I read about your experience regarding your Bimmer and I’m glad that you had a similar experience. He’s a character, isn’t he? 70 years old and still playing baseball. I only hope that he’s still providing this service when I buy my next car, probably 12-15 years into the future.

I didn’t take advantage of his counsel this time around because I’ve been through the drill before, but I find that his Big Picture analysis is invaluable for helping me gauge what the potential bottom line is. Real prices paid by real buyers. You can’t get that anywhere else, so far as I can determine.

The other thing that hasn’t been brought up yet is that for the $35, the owner will also take your phone calls and answer any questions you might have about the car-buying process. He’s a 70-year-old man who’s been doing this for the last 14 years. I called him twice with questions; the second time, I left a message on his system, and he returned my call promptly.

He told me that’s the part of the business he loves best, actually talking to his customers. He’ll also help with leasing and financing situations, though I don’t have any first-hand experience with this portion of FC.

Also, how you value your time depends a lot on what you were going to do with it. If your life is packed with activity then yeah, don’t bother spending time looking for a better deal. But if I was going to spend the time going to a movie and I was offered a chance to save $1,200 to skip that movie (including drive time, previews, etc.) and do something else, what do you think I’d choose? Do you make $400/hour? I don’t.

Finally, I fully agree that the best bet is to buy used. I routinely recommend that to friends. Why don’t I do it myself? Because I don’t know the history of the car. Sure, I can read an odometer, but I don’t know how those miles are racked up. My wife does the worst kind of driving: short trips, less than 2 miles each direction, twice a day. She definitely shortens the life of any car she drives, even though you can’t see it. Since I don’t buy a car very often, I want a car that doesn’t have a mystery history. Sure, I take a big depreciation hit up front, but I make up for it at the back end. And since I buy so infrequently, I like to have the latest safety features when I drive, like curtain side airbags. I’m willing to pay a premium for that and for the peace of mind with a clean history, because that’s where I place my value.

Other point - why buy new? 9 month old lease returns / demos / etc save more money. 2 year old saves even more. Yes, it’s a lot harder to get a ‘good deal’ on a used car. Basically, use the Kelly Blue Book Trade Value (basically auction wholesale price) as a starting point. Add 1 or 2% profit for the dealership, none for a private seller. Cars.com integrates all that in one webpage. 10 minutes, 2 phone calls and a paypal deposit, and I’ll have the car I want at the price I want.

Hmm. Maybe that’s why I am not a millionaire. I value time over money.

I am in total and complete agreement with you that you can do lots of little things requiring little effort to reap large rewards over time.

But I am also in favor of reaping large rewards in one shot even if the opportunity doesn’t present itself very often. Let’s say you visit 3 dealers and go through the spiel for 30 minutes in each place. That’s an hour and half right there. And let’s say that you have to drive a half hour each to see 2 different dealers, plus you have to drive another half hour to go back to the dealer that had the best deal. That’s another hour and a half. So we’re up to 3 hours. On top of this, you’ve expended gasoline and perhaps have spent 3 hours of your spouse’s time, if you’ve involved her in the process.

You and I both have to go through the following process: we have to test drive the car, go through the spiel of saying no to accessories and extended warranties, get the registration done, and sign the papers. Except I don’t have to wait for the car to be washed and prepped because they know I’m buying the car before I come in.

So instead of spending 3 hours running around to 3 dealers, I spend maybe 3 hours (actually, it was less) faxing 33 dealerships and taking 5 minute calls from 15 dealerships (remember, about half of them don’t respond). For the same investment in time as you, I’ve saved let’s say $1,200 and was actually entertained in the process! I’ve also saved gas and saved my wife’s time by only involving her in the checkout process. And I’ve saved myself a considerable amount of stress in not having to play the game of “Well, my sales manager didn’t like the price I gave you, so how about $200 more?”

If someone told you that you could save $1,200 by putting no more time and effort into a process than the one you were going to use, wouldn’t you do it? Even a 1-time savings of $1,200 is still a savings of $1,200. If someone offered you $1,200 tax-free with no extra effort, wouldn’t you take it?

This certainly doesn’t take away from the things that you can do that save money on a daily basis. It’s not a situation where you have to choose to do one or the other. You can do both and save even more!

I just think that many times people say “Sure, I’ll sign up for that extra service, it’s just an additional $5 a month.” $5 doesn’t seem like much once, but over time that really does add up. Sure saving $600 at one time feels better than $5 a month for 10 years but the result is the same. It’s very easy to concentrate on the big purchases and forget the same amount of savings can be had on smaller, ongoing expenses by making simple one-time changes that pay off month after month.

My point was more that a single phone call to remove an unused $5/month service from your phone bill will save $720 over 12 years with much less time and effort than you spent. I just don’t care about getting the absolutely lowest rock bottom price on something I only buy once every 10 years.

You’re assuming that I spend 12 years buying a car, not the few hours that I actually spent. And after you factor in the fact that I would have spent even more time running around from dealer to dealer had I purchased a car in the conventional manner, the return on my time is even higher. Do you just walk into a dealership and pay sticker when you buy a car? A extrapolation of your logic would suggest that you do.

Chris,

You are abolutely correct. Typo on my part. But the point remains valid. Thanks for the catch.

Sure the poster saved, let’s call it $1200, on the car, but how much time and effort was involved? If he only purchases a new car every 12 years, that’s only $100 a year. I can think of many easier ways to save $100 over the course of a year.

Personally, I have always been more concerned about not getting nickeled and dimed to death on repeated purchases than getting the absolutely best deal possible on an infrequent purchase.

If you can shave $5 or $10 a month off your cable or phone bill that pays off forever. Getting $50 or $100 off a new dryer is a once every 10 year event.