The experience my wife and I had buying our Honda Pilot with help from the Internet is typical of what more and more people are finding: you can save a lot of money doing even part of your search here. We saved just under $4,000 and got the exact car we wanted.
We’re not the only ones who are doing this. Our next door neighbor just bought his wife a brand new convertible. Like us, he had to fly about 1,000 miles to pick up the car, then drive it home. He’d do it again in a second. He also sold his wife’s old car on-line. I should mention that he’s in his 70s. A co-worker recently bought a used car from a private individual in Kansas City who he found on the internet. He drove the car to the top of Pike’s Peak on his way home, completely delighted with his find. You can do it too.
Even buying our car on-line, we still spent a lot of time at local dealerships test driving cars we were interested in, then looking at the different color and package options for the Pilot once we decided on that. We felt bad taking so much of our saleswoman’s time until she explained that she sees a lot of people like us who are trying to decide what car they were going to buy somewhere else. She assured us that she had at least as many people from other parts of the country flying here to do the same thing.
We spent a lot of time shopping locally before we looked at Honda dealerships on-line to find the best deal. We narrowed our search to dealerships around my wife’s family in Indiana. We were planning to visit them about the same time we planned to buy our car, so it worked out well for us to pick it up and drive it home.
One other thing. We limited our search for the Pilot to Honda dealers. We probably could have found a slightly better deal going with a car broker, but my wife wasn’t comfortable with that. She figured a dealer could be counted on to be trustworthy; in our case, she was right on. Our neighbor and the co-worker I mentioned both bought their cars via the internet, one from a broker, the other from a private citizen. Neither had any problems. I understand that this can make some people nervous though.
Once you’ve found the car you want and have a plan of attack for finding the best deal, there are several more questions to answer—is it better to buy the car or lease it? My wife is a pro at saving money, so we were able to pay cash for the Pilot. (That check for 27 grand is the biggest I’ve ever written!) Financing is a whole other issue we didn’t have to deal with. We have dozens of links to help you with both of these issues though. Then there’s insurance, selling your old vehicle and getting the license. Our links will help you with all of that.
We had a great experience buying our car and want to help you have the same.