Customer Reviews

What Car Dealers Don't Want You to Know

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book provides very helpful tips on bargaining for a car, and does so in an easy-to-understand, easy-to-follow manner. The author starts with an insider's look at how car dealerships (which always look like dungeons to me) are structured and how they make money and how they are out to extract as much profit from you, the customer, as possible. Then he dispenses some of the best advice I've seen on how to get the best price on a car. BTW, I'm an avid Consumer Reports subscriber, and the info in this book is even better than the guide put out by the good people at CR.

Some of the most useful information I found in the book includes starting your offer at one thousand *below* invoice, not at invoice as Consumer Reports suggests; why Saturn's no-haggle policy is really a sham; why buying a year-end model doesn't necessarily save you thousands; and the best time of year, month and day to buy. Whether you buy, lease or finance, the author constantly reminds you that getting the best price is the most important step in buying a car.

Every page of this book is filled with helpful and useful tips that *will* save you thousands (unless you are getting a hot rod like the new Honda Pilot where demand exceeds supply). And the author is honestly interested in helping us "little people" fight against slick dealerships and their fleets of lying salesmen. Be sure to get this book before you go into a dealership!

Ok, we all knew that what we were hearing from car dealers was largely baloney. What we lacked was the knowledge to cut through that baloney in an assertive way without having to be unpleasant. That is, until now.

Eskeldson is clearly familiar with the business and goes into a lot of detail. Trade-ins, 'dealer cost', negotiating tactics, 'no-haggle' dealers, financing, extended warranties, sales tricks to look out for, and the various shell games that are typically played with customers' money are exposed in thorough detail. This is a bible of guerrilla auto purchasing tactics that's sure to drive some dealers to drink.

There is no way any auto buyer, especially one who dreads the whole ordeal, should be without this book. I cannot possibly see how it could fail to save you the cover price.

A friend of mine lent me this book over a year ago, before I bought my current car, and it helped me save several thousand (I'm not kidding!) dollars, by instructing me on the steps I had to take to avoid falling in some of the most common traps Car Dealers set up for you during the process of a car purchase.

Unless you don't want to save yourself some headaches and a lot of money, read this book before you buy a new car.

I bought this book before attempting to purchase my first new vehicle. Mr. Eskeldson sheds much light on the inner workings of the auto industry and on the sometimes shady tactics utilized by those who would charge you thousands more than your better-educated peers.

Although this book is not as all-around useful as James Bragg's "Car Buyer's and Leaser's Negotiating Bible" it certainly complements it, and I would recommend reading both before your next car purchase.

This book should be MANDATORY for first time car buyers!!! It opened my eyes to many things. Let's you REALLY know what car dealers don't want you to know. Because of this book I actually decided to go with a car buying service (Car Bargains) to get the best deal on a 2003 model.

This book was extremely helpful and easy to read! A lot of sound advice that gave me confidence about the buying process and dealerships. My first car buying experience was awful and I was taken advantage by the dealership; after reading this book, I believe I took advantage of them!

This book is packed with good readable information on all aspects of buying a car. I knew car salesmen and dealerships were sleazy and this book confirms it. I didn't rate it 5 stars because I felt it lacked detailed information on what dealers really pay for cars. Of course this will vary depending on how much and what kind of units they buy, but surely there are some standards that weren't revealed here. But all the other content scores big and you will learn things you never knew about the business.

This book is informative and arms the customer with practical weapons when buying or leasing a new or used car. It also gives valuable information in buying an extneded warranty or MBI policy; and for those of us who do not have the skills or the desire to negotiate, a whole chapter is dedicated to a buying service that has a great track record in getting your new car just above, and sometimes below, dealer cost. I highly recomend this book to anyone who is planning to shop for a new or used car.

We all know that common sense isn't alway so common. We all also know that car dealers have many tricks up their sleeves and for many of us we'd rather have a tooth pulled out than face a car salesperson. This is an easy to read book that lays out the different tricks that car dealers are up to and how you should go about buying a car. It has a long section about leasing which for me was a bit unnecessary since I would never want leasing, even before reading the book, but reading about leasing here is probably a good wake-up-call for many. It is brief enough to get through in a few hours, and easy to read. Much of what is in the book is just common sense, but common sense isn't always common :-)

Informative and actually using some of the practices in the book to buy a car such as sending out an email to all prospective dealers.