Buying tomorrow, looking for tips.

[Dapper Dan]

Hey guys I'm moving out of my 07 VW GTI into a 2015 GT tomorrow (hopefully) and would like some help with a few details.

here is a link to the one I'll be looking at: https://www.mooreauto.com/used/Ford/...b0c93fa7a1.htm

This is the cheapest Mustang around me, by a lot, and I've been trying to get into a GT for a long time. I've found this has the 50th appearance package, but not much else. It seems to have a "shaker" badge as well as the sync system but I can't get the Window Sticker from Ford's website (seems to be giving me "try again later" over and over) to get what options it had added over the base GT. If anyone could give me some pointers/tips to look at to see what options this car has? Both the local Ford dealers are closed tomorrow (my only day off) as well so I can't decide if I should get an inspection at a 3rd party auto body shop or trust the dealer (Subaru/Jeep Dealer).

Anyway, thanks for any help and I look forward to joining the community!

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[S7N]

It has the premium package and it's not a Performance pack. I'd have them fix that bumper gap to before you buy it.

 

[Dapper Dan]

It has the premium package and it's not a Performance pack. I'd have them fix that bumper gap to before you buy it.

Thanks for the tip, I forgot to mention this is almost 2 hours away from where I live so I haven't been able the check it out in person yet so I'll get a better look at it tomorrow morning.

 

[S7N]

Thanks for the tip, I forgot to mention this is almost 2 hours away from where I live so I haven't been able the check it out in person yet so I'll get a better look at it tomorrow morning.

I would look over the car really good before any impulse purchase being two hours away. Make them show you a car fax as well.

 

[DmanDmythDlegend]

Get the dealer to provide you a history report on the car. Keep in mind though it will only reflect significant claims where a report was produced, more often than not minor claims are not reported by anyone and not captured on these reports. That said, use your eyes, look for indications of repairs like tape lines or color variations. Remember that buying a high mileage car may be cheaper now, but you're going to be confronted with maintenance costs sooner. Check out the tires, make sure they are new or like new or demand some concession on the price. Dont forget you can walk away,in fact, to insure you get a good deal i would make a point of saying that your trip is informational only and baring some extraordinary offer you will need to sleep on it. Good luck!

 

[Dapper Dan]

Get the dealer to provide you a history report on the car. Keep in mind though it will only reflect significant claims where a report was produced, more often than not minor claims are not reported by anyone and not captured on these reports. That said, use your eyes, look for indications of repairs like tape lines or color variations. Remember that buying a high mileage car may be cheaper now, but you're going to be confronted with maintenance costs sooner. Check out the tires, make sure they are new or like new or demand some concession on the price. Dont forget you can walk away,in fact, to insure you get a good deal i would make a point of saying that your trip is informational only and baring some extraordinary offer you will need to sleep on it. Good luck!

This is exactly what I am going to do, I was looking at buying a car in the next 6 months but the tires on my GTI are almost gone and it will take about $600 to replace them. I'm going in with a very specific set of guidelines and if I don't get them all I'll just get my tires replaced and eat that when I eventually decide to get a car in a few months.

 

[13razorbackfan]

The one thing I can tell by looking at the pics is it has rock chips all over the front bumper cover/fascia and the front of the hood. Also its black so in person it's really going to stand out. I'm not sure how much stuff like that bothers you so just thought I'd point it out before you drive 2 hours. I do know right now if you have good credit and a halfway decent paying job you can get approval from Ford Credit and maybe put into tier 1 or even tier 0 and get 72 months 0% interest on a 2019 model on top of whatever discounts off MSRP since it's a 2019 model. Might be able to find a base model GT for around 30 or less in your area. If you were to finance the vehicle you're looking at for 60 months at 5% interest that's almost $2400 right there. So that's a $338 payment per month for 60 or $400 a month at 72 for a brand new base GT IF you can find one near you for right around 29-30k and get a BB warranty in a car you know hasn't been ragged out etc...just food for thought. Where are you located? I'll take a sec and look around your area and see what I can find if you want? You'd be surprised what banks and even Ford would do to get you into a 19 model GT. I put zero down on a 19 with 0% and 72 months with 3 open auto loans before I bought the 19 and Ford still put me into tier 0 to get me into a 19 model GT Premium 401a plus a bunch of other options

 

[Dapper Dan]

I would look over the car really good before any impulse purchase being two hours away. Make them show you a car fax as well.

