paid, it should be your minimum goal.  Read How to Buy a Car at the Best Possible Price to get below that target number.

Edmunds True Cost to Own® or TCO®

What is it?

Edmunds TCO® is a tool that estimates the total five-year cost of buying and owning a vehicle. The components of TCO® are depreciation, interest on financing, taxes and fees, insurance premiums, fuel, maintenance, repairs, and any federal tax credit that may be available.

What I like about Edmunds True Cost to Own®

• It’s important to understand costs of ownership about a car beyond price and I haven’t seen any other car websites that offer something similar.
• I like that TCO® is calculated for both used and new vehicles.  It’s easy to see how historical cost data is compiled for used vehicles, but I like that Edmunds makes a prediction about new vehicles as well.

What needs improvement

• I’d like to see True Cost to Own® presented right next to True Market Value® at that time you get new car price quotes.

Other Edmunds Car Comparison and Research Tools

Miscellaneous things I like on Edmunds

• Edmunds reviews every car imaginable. You can find a detailed look at any car.  Most cars are reviewed with a great selection of photos and many have videos and 360 views.
• Edmunds has some very useful car calculators like lease and loan calculators, affordability, and trade-in calculators.
• The new car buying guide that comes out each year is very informative.
• Edmunds maintains a good list of current car incentives and rebates (Just don’t get hung up on these, dealers often have cost structures and incentive plans that aren’t published that allow them to offer discounts.)

Miscellaneous items for improvement:

• Edmunds has a direct link to a Carfax vehicle history report for every used vehicle.  But unfortunately, you have to pay to see it.  I’d like to see the eBay Motors model adopted where a vehicle history report is included for free.
• I’d also  like to see the ability to order a paid car inspection directly from the website (eBay does this as well).

As you can see from my review, I have very few complaints about Edmunds.  Mostly constructive criticisms that won’t impact your car buying research.   If you’re trying to compare and research cars, Edmunds should be where you spend most of your time.

When you’re purchasing flooring, there are a few different factors to take into consideration, for me the choice came down to a laminate floor or carpet.  Obviously costs come first and foremost for the majority of people, after that, most people consider the durability of the products, ease of installation, overall appearance, and degree of maintenance needed.  I should be honest in saying that I believe that laminate offers the best value on the market today.  After carefully looking at all the costs involved, and assessing my own needs, I came to the conclusion that if I had to choose between laminate floor or carpet, laminate was the logical choice.

Before looking purely at prices, I would take a look at some models of the different types of flooring out there.  When I looked at the market I was initially attracted to some of the more exotic options such as rock and tile.  There are also more traditional choices such as vinyl and hardwood.  There is no doubt that each style of flooring has its advantages and disadvantages.  I am a low maintenance type of guy, so that was definitely a key consideration.

Laminate Floor or Carpet – Price Differential

For many people, the hard reality of home renovations is that it often comes to the price.  This is what led me to the laminate floor or carpet comparison.  While I looked at tile and rock, their prices were fairly high, with the average probably being about $15 per square foot.  This can add up in a hurry.  I nearly fell in love with the look of hardwood.  I can honestly say that if cost was not an issue, hardwood would be my favoured option; however, it too can be fairly pricey.  Most of the wood I looked at was in the $5-$10 per square foot range, depending on the overall quality and durability, as well as whether you installed it yourself or not.    If cost is your sole concern, then you should really take a hard look at vinyl flooring.  I personally don’t like the look and feel of it, but I know plenty of people that are fans of specific styles and designs.  It is relatively simple to install, and did I mention it was cheap!

Laminate Floor or Carpet – The Final Choice

I was in the market for something that wouldn’t break the bank, but would add a little value to my house.  To have someone come in and do the carpeting for me ranged from $4 to $9 per square foot.  I’ve never put in carpeting myself before, so doing it myself was not really an option.  Laminate on the other hand I’ve done lots of times.  If you put an under-sheet down, laminate costs range from about $1.50 to $4 per square foot.  I got a great deal on my laminate selection, and for $2 per square I feel I got a very solid product that looks great, will be easy to install (further savings on costs), and definitely increased the resale value of my home.  As a side benefit, it also fits my low maintenance criteria much better than carpet would have.  No matter what type of flooring you decide fits your tastes and budget best, check online and in-store specials to make sure you maximize your buying power and have an accurate overall picture of the market.

Do you live in a small city with only one car dealer?  If so, you may be wondering how can you get a fair car price?  If there’s only one dealer in town, he might think he doesn’t have to negotiate.

