Wanted everyone to be aware of South Bay BMW in Torrance, CA. I made an appointment to come in to look at a m440i I was interested in. First, the salesperson brought out the wrong car and told me they do not have it in their lot, but over the phone he said he did.
After test driving the wrong car, we sat down to talk about the numbers on the car that I was interested in. He shows me the quote, which has nothing off the MSRP, no details regarding MF, lastly the numbers were outrageous. 4k down on a car that was 61msrp payment would be $950.00.
I politely asked the salesperson what the money factor was, he was surprised and replied “What’s the point this is the deal, you don’t need to see it”. I tried to grab the paperwork to see it better and he tells me “I can’t touch it”, “the paperwork needs to stay here”. I got up and just left.
As others will say, you made the mistake by walking in and asking what they’d want you to pay. You’re best bet is to negotiate everything over email before setting foot into the dealer.
It’s a new car and inventory is tight. Find a broker or come up with some target numbers before negotiating.
Looks like they have 1400 reviews on google and average 4.5 starts out of 5. Maybe you just got a bad salesperson after making the mistake of walking in without a target or knowing the numbers you could actively achieve?
Sure, but you’d be much better served by just putting together an offer and tell then how much you’re willing to pay instead of ask them how much they want you to pay.
Agree- never visit without numbers renegotiated. Rookie mistake. I normally have friends do it to see how much scamming takes place before I do my leasehackr magic so they can get wowed at the savings.
Also on op- if you see those numbers and you think you will get anywhere by finding out the MF, you are delusional.
The best thing you could have done at that point was said thank you and left. You should know what your target deal before interacting with a salesperson and therefore you should also know what a full msrp deal would be without asking for their specific numbers
You made a mistake by asking for MF. A salesperson does not care about those details. If you did your research (knowing, MF, RV, incentives you qualify for), you could have sniffed out a terrible deal without having to ask this forum.
Dealers are not just going to give you their best offer right off the bat. I was recently negotiating a deal with the GM at an Audi dealership, and I remember him telling me over the phone that he enjoyed the back and forth. We had a courteous conversation, btw.
Generally, salespeople who work the showroom floor focus on gross profit, whereas internet/fleet salespeople focus on volume.
If you had sent an email to the internet sales manager of the same dealership, you likely would have gotten a lower quote on the same car. (Too late now, because they have your name in the system; you’re tied to that retail salesperson.)
It’s this system that allows for Leasehackr-worthy “loser” deals. Retail sales make a profit for the dealer on each car sold, while internet sales can afford to take on some losses per unit in order to reach volume targets – which then entitles the dealership to a volume bonus from the manufacturer. They balance each other out.
It’s a little different for May, since inventories are tight, but generally that’s how it works.
Never walk into a dealer without knowing your payments and getting the dealer to agree ahead of time.
You instead walked into a Spider’s web and danced to their tune until you finally escaped.
It doesn’t matter which dealer you do this to. You could walk into Cody’s , Ethan’s, or ChevySalesGirl (Forgot your name, sorry) and even though those 3 give incredible deals, you won’t get it as you landed in the spider web trap.
