I’m a total newbie here, but I have to say i’ve been addicted to looking around the forums. It’s probably not the best time to get a lease with COVID interrupting everything, but I do want to learn on how to haggle more and get a better price on potential car deals.
How do you guys go about figuring out what a good MSRP % discount for a particular car before incentives. Do most of you just know based on what you see around the forum or what brokers are posting?
IE: I’ve noticed that some people are haggling BMW 3 series demo cars at around 18-20% off MSRP. Correct me if i’m wrong. Does it go across all demo cars for all makes? Or is this just for BMW or maybe the 3 series?
Also when you contact dealers, do you immediately offer what you want for a particular car. Let’s say for example. A BMW Demo 3 series is selling for 45,000 MSRP. Do you automatically offer 36,000 - pre-incentive? (I am also aware of the MF/RV at edmunds so I have that in mind as well + any other incentives)
Some dealers are responding to me like i’m crazy. I don’t know if i’m going about it the wrong way or maybe because we’re in COVID they’re looking at me like nut.
I apologize for the loaded post, but would definitely like your input!
Ymmv, unicorns exist, some cars have been getting there like some iPaces I saw, Etrons if you include marketing allowance, etc. I’ve seen discounts that high on 19 5 series a few months ago. Volvo during normal times will get you there. Shoot with a realistic consideration for inventory and current market status.
Some recommend this, email with an offer and reasoning, if they take, you hacked a lease. I ask for an offer, with no incentives (add them later so they don’t take from discount), and no info on trade (if I had one, or just use carvana). I get an offer, negotiate for xx% discount with the gm, usm, sm, etc and add incentives for my price. However, there have been discussions on the topic and other methods I don’t want to go into and that you could research easily.
You’ll get that a lot, I’ve been told to actually F off, come on, don’t f with me like this by some Alfa, FCA dealer’s. Resilience is required to get a good deal, I’ve been admonished by an IDF ex Mossad agent, that’s a funnier more terrifying one.
General manager, used car sales manager (did this at Bobby Rahal Volvo, apparently, loaners are considered used to them so I’m bounced to the used car manager), and store manager.
A combination of both. People often update initial threads with the discounts they were able to get, so read the search function. Brokers listing are also a useful resource, and you may just end up liking an offered deal they you pay them their fee in order to get that car without any hassle.
There are general “rule-of-thumb” discounts for certain brands, but not all demos are going to get 20% off. Pre-COVID, these discounts were available. However, this is not the case these days.
I closed my deal on a 330i last month. Dealer offered me 14.2% off a 49k MSRP demo, I countered With 18.5% off and dealer told me that was unrealistic and we met in the middle at 16.3%.
He did his 330i homework and looked at past deals posted here. He figured out that hackers found BMW DEMO deals in the 15-20% range (under normal conditions) were considered good deal target. We are talking about Pre-Incentive Discount from MSRP (really wrap your head around this concept, you will see it defined everywhere around here. It the most important figure you will negotiate.). He now knows what discount he should target.
He chose to ask a dealer for a quote for a specific demo he wanted (some people make an offer, you pick the best approach for you. There are pros and cons, all can be found here if you search. Key point, there is no one BEST way).
When he saw the dealer’s 14.2% quote he QUICKLY knew he could negotiate a better deal and countered with 18.5%. A legitimate counter. Now the dealer knew AverageGuy was a reasonable buyer and he was ready to deal. There may have been a little back-and-forth at this point. 16.3% worked for both sides. Deal is done.
Now you might be thinking why didn’t AverageGuy go for 20%. Once again he did his homework on this site. He knew in this Covid 19 world car makers stopped production and now new car inventory is tight. He saw other June deal posts where folks tried to get 20% and where shot down. He wanted a car now and didn’t want to wait for the good old 20% days to return (they will one day).
Bottom line: Do your homework. Know what a good deal is before you talk to a dealer. And get the deal done.
Or I could be mistaken and AverageGuy just winged it and did well for himself. My money is on the former.
By the way. @AverageGuy joined leasehackr June 4th. In less than 30 days he negotiated a very good deal.
Do the homework. You will figure it out. While leasing is a complicated transaction with several moving parts, people do it everyday. You can do it better than most.
