How do you get actual quotes out of dealers? I’m been asking for Jetta and Corolla lease in Houston, Texas via email, but most dealers don’t respond to me or offer deals worse than what’s advertised on the Toyota or Volkswagen website.
So do you email? Call? Go in person? I don’t want to spend a half hour on the phone getting the hard sell or driving down to the dealership and going through that charade when they could just send me a one page email, but if that’s what it takes…
Also, I’m worried that I’ll lose leverage if I walk in there, but is that a necessary sign of commitment?
TLDR; Do I need to go down to the dealerships in-person?
I’m up in NY, but the few I’ve tried to talk with recently did reply to my e-mails and wouldn’t give numbers over the phone (apparently fear that I’m just going to take that and go to a competing dealership). In person I definitely felt like I had lost some leverage, but seemed to be a necessity… just don’t give them more leverage. If you lease is expiring, tell them you own a 2nd car so you don’t “need” a car, just looking for something newer.
From other threads it sounds like others have different experiences however.
services like costco or truecar, or even things like credit union shopping services are more likely to get no haggle prices (although CU’s will do regular financing not leases).
And if you’re dealing with internet sales departments in general, they tend to screw around less than traditional salesman on the floor.
But I had one subary dealer that I got referred to through truecar which absolutely refused to give a quote over the phone. I eventually told them they were wasting my time. (I had contacted like 8 other dealers in San Diego and LA, I wasn’t hurting for quotes).
Are you asking for lease quotes? Those will always be high because dealers love using them to make easy profits from unsuspecting customers who just know they are paying less than purchasing.
Some people have better luck by implying they are going to purchase the vehicle and asking them for their best sale price before incentives. The before incentives part is key because they will often include manufacturer incentives that don’t apply to leases. When you have a good sale price, ask here or in the edmunds forums for the mf/residual/lease incentives and use the leasehackr calculator to see what the lease would look like. If you like it, send the offer to the dealer and see if they bite. It’s hard to argue with their previously offered sale price and the correct mf and residual.
If you go into the dealership, they will put a ton of pressure on you to sign before leaving or run your credit and they often won’t let you leave with a quote on paper for you to look at later.
I could write a book on the process, but basically you need to do the following:
Research, research, research. Become familiar with pricing/incentives on the vehicle(s) you are interested in. A place like leasehackr is great for getting lease information.
Once you do your research, KNOW YOUR PRICE. You can’t call up a random dealer, go “Hey, give me your best offer on ______ for a 36 month lease!”. You’ll never get an offer that is close to the dealer’s actual bottom line. Instead of “Can I haz the $12/month leaze I heard about from somewhere???”, go “I am interested in , and after doing research, I want to know if you can agree to $/month on stock number 123456 for a __ month/__k mile lease, $0 down. I should qualify for X, Y, and Z rebates.”
Giving them hard numbers to work with will help out immensely. For one, it shows that you have done your homework and are not a sucker waiting to be reeled in.
I’ve also found going in person does help in the dealer taking you seriously. A random email from "LockHerUp_crookedHillary@gmail.com" asking for “Your best offer!” will probably get tossed in the spam box. However, knowing you are a living, breathing person makes the dealer think you can become an actual sale.
Leverage-shmeverage It’s all just illusion. Not facing a dealer and “hiding” behind emails does not give you any leverage. Quite opposite - they know we all shop around and will take their quotes to other dealers. All you need is balls to walk in the dealership and face the music. And even bigger balls to politely say “I’ll think about it and will let you know” and walk out
i have to disagree with you regarding going in person to the dealership. I always felt that unless you already have a deal worked out prior to stepping foot into the dealership, you will get jerked around, after all you are now on “their turf”.
I find that speaking to the manager after dealing with the sales guy and stressing the urgency that you are willing to come TODAY if the numbers are right usually yields a better result. May just be my own style of negotiating but that has always worked best for me.
Sure, but who the hell wants to waste any kind of time (driving there, sitting through all the bs, and so on) just to walk out and leave while you “think about it?”
