Author Topic: price negotiations with the dealership  (Read 2628 times)

Case

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price negotiations with the dealership
« on: March 27, 2019, 06:13:08 AM »
Per my last post, I'm getting ready to purchase a replacement vehicle for my late mustache mobile.

Some people relish the opportunity to haggle; I am not one of them.  But I am a researcher.  I am willing to put in some effort for a good deal, but don't want to drag this out forever.  I'm looking for advice on how to efficiently deal with car salespeople/dealerships on price negotiations.

My approach had been to determine the Kelley Blue Book Value of the car, and then have their 'fair purchase price' as my upper limit.  I will start my offering lower than that, and be willing to work up to that point, but will walk if the dealership wont budge.

Any perspectives on how much hassle it takes to get dealerships to reach this point?  I figured 'fair purchase price' was a fair target to not have to haggle for days on end.  I am willing to walk out of a dealership, but if I have to do this over and over and over again, I will get worn out.

I also have multiple dealerships/cars within range, and if needed I can compete them against each other ("this dealership is offering this price, here's the webpage/quote, will you match it).

Also, my opinion on additional fees that the dealership throws in at the last minute, I will not accept.  I will tell them this upfront, that I want to negotiate the final price.

I have never bought a car before; I've made due on a hand-me-down for 15 years.  Please, fellow Mustachians, educate me!

TheHardenedInvestor

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2019, 06:15:36 AM »
Do all that haggling and being super iffy on any price they tell you. In the end, after you’ve really stated what you will pay, there is only one thing that matters: you walk out the door. People say they can and will do that and then don’t. If you don’t do that at least once, you have failed the process.

Case

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2019, 06:35:48 AM »
Do all that haggling and being super iffy on any price they tell you. In the end, after you’ve really stated what you will pay, there is only one thing that matters: you walk out the door. People say they can and will do that and then don’t. If you don’t do that at least once, you have failed the process.

Are you saying walking out the door once is necessary?

If I reach my target price before this (maybe overly optimistic), it might not be necessary.

TheHardenedInvestor

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2019, 06:40:12 AM »
Do all that haggling and being super iffy on any price they tell you. In the end, after you’ve really stated what you will pay, there is only one thing that matters: you walk out the door. People say they can and will do that and then don’t. If you don’t do that at least once, you have failed the process.

Are you saying walking out the door once is necessary?

If I reach my target price before this (maybe overly optimistic), it might not be necessary.

My opinion is that you should never really tell them the price you want directly. That is only in your mind. And yes, if they hit your target, still say no, and walk out, let them sweeten the deal one more time and then agree, or let them sit for 24 hours. Go in near the end of the month when they want to hit their monthly sales goals...they won’t let you leave. If they stop you at the door as you’re waking out, then that’s acceptable, turn around and hear their better offer.

ender

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #4 on: March 27, 2019, 06:52:23 AM »
With the Internet you can know a good price for a car easily at this point. Don't bother with KBB; just look up that car on a site like cars.com or one of the numerous sites. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere you can almost always find a number of comparable vehicles and see what a fair price is.

Given the ease you can compare prices between dealerships, find a few that has the best price of the vehicle you want, email them asking for out the door costs, and buy it.

You might be able to haggle some but the way online pricing works has really trimmed down margins in online prices. Dealers wanting to sell have no incentive to list the car much higher than they can afford to sell it at, because... people will just go elsewhere. If I see a similar car listed for $15k one place and $16k somewhere else, why would I bother with the $16k place? Note this isn't true for in-person prices, many of those are higher than online prices as people will want to feel they get a "deal" if they are impulse buying. Car salesmen can knock down the price to the internet price and people feel great.

You can trivially find the best few vehicles in your price range. Send those dealers an email like:

Quote
I am planning on purchasing a <vehicle> in <timeframe>. I am interested in your <describe vehicle>.

