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Ironically, after having this discussion yesterday, I was rear ended by some dude in a bigass van on the way home from work last night.Luckily he didn't hit me very hard and all I could see was a tiny scratch on the plastic bumper, though. So no harm, no foul. Also, dude actually pulled over and apologized. I can't believe that happened. I've lost count of how many times I've seen a fender bender and both cars are just like "OH SHIT" and cheese it because they obviously don't have valid licenses and/or insurance.

I didn't make a single call when I used FC. Just email. I worked from a template. Much faster. Good way to track responses as well.good luck.

I am in the process of calling dealers using the fighting chance method right now! Pretty early on and only 3 dealerships talked to, and I am still getting the hang of the phone calls. I hate talking on the phone, but I hate going to car dealerships even more, so I guess this is better. The last guy I talked to seemed pretty stoked when I explained that I am totally buying a car from someone in the next few days.Wish me luck!Oh and nobody answered jurgis rudkus' question (sorry 'bout that) but fightingchance is just for new cars.

I thought about doing it that way, but the packet they sent me said that they just started suggesting you talk to someone on the phone first and explain what's up because dealers get inundated with email requests from edmunds.com and all of those sites these days. Only one flaky "we don't do out the door price" guy, and I was in the middle of saying "no thanks then" when he backpedaled. Still going to avoid that dealer, but it was funny to hear him squirm over the phone. Douche.So far I've had several quotes, all below invoice. On a CR-V, one of the most popular cars out there. So far so good!

The best offer I got was about 750 below dealer invoice. Not bad for a super popular car that was just redesigned this model year. Also some dudes keep calling me back trying to nickel and dime a lower offer than that but I don't want to renege on the offer I said I would take unless they are assholes about the trade-in. Going after work to hopefully pick up my new car! And of course I just realized after all of the careful research, negotiations, cleaning out the old car, etc etc, today I drove all the way out to the burbs for work and forgot my fucking check book. SonofaBITCH. Guess I'm going to be putting 60 extra miles on the odometer before trading it in.

Deal complete. Came so close to walking out of the dealership over their lowball offer for my trade-in. To the point where I actually stood up and said I was going to leave if they didn't raise their offer by $2k. It worked and they did and I think I got a pretty good deal.Man, even using the fightingchance.com method, you still have to deal with so much car dealership bullshit. Like sitting through a 10 minute schpiel about rust proofing while repeatedly saying "I don't want that. Not interested. Not going to pay for that. No." And not only is the car going to rust all to hell if you don't do that, but you're an absolute moron for not spending $1600 extra on an extended warranty because the computers are all going to shit the bed asap on what is probably one of the most reliable car brands on the goddamn market. I finally had enough and was like "so I'm confused, should I not buy a Honda? Is it going to break down on the way home, dude?" then he acted all pissed off and finished the paperwork.Sorry for the rant but seriously, fuck dealerships. Not planning on buying another car for a while now. Thanks for the tips, tmidgett et. al!

BadComrade wrote:Big John wrote:I know of two accidents where people in cars died because they were behind trucks with ladders and construction gear in front of them that stopped short and the materials were not tied down and shot out of the back of the truck.How are construction materials that are moving forward with a vehicle going to go in the opposite direction as they had been going when the vehicle they're in stops short? That's like saying you have an apple on the roof of your car, slam on the brakes, and it rolls down the back window instead of the front...Loose cargo keeps going when the vehicle stops. Hits vehicle (back of cab, say), rebounds off vehicle, comes off the back.My dad nearly bit it when this happened with a logging truck in MT. No time to think.

tbone wrote:Man, even using the fightingchance.com method, you still have to deal with so much car dealership bullshit. Like sitting through a 10 minute schpiel about rust proofing while repeatedly saying "I don't want that. Not interested. Not going to pay for that. No." And not only is the car going to rust all to hell if you don't do that, but you're an absolute moron for not spending $1600 extra on an extended warranty because the computers are all going to shit the bed asap on what is probably one of the most reliable car brands on the goddamn market. I finally had enough and was like "so I'm confused, should I not buy a Honda? Is it going to break down on the way home, dude?" then he acted all pissed off and finished the paperwork.Sorry for the rant but seriously, fuck dealerships. Not planning on buying another car for a while now. Thanks for the tips, tmidgett et. al!Whenever you do it again, you can put right in the quote request that you aren't interested in rustproofing or paint protection or any other add-ons and you don't want to talk about it at the dealership. Cleans all that stuff out. I didn't do it the first time, had to deal with spiel, but the other two times I headed it off.No avoiding haggle on trade-in--you just have to be ready not to trade it in and sell it on your own. sounds like you did fine there?Extended warranty sometimes makes sense if you can get a really good deal on it. I got one on a car when they were desperate to sell them to meet a quota and did it for half price--the warranties are commodities just like the cars.Anyway. Glad it worked out!

RE: Undercoating/RustproofingI kind of agree about today's cars not really needing it depending on circumstances and materials but I will say I have owned 4 different vintage VW's in my life, all from Illinois and all rusted underneath except for my last one, a blue '74 Bug. It was relatively rust free because the original owner back in 1974 bought the undercoating. It added to it's overall vintage market value because rust free VW's, espeically underneath, are basiclly extinct in the midwest. I was very happy about it. The best Bug I ever owned.

Out of curiosity, why not get the rustproofing? Is it because you don't plan to keep the car long enough for rust to become an issue or because the rustproofing from the dealership is bad and/or overpriced and you're gonna go get it Ziebart'd somewhere else? I would think with the super abusive salt-laden winters we have here that rustproofing would be something you would want