Main Street Finance

Who Gets the Best Deal When Buying a Car?

By Kat

Car buying is something nearly everyone will experience at some point in their lifetime. Whether or not you get the best price possible, however, depends on the strategies you take during the purchase.

A recent study was conducted about the car buying habits of Americans, and it uncovers some interesting insights about which people tend to get the best deals. One of the most important factors in minimizing your car’s price is negotiation strategies — so who does the best job at it? According to the study, those in the western and southern regions tend to negotiate more than those in the northeast or midwest. In fact, about a third of westerners and southerners report getting the final price down by $2,000 or more, while less than a quarter of those in the northeast or midwest did so. The entire breakdown is shown in the chart below.

Interestingly, the amount of time spent researching before the purchase doesn’t appear to correlate with the amount negotiated. As it’s shown in the graph below, southerners and westerners were actually more likely than those in other regions to only spend 1-2 days researching their car choices.

Affordability was rated the most important factor in every single region, so is there some secret out west and down south of which the other regions aren’t aware? The answer is yes, but it’s a very simple one: always negotiate. Sometimes getting the best deal can be as easy as asking for the price you want. The worst case scenario is the salesperson says, “no,” but the car buyer always has the advantage. At the end of the day, the salesperson wants a sale.

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