I Girlbossed Too Close to the Sun and Bought a Car

I Said “Deal or No Deal”

Here’s the other thing, too. Every self-help book and “finance guru” has all these things they tell you to do to negotiate, how to be uncompromising, all that jazz. But they never give you any real-world examples of how you can apply this in a conversation or give actual suggestions on what you should ask for. More often than not, you’re sitting at the dealership trying to figure everything out and you don’t have time to peruse the ten self-help books on how to buy a car.

While I certainly don’t think I have all the answers, I wanted to share my experience as a young woman trying to snag a good deal on a car in an environment where buying cars is tough. Hopefully it helps. If not, you at least get to see my new car LOL.

Things to Consider Before Buying

Sounds silly, but have a car in mind. A make, model, what bells and whistles you want, used or new. Some of these facts can help you figure out what tactics you can use to help get a better deal and what actually might hurt your chances. I love MINI Coopers and always want to drive one, so I knew that when I was going to the dealership (Conveniently a MINI Cooper dealership), I would look at MINIs. I knew which model I preferred and what type of features I wanted. Some things are frivolous like a sunroof and heated seats and racing stripes, but if you’re gonna buy something expensive, you might as well pick everything out.

Know what you can live without, too. If there’s only one car on the lot and it doesn’t have two of the five things you absolutely want, are you okay with that? Would you compromise on those features to get a better deal on the vehicle, or would you just wait and get a special order? I’ll go into more detail on this in a bit…

Another thing to consider is the market you’re buying in. 2023 was the year of high interest rates, and used car prices aren’t anything special. Of course dealerships set things up this way so that you buy new, but there are a lot of special packages and incentives for buying a new car on the lot instead of the used one, and those benefits can add up.

Below is what I considered before buying a car:

• My “Dream Car” is a Red MINI Cooper S with white racing stripes. My old MINI was a black MINI with white racing stripes, and he looked sharp when clean. I like the Hardtop style, and considered the pros and cons of getting a two-door MINI versus a four-door hardtop.
• I had to have heated seats and a sunroof.
• My old car had Harman Kardon speakers, and I wanted the same speaker system in the car for those evenings where you’re cruising and jamming out to BTS.
• I wanted the interior to be leatherette, or a leather look. Easier to clean up in case of coffee spills while you’re joy riding. The rims have to look cool. I’m not super picky, but they can’t be too simple looking.
• Since I didn’t have a car payment in the past, I wanted to keep the payment below $300 by putting enough down to get me there. Interest rates can be killer, so the lower, the better. My dad also told me about splitting up the payments in two so that the daily interest accrued on the principal is smaller than what it would be if you just paid once a month. Good to know.

So A Girl Walks Into A Dealership to Get an Oil Change…

Okay so let’s get into the story.I went into the dealership and service center to get my car’s oil changed for the year. This particular dealership is great because I can drop off my car and then get a loaner for the day to run my errands, go to work, everything. And every time my car goes in for a service and then I get a loaner, I love the car I get. It’s always a MINI and the newest models and they drive so well. They have great technology that Brad just didn’t have (he was a 2013 car, had to use an aux cord and didn’t have any navigation capabilities). After picking my car up from service the past 2, 3 times, it left me thinking…

Was now the time to buy a car?

I wasn’t rushing into the dealership to pick out my new set of wheels or anything, but I started saving up, thinking about what I would want to pay every month, what I wanted in a car, and so on.

Coincidentally, when I went to talk with someone at the dealership this time around, there was a year-end deal going on with interest rates with new MINIs on the lot.

And so began my journey.

I wanted to crunch the numbers, so I asked for a bunch of info on one particular car, a four door MINI hardtop, and then I went home to think it over. Thankfully, it was also the holiday season, so I went home and chatted with my parents about negotiation tactics, best practices, and what’s a good deal on a new car.

