and voodoo, when i bought my '08 600RR, i put down the $3k statefarm gave me for my 'totaled' F4i and it dropped my payments significantly!

 

If she doesnt have her mind set on brand new. You can save a lot of money going used. You can still get a really good extended warranty on a certified used car. the last car I bought was only 6 month old and I saved 8 grand on it over new. the dealership sold new and used. It only had 20,000 miles, so it had 16,000 miles left of the factory warranty, an extra grand got a 60,000 bumper to bumper warranty so it was covered to 96,000 miles.

I would do some research on the car though. I've heard some bad things concerning the G6. I would hit up some G6 forums. Just do a google search and Im sure you'll find some. Its a good way to see what problems people are having. The G6 isthe replacement for the Grand Am. Not exactly a great car for reliabilitly.

i would strongly suggest taking that 10 grand and buying a used car outright. You can get a pretty decent car for that amount and you wont have any payments. Then, she can start her savings all over again. It never hurts to have money in the bank. Especially nowadays.

 

It's a shame more people don't realize just how true that statement is.

 

The best thing to do is for her to get the best price as possible, tell them you might pay cash, but you will finance and the overall price is right. NEVER payment shop!!!! But make sure that she can afford the monthly payment, and put whatever down to get her monthly where she needs it (usually the $1000 to every $25-$30 monthly). Then, when she gets her first payment, put half of whatever towards the first payment she has left over, and then the rest the second time around (you can break it up over 3 or 4 months too). This way, it helps her credit a lot and she is still in the same boat with the overall balance as she would be if she put it all down. Only issues is the monthly payment might be a little higher. But on a G6, the payment shouldnt be over $325 or so a month with nothing down. But make sure you guys are looking at the overall term of the loan (48-60 months is recommended), Interest percentage, etc. Oh, and when you go into finance, as to look at their bank pick reports to see the interest the banks were giving you and mak sure that the dealership isnt making points off of you!!! Thats a big one. They will usually like to make point of you on your interest rate.

 

The mark up on new vehicles isnt huge, but most of the time you can get them to drop the price by at least 2 grand. if they are not willing to budge on the price at all id go somewhere else. if your looking for a used G6 you can usually get them to come down in price by quite a bit as the mark ups on used cars are usually HUGE, especially at the actual Pontiac/GM dealerships. I wouldnt tell them you have alot of cash to put down, you dont have to try and impress them at all, your farther off letting them believe you dont have alot of money, if they think you've got alot of cash they wont budge on price very much. for the most part, everysalesman wants your business.the biggestpart of car sales is repeat business and word of mouth. I used to sell cars, i know this for a fact!!! any reputable dealership will bend over backwards to get your business. If your going to an actual Pontiac dealer have a price in mind of what you want to pay and they will work with you.

 

Depends on the vehicle and the demand for it .. when dealers routinely Advertise "$5,000 to 10,000 off MSRP" on some vehicles in the $27k range, I would have to think there is in fact a huge mark up on certain vehicles. NADA currently shows a G6 2 dr. convt. msrp about $2k above invoice but offer certain incentives and rebates:
http://www.nadaguides.com/default.as...&s=297452&c=21

Jay, I still say your best bargaining chip is to have the dealers fight it out via email on the best price to you .. or better yet, buy used and save even more as some have suggested. Used car sales are even harder hit right now then new so there*s probably even more bargaining power there.

 

+1 on used and still under warranty, that way you can still get an extended if you feel like it