My new truck

microAmp

Diamond Member
Jul 5, 2000
5,988
110
106
Been reading the garage forum here since it opened up. Found out about Carfax.com and Edmunds.com's Hidden Salesman story from here. I also used Bloomberg calculators to give me a ball park idea of what my payments were going to be, estimating trade-in value of my old truck, buying price, and borrowing interest. Crunching numbers really helped me when I went into the fiance office.

This is what I got for $18,500, 24k miles.
2007 F-150 Super Crew

This is the old truck I had for 10 years.
1999 GMC 1500
See my thread of it here.
They gave me $2k for that GMC. :)

Not really required to read below, just sharing information for any future buyers.
This is where using the calculator a lot paid off:
I wanted a 4 year loan, which would put me in the $225 payment range, I knew I had good credit, 800+ on all 3 reporting companies before I bought my house almost 2 years ago, probably close to that number now, I never did check though.

Fiance guy told me a 5 year loan at 5.9% would be $230-240, I forget now. Which didn't sound right at all. When he changed it to a 48 month loan it jumped to $270, now of course that really doesn't make sense. I come to find out, he added a $1,500 extended warranty, while I tried to haggle with that, it didn't happen so I told him to remove it. His happiness became -1. He proceeded to tear off the copy and slowly write the word 'VOID'. :)

I had told him my bank, Chase, is running 5.25% and would prefer to go with them instead of 5.9%, he busted out a book and said he couldn't "find that low of a number." He called the loan company and they dropped it to 5.29%, good enough for me.

I asked him if there were anymore padding to that and said no.

So documents were starting to be signed. I kept an eye out for any dollar amounts on the documents. He presented one for some kind of theft protection and I saw $199, inquired about it and figured it he was padding on the price. Told him to remove it, happiness level -2.

Unfortunately for him he already printed out the main document, vehicle price, loan interest, trade-in, and the "theft protection" $199. He had to tear that up, happiness -3, he printed again, messed something up on the 2nd print out, -4, and again..., -5, 4th time was good.
End of story

Thanks ATG and that truck does park in my garage, with 2" or 3" to spare. :D Did a test drive with another truck like that to see if it would actually fit.
 

AmigaMan

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
3,644
1
0
Nice truck but it needs 4WD. Good job on the negotiating though, that's a pretty good price. Have fun with it!
 
Oct 19, 2000
17,860
4
81
Nice looking truck!! When I get a new vehicle in the next few months, I'm really going to look at hard at some trucks, depending on what I can afford.
 

microAmp

Diamond Member
Jul 5, 2000
5,988
110
106
Originally posted by: zoiks
I just got approved at Penfed for 3.9%

I think I just got owned. :D Nice rate though!

Originally posted by: AmigaMan
Nice truck but it needs 4WD. Good job on the negotiating though, that's a pretty good price. Have fun with it!

Yeah, 4WD would be nice but I don't need it, and avoid the iced up roads whenever it happens around here, then there is lower MPG too.

Originally posted by: peritusONE
Nice looking truck!! When I get a new vehicle in the next few months, I'm really going to look at hard at some trucks, depending on what I can afford.

Good luck, I originally started off looking for single cabs 2007-2008 with V8, only 3 in a 50 mile radius with under 30k miles. Expanding that out to 100 miles only revealed a few more, most of them were white work trucks, lacking power windows, locks, CD/MP3, which I really wanted. GMC truck had manual windows, power locks AM/FM (later installed CD).

It was slim pickings for single cabs, even including Chevy and GMC into the mix. Choose Ford because I'm just tired of looking at Chevy style, wanted something different.
 

AmigaMan

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
3,644
1
0
Originally posted by: microAmp
Originally posted by: AmigaMan
Nice truck but it needs 4WD. Good job on the negotiating though, that's a pretty good price. Have fun with it!

Yeah, 4WD would be nice but I don't need it, and avoid the iced up roads whenever it happens around here, then there is lower MPG too.

Heh, I thought the same when I bought by Tacoma PreRunner (2WD). But after getting stuck in wet grass when towing my pop-up camper I've come to realize that 4WD is a necessity for me.

The annoying thing is my wife repeatedly asked if I wanted to get the 4WD Tacoma when we were buying the one I have now. I said I'd never use it and didn't want to pay extra for it. She constantly rubs it in my face as I've now been rescued by a rusted out Nissan Frontier 4x4 with bald tires and a John Deere riding lawn mower. Next truck WILL have 4WD if nothing else!
 

dainthomas

Lifer
Dec 7, 2004
14,936
3,915
136
Originally posted by: AmigaMan
Originally posted by: microAmp
Originally posted by: AmigaMan
Nice truck but it needs 4WD. Good job on the negotiating though, that's a pretty good price. Have fun with it!

Yeah, 4WD would be nice but I don't need it, and avoid the iced up roads whenever it happens around here, then there is lower MPG too.

