Hi.
I made a trip to greet with a swarm of sharks to pull the trigger today
and… there are a few things I learned through the process which I think might be helpful for beginners.
What I’m about to write is IMO very basic stuff.
Something that anyone who is willing to do negotiation with car dealers should know.
At the same time I think it could sound dead wrong to some people
who knows a lot more than I do about car shopping.
Please comment and share if you have anything to add.
So… here it goes…
If you are not hiring a lease broker and doing it all by yourself…
-
Find a dealer from each dealership who is known to give fair deals for customers or even random ones.
Select the one who gives you the best price. I tried to email and text every single dealers in my local area
to find the best deal possible and they blocked my ip address from their websites. Soon after, one of
them called and asked me to stop. I don’t think its a good idea. It was pretty darn rude…TBH especially
in Georgia standards… -
Do not expect that lowest deal of your choice will be your final deal. Be ready for a shocking increase.
They are going to run numbers according to your credit score and incomes to determine the final deal
and It will increase the lease if your status is not perfect. In other words, they are going to increase the
number no matter what. My status, in my opinion, is near superb. But it still had a pretty steep increase. -
Argue with the original number you got from the dealer. Be ready to call ‘No deal’, but try your best to
lower the deal. I had $38 increase from the original offer after they ran my numbers. I first called no deal.
They asked me how much lower I want. I argued for 5-10 increase max. They settled with 9.75 increase
from the deal. Even though the numbers increased beats numbers from other dealers, just be ready for
it and do keep on arguing regardless of how much games you should play during the negotiation.
I think it is very important to be ready. I was NOT ready for any sudden moves from the dealers and
it took me some effort to keep calm and do my calculations. -
Know your numbers. Be ready for fast calculation. Numbers such as downpayment price converted to
monthly pay (or 1000 divided by 24, 36, or 48), your highest acceptable total after unexpected
downpayment offers, or anything that you think the dealers might come up with all the sudden.
It might shake up the calculations you had previously and the numbers you want. Be ready for as
many different numbers and calculations as possible . I wasn’t ready and I felt like I was being
slammed by confusing figures and twists. I had two guys teamed up (maybe not necessarily teamed
up but kinda stick together) to ruin my deal. -
States like GA add huge amount of tax on cars and this hurts feelings especially after seeing people
from no state taxes getting mad good deals. At first, I misunderstood many of the dealers I contacted.
Thought they were playing some crazy game with me but the fact is that those dealers were just plain
being “not too easy”. It took me some time to figure out the big number differences and accept dealers
point of view. The dealers in GA simply could not match the prices I thought amazing. -
Realize that dealers are not the most well-mannered or genuinely kind people (no big news? lol)
They are there to make business first. I respect that. But, I also I had to put up with some attitudes.
They might have put up with my attitude too because I simply didn’t like the idea of leasing from the
beginning after seeing number differences between “fkiller deals” from forums and GA dealer deals.
I hope this helps some people.
Last thing I want to add is…
Be rich lol
If you have enough money to add some extra $
to earn dealers full capability, add-ons, gifts, etc
you gotta spend some money.
There are much less stress when buying cars if you are rich.
After all, nothing is free.
Wish you all the best
K