Customer Reviews

Don't Get Taken Every Time: The Ultimate Guide to Buying or Leasing a Car, in the Showroom or on the Internet

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

...I spent 16 years in the car business both as a factory representative and as part owner of a dealership. When people find this out they ask how to get the best deal on a vehicle purchase. I tell them to read "Don't Get Taken Every Time."... if I had read this book when I was in the automobile business and knew that it was out there and accessable to the average car buyer, it would have frightened me. Indeed, you will probably never see this book reviewed in your local newspaper or in most other media because they depend so much on dealer advertising that most are afraid of what might happen to their advertising revenues if they publicized this book. ... Remar Sutton's book can give you the preparation that it takes to even the playing field and take control of the buying situation. Back in my days in the business I have been in the exact situation that Killer and his manager experience in Chapter 10 when they confront a car buying couple who have done their homework. The only thing that a dealer can do in this situation is make a modest profit as opposed to nothing and move on to the next customer. I will admit that some of Suton's stories of Killer and the American Family Friends dealership chain are a little extreme and not typical of every dealership, but most people would be surprised to know how close to the truth these seeming fanciful tales are. Sit back and enjoy the stories as you learn the underlying basic principals of being a smart car buyer. This book will not only save you money; it has the potential to make buying your next vehicle fun!

Remar Sutton with coy charm, and an acid pen, takes you on a SERIOUS ride into the mysterious world in which most consumer people know little (or even worse think they know a lot). Buying a car.

I bought this book while researching for my first new car, and while I found numerous tricks before through some websites, this book had everything and more. Dealer tricks, tips, how to finance, understanding the lingo, and knowing most importantly what YOU need.

The book is written in a very logical style, and goes through a hypothetical situation of the ultimate care salesmen nicknamed 'Killer Monsoon'. With Killer in tow, Suton creates a world that is massively informative and entertaining to the reader. You are followed through the day as Killer rips off, people and moves like a shark with stealth pray all the while, you the reader learn how to beat his (and the dealerships) secrets. This how to manual is hardly boring, always fascinating, and enjoyable (yet frightning) to read. I bought this book with the intention of reading it for a 2 week vacation period, but started reading it before I left and COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN! I finished it in about 4 days. And that's the joy of this book, besides its massive amount of information it is never dull or confusing to read, but majorly entertaining as Remar creates every scenario you may face when shopping for a new/used vehicle.

I can't wait to use the knowledge in this book to my advantage I've never been so excited about what I know and what others don't about the whole dealership experience. Suddenly terms as 'water' at a dealership, and 'in the bucket' will keep you empowered.

DO NOT BUY A CAR WITHOUT READING THIS BOOK FIRST!!!!! GET IT NOW!!!

If you don't mind giving your money away, don't read this book but if you're sick and tired of being confused, intimidated and feeling inferior, this book is all about EMPOWERMENT. I agree with the previous reviewer, this book makes you ill reading about car salesman strategies and tactics but when you figure out their game, it's fun to turn the tables and see THEM squirm. Don't forget to do your internet research on car invoice pricing too. That's more arsenal in your pocket! I'm a female car buyer who was robbed on her first car (must be a rite of passage or something) but now feels SOOOO confident about shopping for a car that I don't need to bring my husband along as a "bodyguard". I am shopping for car right now and I have seen every trick described in this book used on me. It's actually funny to see what they'll do next.

I looked at a number of automotive buying books before selecting this one. I give the book 5+ stars for overall readibility and a superb content presentation. The author takes you through the (we only wish) fictional days of a car salesman affectionately named "Killer Monsoon." Killer knows how to manipulate and steal at every opportunity. The author points out strategies of the car salesman and dealership to confuse, trick, manipulate, and steal from customers. It also talks at length at how just giving the dealership your drivers license for a test drive allows them access to matches in their vast databases and your credit information. It's enough to make you think twice about even test driving a car knowing you're credit has been reviewed (without your knowledge) before you even open the door.

A fascinating read for insight into the mind of the salesman and required reading if you are even remotely considering engaging in a transaction involving a car.

This book provides some good information on buying cars, and many of the tips suggested are spot on. But when it comes to the role of computers and the Internet in this equation, the author really needs to do more research for the next edition of this book. I work for one of the bigger online car-buying sites as well as providing support for car dealerships in getting their inventory online, and I thought it important to clear the air about a few things.
First of all, the way the author presents things, you would think that if you were to visit autotrader.com (or a similar site) with cookies turned on, suddenly every dealer in town knows your life history. But I'm here to tell you that these sites aren't nearly that sophisticated, and neither are the dealers. In fact, some dealers still keep their car inventory on Excel spreadsheets! And for the ones that do have some sort of server for managing inventory and sales, many of them don't even know how to use them beyond the basic essentials. In fact, I myself know more about these systems than do most dealers, and I've never personally worked with any of them. Trust me when I say that, contrary to what this book will tell you, dealers (or at least none of the ones I've seen) don't have some elaberate network of supercomputers to track your every move online. Heck, most of them could barely manage a Google search on their own :)
In fact, as far as the web is concerned, dealers won't pay attention to you unless you actually go online and fill out a form requesting a price quote or further information about a car, and then they only have as much data as you give them. Once you fill out the form, your request for information goes into a 'lead management tool' (one of these I also provide support for), which is little more than an Outlook-style web interface where dealers can track their dealings with you. For example, they can log any email, phone, or personal meetings, etc that they have with you, along with reminders of appointments to test drive a car and other important events. But my question to you is, since you have obviously expressed an interest in one or more of their vehicles, why WOULDN'T they want to keep a log of their correspondance with you? It's not like they're going to sell the information. In fact, as soon as the correspondance ends (either in you buying a car or doing business somewhere else), they'll either mark you as 'sold' or 'dead' respectively and that's pretty much the end of it, untl/unless you write them again. In fact, the worst that can happen is you may get occassional spam from the dealer (something I'm not particularly happy that dealers do) about sales events and such, and you can even opt out of those.

