Dealer, Insurance Questions!

[Aken]

Hey all!

 

I've been eyeballing the new Legacy's for a long time now, and I recently went to the dealership to see if I could test drive one. And good and bad note is that I'm 19, so it took a while before someone actually talked to me, and it ended up being like an early to mid 20's gentleman. He was really nice and talked to me like my "buddy" and such, most of which I just shrugged off.

 

I told him about how I liked the 2005's and that I had a new job that gave me a little extra cash, so I was thinking about a new car. Again, the main reason of the visit was just to drive one, but I ended up sitting down with the guy and talking about purchasing.

 

The guy was really nice still, but I'm was oddly skeptical. He immediately wanted some info from me like name, address, phone number, etc... Said manager's required it, and it makes looking up previous info, conversations, notes and such quicker. So I said whatever and gave him some info. No harm no foul in that.

 

Now, from previous stories on message boards, I've heard it's not good to let the dealer know you have a trade in until you get the price down. Which makes sense to me for the most part. But I had made the unfortunate mistake of mentioning my current car (2000 Legacy GT Ltd) in casual conversation, so - of course - here comes the trade-in question. I did some quick thinking about made up some stuff about selling it to a friend of mine, and that I doubted I would have a trade in.

 

So within this whole experience nothing really happened. I asked some random questions like if the dealer could put an HID kit on it for me (they said no ), some financing stuff, etc... Didn't drive anything, didn't sign any papers, etc. But I did make an appointment for this evening to go do some test driving.

 

I was just wondering if anyone here could provide some hints or anything when it comes to dealing with dealerships, or anything involving buying a new car. I owe a substantial amount (slightly over $10g) on my current car to my bank, so I'm not really sure if a trade-in is possible. Is it?

 

Also, I am really really torn between a sedan and a wagon. Anyone know if the wagon offers a slightly cheaper insurance? (What makes the wagon cooler, too?! ) Does the turbo classify the Legacy as a sports car in any way, therefore making insurance higher than my BE? Whether or not I can afford insurance is a big selling point - if I can't afford insurance, no point in getting the car. At the moment I pay about $2,000 / year for full coverage (19 y/o male, one speeding ticket in 2003).

 

Can't think of any other questions I had at the moment, but I'll ask if they pop into my head. But any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[iuksob03]

If you want the car bad enough, the dealership will find a way for you to get it. If the amount you get for the trade is less than what you owe, they can lump the rest onto the loan for the new car. Same thing happens when you see those comercials where dealerships will say they'll pay off your current loan. Yeah they'll pay it off, but roll the amount into the new loan at possibly a higher interest rate than what you are currently paying. Generally, doing this isn't the greatest idea because you'll just be paying interest on older money, but it definitely is doable. It happens all the time.

 

As far as basic car buying tips, check carbuyingtips.com or search through this forum. There's lots of valuable information on both sites.