In the market for a new set of wheels? Getting ready to buy a new car can be exciting but it can also seem like you’re negotiating a personal finance minefield.
Before you sit down with a dealership’s fiance associate, you may want to familiarize yourself with these five tips from TikTok finance guru Seth Godwin. Godwin, who started posting financial self-help videos to TikTok during the pandemic, now has over 1.8 million followers on the platform.
His advice has been featured in Business Insider, and his videos have garnered millions of views. His latest, captioned “NEVER Say This When Buying A Car,” was published two days ago and already has 269,800 views and counting.
Here are Godwin’s five statements you should never say when arranging financing for your new car.
“I’m not sure what I want”
Godwin says, “You should never set foot in a dealership unless you know exactly what you want.” Not doing your research and having a good idea of which vehicle you want makes it easier for the dealer to “sell you something you don’t need.
“What’s your best price”
“You don’t want their best price,” Godwin explains. “You want your best price—which you should already know because you went in knowing exactly what you want.” He says that should include both the price as well as title, tax, and other fees.
“What’s your best cash price?”
Because dealerships are incentivized to get the customer to finance the common idea that cash will get you a better deal isn’t true anymore. “Cash is no longer king,” Godwin says, and even advises his viewers to not mention cash “until the deal is finalized.”
“I need a car today.”
This one seems fairly obvious. Godwin says, “Desperation is a car salesman’s best ally.”
“I want my car payment to be a certain amount per month.”
According to Godwin saying this “let’s the salesman and finance manager manipulate the price like you wouldn’t believe.” He claims that doing so could lead to you paying “a quarter to a third more” for your new vehicle than if you had stayed mum.
@seth.godwin NEVER Say This When Buying A Car
♬ original sound – Seth “The Godfather” Godwin
Godwin says in the video’s comment section that he fell into several of these traps himself the first time he bought a new car: “Me the first time I walked into a dealership: ‘I’m not sure what I want, but I want my payments to be less than $400 a month and I need a car today. What’s your best price?”
Another viewer confessed, “I said all of these at the same time. ugh…”
Anthony Nguyen (@antnguyen789) a former car salesman, wrote, “Used to sell cars, this is spot on.”
Another viewer admitted that they couldn’t really say they didn’t need a new car that day, writing, “‘I need a car today’ my parents didn’t say that, the van did. dumped ALL its fluids and DIED in the dealership parking lot the moment they parked.”
Godwin has a series of 16 other advice videos for car buyers that can be found pinned at the top of his TikTok account page.
The Daily Dot has reached out to him via email for further comment.