Economy, consider yourself properly stimulated.
As many of you know, we bought a new car this weekend. The process was interminable as always, but in the end we are the happy new owners of a new '08 GMC Yukon Denali. We feel good for having given something back to our poor suffering domestic automakers, and even better for having benefitted from the huge rebates and discounts currently available (and government backing in case the automakers go poof). End result is that per my credit union, we got the Denali for about $2000 under what they could have negotiated for us for this same vehicle, which is pretty smokin' good.
A few lessons learned (or things I was reminded of, having been through this new car purchasing experience several times):
*Do your homework ahead of time. Know what the invoice price is (available on lots of places online, including Kelly Blue Book and Consumer Reports, and know your trade in value (also available at Kelly Blue Book). Know that they are probably not going to give you the wholesale value for your trade - they will give you what they think they can sell it for at auction, which is even less. In our case, we just didn't want to be hassled with selling cars, and the Jeep was in need of at least $1000 in rear brakes, so we didn't try to haggle on that.
*Know what kinds of options you want and what their value is. Also investigate the price of the extras that they will throw at you when you sit down in the finance person's office: Lojack, extended warranties, GAP protection, paint/carpet treatment, chip protection, etc. You are generally better off declining ALL of their proposed add-ons and buying them elsewhere if you want them. Por ejemple:
**We are getting Lojack, but 30 seconds of internet research told me we could get the high end of it for $870 total instead of the $1095 the dealer wanted. We told this to the dealer, and they agreed to match the price with no hesitation.
**We are getting an extended warranty through my credit union, where we'll pay $1400 for a credit-union backed 7 year/75k mile bumper-to-bumper warranty with zero deductible, good at any authorized repair center (read: places that accept a credit card) in the US or Canada. The dealer's best offer was a 7-year/60k mile warranty with a $100 deductible per occurrence for $2100. No contest.
**We are also getting GAP insurance through the credit union. It's not expensive and totally worth it as long as we have a balance on the car which is more than the car is worth (generally true for at least the first two years).
*Know what you want and why you want it. Our logic for buying the Denali,
We shopped this weekend and tested the Honda Pilot, Toyota
Sequoia, Toyota Landcruiser and the GMC Yukon Denali. Our criteria
were: must have third row seating, must fit 2 infant seats in the
second row without impacting the driver or passenger seats, must have
decent Consumer Reports ratings for reliability (meaning "good" or above
for the model year in question) and safety, must have full side curtain
airbag protection, LATCH in all rear seating positions.
Ideally we wanted good cargo space in addition to third row seating, and
if possible, decent gas mileage. And a toilet made out of solid gold,
but that just wasn't in the cards, baby.
We were able to write off the Honda Pilot and the Landcruiser without a
test drive, since they were too small to fit two infant seats in the
second row without impacting first row legroom (we brought ours along to
test it). We are both tall, so this is an important consideration for
us.
We drove the Sequoia and the Denali, and also considered the Yukon
Hybrid. We ended up writing off the Yukon hybrid since it was in its
first model year (which is never a good thing to buy), and also because
it didn't have a roof rack at all nor any option for one except
aftermarket racks. Since we know we'll be putting snowboard racks and a
Thule box on it, we wanted a roof rack preferentially stock.
Between the Sequoia and Denali, both had identical Consumer Reports
reliability ratings for the '08 model (very good). The Sequoia had
slightly more cargo space behind the third row, but the third row seat
folds into the floor instead of being totally removable, which impacted
the overall cargo space significantly. The Denali was much nicer
inside, much more of a luxury SUV than the Sequoia, which felt like a
big truck. There were definitely good and bad points to each of them,
so it ultimately came down to price for us. We ended up with the new
'08 Denali, at a smokin' good price due to the huge rebates and
discounts to the dealer.
Oh, and the dealer we chose is the #1 Cadillac/GMC dealer in the 5-state
area, so I am not concerned with them going bankrupt anytime soon ...
whether GMC does is a different story, but there are significant
government backups in place already in case that happens.
Long story short: New swank Denali, black on black, fully appointed, very happy family.
A few lessons learned (or things I was reminded of, having been through this new car purchasing experience several times):
*Do your homework ahead of time. Know what the invoice price is (available on lots of places online, including Kelly Blue Book and Consumer Reports, and know your trade in value (also available at Kelly Blue Book). Know that they are probably not going to give you the wholesale value for your trade - they will give you what they think they can sell it for at auction, which is even less. In our case, we just didn't want to be hassled with selling cars, and the Jeep was in need of at least $1000 in rear brakes, so we didn't try to haggle on that.
*Know what kinds of options you want and what their value is. Also investigate the price of the extras that they will throw at you when you sit down in the finance person's office: Lojack, extended warranties, GAP protection, paint/carpet treatment, chip protection, etc. You are generally better off declining ALL of their proposed add-ons and buying them elsewhere if you want them. Por ejemple:
**We are getting Lojack, but 30 seconds of internet research told me we could get the high end of it for $870 total instead of the $1095 the dealer wanted. We told this to the dealer, and they agreed to match the price with no hesitation.
**We are getting an extended warranty through my credit union, where we'll pay $1400 for a credit-union backed 7 year/75k mile bumper-to-bumper warranty with zero deductible, good at any authorized repair center (read: places that accept a credit card) in the US or Canada. The dealer's best offer was a 7-year/60k mile warranty with a $100 deductible per occurrence for $2100. No contest.
**We are also getting GAP insurance through the credit union. It's not expensive and totally worth it as long as we have a balance on the car which is more than the car is worth (generally true for at least the first two years).
*Know what you want and why you want it. Our logic for buying the Denali,
We shopped this weekend and tested the Honda Pilot, Toyota
Sequoia, Toyota Landcruiser and the GMC Yukon Denali. Our criteria
were: must have third row seating, must fit 2 infant seats in the
second row without impacting the driver or passenger seats, must have
decent Consumer Reports ratings for reliability (meaning "good" or above
for the model year in question) and safety, must have full side curtain
airbag protection, LATCH in all rear seating positions.
Ideally we wanted good cargo space in addition to third row seating, and
if possible, decent gas mileage. And a toilet made out of solid gold,
but that just wasn't in the cards, baby.
We were able to write off the Honda Pilot and the Landcruiser without a
test drive, since they were too small to fit two infant seats in the
second row without impacting first row legroom (we brought ours along to
test it). We are both tall, so this is an important consideration for
us.
We drove the Sequoia and the Denali, and also considered the Yukon
Hybrid. We ended up writing off the Yukon hybrid since it was in its
first model year (which is never a good thing to buy), and also because
it didn't have a roof rack at all nor any option for one except
aftermarket racks. Since we know we'll be putting snowboard racks and a
Thule box on it, we wanted a roof rack preferentially stock.
Between the Sequoia and Denali, both had identical Consumer Reports
reliability ratings for the '08 model (very good). The Sequoia had
slightly more cargo space behind the third row, but the third row seat
folds into the floor instead of being totally removable, which impacted
the overall cargo space significantly. The Denali was much nicer
inside, much more of a luxury SUV than the Sequoia, which felt like a
big truck. There were definitely good and bad points to each of them,
so it ultimately came down to price for us. We ended up with the new
'08 Denali, at a smokin' good price due to the huge rebates and
discounts to the dealer.
Oh, and the dealer we chose is the #1 Cadillac/GMC dealer in the 5-state
area, so I am not concerned with them going bankrupt anytime soon ...
whether GMC does is a different story, but there are significant
government backups in place already in case that happens.
Long story short: New swank Denali, black on black, fully appointed, very happy family.