Please help me with this e-mail conversation

Ask the Hackrs
1

Hello all,

For some background, this was a post I made before:

[New guy question: how did I do on this lease?]

I’m taking the car back soon, and have been communicating with a different salesperson at the same dealership.

For the sake of brevity, I started off the conversation by stating I wanted a deal in place before I would visit the dealership. I also made it very clear that I wanted the cheapest lease possible (bare minimum car just for work), and that I wanted to put 0 down.

I also stated that my current leased car is 4,000 miles over, and I still have February’s payment to make, and that I wanted help with both of those issues.

Here’s their response to that:

"So as of now the cheapest leases we have right now are on our 2018 Trax vehicles ($159/month for 39 months for qualified buyers) . Our Car Show incentives are also kicking in this weekend which can also save you some money and get you a better deal. I was able to speak to my Sales Manager & he would be willing to waive your February payment, as far as the overage on miles goes we will have to honestly see where we are at numbers wise to see what we would be able to do for you there. I completely understand not wanting to come in until something is negotiated beforehand, however if you would be able to give a hour to a hour and a half to meet with our Sales Manager I know he can get you in and out of here as quickly as possible while getting you the best deal he can.

Please let me know if you would like to come in and sit down with him and I can schedule a time/date for the two of you to sit down and run some numbers."

My response:

"The $159/month would include tax, title, and all fees, correct? Again, I’m looking to put 0 down, including all fees.

I spoke to another dealership and they said there is a $500 waiver on the mile overage that all dealerships offer, can you check on that again?"

Their reply:

"So currently the nationally advertised lease special on a Chevy Trax is $179/month for 39 months. (That’s with 10,000 miles per year on a Trax LT FWD with an MSRP of $23,845)

Great News, it looks like you will also qualify for an additional $1,500 in rebates because you are already a loyal (blank) and Chevrolet customer. That brings cash due at signing all the way down to $2,529. Of course, we can always adjust your cash due at signing amount to fir your needs, plus with the additional rebates available it looks like your payments could also be a little lower than the advertised lease.

I don’t see your titling info in our system here, Your taxes are based on where you title your vehicle.

We do have great availability on current Trax models."

That’s where we are at.

Methinks this isn’t a great deal at all.

Thanks to any and all who reply! I also talked to another salesperson with a different dealership and he’s being very evasive. He gave a ballpark estimate of $250-$350 a month with 0 zero down, based on my credit (which is seriously very good, and I told him as much). I can get into more detail if someone wants.

2

Is there a reason you are focusing on just a couple dealers? In my experience, start out with a large amount of emails (to any dealer within a 400 mile range) to negotiate the best sales-price pre-incentives. This is the hardest part, but by reaching out to a lot of dealers you should be able to get a better sense of how low they can go (try to find dealers that have a lot of excess inventory and are more likely to deal–you can use Autorader or a similar site for this). Then you need to determine what incentives are available and what the buy rate is for the MF. This forum can probably help, as can Edmunds. The rest of the lease numbers fall in place after this and you can get breakdowns for your desired lease term and mileage.

With respect to your current conversation, I would recommend reaching out to other dealers to negotiate sales price and MF and then if you want to continue with this dealer you can ask him to match/beat–although I like to go with the dealer that gave me the best deal from the start, unless not possible. Just my two cents.

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3

Thank you for the feedback.

To answer your question: no, I have no loyalty to the dealership. I just started looking, and they contacted me since I dealt with them before.

4

I just looked at the edmunds.com site, and noticed that they wrote about the exact same deal that the salesperson offered me. Down to the penny!

:grin:

5

Advertised leases are a starting point and nothing special. He is literally quoting from the Chevy website.

Start negotiating % off MSrp then subtract incentives. Trax sounds like you can do better than 160 with 2k down

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6

I think I’m being trolled, here’s the latest, after I called out the salesperson for copying and pasting from Edmunds:

"It sounds like you’ve been doing your homework!

Yes, Edmunds does advertise the promoted Chevrolet leases.

Because you are already a loyal XXX and Chevrolet customer we are able to make sure that you get the lowest possible payments and best lease terms available on whatever vehicle you choose.

In fact, in speaking with my manager we find that about 50% of the time our customers actually have some equity left in their lease, especially with the attractive programs that you took advantage of with your Cruze. My used vehicle manager can help us find out if and how much equity we can apply. To determine the current equity we would just need the vehicle to do a physical appraisal and go from there.

Currently the Trax seems to be the most attractive lease structure, but I see that you asked about the cars.

Are you more interested in a sedan style? Have you had a chance to see the improvements in the new Cruzes?

Regards,

7

My $.02 is that because you have not decided on a vehicle specifically, they aren’t taking you super seriously. So if you bring up price on one car, but then talk about another, it makes you a moving target and therefore they think you aren’t really serious about buying yet.

My advice is to do some research here about what is leasing well, pick a vehicle, and then start shopping it around.

2 Likes
8

Thank you for the quick reply!

I started off asking for the cheapest car, they quoted me the Trax, and when I found out that they cut and pasted the exact same numbers from Edmunds (while claiming this included perks and discounts) then I just wrote them asking for a 2017 car.

I’m moving on; I leased with them before, but not again. I just found the latest exchange actually funny.

9

I dont think any dealer is going to give you a super sweet deal in an email conversation right on the spot when its an inquiry. From my experience, when you are ready to make a deal and its clear to them that you are, its when you will be able to lowball the shit out of them. Do your research first and only contact dealers when ready.

2 Likes
10

Hello everyone,

I found what seems to be a nice price on a Cruze, but the dealership is out of state, and hours away. I contacted the out of state dealership, but they have been evasive. I’m guessing they don’t think I am serious about working with them when I live hours away.

With two of the local dealers that I’ve been contacting, I told each the ad price, and mentioned that I know this can be negotiated down.

One local salesman responded with this:

"we would be more than happy to beat any deal that you have in writing. Regardless of the deal the other dealership comes up with send me a copy of what it entails and I will have my sales managers do anything they can to beat it. "

Any recommendations on how I should proceed? Again, I really just have an online ad. Part of the deal requires a non-GM lease in my home, which I do not have. I don’t know how important that is.

Thanks in advance!

11

what region are you in? zip code? what kind of car do you want? or just ‘cheapest’

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12

I live in NE Ohio, and just want the cheapest lease possible.

Thanks!

13

the non-gm lease rebate in socal is 1500-2000 rebate. need the zip to see if it’s the same in your region.

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