I agree with both @bro1999 and @305Hackr on this one, a well-written and researched email directly to an SM or GM is precisely how I have purchased my last 5 or 6 cars. I second the vote to make @bro1999’s post a sticky here.
exactly what @TR10 said…who wants to waste that kind of time…plus then afterwards you have to go get a degreaser from the auto parts store to pour over yourself from prolonged exposure to greasy car sales guys who wear a dress shirt 2 sizes too large because it was on sale and a tie they last wore to a wedding when W was still president.
But @bro1999 said the same thing as I did, didn’t he?
Besides, I wasn’t really serious in my post. One should do whatever he feels comfortable with, of course. I, most of the time, go to a dealership, introduce myself and establish relationship with the salesperson and/or sales manager. Then I just keep in touch and get updates on deals from the salesperson. When I’m ready to pull the trigger, I get quotes in emails without any problems and finalize everything over email. After that, I just go to sign papers.
Visiting the dealer is sometimes a necessary evil. Some dealers will happily give quotes over email/phone, but others won’t take you seriously until they see you in person.
By establishing a relationship with my local sales guy, I was able to lease a 2LT Spark EV for $150/month, $0 down (crazy deal in tax happy MD). Then I swapped that Spark EV, rolling in $1,300 negative equity into a NEW Spark EV lease, and the deal was $148/month, $0 down.
I leased a 17 Volt for $261/month, $0 down, despite having a other $800 negative equity rolled in.
Because I had established a relationship with the dealer, they were willing to deal with me. I just had to lay out the deal to them in detail.
The email only technique let me snag 2 Cruze Ltd lease deals for $50 and $124/month, $ down. The $124/month deal was actually my “worst” one I’ve done in the past year.
I’m probably just averse to spending any more time in a dealer than I have to, South FL is an absolute sh*tshow of a place to simply walk into a dealer and expect to walk out with any sort of deal that would receive leasehackr approval. Come to think of it, of all those cars I’ve purchased this way not a single one has been closer to me than 200 miles.
Understand… But the point is to go there well before you must get a car. This way there is no pressure on you to get a deal done right away. I went to look at and test drive 2009 VW CC a year before I actually leased 2010 model from the same salesperson. We kept in touch all that time. He’s now a sales manager at another dealership, but we couldn’t agree on a 2016 GTI deal in February
In any case - no one can force you to do something you don’t feel comfortable with or spend hours haggling, so it’s always up to you.
Nothing to do with balls. It’s just highly inefficient. You walk in and walk out…based on what? How do you know when it’s the right deal (considering pricing; their inventory if you require certain options/color; and the value of your time)?
Going to multiple dealerships in person is such a waste of time. Considering the best price will require a dealer to:
Discount the sales price before incentives.
Pass through all applicable incentives to you.
Not mark up Acq fee or MF
Not charge a deal-breaking Doc fee
Know how to accept MSD
I only step inside a dealership once I know the exact deal we agreed to.
I use an email-based approach similar to Bro1999 with the addition of using Google Voice to create a phone number that forwards to my cell. I make an exception of my usual rule of declining phone calls from unknown numbers and take calls knowing many will be from a dealership to indeed verify I am a real person. These days, internet sales depts that need to verify if you are real will call you and not expect you to “just come on down.” I turn off GV call-forwarding after my taking possession.
And I use spreadsheets like this to not only make my calculations but also to email dealerships with an offer specific down to the penny (side benefit of showing you know how leases are calculated):
Have created different ones over the years for BMW (different MSD reduction), M-B (MSD with autopay or Onepay), Euro delivery, exec cars with mileage/residual adjustments, etc.
Selling price (before any incentives): you should aim for invoice minus holdback for a typical car. Find invoice pricing from Edmunds, and the deduct another 2-3% for holdback.
MF can be found on Edmunds forums for each car. Acq for any brand can be found by googling.
MSD - like everything else, nail it down in writing (email). Don’t step into the dealer just to have the deal fall apart because the finance person is too stupid to figure out how to click a few boxes on their screen.
It’s all just illusion. Not facing a dealer and “hiding” behind emails does not give you any leverage. Quite opposite - they know we all shop around and will take their quotes to other dealers. All you need is balls to walk in the dealership and face the music. And even bigger balls to politely say “I’ll think about it and will let you know” and walk out 