When buying a new car, start by getting the best car prices online from several car dealers.  But what if there’s only one dealership in your town? Or none?

 

How can you get car prices from multiple car dealers if you live in a small city? Let’s look at how to get around this common problem.

How can you make car dealers give you a fair price when they have no local competition?

I’m asked this all the time and it’s easy to address.

The answer is simple.  You drive.  When there’s no competition, car dealers have no reason to give you a deal.  So expand your search to nearby cities and add some competition to make local dealers play fair.

So how far would you drive to save 2,000 bucks?

How about $3000 or more?  Heck, to save just a couple hundred bucks I’d drive a few hours in a heartbeat.  Consider driving to a larger city with more car dealerships to save big on your car purchase.

A man from Austin, TX asked me how he could get a good deal when there was no local competition.  In Austin there’s pretty much one car dealership per manufacturer. So I suggested expanding his search to Houston and Dallas to get competitive car prices.  Each city is about a 3 hour drive, but has a wide variety of dealerships.  By expanding his search he could easily find 5-10 dealerships for just about every manufacturer.

To make the drive more fun, you could even indulge yourself with a mini-vacation.  Get a hotel room and treat yourself to a night out with a portion of your savings.

How to expand your car search to nearby cities

First, figure out what type of car you want.  If there’s only one dealer in town, you can still test drive a car locally without buying.  Once you’ve settled on a make and model you can start your search for more dealers.

Some car price services allow you to enter how far you will drive: “within 50 miles” or “within 100 miles”.  For those that do not, find out zip codes of nearby cities.  For example, if you live in Austin, do a quick Google search for “Houston zip codes” and “Dallas zip codes”.  Then use those zip codes when getting car prices.  Most sites will allow you to submit multiple searches using new zip codes each time.

For extra savings, try a CarsDirect low instant quote.  It may put you in touch with the same local dealer you already visited, but provide a better price that they must honor.

Once you get car prices from dealerships in another city, give your local dealer a chance to beat them.  Just be prepared to follow through and use your big city quotes.  Many local dealers may not believe you are serious about making the drive, but that’s their loss.

There are plenty of companies that claim to offer a free credit score, but I’ve yet to find one without a catch…until now.  Most free credit score programs do offer you a score but require you to enter a credit card and sign up for credit monitoring (free for a month and then they start charging).  In the past I’ve suggested signing up for one of these programs and then immediately calling to cancel once you get your score.  But that’s a bunch of hoops you no longer need to jump through.  Credit Sesame is much more transparent.  In this Credit Sesame review, I’ll go over what’s good about them and where there’s room for improvement.

What is Credit Sesame?

Each of the three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) are required by law to give you a free copy of your credit report once per year.  But they are not required to provide your credit score.  You can (and should) pull your credit reports and check for errors and issues, but you also need to view your score which is what lenders will be using when you apply for credit.

Credit Sesame allows you to access your credit score for free, with a quick and painless sign-up process.  The reason they can offer the score for free is actually quite innovative.  Based your credit history, they provide advice on how to reduce your debt, save on loan payments, and raise your score.  And part of this service is to provide you with new loan options to reduce your monthly payments.  Credit Sesame is able to offer their service for free because they make money from banks if you decide to get a loan, which you are under no obligation to do.  Here’s what they say:

We earn a small fee from a bank, but only after you close on a loan, so it’s in our best interest to find you the best match based on your own personal needs. We never play favorites, and it makes no difference to us which bank you end up working with; we’re just looking for the recommendations that work best for you. Meanwhile, all of our tools and services are 100% free for you; no trial periods, no catches.

Credit Sesame Review

Here’s what I like about Credit Sesame

• It’s really free (no gimmicks) and no credit card number is required when signing up.
• Sign up is extremely easy.
• They have a new iPhone app that provides instant access to your score.
• Your score is updated once per month, and you can check back as often as you like (for free) and see how your score changes.  They even provide trend graphs so you can track how you are doing over time.
• Free advice: They analyze your loans and credit card debt daily and if a better loan option comes available that will save you money, they alert you.
• Free home value estimates:   They update the estimated value of your home every month based on market prices and how much home equity you’ve built up.
• Free financial goal setting: They help you set your own financial goals like refinancing a home, borrowing money or buying a house and alert you when they find an offer that meets your goals and saves you most money on interest.