CarFax is clean, but that doesn't mean much, my current GTI has a clean CarFax but was previously in an accident. It does look like something happened with the front end having such a big bumper gap. As I stated in an earlier reply I've a very specific set of "rules" that I won't compromise on and if everything is not perfect I'll just walk away.

 

[Dapper Dan]

The one thing I can tell by looking at the pics is it has rock chips all over the front bumper cover/fascia and the front of the hood. Also its black so in person it's really going to stand out. I'm not sure how much stuff like that bothers you so just thought I'd point it out before you drive 2 hours. I do know right now if you have good credit and a halfway decent paying job you can get approval from Ford Credit and maybe put into tier 1 or even tier 0 and get 72 months 0% interest on a 2019 model on top of whatever discounts off MSRP since it's a 2019 model. Might be able to find a base model GT for around 30 or less in your area. If you were to finance the vehicle you're looking at for 60 months at 5% interest that's almost $2400 right there. So that's a $338 payment per month for 60 or $400 a month at 72 for a brand new base GT IF you can find one near you for right around 29-30k and get a BB warranty in a car you know hasn't been ragged out etc...just food for thought. Where are you located? I'll take a sec and look around your area and see what I can find if you want? You'd be surprised what banks and even Ford would do to get you into a 19 model GT. I put zero down on a 19 with 0% and 72 months with 3 open auto loans before I bought the 19 and Ford still put me into tier 0 to get me into a 19 model GT Premium 401a plus a bunch of other options

I'm located in Tucson AZ. My Credit isn't amazing but after I get my tax returns (via credit karma) I should be around mid 700s. I make a decent amount of money over 60k but not over 100k. Sorry if I'm not being specific just don't want to give out a ton of info. I didn't think I could get anything near 300. I don't want to spend much over $300/month though and this would be almost nothing down and I'd still possibly get 250/290 per month (72/60).

 

[13razorbackfan]

I'm located in Tucson AZ. My Credit isn't amazing but after I get my tax returns (via credit karma) I should be around mid 700s. I make a decent amount of money over 60k but not over 100k. Sorry if I'm not being specific just don't want to give out a ton of info. I didn't think I could get anything near 300. I don't want to spend much over $300/month though and this would be almost nothing down and I'd still possibly get 250/290 per month (72/60).

Well when dealing with home or auto loans banks and underwriters like Ford Credit don't just look at your score they take all things into consideration like your rent, yearly gross, missed payments etc...so you can't just look at your score but I get what you're saying so the cheapest I can see you getting into a 19 GT new would be $400 a month but if you're wanting to stay at $300 that rules that out however I bet for $20k you can get into a fairly low miles GT base 15-18 model. Take what you want to spend max then add $1500 to that then go to autotrader, cargurus and cars.com and enter in a search radius and minimum year model and $21000 as max price and do some searching. Remember the newer the vehicle the more months you can get and the lower rate as well so a used 17 you can likely get 72 to 84 months at 5% or lower whereas a 15 model you would likely get 60 months at 5% or higher however the longer you finance the more you will pay in overall interest. Just remember to not discuss terms with the dealership AT ALL until you work out the sale price. Go to google and use their auto loan calculator to work out these prices before you allow the dealer to do this. Let us know what you decide.

PS...do all the rock chips bother you? Personally I'd spend a little more and look for a car with a lot less miles and without all the chips. Just my $.02

 

[Dapper Dan]

Well when dealing with home or auto loans banks and underwriters like Ford Credit don't just look at your score they take all things into consideration like your rent, yearly gross, missed payments etc...so you can't just look at your score but I get what you're saying so the cheapest I can see you getting into a 19 GT new would be $400 a month but if you're wanting to stay at $300 that rules that out however I bet for $20k you can get into a fairly low miles GT base 15-18 model. Take what you want to spend max then add $1500 to that then go to autotrader, cargurus and cars.com and enter in a search radius and minimum year model and $21000 as max price and do some searching. Remember the newer the vehicle the more months you can get and the lower rate as well so a used 17 you can likely get 72 to 84 months at 5% or lower whereas a 15 model you would likely get 60 months at 5% or higher however the longer you finance the more you will pay in overall interest. Just remember to not discuss terms with the dealership AT ALL until you work out the sale price. Go to google and use their auto loan calculator to work out these prices before you allow the dealer to do this. Let us know what you decide.

