Tips on Buying Cars: Days listed

Question
QUESTION: Roger,
I'm shopping for a used SUV and came upon a Toyota Highlander on Truecar.com. First of all it's listed as 'Above Market' and secondly it says it's been listed for 235 days (as of today).
My question is does that 'days listed' number give me a big advantage in negotiating the price? It's listed at $28,9k, Ames,Iowa.
Does 'Above Market' + almost a year listed = great deal (factoring in that I'm a good negotiator who does his research)?
I appreciate you answering that for me.
Thanks for your expertise!

ANSWER: Hi Andy

Toyota highlanders are good rigs but the fact that this one has been for sale for 235 days means that its probably NOT going to be a good deal ... Is this a private party car? Or a dealer? The best way for me to be able to tell you if its a good buy or not is for you to send me a link to my email address roadloans@gmail.com so I can book it out and check the Manheim market data etc on it. If its a dealer car then they may have written it back before the new yr ... But for 235 days everyone has been stepping around this car ...why? Only two possibilities ...its either the price or the car. ...or both ...shoot me the link and I will tell you what I really think....the short answer is yes it should give you all the leverage in the world ...lets find out why its still there

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QUESTION: Thanks for getting back!
dealer.
heres the link https://usedcars.truecar.com/car/Toyota-Highlander-2011/5TDZK3EHXBS039776

Answer
Okay thank you for the link ... first of all the 235 days in inventory bothers me alot and here is why ...most franchise stores have a 90 day policy ...if it doesn't sell in 90 days it's gotta go. That means at 45 days it gets marked down and at 60 days you put a salesperson 'spiff' or guaranteed $500 mini on it so that it sells then if it doesn't sell at the 90 day point if you haven't retailed it or wholesaled it to some other dealer it gets taken to the auction and you take your lumps. 235 day old inventory is way outside the curve and it's not like this is a bad piece of retail merchandise ..it's not...it's a great car to have in your used car lineup ...just not for 3/4 of a year. Usually when cars sit this long there is a reason for it ...pet or smoke odor...bad detail...something broken...anyway enough said you looked it over and thought it looked good so lets move on.

I have attached the Manheim Market Research page on this car ...this info tells us exactly how much this car sold for across the USA at any of the Manheinm auctions so if you want to know what a car is really worth right now today then this is it ...the cash market.

The results of looking at the MMR and the cars book value make the True Car numbers on it look pretty close. True car said that $26,462 would be a great price and I agree ...After looking at the data I was thinking that $26,000 or less (even $1.00 less) would be a great price and the difference is only $462 which isn't very much. I really don't like True Car or their business model at all and their relationship with alot of dealers is tenuous at best but this time they were pretty close.

I also attached the specific transactions that drive this weeks MMR so you can see them for yourself. One thing that surprised me was the low number of transactions for this car then I realized that this is the front wheel drive version and when I ran the 4x4 model the volume of transactions was 5x this amount and the numbers were noticeably higher.

If you have looked at the car and driven it then I would shoot them an offer of $25,200 and remind them that its a 4x2 and it's almost going to have a birthday and they have probably already paid so many curtailments on this car they are ready to send them the title and let them counter you with something alot more reasonable than their current price. If I were a betting man I would bet they have a really firm grip on this car after owning it for so long which is why it's advertised so far over retail ...tell them you are going to finance it thru them and sign the contract and then immediately refinance it through your credit union ...that will give them the chance to rationalize selling it to you for your price by letting them mark up the rate on you by a couple of points and thinking they are going to be able to break out of it even ...then when you refinance they will get charged back but the deal will be done. It will soften the blow and make them take their medicine in small doses and most importantly allow you to buy the rig a little bit cheaper. QWhatever you do do not sit down at the dealership and negotiate this deal ...do it from hom on your computer or the phone. Need more advice on how to buy this car ...just ask

THE SYSTEM ISN'T ALLOWING ME TO UPLOAD THE DATA SCREEN SHOTS I MADE YOU SEND ME AN EMAIL TO ROADLOANS@GMAIL.COM AND I WILL SEND THEM TO YOU THE REGULAR WAY HMMM