I will not have a trade-in and I plan on paying for the vehicle via <describe finance/cash plan>. If dealer offered financing is a better deal, I am happy

What is your best out the door price if I were to test drive and then buy <vehicle> on <describe timeframe specifically>?

There will be two types of dealerships at this point:

  • Ones that want to play games with you still
  • Ones that will give you their price

There's no point in playing games with dealers. Find one willing to give prices, pick the one you want that is the best deal, setup a test drive, and either buy it or not.




TheHardenedInvestor

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #5 on: March 27, 2019, 06:55:13 AM »

There's no point in playing games with dealers. Find one willing to give prices, pick the one you want that is the best deal, setup a test drive, and either buy it or not.

Or just buy a good used car for $5k-$10k and simplify your life.

ender

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #6 on: March 27, 2019, 06:57:25 AM »

There's no point in playing games with dealers. Find one willing to give prices, pick the one you want that is the best deal, setup a test drive, and either buy it or not.

Or just buy a good used car for $5k-$10k and simplify your life.

You can do the exact same thing with used cars.

TheHardenedInvestor

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #7 on: March 27, 2019, 07:03:27 AM »

There's no point in playing games with dealers. Find one willing to give prices, pick the one you want that is the best deal, setup a test drive, and either buy it or not.

Or just buy a good used car for $5k-$10k and simplify your life.

You can do the exact same thing with used cars.
You can?

ender

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #8 on: March 27, 2019, 07:05:32 AM »
You can?

... yes, of course you can.

Unless you think that used cars have some magical property that makes dealerships unable to price them?

Holyoak

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #9 on: March 27, 2019, 07:15:18 AM »
Yeah, not really my cup of tea either.  Some will say do everything over the internet, but that is hard if you need to test drive the particular vehicle.  You could test drive, then go through the online sales dept however.

Some things I will do to cut through the B.S.

- Only deal with OTD pricing (Out The Door) as you mention and do not waiver.  Cuts through all of the take some from here, a bit from there, any financing kick-back, etc, razzmatazz game.  Basically the price you would write a check for, and if the old "oop's, we missed this fee" would come up, it's more "oop's, you missed a sale", leave and tell everyone what a bunch of crooks they are.

- Do not allow them to keep you hostage.  Set a limit for your time, and head toward the door...  They want to keep you there, wearing you down to say uncle.  You say you have competition, so use it to the max as you mention.

- I have never used a buying service, but some folks find them great.  So many folks hate buying a car it seems a thriving business, and may be a worthwhile benefit.

- Try and leverage freebies, and spiffs for yourself.  Could be an option thrown in, free service otherwise not included, etc.  ASK, all they can say is no.

- If the vehicle has factory to dealer incentives, those are yours...  Use those and continue to really work a deal, not let the dealer crow about so much off, like they are doing you some favor.

- Go on cargurus.com, view the particular vehicle of interest, and see how long it has been on the lot.  Gives you some idea of how hard you can really hammer them.  Midsize sedan sales in general are SLOWWWWW, so make that work toward your advantage.  How slow?  I recently test drove a brand new 2017 Madzda6, and upfront it was $8k off of MSRP (not that, that is a great price anyway), with plenty of new 18's on the lot too.  It's crazy how once bread and butter that could command near sticker price, have died in such a short time. 

Good luck Case, and I hope you find the vehicle you want, and a great price.

   


OrchardTree

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #10 on: March 27, 2019, 07:15:55 AM »
With the Internet you can know a good price for a car easily at this point. Don't bother with KBB; just look up that car on a site like cars.com or one of the numerous sites. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere you can almost always find a number of comparable vehicles and see what a fair price is.

Given the ease you can compare prices between dealerships, find a few that has the best price of the vehicle you want, email them asking for out the door costs, and buy it.

