Re: Re: Re: Re: Truck shopping and scores... We are members of USAA and I had no clue they had the ability to tell you what a car should cost. I have done nothing but research all the vehicles we are considering for about 2 weeks now (they are all starting to blend together) and although I have not been to the consumer reports places, I have been to the ford site and the aafes car sales site and the price they are quoting me is 1K over invoice. So consumer reports.com will tell me alot of info? As far as the gov't shipping a vehicle for us, we had one shipped when we first came here and that is all they are allowable for. I had thought about getting one shipped from the states, but am not quite sure about the sales tax part of it. We don't pay sales tax on a vehicle purchased here, so I assume we wouldn't pay tax there. The current rebate on the Explorer is $2k and we get an extra $2K for military stuff. Shipping of a vehicle depending where from is atleast 3K. I appreciate what you said and will look into it. I really want the vehicle and we can afford it either way, I just don't want to get blinded by our lack of options over here.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Truck shopping and scores... -cleanup on trade in $200 +jacked up overpriced resale of $10K LOL There are several layers of invoices. What you see is most likely not what the true true price of the truck was
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Truck shopping and scores... Where, in general, overseas are you? We lived abroad (Korea) and did have a vehicle shipped from a Porsche dealer in the states. Of course, this was some years back, so things may have changed.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Truck shopping and scores... We are in Germany. I am right now fighting w/ my computer to get on the consumer reports site also what "branch" of usaa do you talk to to ask about a cars "worth"?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Truck shopping and scores... No joke! The trade in is a 98 mustang w/ 90k miles on it. HAD to buy it in the first place. Just moved to TX, started totally over and I needed a car. Fortunatley, it is very clean and even had an emergency-light kit (hubby is a volunteer firefighter, so has code 3 emergency lights wired into lheadlights, etc). Those sucked to uninstall, lol. As far as the invoice thing goes, I am happy to have paid a little less than invoice and have the tradein taken care of.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Truck shopping and scores... Sounds like you guys are getting a really good deal and truth be told, the dealer may only be making a couple hundred on the deal, the bread and butter is that trade-in they are getting by offering you a $5,000 tradein allowance. Sure they are going to pay it off, but they are going to pay it off using with the $4,500 (or more) from the finance contract. In fact, I bet they actually only have to come up with around $3,000-$3,500 out of pocket in order to clear the title on your car. That means if they sell (or even auction it) for $5000, they still will have made as much as $2,000 on the sale of that car! Think about that, if they sell 40-50 used cars a month that is upwards of $100,000 in profit! As for the special order fee - yes it was a show as only the truly uninformed are going to pay that fee. If the dealer does not have the car and options a person wants, then they order it from the factory. That does not mean the car should cost more than the cars on the lot, but some dealers try to fool you. It does not cost more, it's ordered as part of their weekly buying. Because the factory order does not sit on a lot waiting to sell, they spend $0 on interest. When the car comes in and they jack the price up $1000 or more telling the buyer there was "a price increase". Bottom line, there should be no fees, it's just a normal car deal with a little bit more lead time (8 weeks to 6 months). Finally, the mayor owns the dealership - isnt that a conflict of interest? Michael
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Truck shopping and scores... You may have to call USAA and then tell the operator that you want to apply for an autoloan. When you get to the right person, ask them if they can give you a cost analysis of the car you are wanting to buy before you have them initiate the loan process. Also, you may have to do the same thing with consumer reports as their website is geared more towards member services than the casual visitor! As for buying abroad, you will need to do some research on that as well but import dealers usually only pay $800-900 in destinations charges for vehicles that are delivered from overseas so it should not cost you much more than that either! In fact, with an internet buying service, I seem to recall that in most case the buying service will include the deliver costs as part of the purchase price! If nothing else, get all of your research information together, including the quotes that you might get from a buying service, and then use them as leverage with the on-base dealer! Michael
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Truck shopping and scores... As always, great points, lol. Warm fuzzies, so far, about the deal, especially after being able to get out from under the mustang w/o paying more than the cost of "invoice" on the truck. The special order fee... The truck was ordered by a guy in Houston who ended up not getting it. HE was "supposed to pay it" at the time he bought it. Well, they never factored it into any of our paperwork. They tried, after the fact, but hubby says "I didnt special order it...too bad, paper is signed." Im glad he was a hard a$$. There is a chain of dealerships owned by this guy. Not sure if it actually is a conflict or not, but, yep, he is the mayor. His dealerships arent in the city for which he is mayor....just one of those little adjoining cities here in Austin.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Truck shopping and scores... Hey, You be sure and remember to be patient and keep an eye out for all us cyclists who will be venturing onto the country roads East of Austin on April 12th/13th (MS 150). I have not been hit by a car in since 1984 and I really dont want to become a hood ornament on massive, Dodge Ram pickup! It could be if one of those cities gets there city vehicles from the fleet department at one of his dealerships! Michael
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Truck shopping and scores... LMAO...Are you kidding, this is Lance's hometown, lol. Just stay in the hill country and off those farm to market roads. I never thought about it as far as the fleet dept. Not sure on this. I always thought the guy was okay...kindof a pud, but generally okay...until he shredded all those papers and threw them at the salesguy. He was pissed at the whole deal, not just the 2500 fee. Heard one of his radio commercials today and thought to myself...if your listeners could hear you say the "f" word with the same tone we did, lol...
