I’ve learned a lot here about car shopping in the last few weeks. I wanted to get feedback on negotiating from the pros.
Once I figure out which car/options I am interested in, I try to find nearby dealers that have them in stock. I then go to each dealer’s website and submit an inquiry about one of the cars that fits my requirements. I usually say something like “I’m interested in and would like to know your best sales price on it before including incentives”.
Usually a sales person writes back with a number that is clearly not what I asked for, and I go back and forth a few times before I actually get a price before incentives. That price is usually nowhere near where I want to be, and so I say something like “I’m not sure we’re in the same ballpark. Can you sell the car for $X before incentives?” A lot of times they will come back with “No, I’d lose money on that deal”. A few times they have tried to negotiate up from $X. And a few times they have said “OK, plus taxes and fees.” At this point, I establish the fees and get a detailed quote from them.
A few specific questions:
Some dealers/sales people have tremendous problems understanding the idea of selling price before incentives. Is it even worth continuing to talk with them? Unsurprisingly they seem to be the ones with the worst deals.
Is it important to understand their advertised sales price before negotiating? Usually it’s not even close to where I want to be, even from the dealers that accept my proposals.
How should I be targeting dealers? Should I start with the largest ones?
Is it worth finding the sales managers and emailing them directly, versus dealing with whoever responds to the website inquiry?
When negotiating on a sales price, is it best to include all fees (other than tax) or negotiate them separately later?
Is there any website that actually provides useful pricing data? That is, something like the lowest prices this car is being sold for before incentives is $X. I recently found out about cargurus, which can show you how long a car has been on the lot. I’m wondering if there are other good resources.
You are speaking to salespeople …they are not empowered
“No, I’d lose money on that deal”
Yes that salesperson would loose money, not the dealer, on that deal and only net a mini of $100
Read this
Probably the most relevant answer to one my questions is:
I will quickly search for the largest volume dealerships (and if there’s a HUGE one states away, include them too) and try to target their Internet/fleet sales Email address’s.
The other doc looks useful too, but it will take me longer to get through!
CarGurus does a great job of getting pretty good “deal” approximations. I’ve found that they are spot on the majority of the time.
Definitely make sure to look at the large volume dealers, especially for luxury cars. A one way plane ticket to most places is just $100-200, and well worth the thousands you’d save trying to deal locally. Any dealer should be comfortable doing paperwork over direct mail (fedex overnight) and it saves you hours at the dealer finishing up paperwork after you’ve flown in.
I tyipcally cut out the sales reps (unless they’re a reliable and credible member of a forum like B-Fest) and go straight to the Sales Manager. If you know what you want, how much you want to spend, and when you’re looking to execute without back and forth games, they’re typically easy to deal with and have the most leverage.
There is an approach called the Russian Negotiation Tactic and in a modified form used a lot when purchasing a car. The original approach came about in the 80’s when Russia did business with the US but has since been modified. In short they will throw a 1000 things at you to create a distraction from your primary goal, they will be relentless, apply pressure and be extremely aggressive. You counter this by being calm and canceling out the noise to stay in track, you take your time and slow the process as much as you can.
So to your first point, I find this too and generally these are dealers that are not going to give you the best deals anyway.
In my experience I have the best luck being upfront from the beginning. I’m polite, but firm and clear that I’m not playing the back and forth game and I’m not negotiating off payment etc. That I need them to present the lease details and not simply write down the payment on paper.
If they’re smart they get the hint and it gets smoother. If they’re stubborn I just give up on them.