You might be able to haggle some but the way online pricing works has really trimmed down margins in online prices. Dealers wanting to sell have no incentive to list the car much higher than they can afford to sell it at, because... people will just go elsewhere. If I see a similar car listed for $15k one place and $16k somewhere else, why would I bother with the $16k place? Note this isn't true for in-person prices, many of those are higher than online prices as people will want to feel they get a "deal" if they are impulse buying. Car salesmen can knock down the price to the internet price and people feel great.

You can trivially find the best few vehicles in your price range. Send those dealers an email like:

Quote
I am planning on purchasing a <vehicle> in <timeframe>. I am interested in your <describe vehicle>.

I will not have a trade-in and I plan on paying for the vehicle via <describe finance/cash plan>. If dealer offered financing is a better deal, I am happy

What is your best out the door price if I were to test drive and then buy <vehicle> on <describe timeframe specifically>?

There will be two types of dealerships at this point:

  • Ones that want to play games with you still
  • Ones that will give you their price

There's no point in playing games with dealers. Find one willing to give prices, pick the one you want that is the best deal, setup a test drive, and either buy it or not.

I though the same last year when I bought the same car 4x at two different dealers. Both dealers had online prices and portrayed themselves online as no-haggle type dealers. I still had to get in to find the car and ended up paying at least $2,000 less than what the prices were online. Because I bought 4, I bought each one at a lower price, effectively finding out that I got screwed with each buy. My take-away is that the online price is just to make you feel good about whatever price you end up paying, but no one pays the online price.

Also, after i told a dealer that I needed to buy another price they called me back prior to the end of the month and tried to get me to buy it before the end of the month. Clearly they were trying to meet some quote. I'm guessing you can get a better deal at the end of the month with some dealers.

There are some people online that have expressed success by emailing or faxing multiple dealers with their best quote. This is what I will try next time as I don't have to waste time going in but still might not get as terrible of a deal.

OrchardTree

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #11 on: March 27, 2019, 07:17:54 AM »
Also research which fees are appropriate in your state.

Again, i bought 4x the same car last year. Each time i was hit with different fees that were added on to the negotiated price. Most of them I was able to have them take off. But if you're walking in unprepared your head will be spinning as you try to figure out which ones are completely B.S. which ones are 50% B.S. and which are one's are actually correct.

ender

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #12 on: March 27, 2019, 07:19:41 AM »
Some will say do everything over the internet, but that is hard if you need to test drive the particular vehicle. 

There's no reason you can't get a price agreed upon online with a commitment to buy post-test drive if it works out and is as described.

If the car isn't as described or you dislike it, you just leave.

Also research which fees are appropriate in your state.

Again, i bought 4x the same car last year. Each time i was hit with different fees that were added on to the negotiated price. Most of them I was able to have them take off. But if you're walking in unprepared your head will be spinning as you try to figure out which ones are completely B.S. which ones are 50% B.S. and which are one's are actually correct.

This is why you ask for out the door price.


Case

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #13 on: March 27, 2019, 07:33:36 AM »
With the Internet you can know a good price for a car easily at this point. Don't bother with KBB; just look up that car on a site like cars.com or one of the numerous sites. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere you can almost always find a number of comparable vehicles and see what a fair price is.

Given the ease you can compare prices between dealerships, find a few that has the best price of the vehicle you want, email them asking for out the door costs, and buy it.

You might be able to haggle some but the way online pricing works has really trimmed down margins in online prices. Dealers wanting to sell have no incentive to list the car much higher than they can afford to sell it at, because... people will just go elsewhere. If I see a similar car listed for $15k one place and $16k somewhere else, why would I bother with the $16k place? Note this isn't true for in-person prices, many of those are higher than online prices as people will want to feel they get a "deal" if they are impulse buying. Car salesmen can knock down the price to the internet price and people feel great.

You can trivially find the best few vehicles in your price range. Send those dealers an email like:

Quote
I am planning on purchasing a <vehicle> in <timeframe>. I am interested in your <describe vehicle>.