PS...do all the rock chips bother you? Personally I'd spend a little more and look for a car with a lot less miles and without all the chips. Just my $.02

The cheapest manual GT around (~300 miles) other than this one is $24,000 and has about 30k miles and much less in terms of options (no nav, no shaker stereo, no leather) I can't tell from the pictures if those are chips or water from a fresh wash. The seats and the plastic near the shifter/console seem pretty dirty for a car dealership so I don't know if maybe they did a really quick wash job or what. The chips don't bother me an awful lot, but is still concerning paired with the bumper gap. I'm not going to buy it for the sake of buying a "new" (read: different) car but I'm always wanted a Mustang GT and if this one is in decent condition then I'll gladly take some paint chips (I can fix later). The paint chips also might be a haggling method as well. Like I said, if everything is not what I want I'm going to pass and look at a lower milage performance spec in like 6 months.

 

[13razorbackfan]

The cheapest manual GT around (~300 miles) other than this one is $24,000 and has about 30k miles and much less in terms of options (no nav, no shaker stereo, no leather) I can't tell from the pictures if those are chips or water from a fresh wash. The seats and the plastic near the shifter/console seem pretty dirty for a car dealership so I don't know if maybe they did a really quick wash job or what. The chips don't bother me an awful lot, but is still concerning paired with the bumper gap. I'm not going to buy it for the sake of buying a "new" (read: different) car but I'm always wanted a Mustang GT and if this one is in decent condition then I'll gladly take some paint chips (I can fix later). The paint chips also might be a haggling method as well. Like I said, if everything is not what I want I'm going to pass and look at a lower milage performance spec in like 6 months.

I took a few minutes and looked in your area and the cheapest I can see a 17 model is right around $24k, as you mention, before negotiating. If the chips don't bother you and the other gap issues then like you mentioned use that as a bargaining chip. You can say "well it's going to cost me $3-4k to get all that fixed" but don't let them say it's already baked into the price. Nicely disagree with them. What you really need to do is find a comparable car with roughly the same price and print it out and use that as the main negotiating tactic. That's what I always do. While it's not perfect I got 10% off MSRP by simply using that tactic plus I got them to give me full retail on my trade plus I got the zero down and zero percent rate at 72 months. My area, looks like yours as well, seem to be priced fairly high.

 

[Dapper Dan]

I took a few minutes and looked in your area and the cheapest I can see a 17 model is right around $24k, as you mention, before negotiating. If the chips don't bother you and the other gap issues then like you mentioned use that as a bargaining chip. You can say "well it's going to cost me $3-4k to get all that fixed" but don't let them say it's already baked into the price. Nicely disagree with them. What you really need to do is find a comparable car with roughly the same price and print it out and use that as the main negotiating tactic. That's what I always do. While it's not perfect I got 10% off MSRP by simply using that tactic plus I got them to give me full retail on my trade plus I got the zero down and zero percent rate at 72 months. My area, looks like yours as well, seem to be priced fairly high.

I'd just like to say thank you for taking the time to help me figure this out, it really is appreciated. I'll let everyone know tomorrow how it goes. If I can get anything on my trade (120k miles 07 GTI ... with almost no tires lol) I'll be more than happy putting small down payment and rolling out of there at ~$300/month and something I'm more passionate about than my GTI. Maybe it turns into a track car after it gets retired of everyday use!

 

[13razorbackfan]

I'd just like to say thank you for taking the time to help me figure this out, it really is appreciated. I'll let everyone know tomorrow how it goes. If I can get anything on my trade (120k miles 07 GTI ... with almost no tires lol) I'll be more than happy putting small down payment and rolling out of there at ~$300/month and something I'm more passionate about than my GTI. Maybe it turns into a track car after it gets retired of everyday use!

Hey no problem man! Just remember everything you just said keep to yourself when at the dealership. Don't let them know your car isn't worth much, don't let them know what you need your payments to be before you negotiate a price on the car. Do all that beforehand and use the auto loan calculator to figure up what you need your payments to be. Hold firm my man and you'll be ok.

 

[Cory S]

Just don’t impulse purchase. Make sure you are truly ready and prepared. Always put as much money down as you can, especially if your prone to higher interest rates. It saves you lots in interest charges, puts you in positive equity and lowers monthly payments substantially.

I just bought this 2016 Premium loaded to the MAX with 19K miles for $25K out the door. $313/month with $8500 down. It also has $10,000.00 in upgrades as well.....

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