In light of the amazing 5 year old thread bump on “How to Negotiate with Dealers via Email”, I figured I would start a new thread asking about dealer stories (love to hear about) on how to get Unicorn deals or any good deal/dealer stories.
Generally agree research/homework for all lease variables, send offer to dealers with everything laid out via email is the way (never negotiated my first deals this way and wish I would have)…but curious to hear any other stories.
Mods hope this in the right category. Looking forward to seeing the replies!
First time I tried the research everything, find vehicle, find decent dealer, send email with offer was during Nissan Frontier craze. I sent this type email and I got a reply back few hours later:
“We are double checking your taxes and if everything looks good you have leased yourself a truck” (out of state deal).
I was shocked how quick it was.
Stealing, sending gift cards, or desking it yourself also sounds acceptable lol.
@Kctham18 dad wanted massage seats, I drank beer, ran S class #s, then tried the EQS - texted an ISM I knew, negotiated - took like 20 texts total - and that’s it.
Got my Leaf for $125pm because I saw someone posted a deal here, sent price requested to few dealerships in state. Got a call back from GM and withing 5 min of talking without going into any details he offered me that price. It was shockinly easy.
The other one was 2018 Ioniq (pre-pandemic) through Rodo (out of all places) and both Rodo and dealership honored the deal which is pretty rare considering their reviews thread here.
It’s working the various levers in a deal to get it optimized. There’s the discount and current incentives which are easy to find here. But then there’s also (if it’s a local deal) a trade. Some of my best ones were just those first two factors, but also when I can factor in an overpay on a trade (often a previous good deal). And timing… month end is a helluva drug.
It’s work to get enough data points or interested dealers to move the needle vs an easy broker deal for instance, but for most of us, working all the angles and factors is the fun part.
My first one actually predates LH, it was the 2015 Hyundai Genesis that I figured out on my own was a great lease value at the time. Back then I had a Bmw 428 xDrive that was my first nice car lease and was not a good deal at all since I custom ordered and took delivery of a first-batch car. I was looking to save some money but still drive something nice and the Genesis caught my eye after seeing one in person. Then I watched/read all the glowing reviews and ran the lease numbers using the Edmunds forum. At that point they were piling up on dealer lots so I called every dealer within 200 miles of me and asked everyone if they can beat the best offer I had in writing. Eventually landed a $400/month 36/15 lease on a $50k spec Genesis, which was about $250/month cheaper than what I was paying for the BMW. That Genesis was also my only leased vehicle to this date that I drove until the end of the lease term.
Basically. And dealers change too. They might give you a unicorn on a certain car while marking up everything else. So you gotta re hit the dealers that told you no.
exactly what @max_g said – look for whats “leasing well” and then try and then squeeze the most juice out of it - not focusing on the monthly $ as such, but best “value for money” - so a 650 dollar lease for a 85k msrp car versus say 400 dollar lease for a 32k msrp car
my very first lease was one of those “keeping up w the joneses” thing in 2007 when i ended up paying 850 a month for a 55k msrp car. Then realized how stupid that was. changed my whole approach
I even time things around “good deals”. So have leased cars well before another lease is expiring (a few months early) - if the math works out to my advantage on a killer lease that may disappear if i were to wait for the lease end on my existing car
Yeah in late 2019 I found a Volvo XC60 Inscription that I got below triple net because it was a slug on their floorplan and the costs to carry it into Jan 2020 would have been really bad for them.
The Volvo still sucked at 18% off MSRP. Ugh.
Edit: I feel like every lot anchor I’ve bought in my life has just sucked ass though. Maybe hunting for deals isn’t a good idea in the long run lol.
j/k (or am I?)
