Negotiation Strategy

Signed Deals & Tips
1

What is yours?

Sometimes I feel like people are too soft and intimidated by salesman and then especially the finance guy. Always shoot low, not because you’re cheap, but because you want to make the best deal possible for YOU. Post here, ask others for what they got, and then come in a bit lower than that. Always sound unrealistic. Don’t FEEL BAD for the sales guy. They make money no matter what, even if they say they don’t. They wouldn’t sell you the car otherwise.

If you go to a GOOD dealer they’re more concerned about quantity and closing deals. Be aware when you’re leasing about hidden fees. I think it’s standard for a dealer to put in 1 point for financing (.0004 MF). So regardless, they’re making money, even if they make it sound like they’re not.

When you think you’ve got a good deal, push it more. Just say you know what, I think that $500 target we hit, I want to be at $470. That’s my budget. Make it happen.

Joke around a little bit, be polite, but never demand. Act cool, calm, collected, and like you’re their new best friend. And you’re not, you just want them to give in. They play the same game with you, so why wouldn’t you with them? Don’t go in to a dealer expecting to get the best deal today. SHOP around. Call other dealers. Maybe even bring a bottle of whiskey or bourbon when you’re ready to knock a few more dollars off. It CAN’T HURT (maybe it can… I don’t know).

Always ask for a break down of your lease. Get the residual, money factor, and ensure your lease terms are what YOU WANT THEM to be. And again, can’t stress this enough, look online for comparables. The Internet hasn’t necessarily killed dealer profits - I think the competitive market place is astounding. I can call a dealer in a prime market and they won’t touch my numbers. Call one the next state over and they’re willing to work with you. I mean, it’s not EASY work, it’s definitely tedious, but can save you a lot of money in the long run.

What’s your strategy?

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Be willing to leave, therefore you can’t show up “needing” a car. My dealer offered me another $500 off after a couple days on a Cruze Limited deal from late 2015. Well $500 on a 2 year lease is over $20 per month.

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I’ve been very happy with the strategy and advice provided by James Bragg. Look him up on the interwebs. In addition to that, I look at owner fan sites for hot tips.

Leasehackr is proving to be a great resource as well. I’ve never leased before but I’m going to lease a Volt this month.

Two reasons for that:

  1. Volt tech/size might be much better in 3 years.
    2). High residual value may make it cheaper to lease-then-buy than to finance a purchase.

I understand GM requires sale at end of lease to use the residual price. I won’t do that but instead find a dealer who will sell it to me at $1,000 above the auction price.

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Of course, and it’s normal. Everybody’s different.

How low? You should be reasonable or you will be cheap by trying to leave $0 on the table.

LOL. You may find a good, straightforward dealer who won’t work with if you ask for “unrealistic” deal. Unrealistic IS unrealistic.[quote=“Kos, post:1, topic:3054”]
Don’t FEEL BAD for the sales guy. They make money no matter what, even if they say they don’t. They wouldn’t sell you the car otherwise.
[/quote]

And why not? They make their living in sales and it’s not easy working with “smart asses” coming up with unrealistic deals :slight_smile: Show them respect if you want to treated the same way. Not all of them will give it you, of course. But you don’t have to work with someone you don’t like. If you get a great deal that you are really happy with - do you care if they make extra $300-600 by marking up acquisition fee or charging high dealer fees?

“Good” dealers may have a bad salesperson or two.

Translation: give me another $1,000 off to get $30/mo off. Like I said before, be reasonable - if you got a good deal, you can ask for a few $$ off more. I do it myself and usually get an extra $100-200, but I do not tell them my target, I negotiate the sales price.
And saying “That’s my budget” AFTER “I think that $500 target we hit, I want to be at $470” is just bad manners. You set you target, whatever it is, and stick to it. You do not renegotiate after getting what you asked for.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer to establish relationships with people and be straightforward with them. I don’t really play games, just not telling them everything :slight_smile: I shop around, do my homework and tell my salesperson what I want. If they can do it - great, no - I’ll either wait for a better time (tried for S60 in February and then got one in March) or go somewhere else. I stay with the same dealerships, even when salespeople change. And loyalty does get rewarded. I placed an order for a 2016 Forester last September at $1,5K under invoice, but the car would not come until January, so the salesperson kept looking for the one I wanted and there was none available. On December 27 he called me first to let me know that he got one in stock and a customer did not take delivery.

Only after the fact, not before :slight_smile: They won’t give you any more $$ off for a $30-50 bottle of liquor.

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I think you’re giving dealers more credit then they deserve. From a buyers perspective it is the most non transparent service industry out there. I go to a restaurant and I KNOW I’m going to tip a certain amount. 20% is my number, all day long. Whether people decide to tip on the full bill, liquor, or everything minus tax, that is their own thing.

Unrealistic is not unrealistic. They are buying your bull shit as much as you’re buying theirs. At the end of the day, it’s all bull shit until you come up with real numbers. The translation of $1000 off for $30 is alright, but it’s not JUST that. The dealer can set MF, eat up a point or however much on the backend, and they can set residual to also attribute to that.

I’m not saying go in, be a dick, get what you want. What I’m saying is, go in, be friendly as hell, PLAY the game with them, and try to squeeze every last dollar you can. And when you feel like it’s the right deal, take a day, wait until you get a call. The dealer is that girl you never want to meet at the bar that wants you to come back until they get what they want. They want the sale.

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You are mixing real people with the car sales industry, where they happen to make their living. It’s about treating people with respect. You may be doing the same bullshit in your area of work, but you’d still want to be treated with respect by your clients/customers.

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I didn’t say disrespect anyone, no one deserves that… I’m not sure if you’re misinterpreting my posts or not? I don’t think I’m mixing real people and the car industry up. I grew up around the car sales industry and I never, ever want to be involved in it. Maybe you just haven’t seen the dark side, or you’re part of the dark side.

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Seems like a bit of disrespect… Anyhow, I did not mean to argue about your strategy - it’s personal choice and I just answered your question “What’s your strategy?” using your points.

And how one could not see the “dark side” after dealing with a dealership just once? Does it mean I’m “part of the dark side.”? :wink:

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Now I think you’re mixing personal and business. You can disrespect someone personally, when it comes to business - that’s what it is. Yes or no, non emotional. 1s and 0s. If they can make it work they’ll do it, if they can’t it’s not like you should yell and scream or cuss at them.

Get the best deal you can and maintain your composure.

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Come in ahead of time with max prices you are willing to pay for the car + trim. Don’t cross it. You don’t want to have to think under pressure about whether you should or shouldn’t. Set that line well ahead of time and if they can’t get to it, politely walk away.

Anchor your number low but not GTFO low. Hopefully you negotiate well enough so that it forces them to bring out the head sales manager. They will try and hit you with an emotional plea - ‘we have to feed our family’, “we can’t sell the car below cost”, etc. Don’t buy their emotional pleas, you are not their friend and will likely never see them again. If the deal makes sense for both sides it will happen, otherwise it won’t.

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Best way to negotiate a deal is pretty easy. Outside of not LYING about everything (credit, trade bids, payoffs, you name it), you have to do 3 things.

  1. Don’t waste their time.
  2. Don’t waste their time.
  3. Don’t waste their time.
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To be honest, I’ve never had to negotiate in recent memory. I research the market price for a vehicle, identify a target, convert that to a lease estimate, and email dealers if they’ll match. I usually provide both the selling price and the corresponding payment/drive-off amount to be extra helpful – and to get the point across that I’m not pulling numbers out of thin air.

Not all dealers will match, but one or two particularly hungry ones will. Email a driver’s license copy, proof of insurance, and online credit application, if need be, to expedite the process. Once at the dealer, it’ll take about an hour – maybe more if the finance person is busy. Recently for me, the most time consuming process has been the client advisor taking forever to set up mbrace/BMW Assist/OnStar and creating accounts, profiles, passwords, and the like. I spend zero minutes discussing pricing in person.

The key is to know that what you’re asking for is reasonable, based on at least a few data points. I try to be respectful and avoid wasting anyone’s time. This strategy has worked well and resulted in cars with Leasehackr scores of 15 to 20 years. There will always be someone who got a slightly better deal due to whatever unique circumstance (e.g., dealer’s desperation to meet a volume target) and tons who pay way more. Just have to know what’s a good deal and be happy with it.

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This is my strategy exactly. When you’re in the dealership you are stuck. It is you against the salesperson. Negotiating from your home or office gives you a chance to get dealers negotiating against each other. I also know my number ahead of time. Once I get what I’m looking for I pounce immediately. I could probably save a few bucks a month re-shopping that number to all the dealers I was negotiating with but in my opinion, the right thing to do is reward the first guy with the business.

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but how would you know or get all the numbers on specific cars! like i get it that we ask you guys for a specify MF or residual etc… but how can you get the lowest sale price before even negotiating at the dealer ship? like for example, the dealership’s website shows the sale price only for finance, and it does not apply on a lease! thanks

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You don’t talk about leasing until you negotiate your sale price. Once you do that, then you strike.

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Half the time the reply is “this sale price is for financing only”.

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Some dealers are pretty transparent and display on their website what part is purchase incentives and what part is their discount. You can then try to get lower prices from competitors with that as your base.

That’s why you ask them for the best sales price before incentives.

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Do research - Edmunds, TrueCar, dealers’ web sites, etc - and shoot for some extra $$ off of the lowest price. Ask the dealer for that price and clarify that it is the same sale price for the lease. Don’t go by their “internet” prices since they are based on financing and may include finance only incentives. Be upfront with the dealer on what you want price wise. You may find lease incentives on manufacturers websites.

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I have been looking for a BMW for a few weeks now and I can tell you guys that I am surprised that many salesmen do not care about closing deals. I had a preliminary agreement with one and he said that he will hold the car for me for a day as I was traveling, only to find the next day after hours of trying to locate him that he sold the car. Others do not care to give you crazy quotes or for example, take days, yes days to finish the paperwork as I was buying a car over the phone. My point; you have to be respectful, but you can’t trust most of the dealers because if they have a chance to squeeze you they will do so. Most will only care about their profit and not about the customer. Just look at posts from people in the forum, without credit history that got really bad deals.

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Of course they care about profit. They have to pay their expenses and turn a profit, the core of any business. I been searching for a 300 because I believe you can get a good deal. What they hate is an informed consumer. As soon as they see that I know what I am talking about and cannot play tricks with my numbers they stop replying. See Chrysler Financial has 59% residual on the car and MF of .0001. Other banks residuals are not good but there is a IDL bonus cash of 8000 to cover that. So when they tell me they cannot use IDL with the discount on the price they give, i ask for Chrysler Capital and mention that with high residual payment comes about the same. It is a game in the end and you will win only of you catch them at a point where they need to sell it . To me seems they have a required profit per car and they will stick to that number. Just my 2 cents and happy hunting.

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