Heh, I thought the same when I bought by Tacoma PreRunner (2WD). But after getting stuck in wet grass when towing my pop-up camper I've come to realize that 4WD is a necessity for me.

The annoying thing is my wife repeatedly asked if I wanted to get the 4WD Tacoma when we were buying the one I have now. I said I'd never use it and didn't want to pay extra for it. She constantly rubs it in my face as I've now been rescued by a rusted out Nissan Frontier 4x4 with bald tires and a John Deere riding lawn mower. Next truck WILL have 4WD if nothing else!

My 2WD Tundra got around fine in the big snow and ice storm we had in Portland in December. I did have to have chains on for several days, but so did almost everyone even with 4WD.
 

halik

Lifer
Oct 10, 2000
25,696
1
81
Haha I hope you didn't buy the TrueCoat... i would've walked out on him long time ago.

Not a bad rate considering, I think my credit union used car loan is 4.5 or 4.75
 

Saga

Banned
Feb 18, 2005
2,718
1
0
You didn't buy a Chrysler and you got a smoking deal.

From the forums #1 GM fanboy, I say you did great. :thumbsup:
 

Pacfanweb

Lifer
Jan 2, 2000
13,158
59
91
OP, maybe I missed something, but: You say your payment is in the 240-ish range? And the truck cost 18,5k and you financed 16,5k after they gave you 2k for your old truck, right?

15k divided by 48 is over 300 a month, so how are you UNDER 300 at 16,5k plus interest?

edit: Even at 60 months, 16,5k is 270 a month with no interest. You must have put some money down in addition to the trade. No other way to get the payment that low.
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,688
2,811
126
Nice truck! I had similar experience with the finance guy with my last car purchase. He tried to sneak in bunch of junk fees like doc, alarm, and other BS several times. I had made the deal over the phone with the salesman and what should've been easy 30 minute transaction turned into like hour and half. Luckily the interest rate was 0% so it made it easier to spot the BS stuff. I think we went through like 5 different copies too.
 

Strk

Lifer
Nov 23, 2003
10,197
4
76
Originally posted by: dainthomas
Originally posted by: AmigaMan
Originally posted by: microAmp
Originally posted by: AmigaMan
Nice truck but it needs 4WD. Good job on the negotiating though, that's a pretty good price. Have fun with it!

Yeah, 4WD would be nice but I don't need it, and avoid the iced up roads whenever it happens around here, then there is lower MPG too.

Heh, I thought the same when I bought by Tacoma PreRunner (2WD). But after getting stuck in wet grass when towing my pop-up camper I've come to realize that 4WD is a necessity for me.

The annoying thing is my wife repeatedly asked if I wanted to get the 4WD Tacoma when we were buying the one I have now. I said I'd never use it and didn't want to pay extra for it. She constantly rubs it in my face as I've now been rescued by a rusted out Nissan Frontier 4x4 with bald tires and a John Deere riding lawn mower. Next truck WILL have 4WD if nothing else!

My 2WD Tundra got around fine in the big snow and ice storm we had in Portland in December. I did have to have chains on for several days, but so did almost everyone even with 4WD.

Chains make a bit of a difference. A lot of us can't even use them.
 

Sluggo

Lifer
Jun 12, 2000
15,488
5
81
Originally posted by: microAmp

This is the old truck I had for 10 years.
1999 GMC 1500
See my thread of it here.
They gave me $2k for that GMC. :)


Well, thats depressing news. That pretty much means my 99 Silverado has exactly $0 trade-in value. :(

I always have the part-out value to fall back on. :)
 

microAmp

Diamond Member
Jul 5, 2000
5,988
110
106
Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
OP, maybe I missed something, but: You say your payment is in the 240-ish range? And the truck cost 18,5k and you financed 16,5k after they gave you 2k for your old truck, right?

15k divided by 48 is over 300 a month, so how are you UNDER 300 at 16,5k plus interest?

edit: Even at 60 months, 16,5k is 270 a month with no interest. You must have put some money down in addition to the trade. No other way to get the payment that low.

Sorry, I did leave out my down payment, $8000, payment is almost $225, few pennies shy of that. 6.25% is tax rate in Texas. Borrowed is around $9.6k.

I think I left out this too, the loan is 48 months 5.29% interest. <doh>
 

Trashman

Platinum Member
Jan 31, 2000
2,040
0
0
Been a chevy/gm fan for last 20 some yrs... have a '99 chevy myself, not a big fan of style change gm has done though over the yrs. next trk will probably be a ford.
The '09 f-150 with floor shifter is sweet.
 

Pacfanweb

Lifer
Jan 2, 2000
13,158
59
91
Originally posted by: Trashman
Been a chevy/gm fan for last 20 some yrs... have a '99 chevy myself, not a big fan of style change gm has done though over the yrs. next trk will probably be a ford.
The '09 f-150 with floor shifter is sweet.

As long as you don't enjoy lots of leg room, it is.