The car buying service that makes dealers compete in writing

SnagMyCar is a car buying service that gets franchised dealers to compete for your new car in writing. We email every dealer in your radius that has it, collect itemized out the door quotes, run two more rounds, and show you the totals side by side. The fee is $499, and you buy directly from the dealer.

Why buying a new car still takes so long

The sticker on the window is not the price you pay. The real number is the out the door price: the selling price plus the dealer's doc fee, any add-ons, taxes, title and registration. Every dealer builds that number a little differently, and most of them would rather talk about a monthly payment than show it to you.

Here is what that looks like in practice. One dealer quotes a low selling price and then adds paint protection, nitrogen in the tires and a "market adjustment" on the buyer's order. Another quotes a higher price with nothing added. A third will not give a number by email at all and asks you to come in. Comparing those three is not a fair fight, because none of them is quoting the same thing.

Fees vary more than most people expect. Doc fees alone averaged $477 nationally in CarEdge's dealer quote data, and the reported average in Florida, where there is no cap, was $973. State rules on doc fees change, so check your state's current rule before you sign anything. Our guide to dealer doc fees by state covers the states we serve.

Then there is the time. Cox Automotive's buyer study found the average purchase took just under 14 hours from start to finish. In a separate Cox survey, buyers named waiting at the dealership as the top stress point, followed by picking finance and insurance products. Much of that time is the back and forth: an offer, a trip to "talk to my manager," a counteroffer, a phone call the next morning. Multiply that by four or five dealers and most people give up after two.

That is the gap a car negotiation service fills. Dealers will compete hard for a sale when they know other dealers are bidding on the same car and the buyer is ready. Most buyers cannot create that pressure on their own without spending a week of evenings on it.

How SnagMyCar works

The full process is on the how it works page. In short:

1. You tell us the exact car. Make, model, trim, the colors you would accept, the options you must have, how far you are willing to travel and whether you want to pick the car up or have it delivered.
2. We find every match. We look for that car in stock at franchised dealers within your radius. Not "similar" cars. The one you described.
3. Round 1, about 36 hours. We email each dealer and ask for a written, itemized out the door price on a specific vehicle: selling price, doc fee, every add-on, taxes and government fees, all listed.
4. Round 2, about 24 hours. We take the best written number and send it back to the other dealers. Each one gets a chance to beat it.
5. Final call, about 12 hours. The top two dealers get one last chance to improve their offer.
6. You choose. You see every written quote side by side, with the estimated cost of pickup or delivery added, so you are comparing the total to your driveway.
7. We check the paperwork. We tell the winning dealer. They send a buyer's order at that exact number. We check it line by line against the quote you picked.
8. You buy from the dealer. You sign, pay and title the car directly with the dealer, either at pickup or on delivery.

From signup to quotes ready usually takes about 3 to 4 days. Dealers deal with us, not you, until you choose. You will not get sales calls while the rounds are running.

Factory orders and custom builds

If the car you want is not on any lot, or you want to spec it yourself, we handle factory orders too (details on our factory order page). Build the car in the manufacturer's online configurator and send us the build code or the build summary. We email that brand's dealers within your radius and ask each one for a written quote on that exact build, covering:

• The selling price relative to sticker
• Any market adjustment, stated as its own line
• The deposit amount and the terms for getting it back
• Allocation, meaning whether the dealer can actually place the order, and the estimated delivery timing

Dealers compete the same way they do on in-stock cars: the best written number goes back to the others to beat. Once you pick a dealer, we stay between you and them through order confirmation and delivery, checking that the order matches your build and the price you chose. The fee is the same $499: $99 at signup and $400 when the dealer's paperwork matches the price you picked.

Luxury and exotic brands

We work with every mainstream brand sold through franchised US dealers, and with luxury and exotic brands too, including Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, McLaren, Aston Martin, Lotus and Maserati.

Be realistic about what negotiation looks like at the top end. Dealers control allocations on many exotic models, and some of those models sell at or above sticker. On those cars, the win is often not a discount. It is getting a market adjustment removed or reduced, a fair deposit with clear refund terms and a firm delivery slot in writing. Several dealers quoting against each other in writing helps with all three. More detail is on our luxury and exotic cars page.

What "total to your driveway" means

A low quote from a dealer three hours away is not always the best deal. You either drive there, which costs a day and fuel, or you pay for delivery. A quote from the dealer 20 minutes away may be a few hundred dollars higher and still cost you less once the car is in your driveway.