Here are the only things I don’t like about Credit Sesame

• While knowing your credit score is critical, Credit Sesame only provides the Experian credit score, and not the scores reported by the other two credit bureaus.  The scores are usually pretty close and if you get your Credit Sesame score and your credit reports, you’re probably in great shape.
• You can see a breakdown of most of your debt, but you do not get your full credit reports which as I’ve mentioned are important to monitor as well.  Fortunately, you can also get all three credit reports for free through AnnualCreditReport.com (again, no catches or gimmicks).
• It’s not obvious how to navigate to your financial data and debt records (which are a summary of your credit report).  However, to find them just click “My Account” in the upper right corner and then click “My Financial Data”.
• Home estimations are performed by a service that pulls public records, but should be taken with a grain of salt.  This is a good starting point, but to get a completely accurate value for your home you would need to hire an appraiser to come out and do an appraisal.

Bottom line, Credit Sesame is the real deal and a much better alternative to having to pay for your credit score or provide a credit card to sign up for a “free trial” that’s not really free.

When should you buy a car to get the best price? Let’s look at how your timing can affect car prices.

As you’re reading, just remember that regardless of when you buy, you’ll find the best car prices online, not at the dealership.

  Click the infographic below to enlarge.

Embed this image on your site:
<a href="http://blog.findthebestcarprice.com/car-buying-tips/best-time-to-buy-a-car/"><img src="http://www.findthebestcarprice.com/images/best-time-to-buy-a-car.jpg" alt="Best time to buy a car" title="Best time to buy a car"/></a><br/>Source: <a href="http://blog.findthebestcarprice.com/car-buying-tips/best-time-to-buy-a-car/">Best Time to Buy a Car</a><br/>

Best Time of Year to Buy a Car

You can find the best prices on seasonal vehicles off-season.  Convertibles and sports cars can be cheaper in the fall and early winter because of less demand.  SUV’s might be discounted in the summer when gas prices are up and people aren’t as concerned about finding four wheel drive cars to navigate wintery roads.

If you’re looking for a home on the road, the best time to buy an RV in colder climates is when the snowbirds have headed south for the Winter.  Demand drops off and sellers know they are going to have to go through the hassle of winterizing and storing the RV for the off season.   Conversely, in parts of the South, the best time to buy an RV is in late Spring after buyers migrate back north and there is less local demand.

The fall months are also good for sales at the end of a model year.  Different manufacturers end model years at different times, but many change years in September or October.  Dealers want to get rid of old models to make room for new ones. And you can get especially good deals if the body style is changing.  Just be careful to weigh the discount on an end of model-year car.  As soon as you enter a new year, that car’s resale value will take a hit because it’s labeled as a whole year older.

Best Month to Buy a Car

December is a great month to buy a car because dealerships are desperate to lure shoppers on the lot while most people are preparing for the holidays and spending all their extra cash on gifts.  It’s also the best time of year to buy a car because dealerships are trying to hit their annual sales quotas and related bonuses.  Dealerships have both month-end and year-end targets, so December means big discounts.  And if you don’t want to stay home on the holidays, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are typically two of the best days of the year to find deals.

Best Day to Buy a Car

Even if you forget everything else, remember this statement:  The best time to buy a car is the last couple days of the month.  Manufacturers set monthly targets for car dealerships.  If car salesmen and dealerships meet their monthly sales goals they can earn bonuses.  So if you time your car purchase towards the end of the month you could end up buying from a car salesman who is close to hitting his quota and earning a bonus payment.  This bonus may be much bigger than the loss he takes on a single sale and as a result he may be willing to provide a bigger discount to you in order to earn that bonus.

And interestingly enough, the second best time to buy a car is the first couple days of the month.  Because the end of the month trick is widely known, salesmen are usually pretty busy with buyers that have waited.  As a result, the first couple days of the month mean fewer buyers and idle salesmen may be willing to deal.  Salesmen may also want to get a jump on their monthly sales quotas so they’re not under as much pressure at the end of the month.

You can also check Edmunds predicted price trends which forecasts whether prices are headed up or down for most models over the next 30 days.

Best Time to Buy a Car

Don’t go out of your way for this one, but some dealerships offer salesmen a small bonus ($100 or so) for selling the first car of the day on a Saturday or holiday to encourage sales. So if you are one of the first buyers of the day you may notice a small benefit.

What’s the Best Way to Buy a Car?

