Women - Have you negotiated a great deal on a car?

Consumer Reports ShopSmart magazine is exploring for an article and needs your help. If you're a woman who negotiated a great deal on a new or used car, we would love to hear your story.

Did you buy online or at a walk-in dealership? How did you research your purchase? How did you go about negotiating? What troubles did you encounter and how did you overcome them?

• We are looking for a quick synopsis of your experience, good and bad, with any tips you might share. There is a discussion going in the Cars forums on this topic, where you can engage other shoppers. If you prefer to contact us privately, there is information in that forum on how to do so.

In addition, we may want to reach out to some women with particularly intriguing stories to follow up. Do indicate if you would welcome being reached by a Consumer Reports reporter.

For submissions in Comments below, or in the forums, please include:

• Year
• Make
• Model
• Options
• Amount paid
• Bought online or at dealership
• Your negotiating strategy
• Tip for other shoppers
• OK for a reporter to contact by e-mail

If you know the invoice or CR Bottom Line Price for your vehicle (or the "book" value if a used vehicle), please post that as well.

Thanks for your help,

—Anne McKay

Comments

[Cathy]

My husband and I just purchased a new car a couple of weeks ago. I did all of the negotiating. We wanted a 2008 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE with no options. Via Edmunds.com, I learned that the invoice price was $22,750, including a $1250 manufacturer rebate. I decided to try USSA.com's car buying service to see what would happen, and was put in touch with one dealership nearby that offered to sell the car at $100 over invoice and another dealership further away that offered the car at $500 under invoice.

I asked the first dealership to match the $500 under invoice price and they agreed. However, both dealerships insisted that they would not be able to find a vehicle that did not come with floor mats or a splashguard, which would add $238 to the price. It took the first dealership a couple of weeks to locate a car in the color we wanted, but we were able to buy the car for $21,988.

It was incredibly nice to walk in to the dealership and know exactly what the price of the car was going to be, and to know that it was also a GOOD price. Additionally, I communicated with the dealer almost entirely via email, so I had everything in writing.

I will definitely use USAA again when I buy another car (hopefully not for a while though), so I highly recommend it for people who don't want to negotiate. Someone who is not a USAA member can try AAA or Costco, which also have car buying services.

One final tip: I didn't mention that we had a trade-in until the last minute. The salesman was rather ticked at me, but things he said confirmed my suspicion that he would have tried to negotiate a higher sales price to compensate for a higher trade-in, which is what I avoided by not mentioning the trade-in.

I hope this was helpful. You are welcome to contact me via email to discuss my experience further.