First car purchase on my own...

My grandpa was in the car business his whole life so every car I have bought up until now has been with his 50+ years of experience backing up my every choice. I am now in the market for a different car and would like an opinion or two from anyone and everyone.

I have a 2000 Nissan Altima with 134K miles that I bought brand new in 2000. I do not plan to trade it in when I make my new purchase. I have researched all of the cars I was interested in and test drove about 8 different models. I have pretty much decided on a 2006-2008 Ford Fusion, trim doesn't matteras much as the miles and how it test drives.

I am paying cash and would love to try to negotiate for the first time in my life (since I let G'pa do it every other time). I've seen prices anywhere from $11,000 all the way up to $16,000 on the same year and trim. I'm at a loss as to where to start. My concern now is how do I decide what to offer?

Is there a rull of thumb when it comes to making an offer? For example, I found an '07 SE with 27k miles at a Mazda dealer. They are asking $12,900 for it. I would expect I could get it cheaper through negotiation, but I would assume I don't want to insult them by walking in and offering $7,000.

yes you can get them to go down just tell them your looking around see if you can get a better deal. and if your paying cash they wont let you go and they will come down. plus i wouldn't buy a masda but thats opinon.

Insult has nothing to do with buying a car, you go to a dealership to get the most bang for your buck. The way I do car shopping is, I don't worry if the dealer makes a profit or not, and I will not let them rip me off, if they won't sell it to your for the price you think is reasonable them don't buy it

or just check your local used car listings...

if you're into bargains, the gov't seizes tons of cars anually that get resold for like 60-90% off...

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got an 05 tiburon there for around $2k just the other week.

I'd usually go in 15% lower, just make sure you negotiate out-the-door pricing and not payments - it always seems more affordable when you're talking per-month.

Since you are paying cash, write your price down on a check. In negotiations with the dealer take it out and put it on the table. Tell them that this is your price and this is the check for the car. Use it as a last resort though, a trump card as it were if you feel things are not going the way you like.

Good luck!

My experience with dealers these days indicate a dislike of cash customers ! They make money off the financing and don't want to lose that . The financing group makes a tidy sum from financing each vehicle and the dealers are really " in bed " with them on this matter . You might get lucky and find a dealer that would work with you ? Anyways , that's been my experience . Just my $ 0.02 !