After the experience, it left me thinking about how many self-help books talk about buying cars, how to negotiate, but there was never a great roadmap that actually showed the thought process of how to negotiate. It’s a very fluid process, but still, the scripts, the suggestions, the “helpful hints” boil down to “Car salespeople are crooks, negotiate to keep as much money in your pocket.”

Yeah, that’s so helpful. Thanks for the tip. Can I have my $12 back for buying this book?

Hopefully some of these tips can actually help you as you think about buying a car, because if you’re trying to do all this on the fly or in person, it can get nerve wracking.

But enough rambling, let’s talk strategy and numbers.

Let’s Set the Scene for Brad 3.0

Most dealership deals are based on the cars they have on the lot, because it’s better for the salesperson to take a car off the lot than special order and whatnot. So, the main cars the dealership showed me were the two models I was interested in that they had available (I was between a two-door and a four-door MINI Hardtop). The cars looked great, had good features that I was looking for (The premium features included Harman Kardon speakers, but that package is typically $5k more than the features package in almost all MINIs).

The biggest concern? They weren’t red.

When I was first at the dealership and actually test drove a car, I tried out a four-door white MINI. I kept that in the back of my mind that they didn’t have the color I wanted, but I still went through the conversation as if I liked the car on the lot. I had the salesperson provide me with some numbers on what it would cost to buy the car or to lease it:

Item	Buy	Lease	Notes
MSRP	$35,800	$35,800	Leasing option: 10,000 miles per year
Rebate	$(1,500)	$(1,500)
Fees	$1,650	$1,650	Fees are primarily the cost of keeping the car on the lot
Car Trade In Value	$(5,000)	$(5,000)
Residual Value (If Leasing)	NA	$20,800 (after 3 year lease)	This is if I wanted to buy the car at the end of the lease, how much left I’d have to pay/finance if I wanted it.
Interest Rate	2.99%		APR deal ended January 2, 2024
Financing Time Period	60	36
Down Payment	$0	$0	Started with $0 down payment option, but I got options for $2k or $4k down, and that obvi brought the price down.
Monthly Financing Amount	$650	$440
Other Benefits			First three oil changes and services are free. 4 year, 50k warranty on the car. 1 year of tire repair protection. If they can’t fix the tire, they will buy a new one. Free car washes for 3 years.

For the four-door, these numbers didn’t surprise me. This is what I typically saw for the price of the car online, but I did appreciate the breakdown of the numbers for financing and leasing the car.

Still, at the end of the day, I wasn’t sold on the car. I liked what I drove currently and it was in good condition. The need to get a new car wasn’t there, so it was easy to walk out of the dealership with just some informational papers in my hand.

⭐ TLDR: The price of the car was what I expected, and while the payments were high for a $0 down option, the interest rate opportunity was really good, considering interest rates as of 2024 are still around 7-8% for cars.

I Headed Home for the Holidays and Did Some Number Crunching

After I went home for Christmas and New Year, I started to talk my dad’s ear off about how to negotiate a good deal on a car. Because even though I didn’t need a new car, the want was starting to creep in. Plus, I thought it would be a good exercise for myself. If things weren’t adding up, I’d just walk away. I owe the salespeople no obligation to say yes just because they put in the time to show me a car. Remember that.

Here were some things that my parents said were things to consider and negotiate for:

• Put two dealerships against each other. I have a dealership where I live, and so do my parents. Why not check things out and see what the others can offer and what they have on their lots? I found some in my hometown that were 2 and 4-door MINIs that were red, good to note.
• For buying a car, the trade in value of your current car and the MSRP are two things you can negotiate on well. More to come on this.
• Ask for fringe benefits that add up over the years. I didn’t know this at the time I was at the dealership, but free car washes are a great perk, or maybe another oil change. The rubber car mats are usually $150, see if they throw those in for free.
• For leasing a car, the residual value is where you can negotiate the most. “You really think this car is worth only $20k after three years?” The higher the residual number, the lower your lease payment will be. If you end up buying the car after the lease, this point may not be helpful, but if you plan to lease for many years and change out the car for a new model, why not challenge the salesperson and ask why they think the car they’re looking to sell isn’t worth more in just three years?
  • I also knew that MINIs hold their value pretty well, there are some used cars that are 3 years old that are close to $30k, so bump up that residual value number if you can.
• They’re going to ask you what your price is. Try to refrain from saying a number until you get more info and do some initial negotiation. What if you say a number and they go with it? Hard to negotiate down after this.
• It’s not a disadvantage to buy a car that’s a little more customized and not on the lot yet, but that may take away some bargaining power you have. They’re doing more favors for you to get the car in and it takes time for the car to get there, plus they still will have a car sitting on their lot.
  • If possible and if you don’t have much of a preference, use the cars on the lot to your advantage. “This isn’t really what I wanted, so if I’m going to get this, it needs to be a good deal.” That’s kind of what I did.

And while I don’t think any of these things would be considered unheard of advice, it’s a good start and helped me wrap my head around this process.

⭐ TLDR: Consider what your negotiation pieces could be. Are you dead set on a particular car? Are you flexible? What’s the magic number?

So…Do We Have A Deal?

It took about a week of back and forth conversations to get somewhere with this deal. I thought about what I wanted and what mattered to me:

• Obviously I wanted a red MINI, but they didn’t have a new one available. And while I wasn’t necessarily in the market for a new car, I had been thinking about it. The newer MINIs drove better than my current one, and the financing piece was actually a really good opportunity given the current interest rate market.
• I was really attached to my car, so if I was going to trade it in, I needed to get a great deal. I pushed for a lower price, ensured that the fringe benefits were a good deal (get three free oil changes/services, get 1 year tire warranty, 50k miles warranty, and free car washes for 3 years).
• Stripes on the car were a must. It just gives the Bradley Cooper a lil extra pizazz in my opinion.

So, I called up the car salesperson, told them what I was feeling, and then mentioned what it would take for me to go with this deal. They went back to their manager, and then when they called me back, we were able to negotiate a bit more and I was able to bring the price of the car around what a gently used MINI is going for right now. It’s still a new car and will have a scheduled payment plan for 83 months, but I got it down to my goal number and was able to walk away happy. Sort of…

This…is the Story of Brad. I Loved Brad. But Then I Traded Brad, for Brad 3.0

I cannot express how much I loved my old car. Brad Jr. was a great car, and he’d been with me everywhere. It was just like that one car insurance commercial, minus the totaling part…

Even though I signed the papers and basically agreed to finance a brand new car, I didn’t feel amazing. Part of the reason was that I was at home with my family, so all this information stewed for days, and it kept me up at night, wondering if I was making the right move or not.

And it felt like I was abandoning Jr.—

I know, I know, stupid to get emotional over a car, but I took great care of him and he became part of the family. It was time to move on, but it’s hard for me to make changes, even if I know the change is good.

But, with the help of my family, I was able to trade in old Brad for New Brad, and after driving him around town for over two weeks, I can safely say I made the right choice. And who knows! Maybe there will be another deal where I can get another new Brad!

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I’ll Make You a Deal. You Like and Follow, and I’ll Stop Rambling on This Post

Hopefully this was somewhat insightful on the inner workings of negotiation tactics for buying a car. Did I do everything right and did I get the car for dirt cheap? No, but I don’t really think that’s the whole point of negotiating. Really, it’s about two parties working together and advocating for their own side until an acceptable deal is brought to the table. It’s hard work and can be stressful, but I do feel very accomplished in what I was able to achieve, especially for my first time negotiating. It’s nice to know that I’m able to stand up for myself and can do so with confidence to make sure I advocate for my own needs.

That’s all she wrote for this one! Thanks for reading this, I hope you enjoyed! If you did, please show your support on this particular post and feel free to peruse my other blog posts. My YouTube channel is also linked below if you care to check that out! Video on this very subject is (Or will be, once it’s uploaded) linked below if you care to view that. Hope y’all have a great day, and I’ll chat with ya in the next one. ✌️