Ensuring that you don’t get screwed on the price when you buy a new car has always been tricky, given that car salesmen are infamously loose with facts.
Here to level the playing field is TrueCar, an auto research site that provides comprehensive, up-to-date new car sale price reports based on local transactions, arming you for future negotiations.
To start, select a make and enter your zip code. The site shows you all the popular models of a given brand, then lists the average sticker price and fuel economy.
Once you select a trim package and options you click “price report,” and this is where the site's calculations really start.
The first thing you’ll see is a bell curve that shows you the range of prices along with a range that tells you what qualifies as a great price, a good price and an exorbitant price.
They calculate the True Cost (an estimate of what a dealer paid for the car, including all the discounts and holdbacks; this number is usually less than the factory invoice) and True Average (the average cost of a car in your zip code, your region and the country as a whole).
There’s also a historical graph that shows you fluctuations in the average price over time.
But the best piece of data is the “Lowest Certified Price,” which gives you the lowest price available in your area, along with data on the dealers that sell the car at that price.
Then you print the page, take it to the dealer and they sell the car—at that price. No haggling. No fibs.
Civility (and transparency) have finally reached the showroom floor.
