Hello everyone I live in Ontario, Canada and wanted to start something with my life and I was thinking about starting a business selling car parts. I was thinking to get them from Japan for a cheap price and sell them here for one low price, this is all completely new to me and gave me the idea of my father and asked if I would have to have existing contacts in Japan or if u can be obtained via the Internet or other fuente.Otra question would be on the financial aspect of it. I have bad credit at this time and about bankrupct so would not be possible for me to get a bank loan, what other options do I have? Also need aproximatly how to start a new business like this. Not a huge store that are small enough to run algo.Si someone can help me with advice, information, websites, or anything else would be back apreciada.Gracias

So how do I buy a car once I know what I like? There are several options, plus a few payment options as well. It can make quite difference both money-wise and regarding your own satisfaction. This is what I have considered:Buying a new car

This is the easiest option of course. It has many advantages, and a single disadvantage: you pay the price for all those conveniences. In the end this is what I did, for the following reasons:I don’t have to think how the previous owner maintained the car. New car should be problem free for a few years longer than a used car. Warranty is usually 3-5 years, or 60K-100K km, so you get to use it longer. Of course with the new car, there are less chances that you’ll actually use it, but you never know. If you’re financing, you get a better interest rate. It ranges from 0% to 4% (currently for this year’s models), while if you’re buying a used car and want to finance using bank loan, the best you can get is currently about 8%. If you’re buying replacement insurance — it’s usually too expensive for the car older than 5 years. With the new car you can get it for a fair price for the first 3-5 years. Once you decide what you want, it’s easy to buy it: you walk into the dealership and within couple of hours you have the car. And in my situation that was beneficial since I did not have the car. Otherwise, this convenience can actually work against you. You can get exactly the model you want, including color and other little things. Buying a new car in a rural area

This is something I’ve heard of but haven’t explored in full. The idea is to go out of the city to dealerships with smaller sales numbers, and try to negotiate better price with them. Now, I’m not the best negotiator, so I wasn’t really counting on this option, but I tried anyway. I went 150km away and spent a day talking to dealers and did almost nothing — I’ve got $250 reduction. I might have done better if I had more time and wanted to come back and spend it. But I gave up.

It can certainly benefit, but you have to be prepared to visit every dealer in your area. It’s definitely not a quick win. Buying a used car

This is certainly my favourite option, but it takes time and effort. And you can find an excellent car that is not really worse than a new one, for a low price. But you have to wait and search and negotiate. If you have a car to drive and you have the time to spend on looking for a new one, always do this. The depreciation of the new car is the biggest in the first years, so you save a bunch by buying 2-3 years old car. And sometimes those cars have very low mileage. Only beware of leased cars — sometimes they are not maintained too well since they are being leased and the owner knows it’ll be changed in a few years. Buying a car in US

Now this is an excellent way to buy a good car and save money. Cars are generally cheaper in US than in Canada, and the difference is bigger with more expensive cars. Nowadays, with the dollars being almost equal, you save on that price difference. Then you don’t pay US State tax, since you are from Canada, and you pay Canadian taxes just as if you were buying the car here. Of course, you’ll pay duty fee, which is currently 6. 1%. But I did the calculation, and with all the fees and taxes, for each car I looked at, you’re still better off at least $1,000. I looked at Civic (saves about $1,000), Accord (saves $4,000), CR-V (saves $6,000).

Then there is another interesting perk: US and Canadian models are not always the same. There are some model trims that exist in US, but not in Canada (I suppose the opposite is true as well). For example, I looked at Subaru models and I found out that the basic Outback model in US was much cheaper than the one in Canada. And the difference was only that the US model did not have some purely convenience features — those I did not care about. But it was $9,000 cheaper (31,000 vs. 22,000 MSRP)

Now, there are obstacles, of course. Nothing comes easy. Car makers don’t like you going to US to buy the car for less money. They have priced the cars differently for US and Canadian markets and don’t like you taking advantage of it. Honda and Toyota have actually told the dealers in US not to sell the cars to people from Canada. I called about 10 dealers and have been told exactly this. One guy told me that they’ve been doing that before but then been told that they may lose the sale authorization if they do that. So, I figured I should just try to find a dealership that hasn’t been warned yet. And I did — couple of them said they’ll sell it to me without a problem. With Subaru, it seems that there is no such issue — all of them said they sell cars to Canadians.

Then there is warranty. If you buy a new car in US, the warranty is not honoured in Canada. That means that for regular services or repairs you have to pay, or if you live close to the border, go to US every time some maintenance work is needed. This also depends on the maker: Honda and Toyota don’t honour it while VW does without problem. With Subaru, I heard both yes and no, so if I had decided to go for it, I would certainly first ask dealers about it.