I will not have a trade-in and I plan on paying for the vehicle via <describe finance/cash plan>. If dealer offered financing is a better deal, I am happy

What is your best out the door price if I were to test drive and then buy <vehicle> on <describe timeframe specifically>?

There will be two types of dealerships at this point:

  • Ones that want to play games with you still
  • Ones that will give you their price

There's no point in playing games with dealers. Find one willing to give prices, pick the one you want that is the best deal, setup a test drive, and either buy it or not.

Thanks for the cars.com advice, I am just trying this now.

As I have found, the online price is not always accurate.  I have found some prices lower on the dealerships webpage.

I also think that not everyone is either 1) interested in doing the online searching and due diligence, 2) savy enough to do it effectively, or 3) believes its the way to get the best deal.

Although the internet is somewhat of an equalizer, it still seems to that it is not quite the 'x-ray vision' for consumers that one might hope it would be.

ender

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #14 on: March 27, 2019, 07:38:17 AM »
Thanks for the cars.com advice, I am just trying this now.

As I have found, the online price is not always accurate.  I have found some prices lower on the dealerships webpage.

I also think that not everyone is either 1) interested in doing the online searching and due diligence, 2) savy enough to do it effectively, or 3) believes its the way to get the best deal.

Although the internet is somewhat of an equalizer, it still seems to that it is not quite the 'x-ray vision' for consumers that one might hope it would be.

It also doesn't take a very populated area before you can just ignore all the dealerships who don't bother being competitive on their online pricing.

Case

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #15 on: March 27, 2019, 07:49:25 AM »
Yeah, not really my cup of tea either.  Some will say do everything over the internet, but that is hard if you need to test drive the particular vehicle.  You could test drive, then go through the online sales dept however.

Some things I will do to cut through the B.S.

- Only deal with OTD pricing (Out The Door) as you mention and do not waiver.  Cuts through all of the take some from here, a bit from there, any financing kick-back, etc, razzmatazz game.  Basically the price you would write a check for, and if the old "oop's, we missed this fee" would come up, it's more "oop's, you missed a sale", leave and tell everyone what a bunch of crooks they are.

- Do not allow them to keep you hostage.  Set a limit for your time, and head toward the door...  They want to keep you there, wearing you down to say uncle.  You say you have competition, so use it to the max as you mention.

- I have never used a buying service, but some folks find them great.  So many folks hate buying a car it seems a thriving business, and may be a worthwhile benefit.

- Try and leverage freebies, and spiffs for yourself.  Could be an option thrown in, free service otherwise not included, etc.  ASK, all they can say is no.

- If the vehicle has factory to dealer incentives, those are yours...  Use those and continue to really work a deal, not let the dealer crow about so much off, like they are doing you some favor.

- Go on cargurus.com, view the particular vehicle of interest, and see how long it has been on the lot.  Gives you some idea of how hard you can really hammer them.  Midsize sedan sales in general are SLOWWWWW, so make that work toward your advantage.  How slow?  I recently test drove a brand new 2017 Madzda6, and upfront it was $8k off of MSRP (not that, that is a great price anyway), with plenty of new 18's on the lot too.  It's crazy how once bread and butter that could command near sticker price, have died in such a short time. 

Good luck Case, and I hope you find the vehicle you want, and a great price.

 

Thank you!
FYI, i'm seeing similar things on Mazda3s.  I think I read that Mazda's sale are down on sedans and compacts, but SUV sale are of course increasing (god, what is wrong with our country?!?)

Holyoak

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #16 on: March 27, 2019, 07:55:46 AM »
Some will say do everything over the internet, but that is hard if you need to test drive the particular vehicle. 

There's no reason you can't get a price agreed upon online with a commitment to buy post-test drive if it works out and is as described.

If the car isn't as described or you dislike it, you just leave.

