New Car, best deal, 2015?
April 21, 2015 7:11 AM   Subscribe

I would like to buy a Toyota Sienna. I was going to lease because of the financing, but now figure a purchase is the way to go. We are willing to put down enough to warrant 0% financing, our goal is to keep the payment below $300.

I have purchased my last two cars through an auto broker and very happy about it, zero hassle, zero pain, great price and it shows up at my door. Yet, a good friend is convincing me to go the "search nationwide for a pre-owned and certified 2012 or 2013 and ship it to LA" idea that he swears by.

I am up for it theoretically, but wanted some feedback from the mefiters.

Questions and thoughts I have are:

My broker gave me the exact same numbers as my local Toyota dealer did, so it makes me assume there is no "deal" out there on a new car.

But everyone seems to think casting the net far and wide will yield a better deal.

Can I get financing through Toyota on a pre owned and certified?

Is certified really a guarantee, I have read here that it can be certified, but not necessarily be disclosed that the car was in a previous accident?

Thanks all.
posted by silsurf to Shopping (4 answers total)
 
My broker gave me the exact same numbers as my local Toyota dealer did, so it makes me assume there is no "deal" out there on a new car.

But everyone seems to think casting the net far and wide will yield a better deal.
They thought you'd get better numbers and you didn't -- looks like they were wrong.
Can I get financing through Toyota on a pre owned and certified?
Yes.
Is certified really a guarantee, I have read here that it can be certified, but not necessarily be disclosed that the car was in a previous accident?
I don't see anything in their terms that being in an accident disqualifies the vehicle.
posted by Brian Puccio at 8:32 AM on April 21, 2015


Don't bother with a broken for a new car. The invoice prices are set by the manufacturer and are the same for the same car with the same equipment at every dealer. The invoice price is basically what the dealership is going to base it's cost on and getting down to $100 over the invoice price (before any incentives are applied) is about as good a deal as you can expect to get on nearly any new car. You can go to KBB.com (or half a dozen other places) and look up the sticker, incentives, and invoice price for any new car with the exact options you're looking for. Once thing to keep in mind though is that there are sometimes options that aren't really optional aside from certain options . For instance, when I was selling new Nissans for a living, we simply couldn't order any of the cars without floor mats. It's technically an option but they don't build them without throwing a set in the car.

That said, buying a one or two year old used car is probably going to be a MUCH better deal.
posted by VTX at 10:28 AM on April 21, 2015


Have you driven the Sienna? Have you parallel parked one? I have a 2014 which is not nearly the car the 2005 was. The nose is so short that it is hard to park because you cannot see the front. My instinct is to stand up but alas, the roof is not high enough for that. Also, I have about one inch clearance on each side when driving in or out of the garage because of the prominence of those sugar-bowl-ears mirrors. I have to reach out and collapse a mirror in order to avoid scraping the garage.
posted by Cranberry at 10:50 AM on April 21, 2015


We bought a 2015 Sienna SE recently. One point is that the 2015 is a mid model refresh, and thus 2011-2014s are not quite comparable - the newer are quieter and have a nicer interior, particularly in the dash. We replaced an older Sienna and it is nicer in every respect, and is sooo much easier to drive and park than our older one, especially with the rear camera, cross traffic alert, and blind spot assist. Without those things it would be a different ballgame, though. We used the Toyota 0% financing for the full amount, because it made no sense to pay a down payment out of savings that earn >0. I am pretty certain the promotional 0% would not be available on a preowned/certified, as the financing is a Toyota incentive to sell more new cars.

So the main point on the pricing was that we went in for a test drive with an 'internet price' which was the same as the no-negotiation Costco price and basically matched edmunds.com/truecar. I believe it was invoice + a couple hundred. Pretty good overall and about what you'd expect from doing research on the model. But we found when we went in that they wouldn't let us leave. They kept offering stuff until we ended up paying a couple thousand under that number, and well below anything I'd found for pricing guidance on the Internet. So you never know, I guess. It probably helped that it was a higher end model - I believe they sell the lower end trims in far higher volume. And yeah, it was the end of the month. I don't believe we would ever have seen that kind of price over an email transaction. They had us there and our desire to leave was real - we had other things to do.
posted by pekala at 2:24 PM on April 21, 2015 [1 favorite]


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