I'm looking at a certified pre-owned 2008 Acura TL, and had a few questions. A few details on the car - it is a retired service loaner from an Acura dealer, with approx. 6000 miles on it. It's marked at $29,590 (fully loaded, which for Acura is basically the inclusion of navigation system). Per Edmunds, it's listed around $33k. First question...is there any room to negotiate here? Test drove it a few weeks ago at the Acura dealership, and after doing price comparisons online (i.e. autotrader and cars.com), it appears they are pricing it fairly well. It seemed to be in very good condition while initially looking at it on the lot (and has a clean carfax). Looks like they retired the vehicle for sale in early December (this is one of six other 2008 TL's that are retired service loaners currently on their lot). Was slightly worried about it being a service loaner (i.e. people not caring how they drove it). Again, is there any room to negotiate considering Edmunds appraisal value for the car? Ideally, I'd like to get it for $30k total cost out the door (or less, if possible). Secondly, I'm willing to pay cash, however, based on your comments, I may just finance it (put about $10k down) to hopefully get a better price and then pay it off a few months down the road. Is that the right move? Thanks in advance for your help! Love the website!! Here's a link to the car...

http://motorcarsacura.com/Preowned-Inventory.aspx?InventoryId=23688130

(1) " ROOM TO NEGOTIATE " If you want $30K out the door you wont know unless you try, re-read the 2 webpages about negotiate.

(2) " WORRIED ABOUT IT BEING A SERVICE LOANER " Don't be, this vehicle has always been in the dealers care with all service and recalls kept up to date.

You must compare the overall picture with buying a used 2008 compared with buying a brand new 2009 model.

Example if your financing are there rebates or incentives to buying brand new that will outweigh the discount on the used.

The warranty date starts the day the vehicle was registered " if the 2008 was registered you must take into account a shorter warranty period compared to buying brand new "

Also take into account your buying a vehicle one model year old, and in the price range your buying that means it's worth about $2500. to $3000. less compared to the 2009 model should you want to trade within the first few years.

SUMMARY... If your going to keep the car for a long period the depreciation factor don't come into play , and if there are no Mfg's incentives on the 2009 the 2008 might be your best buy...

Bet your confused...LOL " good luck "

Thanks Ray, your comments make sense. As you mentioned, I won't know on the negotiating until I give it a try. My main issue is trying to negotiate on a car that's already priced UNDER the KBB/Edmunds value (and appears to be in good condition). I'll stick with negotiating the overall price of the car and see what happens.

As for the financing vs. paying cash, it sounds like I should go the financing route to try and get a better deal (or at least hold off on announcing that I could pay cash for the car until after the negotiating process). Does the amount I say I'm willing to put as a downpayment on the car affect how low they would be willing to go on the final price of the car? In other words, will I get a better or worse deal by offering $5000 vs. $15,000 as my downpayment? Any difference? May be a dumb question, but figured I'd at least ask. Thanks for your help!

p.s. Your comments on shopping a new 2009 vs. used 2008 make sense and are good points. My problem is that I don't like the redesigned 2009 Acura TL, so I wouldn't even consider it. I really like the car's design from 2004-2008.

The amount you put down does not matter in the negotiation process, it could come into play in the finance office.

EXAMPLE... Lenders will or most likely have lower interest rate on higher amounts financed, this really is a step where the business office will guide you in the right direction as to down payment that will work best.

Now don't be pressured buying any crap in the business office, simply say you will sleep on it, and let them know next day - to many people buy stuff and regret it the next day...

My wife and I went to deal on the used 08 TL yesterday and the dealership had posted the car for $28,990. When we said we wanted to discuss that price (as opposed to monthly payments or down payments) he said there wasn't really any room in the price to come down. I mentioned Edmunds "true market value" for a new 08 (with incentive of $3500 cash back), it was close to his used price. He commented that Edmunds can't sell me a car so he shrugged off their prices. As a side note, I have never seen an actual new 08 TL going for the pricing they suggest either, however I didn't state that in negotiation. I just said I felt their pricing on a used car should be able to come down and asked for his best price. He make a call to the general manager and said he really couldn't go below $28,500 on the car. So, my wife and I thanked him for his time and said we would have to do additional research and get back to him. He said he understood, gave us a business card (wrote his cell phone # on it and asked us to call him on Sunday if we had any questions) -- and he let us walk out of the dealership. So, does this mean that $28,500 was actually his best price? I was surprised that he didn't ask us to sit back down when he realized we were not going to buy the car.

After doing additional research, it does seem like his pricing is slightly lower than the same cars at other dealerships (by about $1-2k). So, I'm leaning towards going back to him in a week or so. Maybe he will call me back saying he can do better in the meantime.

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated. Thanks!

Yes $28,500 at this time seems to be his best price, as for calling you back , yes he may just do that to see if your still interested, as for doing better dealership may stay firm or offer a small token like a few oil changes or some other incentive.

What you have accomplished by walking away from the deal is knowing the best price, if you really want the car your taking a big chance to see if vehicle is still available in a week or so.

This was interesting to read. I'll be going in tomorrow on an '05 Acura TL and the asking price is considerably below KBB and Edmunds for Retail Value. On Ebay, they're going for perhaps a little less, but since I've test driven it and plan to get it mechanically inspected, I honestly don't have much to argue the price down with other than the market is experiencing downward pressure and if I wait I can get a better deal.

This was a very informative site in general, will refer others.

Closed the deal on a '05 TL w/ 44K well below KBB/NADA and other online guides. Had it inspected and found the clutch needed to be replaced which knocked 700 off the price. I know I got my pocket picked a little on the fees and only managed another 100 off from the doc fees. I know that in different circumstances I would have happily walked out, but knowing I haven't had a car in a long time, it was cold as *#!), and the *considerably* lower price I was getting, I was willing to pay.

This site has proved to be excellent to me. I don't know if I would have gone through independent inspection nor would I have left ambiguous the method of payment until *after* we agree on a price. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing your in depth knowledge. My only suggestion is to use a spell checker and do a little more proof-reading. You clearly were good at your job because you were too busy laughing at amateurs like me to worry about your spelling!

I really appreciate your comments, and yes your 100% right about my grammer and spelling, you see I came to North America as a teen when my parents immigrated from Denmark with all my education being Danish and only knew how to say yes and no,,,lol,,, never went to school here, and with no english education the choice of work led me to the Auto industry, to this day when I work on my website I find myself constantly going through the dictionary or looking for the right words to text. If my site was intended for personal gain I would have it professionally done.

Long story short,,, Again I appreciate you calling a spade a spade telling the truth, if you or someome else once in a while with a little spare time would consider copy/paste some of my material into word pad and make correction to grammar and spelling and email it back to me,,, that would be great. paulsenray@yahoo.com

Thanks Ray, and I may take you up on the proof-reading if I get a chance. Of course, like many other readers, I primarily fall in the ungrateful category in that we use the site for our purchase and then never think about it again until the next time we're in the market for a car. In that sense, I can offer another suggestion. Perhaps you can discuss some post purchase advice regarding working with the dealer in the future, both with respect to servicing and any future purchases. For the former, I would personally use a non-dealership mechanic, but if I knew there were ways to pull the strings at the dealership, I may use a combination of approaches.

As for the English, don't sweat it. My wife is also Scandinavian and makes similar mistakes. I've become fairly adept at understanding what she means to write versus what she actually writes!