So we rank quotes on the full total, not the selling price. For each quote, the comparison shows:

• The selling price of the specific vehicle
• The doc fee and any other dealer fees
• Every add-on, listed separately, so you can see what is pre-installed and what can be removed
• Taxes, title and registration as the dealer itemized them
• Our estimate of pickup or delivery cost to your address

If you want the math behind an out the door number, read what an out the door price includes or try the out the door calculator.

What it costs, and the guarantee

The fee is $499 in total. You pay a $99 deposit when you sign up. The remaining $400 is charged only after the winning dealer's buyer's order matches the price you picked. If the paperwork never matches, you never pay the $400.

The guarantee: if we don't beat the best written out the door quote you already have, we refund your $99 and you pay nothing. Bring us your best written quote when you sign up. That is the bar.

For comparison, some full-service negotiators charge about double. As of October 2026, Delivrd lists a $1,000 flat fee and CarEdge lists its Concierge at $999. The pricing page has the full fee table and explains when a service like ours is not worth paying for.

What we don't do

Knowing the limits of a service tells you as much as knowing what it does. Here are ours.

• We never take title to a car. The dealer sells it to you. Your name goes on the title from the start.
• We never handle the purchase money. You pay the dealer directly. The only money we receive is our $499 fee from you.
• We never take money from dealers or lenders. No referral fees, no kickbacks, no "preferred dealer" arrangements. We are consumer-paid only, so the only person we work for is you.
• We don't arrange or sell loans. Get a pre-approval from a credit union or bank before you start. Then make the dealer's finance office beat that rate or use your own lender. We will tell you how, for free, and we earn nothing either way.
• We don't handle used cars or leases yet. New cars only for now.

On financing, the reason to bring your own rate is simple. Dealers can mark up the interest rate a lender approves, and lenders commonly cap that markup at about 2 to 2.5 percentage points. A pre-approval in hand makes that markup visible.

Who this is for

SnagMyCar fits you if:

• You know the exact new car you want, either in stock or as a factory order you have already built in the configurator.
• You want written prices from many dealers but do not want to send 15 emails and field the follow-up calls.
• You care about the out the door total, not a monthly payment.
• You are willing to drive a little farther, or pay for delivery, if the total says it is worth it.
• You live in one of the states we serve right now.

Who this is not for

We would rather tell you now than take your deposit.

• You want a Tesla, Rivian, Lucid or Polestar. These brands sell direct at a set price, so there are no competing dealers to bid against each other. There is nothing for us to negotiate.
• You expect a big discount on a car that sells at or above sticker everywhere. When a model has waitlists and every dealer has buyers lined up, dealers have little reason to cut the price. We can still push on market adjustments, fees, add-ons and delivery timing, but the savings may be small.
• You want a used car or a lease. We don't do those yet.
• You want someone on the phone for every step. Our process runs in writing, by email, on purpose. If you want a personal concierge who also negotiates your trade-in and test drives with you, a full-service concierge at a higher fee may suit you better. Our roundup of car buying services lists options and who each one fits.
• You enjoy negotiating and have the time. You can run a version of this yourself. Our broker vs. doing it yourself comparison walks through the do-it-yourself path, and the email negotiation guide has templates.

States we serve

Many states regulate or restrict car buying agents, so we launched only where our model fits. Right now we serve buyers in:

• Florida
• Ohio
• Tennessee
• Massachusetts
• Delaware
• Vermont
• Wyoming
• Idaho

If you live somewhere else, your state is on our waitlist. We add states only when we are confident our model fits the local rules, and we will not promise a date.

Is it worth paying someone to negotiate?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Buyers already pay below sticker on average: Kelley Blue Book data put the average transaction price about 3.4% under average MSRP in August 2026. A service only earns its fee if it beats what you would have gotten anyway, which is why our guarantee is measured against your own best written quote and not against the sticker.

Take a hypothetical $40,000 car. If a round of dealer competition moves the out the door total down by more than $499 compared with your best written quote, the fee paid for itself. If it does not, you get your $99 back. Our guide on whether a car broker is worth it works through the math in more detail, including the cases where it is not.

Where to read next

If you are still researching, these pages cover the parts of a deal that cost buyers the most:

• Dealer add-ons: which ones are pre-installed, which can be removed and how to ask.
• How much below MSRP buyers are paying right now, in general terms.
• Invoice vs. MSRP and why neither one is the dealer's real cost.
• Dealer holdback, the money a manufacturer pays the dealer after the sale.
• New car buying checklist for the day you sign.
• Buying a car out of state, for when the best quote is across a state line.
• Brand and model pages for the car you have in mind.

When you are ready, start your search. It takes a few minutes to describe the car, and round 1 starts once we have your details.