As an interesting side note: I’ve found out that some time ago, the situation regarding car imports was opposite: it was very beneficial to buy a car in Canada and import it to US. Car makers have raised the same obstacles: told the dealers not to sell cars and did not honoured warranties across the border. However, seems that Americans are more agile in these situations, so they fairly quickly formed a few consumer organizations, made a class action and forced the dealers to drop the ridiculous rules.

The process itself is not trivial — there are a good number of steps you need to take, but it is straight forward. There are no surprises once you get all the preparation done or planned. There are good resources on the net that outline the whole process:Importing a vehicle into Canada: http://www. mr2. com/TEXT/Import. htmlForum discussion on car import: http://www. discovervancouver. com/forum/topic. asp?TOPIC_ID=6825Border costs: http://www. myborderpro. com/2006Website dedicated to importing cars to Canada: http://www. importcartocanada. infoInfo on taxes related to importing a car: http://www. importcartocanada. info/faq/do-i-have-to-pay-tax-on-a-car-i-import-to-canada-from-the-usa

You can also hire an agency to do everything for you, but I don’t really see a need for that.

Now, if you are looking for a used car (in US), you can save even more money, but you have to do more work. You have to find a way to inspect the car before buying it and you’ll perhaps have to travel further for that vehicle of choice. You have to be cautious and watch for problems that do not exist in Canada such as possibility that the car was flooded in one of the floods in the south (e. g. New Orleans). But if you go trough all of that you can find an excellent deal and happily bring it back to Canada. Paying for your car

Internet was a great help for this. First, all makers have good websites that let you calculate the prices, specific for your province, and they match exactly what the dealers tell you. Besides those, there are a lot of other useful resources on the web. Here are a few:

Canadian Black Book tells you the prices that the dealers pay you when you bring in a trade-in vehicle. Both of these links point to the same serviceToyota Black Book Link: http://www. toyota. ca/NWS/english/confighelp/appraise_tradein_vehicle. htmlGMC Black Book Link: http://www. gmcanada. com/NASApp/app/services/gmc/cbb?lang=en

There is also the Canadian Red Book, equivalent to US Blue Book, but I couldn’t find that online. But there are other websites that tell you used car prices, such as:VMR Canada: http://www. vmrcanada. com/canada_makes. htm

What I also did is picked up the prices from Auto Trader:Auto Trader Used Car Ads: http://www. canadatrader. com

I picked prices for the past 5 years. It’s a good way to figure out average depreciation as well.

There are also fee-based sites that will give you very comprehensive reports on new and used car values, but I did not use them.

A good way to get the realistic value for the car (even for a new one) is to go to several banks and ask them how much would they loan to you for that specific car. You give them the make, model, year and the rest (in some banks its enough o provide the VIN), and they tell you what is the maximum they’ll give you on a car loan. There are good chances this is less than what dealer asks you to pay. You can then use this figure to negotiate with the dealer.

To figure out the best loans options, you can use online calculators such as this one:Loan Calculator: http://www. canadiandriver. com/tools/loan. htm

All this is really fun to do, but again, it takes time — so don’t spare it. There are only two ways: you either put in your own effort or you pay money sooner or later.

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Read the rest on following pages:Part One: Why and What?Part Three: Models and MakesPart Four: The Dealers

Boy, these people are something special!

You know, while researching the cars, I read a lot about dealing with car dealers. People generally have a negative attitude towards them and the whole car buying experience, and you can find tons of information on how to avoid their scams, how to lower the price, how to negotiate with them, what to tell them, etc, etc. An excellent website to inform yourself on all aspects of car buying is Car Buying Tips: (http://www. carbuyingtips. com/). Now with all the great info and details I learned from various sources, I still thought that generally the prevailing attitude is not realistic. I mean, you almost get a feeling that if you pay anything more than a factory price, you made a bad deal. You can certainly succeed in lowering the price apparently to a large extent, but it is the fact that the dealers have to make money too. Ok, sometimes just selling the car, e. g. to meet their projected numbers, is beneficial to them, and they might give away even the whole of their profit for that sake. But come on, I can consider such situation just a crazy luck, not my goal! Anyway, I think that the current craze about “beating” those prices down to the floor is just as unrealistic and aggressive as the dealer’s craze to take as much money from you as possible.

