I’ve had the privilege (or sickness, depending on who you ask) to have bought over 50 cars for my wife and I over the past 27 years or so, and in nearly every instance I’ve worked very hard to get a good deal. Most times that required me to buy pre-owned cars, but there have been a few instances along the way where we bought new. Not many, but a few.
If I take my most recent E300 lease deal, I know that I squeezed something out that may be hard for others to replicate. In fact, the dealer even said the same and refused to sell me another car at a similar discount 60 days later. On the other hand, my neighbor leased a 2017 ES350 around the same time I got my E300, and he was commenting to me last night that he really didn’t think he got a good deal. It was his first lease, and so many numbers were getting thrown around at him that he really doesn’t know what happened. And his isn’t the first, nor I am sure the last, story of those types of experiences.
Then there are the ones that are in between. People buying advertised deal prices, being happy to get a 5% discount, an “overvalue” on their trade, etc.
So, I guess my question is, knowing how high the fixed costs are of your typical franchised automotive dealership, I wonder if it is a model where, well, “some must die so others can live”. You need a certain percentage of great deals in order to fund the bad deals so that you can stay alive. Granted, I know there’s other “back money” like manufacturer support, bonuses, unit thresholds, etc., and that fixed operations contribute a lot to a dealer’s bottom line, but would a typical dealer go out of business if they gave everyone a great deal? Or, would they just not be able to give me the latte bar, leather couches, and Dr. Oz on a 70" flat screen when I service my car?