Yeah, but dealing with used vehicles in particular this is IMO is folly at worst, and usually a time waster at best.  Until you look the vehicle over, you have no idea at best how many "we-owe's" you can negotiate/they will allow, which for some issues I want right prior to me shooting you a price, and if not granted I will have to hammer them for the price I want, or walk away.  Might work for some, not me however. 

I just helped a friend purchase a used vehicle, and all of the great photos did not show a touched up dent/crease on the pass side door, impact crazing damage on the fr bumper, pulled away weather stripping on the fr dr door, out of balance tires, ability to look over all of the maint paperwork, detailed look under the hood/under body for damage and rust, pull codes from the computer, smell for water leaks, etc...  Dealers/this dealer was 1-1.5 hrs away for me, and the time waste/getting to the place waste makes offering my "I'll take it" price over the internet not feasible at all.  WAYYY too much potential of wasting my time and energy shooting them a price, and upon arrival seeing what I mention, then walking away or having to hammer them (negotiate) anyways if still interested.

Buying new, after I have test driven, I guess so.  Used, no way as I see it unless the buyer is not as savvy a shopper, don't care, etc.  Done the used car buying thing way too many times in my life, and as much as I wish there were an "app for that", or just shoot them a price and all is peachy IMO is pure fantasy, and a set-up for great disappointment.

Case

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #17 on: March 27, 2019, 08:11:58 AM »
Some will say do everything over the internet, but that is hard if you need to test drive the particular vehicle. 

There's no reason you can't get a price agreed upon online with a commitment to buy post-test drive if it works out and is as described.

If the car isn't as described or you dislike it, you just leave.

Also research which fees are appropriate in your state.

Again, i bought 4x the same car last year. Each time i was hit with different fees that were added on to the negotiated price. Most of them I was able to have them take off. But if you're walking in unprepared your head will be spinning as you try to figure out which ones are completely B.S. which ones are 50% B.S. and which are one's are actually correct.

This is why you ask for out the door price.

Just my experience so far, but it has been difficult to get the salespeople to be straight forward; rather they try to keep things obscured, presumably to fool me.  I have not yet found the unicorn dealerships that are straightforward, but we'll see.

The trade off with prenegotiated routes that avoid dealerships (CostCo for example) appears to be that you pay more.

I have researched the required fees in my state (DE), at least I think I know them.  Should be interesting to see what happens when I get in the office at the dealership...


Holyoak

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #18 on: March 27, 2019, 08:16:32 AM »
Yeah, not really my cup of tea either.  Some will say do everything over the internet, but that is hard if you need to test drive the particular vehicle.  You could test drive, then go through the online sales dept however.

Some things I will do to cut through the B.S.

- Only deal with OTD pricing (Out The Door) as you mention and do not waiver.  Cuts through all of the take some from here, a bit from there, any financing kick-back, etc, razzmatazz game.  Basically the price you would write a check for, and if the old "oop's, we missed this fee" would come up, it's more "oop's, you missed a sale", leave and tell everyone what a bunch of crooks they are.

- Do not allow them to keep you hostage.  Set a limit for your time, and head toward the door...  They want to keep you there, wearing you down to say uncle.  You say you have competition, so use it to the max as you mention.

- I have never used a buying service, but some folks find them great.  So many folks hate buying a car it seems a thriving business, and may be a worthwhile benefit.

- Try and leverage freebies, and spiffs for yourself.  Could be an option thrown in, free service otherwise not included, etc.  ASK, all they can say is no.

- If the vehicle has factory to dealer incentives, those are yours...  Use those and continue to really work a deal, not let the dealer crow about so much off, like they are doing you some favor.

- Go on cargurus.com, view the particular vehicle of interest, and see how long it has been on the lot.  Gives you some idea of how hard you can really hammer them.  Midsize sedan sales in general are SLOWWWWW, so make that work toward your advantage.  How slow?  I recently test drove a brand new 2017 Madzda6, and upfront it was $8k off of MSRP (not that, that is a great price anyway), with plenty of new 18's on the lot too.  It's crazy how once bread and butter that could command near sticker price, have died in such a short time. 