All that being said, even with the advent of car-buying websies, the best way to get a good deal on a car is still to go to the dealership and haggle (and this book will show you how to do that). If you do buy a car online without ever having visited a dealership, you're going to pay way more than you should 99% of the time. I have the luxury of seeing both the sticker and invoice prices on cars for many dealerships and it's not uncommon to see them differ by thousands of dollars. A tip I'd like to share with you (and I don't think this is in the book) is that if you find a particular option or color on a car that the dealership doesn't have, even if you're willing to live without that option or color, tell the dealer that you MUST have said item and tell them it's a deal-breaker if you can't get it. You'd be amazed at how fast the price comes down :) Oh, and if you want to get the extended warranty, NEVER do so at the price they quote you. I was able to get $800 knocked off the price without even expending any effort.

In short, though most of these websites may be crap, don't let this book scare you into looking around if you wish. This is especially true for auto manufacturer websites, as looking on these sites will give you a lot of useful information about the car, such as what options come with various model packages. The only thing you need to concern yourself with is that I would STRONLY advise NOT using Internet Explorer as your primary web browser (try Firefox or Opera if you are on Windows). The reason why is not because of anything specifically to do with looking for cars online; it's just that IE is a very insecure browser and you're potentially putting yourself at risk every time you use it. See here for more info:

[...]

When I was planning to buy a new car I purchased several books on the subject and found that this was the best one by far.

I had planned to buy a new car but right off the bat Remar Sutton convinced me to buy a used car instead. I realized that if I were willing to learn the used car buying skills in the book, I could save thousands of dollars and still get a great car that had many years of use left in it. However, if you are intent on buying or leasing a new car this book has all the information you'll need.

First I read only the sections that I felt pertained to purchasing a used car from a dealer. I skipped the fictional accounts of "Killer Monsoon," the hotshot salesman at a typical dealer, which are sprinkled throughout the book. However, after I had read and re-read the pertinent sections of the book, I went back and read about "Killer Monsoon" and his cohorts and I'm glad I did. While negotiating at the dealership, I realized that these accounts are certainly not fiction. The salesman and managers I met behaved almost exactly as Killer Monsoon and his cohorts. Many times I was able to predict their behavior because I'd seen it before in the book.

In no way is this book "hyperactive fiction." The book is filled with hard facts and solid advice. The fictional accounts are a small percentage of the book and are all easy to identify and skip over if you want to. However, I suggest that you read them because they will give you a valuable "fly-on-the-wall" understanding of what goes on behind the scenes at the dealer.

Sutton covers all the planning, research, terminology and dealer ploys you need to know about to buy or lease a car with the confidence that you will get the best deal possible.

Interesting to see one revieweer want to give this book zero stars, and then see he/she is a car dealer themselves! Of course, that makes sense!

I bought an earlier edition of this book some years ago when I was shopping for a new car. I can't express enough about how many of the tactics Mr. Sutton exposes were in fact played upon me. Had I not read the book first I could have been a victim rather than a victor. The sales manager tried to tell me the door/fender moulding is put on all their cars and that I'd be happy they were there (and happy to pay something like $250 extra for the privledge). I enjoyed toying with him in my own way and stated that "....hmmm, you're right I will be happy they are on there..." (he smiles), then I said, "....but I'm not asking for them ." He stopped smiling. I did not have to pay one penny for any extra that was added to the car to which I did not request. And I was very willing to walk out of the dealership when I stayed firm on my price (making only one counter offer) and the salesman wasn't ready to agree to. I seriously doubt the salesman was so good an actor that he faked the pale expression as I started to get up. I would have indeed left the showroom. The salesman excused himself, and upon returning told me I got the car at the price I offered. This is just a portion of my own car buying experience, and I cannot say enough positive things about how Mr. Sutton's book helped. When the time comes to buy another car I will look for an updated version of the book just to be sure I don't miss a thing.

If you want to be in control in a car buying situation, read this book. Period.

I first read this book back in 1985 when I bought a Mazda 626. Got it for exactly 3% over the dealer's invoice, and this was before the day when they'd share that very readily. I've bought several cars over the years with the knowledge I've gained from this book and I've NEVER felt taken. The sources of data are even better now than they were in 1985, so you can make sure you're not taken ever. What I've found is that as soon as the dealers know you know their cost and what's a fair price, you get a great deal fast. It's also one of the most entertaining books I've ever read that was teaching me something. Some of the best money you'll ever spend because it will pay you back 100 fold.

If you are buying a car you need to get this book. The price of the book is nothing compared to what it will save you! The book saved me an additional $700 on the best price the dealer had offered me which was $1,100 off his asking price, for a total savings of $1800!

Not only did I save money, I got the car that I wanted, not the car that the salesman and manager wanted me to buy!

Knowing now what I learned from this book, I would have paid over $100 for for this book!

I like how the book had "stories" to illustrate the points. that made it much easier to visualize.

the previous edition was the first one I got. I have saved a lot of cash using the stuff from his books. if you have ever paid sticker warning you WILL throw this book because you are upset over costing yourself money. car dealer are not evil but simply want to make money. they are sophisticated at their craft and you need to be READY to deal or part with money that you don't need to spend. this book is an eye opener. I loan it out and it NEVER comes back. so I am getting a new copy (my fourth).