However, after this buying experience, I lost pretty much any respect and sympathy for the dealers. And I will always advise anyone never to become one. Of course some of them were great examples of normal and pleasant behaviour, but unfortunately I must say that most of them have taken the activity of deceit and aggressiveness to such extent that for an honest and well meaning man the idea of going to a dealership must be repugnant. I very quickly got such a strong feeling of insecurity about everything I was told by them. I think everything was a lie, smaller or bigger. A lot of what I’ve heard I don’t believe, and none of it I trust.

Here are some of the examples, more or less funny, from my recent experience:Systematic approach

I enter a dealership, with the intention of exploring a car that really caught my attention simply by offering all of the basic features I wanted. So I wanted to see it, test drive it, and ask a couple of questions. So I ask the dealer: “I’ve read that the crash test scores for this model are not that good, most are graded 3 out of 5. Now, I know that there are different tests, and you can’t judge simply by the grade. Do you know more details about those tests and the scores? What is tested exactly, and how did they score the cars?”

The answer was: “Yes, yes I know, the scores are not the best possible. I know. But you know — what do they mean really? (And I’m thinking — yes, that is exactly what I asked) You see, a grade of 3 is really not that bad. It’s almost like 4. What is the difference? Almost nothing let me tell you. And also, all of that means something only in most severe crashes!!”

Well, no kidding!! What a thorough explanation. Now I understand and my worries are gone. And what a relief. So, if a car is simply parked on a lot, I shouldn’t worry that it will suddenly open the hood and hit me right in the face! Bonding

A question occurred to me about a car, and I decided to drop by a dealership to ask. My visit was about 10 minutes long — of course we exchanged numbers, I got the brochure and usual stuff. Tomorrow morning, my cell phone rings, I answer and I get this:

- “Hey Michael, Jord here from the dealership. ”

- “Hey Jord, how are you, what’s up?” (I thought he might have just gotten some good used car)

- “Nothing, nothing. . . just wanted to see how are you. ”

Huh. . . If this doesn’t sound as a start of a beautiful friendship I don’t know what does!

Then he goes on:

- “So have you made a decision on which car you want?”

- “No, not really, not yet. I told you I’ll need some time, and I’m not rushing really. ”

- “Ok, tell me, what’s blocking it? Can I help?”

Man, of course you can! Go do something else instead of asking me questions. . . Landing on all four whatever happens

I wasn’t sure about a size of a trunk of one of the models, so on my visit to the dealerships I brought couple of boxes and a cart that I use often to see how they fit into the trunk. Now this was one of the smaller cars, so I wasn’t sure about the trunk size. And I tell the dealer what I’d like to do and he says no problem. So I take out the stuff and he laughs:

- “C’mooon, how can you doubt it — that will fit without a problem. Don’t worry!!”

- “Wait, wait, let me try, I know what I’m talking about. ”

And then I try, and he tries, but it doesn’t go so easy — the cart is a bit long and the boxes a bit high. Separately they go in no problem, but together, not that easy. Finally, he laughs again and remarks:

- “And you really thought ALL OF THAT will fit into this trunk??!!”

Wha. . . ??Get all the money you can

I receive a long talk describing how I should buy the replacement insurance. And the more expensive one (“better” in the jargon), which covers you for a longer time and gives you the value of the new car, rather the amount that you paid. Ok, that is a fine product. Now I also get a long description on how I should absolutely buy a VIN engraving package where they engrave the VIN on all windshields so that the thieves are less likely to steal it (they can’t sell the windshields for parts). It’s about $300. Well, I gave both of these things a good thought, but tomorrow I realized a simple thing: Why do I need two protections? If I get the replacement insurance, and if they are going to give me a new car if mine is stolen, why would I then protect it even more?? Damn, I should also probably buy two cars in case one is stolen after all.

And on top of that, I found on the internet that the engraving kit, very simple to use and apply, can be bought for mere $20. Get all the money you can — again

This one is well-known, and usually titled as a “dealer scam”, but I decided I put it here anyways just as another example.

So I finally decide to buy the car and I arrive to the dealership at around 6:00pm. I expect the process to last about an hour. However, little thing here and there and I end up at the dealership for four hours. I think ok, nobody’s fault, there are simply a lot of things to do and a lot of people to involve — the dealer, finance guy, insurance girl, then the finance guy again, then the manager because there was an error, etc. So, I get the contract with all the figures there, and everything looks fine: all the figures match almost perfectly to mine that I calculated before. Except one thing — $900 of loan life insurance. So I ask:

- “Why is it there? Is that mandatory?”

- “Well, we made such an application to Company’s Finance. ”

- “Ok, but is it mandatory?”

