Help me understand using Edmunds to negotiate a Certified Used minivan

[ellairiesmom]

I am finishing up research identifying several Certified Used Honda Odyssey's & Toyota Sienna's that are within 50 miles of us & meet my criteria (# of miles, year & trim)

Since we are looking at Certified Used-I am putting in OUTSTANDING and CLEAN to get the 2 different conditions I expect to find these vehicles considered by the dealer.

How do I use the info I find on Edmund's? For example-an "outstanding" appraisal on one vehicle had the following $s after the adjustments for miles, my locale, color etc:
Trade In $20,024
Private Sell $21,829
Dealer Retail $23,264
Certified Used $24,528

What would a good price for certified used?

Thx for any advice!!!

[travlr]

I don't think the price info on Edmunds will be of much use. We just recently bought a certified used Sienna. Most dealers list their vehicles online with autotrader or carsforsale.com or something similar. The prices, mileage, and features should be displayed and you'll get a good idea of what cars are going for locally and the inventory. After determining what a good price would be and finding several cars that met our criteria, we e-mailed the internet sales contact (listed on their websites and/or on autotrader.com) at several dealerships asking for their best price including fees, tax, and license since we were only interested in the total cost. They all responded. Then we test drove and bought our car. We had an offer from our credit union for financing. We went with the dealer financing after they beat the credit union rate. Much easier that our last car purchase. Good luck!

[ellairiesmom]

ok-yeah-we are using autotrader to find what ones match our criteria & i did email a couple to make an internet offer. i came in reaaaaaal low just to see what would happen. they called to set up a test drive but didn't comment on my actual offer.

i just thought there might be a little room to bargain based on the difference between a private sale & dealer sale. maybe get somewhere in between.

thx so much. how are you liking your sienna? we are torn between the honda & toyota.

[travlr]

We did the same comparison and the Honda dealer was a bit more willing to come down on the price though to be honest no one was willing to come down much from the the listed prices on Autotrader. Unfortunately, I just really liked the Sienna better. I have been very happy with the car.

It seems odd to me that your dealer isn't willing to work out the price over the internet since we had no problem getting price commitments from our local dealerships. My DH just asked for the "best price including all fees and taxes". Once you're ready to buy the car I'd recommend getting the dealer to commit to a price over the internet before you go in. Once you get in the dealership they take forever and try to upsell on everything- but you already know that if you're reading Edmunds. That was one of the advantages to getting everything worked out ahead of time.