Good luck Case, and I hope you find the vehicle you want, and a great price.

 

Thank you!
FYI, i'm seeing similar things on Mazda3s.  I think I read that Mazda's sale are down on sedans and compacts, but SUV sale are of course increasing (god, what is wrong with our country?!?)

So true, being I'm willing to bet 95%+ of CUV buyers could do just as well, even better with a good compact wagon, without AWD either.  I live in the super snow-belt region, and have had nothing but FWD with a manual trans, and good snow tires...  No problems here, and why would there be?  Also, It's obscene how much I can stuff in my Toyota Matrix, esp with the rear, and front pass seat folded down.  It's just a few cubic feet short of the CX-5, and in some ways because of the two piece hatch window, and folding down fr pass seat more efficient. 

But trends/keeping up with the Jonses is a powerful drug, as is God forbid not looking cool!  This country is so fucked up in many ways, but attitudes toward vehicles is very near the top for me.  It's the epitome of so many issues wrapped up into one item I absolutely despise...  Want to hear crazy?  A new BASE, stripped down Rav4 with steel wheels and hubcaps is pushing $30K!!!  Buy hey, you qualify for a 7 YEAR auto loan...  How the fuck do people put pen to paper with that???

So for us sane/non status grubbing folks it's a crime compact/midsize wagons are not as popular as they once were, same for sedans too...  Anticipated future depreciation at a higher rate than in the past is an issue, so you have to make sure to buy right when you do.  Good luck.

Holyoak

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #19 on: March 27, 2019, 08:24:10 AM »
Some will say do everything over the internet, but that is hard if you need to test drive the particular vehicle. 

There's no reason you can't get a price agreed upon online with a commitment to buy post-test drive if it works out and is as described.

If the car isn't as described or you dislike it, you just leave.

Also research which fees are appropriate in your state.

Again, i bought 4x the same car last year. Each time i was hit with different fees that were added on to the negotiated price. Most of them I was able to have them take off. But if you're walking in unprepared your head will be spinning as you try to figure out which ones are completely B.S. which ones are 50% B.S. and which are one's are actually correct.

This is why you ask for out the door price.

Just my experience so far, but it has been difficult to get the salespeople to be straight forward; rather they try to keep things obscured, presumably to fool me.  I have not yet found the unicorn dealerships that are straightforward, but we'll see.

The trade off with prenegotiated routes that avoid dealerships (CostCo for example) appears to be that you pay more.

I have researched the required fees in my state (DE), at least I think I know them.  Should be interesting to see what happens when I get in the office at the dealership...

Exactly right, to get you in their lair, feel you out about financing, "what monthly payment do you want (can swing)", "How serious are you", etc...  All BS, to keep you soft and squishy, with a lot of talk, and not a lot of figures on paper.  There is a reason for the charts that show certain professions at the top of most hated.  Obviously not all folks concerned, but enough to be self evidently true.

FWIW, it is better than when I first shopped for cars in the middle 80's...  Very different now, better over-all, but still a real PITA for the most part.

Midwest

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #20 on: March 27, 2019, 09:38:22 AM »
Why buy from a dealership?  I have bought the last 2 cars from private parties and saved thousands.  Find a deal, ask them their bottom line and if it's reasonable go look at the car.

Holyoak

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #21 on: March 27, 2019, 10:12:14 AM »
Why buy from a dealership?  I have bought the last 2 cars from private parties and saved thousands.  Find a deal, ask them their bottom line and if it's reasonable go look at the car.

No doubt about it if you can...  90% of my used car buys come from private sales, cash on the barrel-head.  Funny how motivated a seller is when they have a lot of tire-kickers, and you show up with $$$.  One way you can get a screaming deal from a dealership is poke around, and ask about clunker trade-ins heading to the auction.  I have scored INCREDIBLE deals like this, and many times the cars are in need of just a lot of cleaning/minor-to-moderate repairs to run great.

