All the dealers within a 150 mile radius of me are out of 2015 models with CVT. How far would you travel to purchase the car you are looking for? Maybe I should just wait for the 2016. My local dealer explained to me that 2016's will be sold at MSRP when they start arriving.

 

Aren't any of these dealers willing to locate the car you want at another dealer? When I was ready to buy, my local dealer didn't have an EX MT in white, so they found one at another dealer 200 miles away and traded for it.

 

I bought two new Toyotas in suburban DC, almost 700 miles from home, through the Internet. The first was a Scion XB that was being sold below invoice vs MSRP everywhere else. The second was a 2010 Corolla, a leftover after a design change, neglected maybe because it didn't have Bluetooth (cutting edge at the time). A few weeks after I bought it I saw a Carmax ad for the same car, price was $800 more than I paid. If their chain sold Honda I would have given serious thought to buying a Fit one there.

I had to make pretty sure the cars were OK before I left because I couldn't go back; that worried me but turns out it didn't matter. I also took my time on the way back and did some unorthodox driving to break them in. And let's face it, a big part of my decision was just for the adventure aspect, the trips out on the Greyhound offer an interesting slice of life and I really enjoy long car trips. Most people wouldn't put up with all that but I had fun.

 

My dealer drove for six hours to deliver the car to my door. I did the whole order over the phone, and the new car arrived the next business day.

 

> 700 miles from home, through the Internet...


Did you deal directly with the dealer or through a service? How do you settle on a price before leaving home?

 

I bet they did and I bet they are hoping. Did you offer to order one at a discount? It will all depend on local supply and demand when they have them.

 

It was a one-price dealer (fitzmall.com), take it or leave it. I did A TON of research and couldn't find any downside but even then my wife thought it was a scam. Dealer fedexed papers, I signed and fedexed back next day with down payment check. Part of the reason why price was so compelling was because fitzmall charged no fee for XB because I paid cash and $99 for the Corolla because I financed at zero percent. I tried to get others around home to match the price only and was wiling to eat the fees but no one would come close. I saved nearly $1k on each deal, little less on the XB and little more on the Corolla even after bus/metro fares and gas/tolls. It was a lot to go through to save $1k but like I said I treated it like an adventure.

 

Yeah, right, until the next dealer sells them for a bit less! It's call a "free market!"

You probably don't want to be eager to buy the first '16 that hits the dealer because they will ream you and pocket the desperation money. Give it a couple of months and after a few cars build up on the lot the prices will come down.