Saving money is like staying healthy or finding a girlfriend/boyfriend. Everybody wants to do it but we don’t always know the best way to do it. When it comes to car shopping, we’ve advocated one technique for some time. Start a bidding war! Recently, Bankrate agreed with us, although they didn’t recommend the same process we recommend. Let us explain. There are a few elements that we agree with Bankrate on:

You should:

• Locate all the local dealers in your area
• Tell the dealers what you want 
• Let them know you’re talking to other dealers
• Ask for the best price

What Bankrate doesn’t mention in their article is the easy way to do most of these things all at once. Here at Buying Advice, we offer free, no-obligation quotes. You simply enter your zip code and select the vehicle and trim you want. Then select local dealers. You’ll receive quotes shortly afterwards. You may get a call from the dealership to confirm the options you want but the result will be a faster way to get a quote without getting the runaround at the dealership. As we’ll discuss in the next paragraph, internet managers tend to work a little differently, compared to other salespeople.

If you contact dealers directly by phone, they’ll ask you to come to the office to discuss things. They probably won’t be interested in doing business if you’re not there in person. Feel free to try it, of course. If you don’t get anywhere, come back here and get your quotes. 

Next, you have some options. You could choose the best quote and take it to a dealership to find out if they can beat it. You could use the quotes to come up with an offer and either visit or email the dealership of your preference with it (just make sure you have a VIN number). You can even negotiate online once you’ve chosen a dealer to work with, as Bankrate points out. Just try to get in touch with an internet manager. If you’re offer is strong, it might be a time-saving win-win situation for you and the dealer. 

Click here to start by getting free, no-obligation quotes from nearby dealers.