- “We could reapply and see what happens — if you have life insurance elsewhere. ”

Now, you see, I am not too easy to confuse, but it was late and I didn’t want to repeat the whole process again, so I’m thinking: “Ok, I’m going to think about it tomorrow. ” And I let it by. Now good thing was that I had the contract with me (I had to take it home for my wife to sign), so I wasn’t too worried.

Anyhow, in the morning I realize that not only it is not mandatory to have the insurance and that I definitely do not need life insurance elsewhere, but another application without it will certainly go through. And, at that point I sincerely doubted that they need to make another application at all. So I get really angry and I go there and I get the exact same answer again. So I say:

- “Let’s apply again; I am sure the application will go trough. I simply don’t want it and I never wanted it and I never asked for it. And if it doesn’t we’ll see then what we do. ”

And she does the paperwork, and seeing me irritated remarks: “Don’t worry I’m sure it will go trough. ”

Of course it will — and it does. Get on customer’s side — even if you overdo it

One of the dealers was affirming every little thing I said. It got funny and a bit annoying:

He thought that the features I wanted are absolutely the only important features in the car.

He was also in computer business just a few years ago.

The funniest was when we discussed payment options. He told me that leasing is a better option if I want to change the car every couple of years. So I say:

- “You know, I am more the other type of buyer, at least so far. I drive one car for years before I buy a new one, so I probably won’t go with the lease. ”

- “I understand, I completely understand. You know, the worst part of the auto business for me is that you simply have to change the car every 1-2 years. I hate that. If I wasn’t selling cars, I would do the same as you. “

Well, this really made me feel like home. C’mon guys, we just met and will probably never see each other again; don’t do these things. Advertise what you have

This one was not really on the negative side, it was just funny. I went to Subaru and dealers there were actually very cool. They were very cooperative, and without the aggressive edge. And they never called me to push or ask whether I’ve made a decision. They also have a great program where you can take the car for 24hr test drive. I had really a good experience with them.

Anyhow, I told this dealer that I know that their cars use specific technology in their engine that is different from all other cars, and that repairs can be expensive. And he says:

- “Yeah, it’s so called Boxer engine where pistons are opposed horizontally instead of vertically. But we are not the only ones to use it. . . Porsche uses it — you know Porsche Boxster. . . . And some smaller planes. ”

Well, that much for the affordable repairs. . .

Then he also added that it’s an old technology that has been well perfected so far and that I shouldn’t worry really, which was a bit more reassuring. Always fish for customer’s weak spots — even in the dark

Honda was giving rebate and they advertised it everywhere: that was very important sales pitch. Now I come to a dealership, and one of the first things the guy tells me is:

“You know, I’ll tell you one thing: we will give you a good rebate, and it’s Honda’s rebate but most of the dealers won’t even mention it. “

He made it as if he is letting me know a secret, and not only that it isn’t, but it’s all over radio, their website, everywhere. But I might have been uninformed and careless and would think that I’m getting a special deal. Lie like there’s no tomorrow and hope you don’t get caught

I was quite close to buying a car so I called some dealerships inquiring whether they have a certain model and the color on the lot. I told them I don’t want the car to be brought from some other dealership. I want to see the car and get the one I saw. This is because I don’t want to get into whole new set of issues and questions. For example, one dealer told me that they charge extra delivery fee if they bring the car from other dealership, which is by the way ridiculous and perhaps deserves story on its own. It can also happen that the car that arrives is different in some detail than what you wanted, and you already signed the papers. Etc.

So I made sure they know what I want, and then came to one of the dealerships. We chat a bit and then I say:

- “So let me see the car. “

- “Oh, I was afraid you were gonna ask me that. I really don’t know exactly where the car is. “

I laugh: “But I told you I want to see the car before I buy it. “

- “Oh, don’t worry — it’s here, I’m just not sure where. “

- “Ok, I’ll go outside and look for it. “

- “But our lots are really big. “

- “I don’t mind, I have the time. “

- “But they are not really all here — we have two lots a few blocks away. “

I just don’t like arguing that much — in cases like these I give up and simply walk away. A good guy

The positive highlight was a young dealer for which I could quickly tell that he is not (yet) turned his abilities into a deceitful routine — he even gets confused a bit when I ask him a stupid question. To me that is the normal reaction. And when I asked him what he drives, he said: “an old Volvo, you know it’s a really good car. ” I am really sorry that cars he was selling were not suitable for me — I would have been very happy to buy one from him. And I didn’t even feel like negotiation with him at all.

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Read the rest on following pages:Part One: Why and What?Part Two: How?Part Three: Models and Makes