Buying a new car

So we are looking at buying a new car. I'm just wondering how much movement dealers have in the price? Trying to get the salesman to tell us a price is like :wall:. Looking up on carsales, there is a huge variation for the exact same thing. We are looking at a corolla ascent. We haven't decided between auto & manual. The toyota website has the driveaway price as $24,243 for a manual & $26,303 for an auto. On carsales, there are some more than this and others as low as $21,000 (manual) & $22,850 (auto) - again this is the driveaway price. Does this mean they will go even lower?

Any advice or experiences welcome :)

Also, auto or manual???? I miss driving a manual, but it has been so long since I've driven one, I don't have the confidence I used to have. It probably wouldn't take long to get used to it again. I didn't find the test drive car too difficult. DH is leaning towards auto I think because he noticed I lacked confidence. Looking long term, I would like to have a manual to teach the kids in. Very long term lol! I do expect we will keep this car for that long. But most likely we will need to upgrade our other car before then so we could get auto this time & manual next time.

Are you talking brand new? I think dealers have limited bargaining power on new, but can do more if you've got a trade etc. Otherwise, from my experience they've got a fair bit of movement in what they can do with extras. Still, its the old "don't ask don't get" so I wouldn't be afraid to push for a much lower price if that's what you've seen online.

As for auto or manual, if you want a manual then go for it. I loaned my car to my folks last year when they had visitors over from the UK and took Mum's. I've always driven a manual until I bought my current car in 2007, which is an auto. It took about 3 minutes before it felt completely natural driving a manual again so I'm sure you'd fall back into it in no time. I actually enjoy driving, so I miss having a manual too.

I have never owned an auto car so I'd go with manual.

No idea on new car pricing but if you've seen the prices on Carslaes then mention it to your sales person, they might match it.

Lots of good nearly new toyotas sell at the government auctions. We bought out newest car there, it's rock solid and very low kms. Several thousand cheaper than via a dealer.

we were able to negotiate $5000 off the driveaway price of our new honda civic and have them throw in free tinting and metallic paint :lol:

my advice is to tell them that you are serious about buying and that you are looking at other dealerships. be ruthless as depreciation on cars is mammoth, so no need to waste money on a price that they can do better on IMHO.