Strad6708

Hey everyone,

I am new to the experience of purchasing a car, so I am going to need advice on several aspects of the experience. I plan to trade in a 98 ES300 with 111,000 miles on an 07 IS350 with luxury, nav, and ml, stickering for approximately $45,500. I have yet to locate an actual car on the lot, but I am not at all picky about the color, so the the dealer might, at most, just have to swap with another deal for a car that meets my specs. In any case, I looked up the invoice of the car and determined it is somewhere around $39,500. I am planning to offer $40,500 and I shared this with my salesperson via phone today, but he said that would be quite a stretch because they don't discount the IS350 that heavily. I would beg to differ--I am in Chicago, where I have 7 or 8 dealers to choose from, and we are nearing the end of a model year. I would think at this point $40,500 is a decent offer. I plan to lease the car, so I'm hoping I can get a good APR for the lease since it's the summer sales event. Anyone know what type of APR I might expect? I have an appt with the dealer for this evening to have my trade-in appraised. It has quite a bit of body damage (dented rear bumper, dents on roof, dent on passenger door, and scratch on hood), but I am hoping I can get $5000 for it. I fear I am expecting both too large a discount off MSRP and too high a trade-in value. We'll see! I'll let you know the dealer's offer, but any advice you can provide in the meantime would be great. Thanks!

sportsfan8

I would recommend negotiating the car separate from your trade-in. If you are offering $40,500... why not start lower at say $38-39K and work your way up? You also said there are 7 or 8 dealers to choose from, so use that to your advantage.

sirkfc

Yeah, you have way too many variables for the dealer to work with, between the price of the car, the APR, lease terms, and damaged trade-in. It'll be hard for you to optimize many pieces.

I think your offer for the car of $1000 over invoice is close to what they will move for, though they will claim that their invoice also includes advertising. I think it's the crappy ES you're trading in that they will get you on.

BTW, the term for leasing is not APR, but money factor. It's a similar concept, but the numbers are quoted differently. For leasing, the other thing to look out for is the acquisition cost. Also, if you are leasing, trading in your car is not as attractive, as it becomes a large down payment on the lease. In general, a large DP on a lease is not a good idea because of the extra risk you take on when the car gets totaled... It's better to sell the car private party and take that money to use towards your monthly payment.

The only good thing about a down payment is that it saves you interest expense that you probably can't offset at the bank with a similar sized deposit, but the difference is generally not worth that much.

tex2670

You'll probably get hosed on a 9 year old trade in anyway--if you have the ability to sell to a 3rd party, you should do it.

Evitzee

Agree with others, you have too many ***** (variables) in the air. Negotiate the price first !!! Once you have agreed on the price you can work the financials, and then the issue of the trade, in that order.

Now, have you verified that the dealer is able to get an IS350 with Luxury, Nav and ML?? These are not easily found, and you may not find ANY in the area you are searching, so it may be an academic exercise. Whether there are 7, or 70, dealers won't make any difference if the car isn't available. The old 'end of the model year' angle doesn't work as well with a Lexus. They will liquidate the 07's just as the 08's come out so they will not have 'fire sale' prices like you sometimes get with the domestic makers who have lots of cars to move. If you could get $1,000 over invoice on an IS350 that would be a very good deal, but I don't think it will happen (Supply and demand, basically).

Good luck.