To update:
I’m meeting with the dealer on Thursday.
Car of choice: 2019 Honda Civic Hatchback EX (Thanks to all your recommendations)
36 Month / 12k Miles a year
Good Credit MF 0.00108
My Credit of 623 gave me MF 0.00172
(I pulled my credit at two different dealerships and got their MF for me)
So my method of negotiating, started Sunday Night. Looked up on Autotrader for the cheapest dealer rates for the EX within a 250 mile radius. Then got a bunch of TrueCar values through Consumer Reports because they give an extra $100 discount off of MSRP, chose the zip codes with the cheapest EX Hatchbacks plus zip of where I lived and worked, usually the cheapest dealerships were 80mi away where no one would really travel. Had all my quotes then a bunch of dealerships calling on Monday, MSRP: $24,670 with destination charges. Most people were landing in the $21,800-$22,800. Finally got a dealership to give me $21,000 with free pro pack.
Then Monday night went to dealerrater, looked up top 20 dealerships of Honda in CA, got an E-Quote at night from all the dealerships in SoCal that wasn’t popping up on TrueCar which was about 8 dealerships but still top 20 on Dealerrater, had another round of bidding Tuesday morning.
Those dealerships were on another level with calling and negotiating. Had quotes from $20,950 to $22,300. I took my $20,950 + $21,000 (w/free pro pack)+ 20,858 quote to the biggest dealer in the area that price matches.
I showed them the graph of sales prices off of Cars Guru and told them I wanted a great price which on Car Gurus said it was $19,888. They gave me a deal of Sales Price: $20,500, $2,000 Down Payment, I’m looking at $199+Tax(7.75%)=$214 a month (With the higher MF), BUT To top it off, the dealer said he’ll give me $2,000 coupon for lifetime of my service plus lowest price guaranty on the purchase. I didn’t get it to $19.8k but the services is well worth it the $612 I didn’t get off of it (Update: Coupon was a bust, discounted dealership services, not bad, but not what I was expecting, lesson learned, need to clarify more, next time this won’t happen)
Because of my credit, most places would need a DownPayment, and if I didn’t put it down, it goes in the payments anyways, so you’ll pay it regardless, so $2k down for me was fine. Because of my MF I’m paying $24 a month more, but it is still a sweet deal imo.
Sounds too good to be true but I will go in on Thursday because I couldn’t make it in today because of work and the sales girl has the day off Wednesday, I made the deal with the manager so I know he’s good for it, but the sale is going to the girl.
Hopefully everything works out, but even if not, I still have many backups from leveraging deals against each other. Also, I said no to all addons, no pro pack or wheel locks.
When I get my actual lease, I’ll let you guys know what I end up with, I told all the other dealers the deal I was offered and told them I wasn’t trying to get them to beat it, it was a very good deal, thanked them for their time but if anything goes wrong, I’ll hit them back up. They all backed down to the deal, and was just like take it, take it, like take it and congratulating me on the deal.
We’ll see what happens, I’ll keep you all posted.
Also used Edmunds Forum to get the incentives, MF, and residual which was all confirmed by the dealers.
Lease Hacker Calculater was awesome too, just took a minute to figure out the fees and DownPayment part.
I talked to over 20 dealerships in 2 days, mostly sales people and when they saw I knew numbers they will send me up to their manager for them to close. What I learned was, know your numbers, never ever speak of a monthly payment, and only negotiate the sales price. They will try hard to pry a monthly payment number from you to fool you of the bigger picture. And once you have the numbers, you can just flat out say, you’re way to high, I’ve got 5 dealerships beating your quote, and then they always have to talk to their manager and will come in with lower pricing, creating more leverage. And don’t listen to people that say, go into the dealership, you can speak to 8 dealerships in a couple of hours instead of wasting your time with one. Use phone, text, email, voicemails, you have to use all of them, each sales person is different and has a preferred method and they’re always busy going back and forth with customer, managers, lunch/dinner, etc.
Also, I had many dealerships ask me, what are you trying to accomplish?! What do you want to pay a month?! I would just reply, what I’m trying to accomplish is get the best deal for myself, I’m looking at the big numbers, the sale price, the MF, and the residual, then you have tax, license, registration and doc fee’s. Monthly payment will work themselves out. Once you talk like this, it’s a whole other ball game, they don’t even try to get you in the dealership anymore, it’s more of a bidding war once the dealers know you are an actual knowledgeable consumer.
I know, long post but I felt like some of these tricks might help someone and I’ll keep you guys posted on final numbers, fingers crossed, wish me luck guys!
