Rich's Tongfamily (Richtong.net add-on)

What do you do when an MDX gets 12mpg in the city and 14mpg average. Seems like everyone I know is trying to figure this out. A Highlander (OK, but the third seat is way too crowded and it is a bit noisy). For true econo-cars, 2007 Prius and the Option 6 package is kind of amazing. Two years ago you couldn’t get leather or anything, but the base package. Now the price goes from $21K to $30k, but you can get leather and everything. When you are trying to buy something like this though, it doesn’t seem like there is a good guide anywhere on how to shop for cars online:

# Scion. If you can, don’t buy from the Toyota side of the house. Its too bad the Prius doesn’t have an equivalent on the Scion side. Like Saturn, these folks just have a single price. I love it
# “Costco”:http://costcoauto.com. Last year, Costco didn’t have either the Prius or the Camry Hybrid on the list, but if it is, then you get a no haggle contracted price that is $500-1000 above the invoice. Super easy, you just fill it in the form and then someone contacts you on the web.
# “Autoland”:http://www.firsttechcu.com/auto_center/auto_buying_service/auto_autoland.html. If you belong to a credit union, then you can use Autoland.com to connect and do the same kind of buying service.
# “Ebay”:http://motors.listings.ebay.com/_W0QQa10239ZQ2d24QQa10244ZQ2d24QQa38v1yZQQa38v2yZQQa39Z1981QQa39705ZQ2d24QQa41Z12385QQalistZa39Q2ca41Q2ca38v1yQ2ca38v2yQ2ca10239Q2ca3801Q2ca85Q2ca10246Q2ca33512Q2ca10241Q2ca10244Q2ca39705QQcatrefZC6QQcoactionZcompareQQcoentrypageZsearchQQcopagenumZ1QQflsoZ1QQfposZ98004QQfposZ98004QQfposZ98004QQfromZR2QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ9QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQgcsZ13QQpf_queryZQQpfidZ2473QQpfmodeZ1QQreqtypeZ2QQsacatZQ2d100QQsaprchiZQQsaprcloZQQsatitleZQQsbrsrtZlQQsocmdZListingItemList If you don’t mind a used one, eBay often times has good deals. At a minimum a search will tell you what the street price is. For instance, the Option 6 Prius 2007 is available in Arizona for $27K so at least you get some idea of the price
# “Dealer Cost”
# Haggling. Well, if you don’t have any of these options, then you are left with haggling. First figure out the true dealer cost. Don’t get those dealer installed options, if they want you to have it, then by definition you don’t need it. Go to “Toyota”:http://www.toyota.com/byt/pub/setStartOptions.do?seriesCategory=11&zipHolder=&modelId=&zipCode=98004 and figure out the true list price of the car. The dealers really like to obscure this and by the way for the car we are looking at it is $29,344 without tax
# “Motor Trend”:http://www.motortrend.com/cars/2007/toyota/prius/pricing/. These guys have the prices, it shows that the base price of $22,175 has an invoice of $20,419 and the Touring version is $23,070 with a base of $21,171, so there is 8% margin built in to these cars. This does not include the destination charge.

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