most broker deals aren’t even that good but I guess it comes to ease of buying a car.
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Typically the broker gets it on first round, as a “consumer” why do we need to go through several rounds of negotiation to get that same number? What a waste of time…
BTW, I’m not saying you do this, I’m saying most dealerships in general do.
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Well the broker will tell the client he got him $400 a month but will tell the dealership his fee is $3,600 which puts the deal to $300 a month from the dealership perspective.
The client will still see a structure of $400 a month but on accounting end the deal is actually $300 a month after paying the broker.
ok, that makes sense. I must’ve misunderstood his question as in the client would pay 300/mo but the contract would show 400/mo.
Most brokers charge $700-$1000 fee to the dealership and that is coming out of your deal. So you are paying for their service. They do have a niche in the market for those that don’t want to spend the time shopping and would like the car and paperwork delivered to them.
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But I thought that besides just their service and convenience, that they’re able to negotiate and get you a much better deal than if you were to try and negotiate yourself? I’ve had co-workers that have used brokers, and they got much better prices than truecar, costco, or even our corporate buying service (which just uses truecar and takes couple of hundred off). Are you saying that this is not the case?
You can do this by negotiating yourself.
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Definitely not the case. If that really was the case then nobody would ever purchase through a dealership any more. It will be just be independent brokers.
When you go through a broker you are automatically getting a “good deal” without all the hassle and time spent but you are definitely not getting the “best” deal if you were to do the leg work yourself and go through a dealership directly.
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I wouldn’t even go that far. I once contacted a broker (recommended by someone who had used them), and the deals and service were both mediocre.
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So, it seems that everyone at dealerships are “Managers.” When you look through a dealers website at the staff list, all I see are Sales Managers, Internet Managers, Fleet Managers, Service Managers, Finance Managers, etc. Yet, when you speak to say a Sales Manager, he always has to call over his Manager to approve a deal.
Is this just the “titles” given to the employees to give them the sense of authority? Or give the sense to the customers that the employee has some authority?
I’ve seen this for years and don’t understand why dealerships do this…
BTW, Thanks for starting this thread Ivan! A lot of great info here!
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Only “managers” have the ability to desk deals and run quotes on their own. If a deal is really ugly only a general sales manager have the authority to approve it but for the most part the manager will already know what the answer is. There is always a line we can’t cross when making deals unless there a very good reason to.
Service advisors have a service manager that have the ability to go above and beyond given the circumstance.
Finance managers are the ones preparing the contract and selling back end products.
And to answer your question it’s a little bit of both. They do have more authority than just a regular salesman working the floor and it gives customer a sense that they are getting a better deal dealing with someone with authority.
I actually give brokers higher pricing than customers. The brokers are not always the easiest to deal with.
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Given the importance that the dealerships place on surveys, if a prospective buyer/leaser asked you to try and give a lower price in exchange for a perfect survey score, would you (or others who you know) consider that in your negotiations?
aka extortion? LOL 
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LOL, well not extortion, but maybe in the last stage of negotiations. Something along the lines of, “Hey, if you can beat this price, not only will I buy from you today, you’ll get a 100% customer satisfaction score.”
I’d say this depends. I’ve worked with “Internet sales managers” who were glorified salesman who just took internet leads. They still had to run everything through the sales manager and couldn’t desk their own deals.
It’s a shady tactic and I would try to avoid using it. The fact that the salesman know you know the importance of the survey and try to use it as leverage, he would probably not want to move forward with the deal.
I know I wouldn’t.
I think it would be based on the approach they may include a free car wash 
but if you come off as a jerk move or extorting, I’d think the salesperson would just ignore you and the deal.
This is why a 3 minute phone call really makes a world of difference. When shopping for a best deal, ANSWER THE PHONE! You’ll be surprised how much information you’ll get and time you’ll save versus just trying to do everything through email.
You’ll find out really quick if you are talking to a internet sales consultant or an actual internet manager who can run numbers on the fly.
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