I’d love to hear some accounts of people having success negotiating a great deal from distance or all virtual if local.
Personally I have not had the best luck with messaging and over the phone. I know cars are sold this way all the time - but would love to hear any tips you all have.
In my experience, I can get an OK quote without being in the dealership. I don’t bother playing the games and following any template some people suggest. I give them the numbers I want and tell them I am ready to roll.
The thing is, I can get them to a certain point. But after that, I feel like it is easy for them to let me virtually walk away. As opposed to when I am in person and can build some rapport. And have taken up a couple hours of their time so both parties have motivation to not walk away empty handed.
And I know there are a lot of other factors, so perhaps timing and luck have not been on my side.
Are you asking the dealer to propose a deal via email/phone or are you proposing your deal to them (a deal that you are willing to follow through on immediately if they accept)?
You need to propose the deal to them. Have all of your numbers worked out on a deal that you would sign that day. If they counter back with an offer, simply tell them you’d like to shop your deal around before you make a decision. Propose your deal to another dealer. See who will play ball.
That’s what I did this past March on my Infiniti QX80. I proposed my deal via email to the dealer I went to for the test drive. They countered back with an offer. Not a bad offer, but not my offer. I responded that I wanted to shop my deal around before making a decision. I waited until the next day (to give the first dealer a chance to get back with me) and I emailed the same deal to the general manager of another Infiniti dealer. About 30 minutes after I sent the email, the sales manager from dealer 2 called me and said she’d take my deal. She said she would send a credit app to my email and to send her a copy of my DL and insurance. She then asked when I would like to pick the car up.
If you propose an offer, be willing to follow through if they accept. Not start shopping that offer around. You proposed the offer, accept it if they agree to it.
In my initial email, I generally mention that during working hours I’m often on conference calls so email/text are the best methods of communication. If we’re close, I’ll just call and try to finalize it then and will tell them that if we can get to my number, then I will come in today to pick up the vehicle.
Yeah I propose a deal and tell them exactly what I’m looking for. Like for my recent deal I just signed, most of dealers who would deal remotely was like 7-8% off msrp. At the actual dealership I was able to get like 13.5% off. But nice to know that making an offer is the preferred effective method for fellow shoppers
It’s the fact that you’re physically there that gives you leverage to close on your terms as that lets the dealer know you are serious about closing the deal then and there. No one really gives their best price from my virtual dealings either unless I physically go to the dealer.
Pretty much everyone on this site is successful getting deals done without going into the dealership. Half of the dealers will tell you to come in, I typically respond that I’d prefer confirmed numbers before I come in, but that I’m ready to do a deal. That weeds out a lot of dealers. Keep in mind the BDC front line Internet reps get paid to get you in the door so you may need to get them to reel in a sales manager to help you. But there are dealers who will take it seriously and work a deal via email.
Dealers want to avoid tire kickers and you taking their numbers and shopping them. But especially when a dealer is a long drive away it’s not out of the question for you to get confirmation before you trek out there.
I feel like there are some details missing here. When you contacted the dealers, were you already asking them for 13–14% off? And what was it that prompted to you go into that one dealership?
Not telling you how to live your life but this isn’t a tactic I would recommend to anyone I know.
They are going to be there from morning until night, regardless. It doesn’t matter to them if you’re there 1 hour or 12. The only way it matters is if it makes the customer feel more invested in salvaging something from this time-sink. But the salespeople are just doing what they do all day, every day, including wasting time on purpose.
The longer the customer is there, the more motivation the customer has to not walk away empty-handed. But it’s a one-way street.
I’ve had success with many remote deals. I agree with the general approach suggested by others – i.e., be prepared with an offer to go in with.
I’m trying to work on a deal this week, but am finding that dealers are still trying to charge inflated lease rates or are aggressively inflating the cost of the car with fluff and add-ons like window etching. They are not backing down from these artificial costs very easily. They keep adding them to the calculations even after supposedly “discounting” the sales price of the car.
By the way, can anyone tell me what “OVR” costs are? One dealer that took almost two days to finally apply the correct lease money factors and calculating a correct base monthly lease cost is adding $55 / month as “OVR” . When I asked for an explanation of what this is, they went silent. See the attached worksheet they sent me.
The short answer of how to negotiate remotely is … it depends.
brand - Kia, Hundai, Nissan CDJR-ABCDES; vs BMW, MB Lexus, one practices haggle model and thinks emails leads are tire kicker, while latter group serves different clientele and more open to engaging you remotely
dealership sales and location demographics - Nissan/Chevy/Ford/Toyota in struggling neighborhood vs affluent suburb will approach differently to your virtual lead. Urban location with sub-prime buyer are likely engage in predatory practices to exploit struggling buyers. You will fail their curb qualification.
DOW/TOD - you will have better response rate if you connect on Tuesday morning (typically slowest day of week at slowest time of day) vs Saturday afternoon.
Get hold of “desk” manager (also goes by GM, sales director, floor/internet/fleet manager). Avoid working directly with waterboy, aka sales specialist. They jog between you and desk person. You are likely to be “mini” deal that means there commission will be $100 and requires grinding. They are not motivated to respond since you may not fit their curb qualification. but when you start with desk mgr, he will hand you to new waterboy who is more likely to follow up.
Follow up - I usually float my leads 3rd week of month to multiple dealers. Drag out negotiation until closing of month, and follow up aggressively on last days of month. At least 1 out of 5 dealer is likely to respond favorably to pad their sales.
Negotiation is akin of learning bicycle. Despite of how much have read about it, you master your chops over time with practice. The other party sells and negotiate for living, but when you you approach after some research, analysis, planning and motivation. It becomes sport to exploit their Dunning–Kruger syndrome.
But again, what do I know? I am just random guy with more metal on driveway than I need.
One big challenge for me is identifying the right person. How do you know who the internet sales manager is? Sometimes it’s not listed on the dealer website. Do you call the dealership to ask?
Every deal I’ve made has been done virtually. Mostly everyone on this forum negotiates their deals virtually. There’s a reason why so many salespeople respond by saying “come in and we’ll discuss in person”. The second you are sitting in their territory, they have the upper hand. Not to mention the fact that you can shoot e-mails to 20 different dealers with the click of a button. How many dealers can you visit on a given day?
If you’re close on terms, then it may be beneficial to go in to “seal the deal.” But if you’re miles away on terms or they flat out refuse to give you any data points then there is no use in going into the dealer.
95% of those sweet deals (usually around 12%-14%) that I negotiated in the past were with dealers I virtually communicated with. Based on my own experience, the interesting thing is: salespeople who are cool with discussing numbers over text or email are more likely to give me the figures I’m hoping for. They might even leave some room for negotiation after I swing by the dealership. On the flip side, those who quickly push me to visit the dealership or try to persuade me by saying, “Come to the store, my manager won’t let any deal slip away today,” usually either aren’t the best negotiators, or their manager shut down their attempts a couple of times, so they won’t give it another shot. Or big chance they’re not in a rush to sell that specific car model/trim, or they’ve got plenty of customers and aren’t too motivated about giving big discounts. So not much possibility they’d give good discounts even if I walk in