USAA auto loan question Four20nik, I have a question about USAA's auto loan process. We have their insurance and bank through them. I would love to use their service but am worried about qualifying for the loan. Did they give you any FICO guidelines? Do you have any baddies on your report? We are waiting to close on HELOC so can't do anything 'til that's done but wondering if I should try right after closing before HELOC tanks scores. I had called USAA inquiring about FICO score requirements for their HELOC but they wouldn't tell me squat (said their info was proprietary) and I didn't want to waste an inquiry with my marginal scores. We ended up going with local credit union so I could do a "dry run" showing them my CRs before they pulled a hard. Want to be sure before a hard is pulled for auto loan too! Any guidance would be appreciated!!
Re: USAA auto loan question Our scores were not great. hubby had an EQ of 619. Mine was like 650, give or take. Hubby had 1 paid baddie (since deleted) I had 3 baddies (collections) and a 94 bk Had to pay the collections and send proof we did so. Also, they like to see 2years of solid payment hisotry on tl's. They didnt pay much attention to fico. We have done a refi through them for our first loan through them. Went from 23% interest and 480/month to 6.5% and 340/month. Less than a month later, we applied for this loan. Whole process took 20 minutes. 1st loan: 17500 2nd loan: 38200 I'd be happy to answer any questions I can. They are awesome. No banks would finance us for less than 14% and 10-20% down. USAA beat em all, even though we had baddies.
Re: USAA auto loan question OK, hubby and I are trying to figure this out here. First of all, what year? I know you said new, but new to some people could very well be an 00', 87' who knows. Second, is the truck an automatic or a standard. 3rd, invoice price is always jacked THOUSANDS. Believe me, invoice IS NOT what they paid for it. And destination price, that's bogus. Period. 3rd, the second a unit hits a lot, their is a 'package' added to the unit, in other words, the dealership tacks on what they deem 'reasonable' (what NADA states is reasonable that is) for add ons. BTW, what kind of add ons is there on this truck? Is it a Lariat?
Re: USAA auto loan question I can't read all the threads my pc is being funny. I'm a car dealers tell me the whole deal. Also tell me year model make options and if you want to cry I'll tell you wholesale value. Did you buy the car? If not I could give you some bargaining tips. If I understand correctly you have a trade in. Never do a trade in believe me you are eating it one way or another. Trade ins are big $ makers for dealers. The invoice is a bunch of hocus pocus.
Re: Re: USAA auto loan question Mike I can do better than that. I can tell you what THEY paid for it. Not only do my hubby and I have a lot, I also work at Manheim auction. I work the auction block including factory sales. I know what the DEALERSHIPS pay for these things.
Truck buying stuff... Can I get ya'll's input too on a 2003 Explorer 4wd XLT extras: DVD, 6-disc cd changer, sunroof, 3rd row seats, auxillary climate, canopy air bag thingy, rear sensors, I think that's it. Would also love to hear ideas on how you haggle w/ places that claim to have set prices. Sorry to intrude *again*
Re: Truck buying stuff... We were quoted 37k w/ a 4k rebate - way too much to pay??? I thought I had done my research but all ya'll have me 2nd guessing everything. Ok the truck itself is 34k but then there is the 3k to ship it over here, in processing, etc. I *thought* 1k over invoice was a decent price, but ya'll have me quite nervous over it!!
Re: Re: Truck buying stuff... It is really hard for me to say b/c I look at it from a dealers point of view. I know how much these things are wholesaling for, even worse, I know what the dealerships are paying for them. But obviously, what the dealership is giving for them IS NOT what you or I are going to give fro it. But then again, hubby and I have a lot, therefore get them at wholesale. The key is to find a wholesaler that can give you a good price. From a wholesalers point of view, hubby saw one sale today (lot of miles though) for 12k. Now keep in mind, you are talking NEW, I am talking used.
