Anyone know how they work? I assume the prices shown do not include taxes, correct?

How do they get there info and how accurate is it? I'd think dealers would want to supply only high priced deals.

Wife is in the market for a new CR-V.

Participating dealers report numbers and the site shows lowest to highest and the average of all sales within a defined area. I've seen several deals that were lower than Trucars lowest price. It's pretty easy to just call a bunch of dealerships and tell them exactly what you are looking for and tell them you are taking the lowest out the door price and buying within 72 hours. Do it the last few days of the month and you might be shocked what you can buy one for. Make sure they know if you get there and one thing is different than what you agreed to you are leaving and going straight to the next lowest bid and paying them. Dealers love the negotiating game but if they know up front they have one shot at your business and are bidding against other dealers they will usually get their heart right pretty quick.

^^what he said

On a side note Cargurus is an awesome vehicle nway ro shop.

We used Trucar on our last purchase, but I used them pretty much like Bill describes and in the end we ended up buying form a car dealer that wasn't even on Truecar. I got prices from several dealers through emails and phones calls. Went to several local dealers to actually drive the kinds of cars we were looking at and told them plainly "We are not buying a car today, just looking, driving and comparing." In other words, don't hassle me. We did all of our dealings over the phone or email until we got down to the last deal.

The conversation when like this:

"I can get this Mazda CX-5 equipped just like this at this dealer for $21000 out the door. I am ready to buy the car today from you if you can beat that price by at least a few hundred dollars."

"I don't think I can touch that price."

"OK"

"Give me 5 minutes and I'll call you back"

"OK"

In 5 minutes he called me back and said he could do it for $20,500.

I told him to have all the paperwork ready and if there was any shenanigans when we got there we were walking.

Went down, signed some papers and we were gone. Nobody at the dealership was happy to see us.

I hear you can get cars from Costco too.

I am going to play this game between Christmas and New Years. It will probably be the last new car purchase for us.

I might use a modified bid to do the actual purchase. Just in the recon stage now. I've always done it the old fashioned way, salesmen seem glad to see me leave whether I buy or not. Wife says I'm embarrassing and too rough on them.

A good friend of mine is a sales manager for a dealership. I won't mention which one. He said to get the best deal out of a dealership. Go to their website and request a price. He said they always go rock bottom when quoting online because he knows the person is shopping solely on price and they are comparing. It takes all the "selling" out of it. Also, the best time to buy is not only the last day of the month but the last day of the month in the quarter.

All of that is exactly right. It's not unusual to be on the lot and see a sticker price 6 to 8k higher than the price the dealer has listed on their website on a 30k used vehicle. New can be a much bigger difference.

We used USAA which is based on Trucar. It was a great starting point but in the end two dealers were cheaper than that price while competing for our business. The dealer was friendly towards us but hustled us through the paperwork process and we were gone.

You gotta be willing to walk out on the deal or they will make too much off you. I am ok with a 500 to $1000 profit. But I won't be that $4000 deal. That's for people that believe what those no haggle price guys are preaching. If you're too lazy to haggle the deal then you've got more money than time. This is the opposite to the situation I generally find myself in.