That’s easy, don’t go to the dealership at all!  Get car prices from multiple local dealers and ask them to compete with each other over email.  I explain how in my free guide, How to Buy a Car at the Best Possible Price.

What if You Need a Car Now?

As much as you might like to time your car purchase to get the best deal, it’s not always possible.  Sometimes an accident or unexpected repair may make waiting difficult.  In these cases, you can still get car prices online and make car dealers compete.  And check out Edmunds car incentives and rebates to see which manufacturers are currently running promotions.

European Delivery Programs

Here’s a final added tidbit.  If you are considering buying a high-end luxury car, why not take a trip to Europe?  While timing a luxury car purchase may not net you savings on the car itself, you can save on your vacation spending.  Manufacturers like Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, and Volvo all offer vacation packages that allow you to pick up your car in Europe and tour the country side.   As for the best time of year, Spring is a great time to visit Europe while the weather is comfortable but the high-priced summer tourist season as not begun yet.

When it comes to backing up my computer I’m both fearful and lazy.  I’m fearful because computer crashes and viruses are devastating.  I really can’t afford to lose my important files, but I also can’t afford to take several days to repair my computer and try to recreate those files.  And on average, it seems like I suffer some sort of catastrophic failure once a year.

Along with that, I’m lazy!  Even though I know a crash will eventually happen (I’m a Windows guy after all), backups have always been such a pain in the ass that I dread the work associated with them.  My old method of back-up was to burn a couple DVD’s and store them in a shoebox in my closet.  But I could never fit my whole hard-drive on two DVD’s so I was always picking and choosing which folders to save.  And I didn’t want to overwrite my latest DVD version, so I had to figure out which was my oldest DVD and use that.  Needless to say the process took a couple hours and I would always procrastinate.  I wanted to do it every month but usually it happened every six months.

Then I learned about online backup services and I’m no longer fearful or lazy!  And since you can pay anywhere from $60-300 a month to online backup providers, I figured it would be a great topic to talk about on this blog.

What is an online backup?

Instead of manually backing up the files on your PC to a DVD, you back them up the cloud through the Internet.  To set up it up, you choose which directories you want to save and set a schedule.  It takes about 5 minutes.  Then, periodically (like twice a day), the backup program connects to the provider and sends encrypted copies up all your important files to their servers.  If your computer ever crashes, you go to their website, sign in and you can download all your files.

My Online Backup Requirements

Everyone has different things they need in a backup provider.  Here’s what I found to be the most important factors for me personally:

• Automated backups – so I can “set it and forget it”.  You want something that runs in the background on a schedule so that you don’t even notice it’s running.
• Locked file support – Not all backup solutions allow you to save files that are currently open.  I use Microsoft Outlook for everything in my life and it’s the main thing I want backed up.  But Outlook is always open when my computer is on, so if I can’t back it up, I’m not interested.
• Versioning – I want a provider that saves multiple versions of a file.  That way, if I screw something up today, I can still retrieve a better version of the file from a week ago.
• Storage Space – For me 50GB was enough for all my music and data files without causing me to have to pick and choose which files should get saved.
• Something Cheap – I want the biggest bang for my buck.

Which Online Backup Service Did I Choose?

I was able to review a variety of backup services using this online backup service comparison. I tried out a few services and found them either too expensive, difficult to setup, or didn’t meet all my requirements above.

I ultimately decided to go with MozyHome and was not disappointed. The price is $5.99 per month and I got a month free for signing up for a year.  This is probably the best six bucks I spend each month.  Since I installed it, I don’t even notice when it’s running.  But I get a feeling of relief when the message pops up and says, “You’re computer has been backed up successfully.”  I definitely sleep easier without worrying about what might happen if I push off my manual backup for another month.

Do you use a back-up provider? If so, which one?  And while you’re here, check out a few posts from my friends.

22 Things You Should Always Haggle For (Len Penzo)

Asking for a Discount Can be Fun! (Squirrelers)

5 Negotiating Tips You Can Use Almost Anywhere (Bargaineering)

Negotiating Tips to Save on Your Next House (Life and My Finances)

Energy Smart Car Buying (Financially Consumed)

5 Useless Car Options To Avoid When Purchasing New Car (Money Green Life)

Dear America, I Bet You Buy More Cars Soon (Money Mamba)

Identity Theft Insurance (Canadian Finance Blog)

Is it better to be an employee or an entrepreneur (Wealth Informatics)

Red Flags When Finding Freelance Programmers on Freelance Websites (Don’t Do It Yourself)