Dealers don't want to have to piss around with these types of cars, paying auction fees, rollback/flatbed the thing to the auction, etc.  Never hurts to ask...  They treat them like the plague, I treat them like gold.

Finallyunderstand

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #22 on: March 27, 2019, 01:41:00 PM »
Perfect timing for this thread.  I just dealt with this Friday.  Found a car online I wanted and emailed ahead of time what the OTD fees were.  I was quoted $400 in fees.  Not horrible.  Last car I bought was only $200 in doc fees so $400 didn't scare me.  Wife and I drove 2 hours to check it out.  Magically when the salesperson came back with the figures there was a $1395 dealer care fee that they charge all their costumers because "its great for customer retention with all the positive benefits a buyer receives".  The benefits included free car washes, oil changes free for 1 year, key replacement if lost, and a few other dinky things that barely added up.  Needless to say I was very upset and it took the saleperson 3 times walking back and forth to her manager to remove this great mandatory fee.  I kept showing the email I received to which they would reply "well we have a disclaimer at the bottom about other potential fees".  They claimed they were only quoting me fees and that this $1395 was a benefit...

So once that "benefit" was removed I thought we were in business and it would be down to the quoted $400 in doc fees but then out of nowhere came an $895 fee that they couldn't really explain.  Told them I was done and got up and walked out.  Wasted hours driving and another hour test driving and negotiating for nothing.


One thing you could do is look up the trade-in value for the car you're trying to buy.  This might help give you an idea what the dealership paid for the car.  Add $500 in rehab costs and labor to get it ready and then you probably have something close to their break even point.

Holyoak

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Re: price negotiations with the dealership
« Reply #23 on: March 27, 2019, 02:29:43 PM »
Perfect timing for this thread.  I just dealt with this Friday.  Found a car online I wanted and emailed ahead of time what the OTD fees were.  I was quoted $400 in fees.  Not horrible.  Last car I bought was only $200 in doc fees so $400 didn't scare me.  Wife and I drove 2 hours to check it out.  Magically when the salesperson came back with the figures there was a $1395 dealer care fee that they charge all their costumers because "its great for customer retention with all the positive benefits a buyer receives".  The benefits included free car washes, oil changes free for 1 year, key replacement if lost, and a few other dinky things that barely added up.  Needless to say I was very upset and it took the saleperson 3 times walking back and forth to her manager to remove this great mandatory fee.  I kept showing the email I received to which they would reply "well we have a disclaimer at the bottom about other potential fees".  They claimed they were only quoting me fees and that this $1395 was a benefit...

So once that "benefit" was removed I thought we were in business and it would be down to the quoted $400 in doc fees but then out of nowhere came an $895 fee that they couldn't really explain.  Told them I was done and got up and walked out.  Wasted hours driving and another hour test driving and negotiating for nothing.


One thing you could do is look up the trade-in value for the car you're trying to buy.  This might help give you an idea what the dealership paid for the car.  Add $500 in rehab costs and labor to get it ready and then you probably have something close to their break even point.

Hmmmmm, I'm SHOCKED to hear of this...  Sorry you got exactly what I explain to folks about these fucking scuzzy, dirtbag *see the fine print, asshole dealerships.  Also exactly why doing everything over the internet, esp with the freak show used car circus can be, is a pipe dream IMO and actual experience.  Once everything is looked over, I get in writing what the OTD price is, and if a penny more on the contract it's gone, or I do as I said above; walk out, and let everyone know where not to go, with a 'nice' internet review for good measure.  Love to see you pull this kinda shit to them!

I told my friend what I thought a fair price was OTD for the car she wanted, they countered $300 higher, and that was that, total price with all fees/tax/title/on the contract.  DONE.  Best price ever?...  Who fucking knows or cares, it was reasonable, and she seems happy so far with her sweeeeet little hybrid ride: