It’s a 2021 Chevrolet Colorado.
Nope I do not think so. I had a dealer tell me that he was not interested in matching an ad I had that was not even that aggressive, more fair market, and it was the manager. Right now on the mid price cars (no idea what the premium ones are doing) they are looking to make as much as they can. The brokers that I usually deal with have nothing either. Or they do not have good deals or they have nothing in stock. As I posted I had one say they only negotiate in person. They said their internet price is final, on a model that was going to be obsolete in a month
I was told by one dealership that they don’t do remote quotes. They said, “Come in and we’ll beat anybody’s deal.” I wasn’t falling it, so I scratched them off the list.
Some dealers are weird about e-mail in general. They think the second they put it in writing, you will shop around their quote… which you probably will. I’ve found that some would prefer to have a phone conversation with you first, to feel you out. Then at the end when they tell you they’ll get back to you with some numbers, you ask them to shoot you an e-mail and continue the conversation that way.
These Corona times are indeed unusual. What they say is (somewhat) true in that vehicle inventory is indeed low for many models.
Per the e-mail thing in normal times. My experience was that you send something off to the “internet” manager and maybe you’ll only get a response half the time. It doesn’t seem to work as it should. Then when you speak with them it’s clear that (some of them) are buried in E-mail threads and their process is poor to sort through all of them. It doesn’t seem to work as it should.
My personal suggestion for people is now is a bad time to buy (basic supply/demand) so avoid buying if you can. If you absolutely need a car now for work, it’s different, but I take it many of us lease/buy as additional toys, and I would just wait for better deals.
I will risk everyone booing me but the reason is probably what you’re saying on the phone. They know you’re calling multiple dealerships and probably shopping everyone against everyone else. If they perceive you as a grinder with a low % chance of a sale that also has no profit they won’t be very motivated.
What @ctnyc said about doing the research and making an offer is definitely something that would get my attention.
4 Likes
@HondaSoCal Exactly how I got this deal for my parents earlier this month – I like to think I didn’t do too terribly ;). Took 2-3 emails back and forth followed by 2 phone calls, about 2 mins each (1 to tell me a price since they don’t email prices, the other to get manager approval) to get to this deal. Made it clear we would do a deposit immediately on the phone and sign later that day if we can make numbers work.
That is a great deal and you did well however, the pilots are not that in demand in metro New York, I am seeing deals on them but you cannot even find an Accord or a RAV4. I have a dealership that I bought from two years ago and they will not text me a price, they keep promising to! They have no cars and this is a very high volume dealership. I left a message at a dealership I got two Accords from and they did not call me back.
In a normal market sure but the sales people are really busy because everyone in metro New York who never owned a car before is buying one because they do not want to take public transportation.Then many dealerships do not have cars. I see inventory of fewer than 100 cars total at some dealerships
Do you have a Costco card? Do an inquiry through Costco and then see if you can do a deal based on real numbers that you research
No one is buying a Rogue or a CR-V as a toy, LOL. I would wait if I could but I cannot. The summer is usually not a great time to buy anyway in my experience. I think I want to extend my next lease to December
I was on a local dealer web site yesterday and the bot was driving me crazy, popping up on every page I visited even after closing it several times previously.
So I typed in “go away,” and it did.
I visited the site again from the same device/browser today… and still no bot.
Like many things, YMMV.
1 Like
This is my preferred approach. I look at it as if I’m asking a dealership to make a minimal amount of money on the deal, I should also be asking them to do a minimal amount of work. I email a detailed offer and finish with “if you agree, I’ll be there in 2 hours to take delivery”. There’s no back and forth, so inching up on numbers, so confusion if I’m serious or trying to just get a quote to cross shop. Two emails is all it takes.
But if you do this, be damn sure you have the numbers correct in what you offer. Don’t go listing purchase incentives on a lease or the mf/RV from the wrong mileage and three months out of date.
3 Likes
And be ready to sign…
There are definitely those people who think they can and should have pushed for more because the dealership accepted the offer
4 Likes
1 Like
Oh, definitely. If I tell them I’ll be in in 2 hours to sign if they say yes, and they say yes, I go in within 2 hours to sign.
3 Likes
That’s because you’re one of the good ones
When did you use this last? This works well in normal times, not now and not on popular mid priced cars.
My previous car was leased in July 2018 and I was in the Honda dealership deciding on an ok deal (from negotiating in person because I had a crappy trade that I wanted a certain amount on) when I got a better offer from a Toyota dealer down the street by email, had been negotiating with them. Honored the deal and we signed that night (except for not knowing they did not have Gap which cost me $5 more a month, lesson learned). It was a decent deal for the time but nothing spectaculor but I wanted the Toyota more than the Honda.
This time I could not even get that same Toyota dealer to get me a quote on a RAV4, knowing I was a repeat customer. I wanted an initial quote, not even a deal, just a quote and it has been a week. Leased a Rogue yesterday because I liked them and they were willing to deal a little. The times are weird. If you want a mid price in the New York metro area, maybe try toward the end of the month, around mid week or labor day (personally think holidays are a myth but please correct me). Otherwise wait until there is inventory. The shortage will not last forever. Or try someplace a couple of hours away where they normally drive a lot. The shortage here is due to everyone who used to take public transportation realizing they no longer want to. The best deal I got on the Honda was in Northern Connecticut but the Rogue was equivalent in price and had a lower residual and I was buying for kids to use so if they crap it up I can buy it. Plus this was the least fun experience I ever had leasing a car and in three years I do not want to waste my summer doing this again
Got me my palisade for thousands off the best dealer offer this way. Definitely falls into the popular, mid priced vehicle category, but yes, it was before covid madness. They’re dealing on them more now though, not less.
Although I’m sure in the days of covid madness, dealers still don’t want to work more for less… You just need to adjust your offer to reflect the market.
They are not working more or less. The problem is they have a limited stock of vehicles and cannot hit their volume numbers so they do not get the additional incentives on each car and for the ones within 50 miles of New York City they know they will sell it to someone else for a lot more than we are willing to pay.
I have been waiting nearly a week to get a base number from a dealer where they know I bought previously, what does that tell you?
That you’re asking them to burn calories on a potential sale without any confidence that you’re going to purchase from them. The whole point is to flip that around so they’re not burning calories and know you’re serious.
Also, supply on Palisades is significantly higher now than it was when I bought. It’s an outlier where market conditions have got better, not worse.
There’s never going to be a market condition where going back and forth over and over is less work than responding to one email.