I am very bad at negotiating prices. The car I am considering is brand new, in transit. If I buy, I’ll be buying as soon as it gets to the dealership, how much room do I have to negotiate? I am guessing I don’t have too much leverage since the car isn’t sitting around, not selling.
We bought a Tesla this year and there is no negotiation.
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It may depend on how “in demand” the vehicle/model is. We also hate the car buying game and considered using car buying services like Costco, AAA (if they still do it), etc. there are also sites like true car that should (haven’t looked in a while) show the true cost of the vehicle. Also consider buying at the end of the month when they may need to meet their quotas.
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These videos are great. Plus do most of it online first.
Negotiate Car Prices Like a PRO with This Cheat Sheet - CarEdge Negotiate Car Prices Like a PRO with This Cheat Sheet - CarEdge
You want a “Out the door price “. That is your mantra m
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We bought a car that was on the truck to the dealership…but we didn’t even know that when we were dealing with the salesperson at first.
We were very clear on what we wanted for features, and mostly color! We got to a price we wanted and then asked…is there any way we could get this blue with a cream leather interior for the same price with the same features. Salesperson did a search and told us one was on the way. We gave a deposit, and made it clear that we needed to drive the car when it arrived. They tried to upcharge us on a couple of things when the car got there, and we declined those. They sold us the car for the agreed upon price.
Places like Carvana and Carmax are non-negotiable…and folks I know who have used one or the other have been pleased.
@Iglooo not sure this answers your question in your OP…
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Don’t buy a Carvana car but sell to them. I know too many people that got cars with already issues with in on receipt and there are reddit etc on it. Web searches will bring that up. My nephew went through this when I told him not to. He sent it back 3 day’s later after paying my mechanic to look the car over. Multiple things wrong. It was obvious the car never got checked out properly.
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If you can, buy on one of the last days of the month or, even better, one of the last days of the year. They have monthly and annual quotas they must make and are very motivated at those times.
For the last car we bought, we told them what we wanted the “off-the-lot” price to be. It meant they had to fiddle with the actual price of the car itself to make it happen.
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Same here. The sales person had to “talk to her manager” to see if they could offer us more (paper money) for our trade in…which they did.
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I am not 100% if this is true, but my understanding is you should never tell the sales person you are paying cash and not financing the car. Dealerships make money on the loans, so you get a better deal if you finance through them and not your bank or cash pay.
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Yes. We had a heck of a time getting the dealership to process our loan through our credit union when we bought a car (ages ago). It was clear that they would make more money if we financed through BofA, but we held firm. So even if you are financing, they might jack up the price if you don’t play ball. We made sure we had all of the necessary paperwork from the credit union, and we did not discuss how we’d be financing with them until the end. They announced that we were approved for our loan before we had a chance to tell them that we had secured financing already … the finance guy appeared perturbed, but he jumped the gun without discussing first, so his problem. We probably authorized him to check for financing somewhere in all of the things we were signing, which is part of why I hate buying cars. We typically only buy used & pay cash.
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We bought two 3-year old low mileage used cars last year. I got approved for a loan through our credit union. Then was able to get the dealer to give a lower rate for the same number of months. They also will sometimes fiddle with the trade in value to meet final price rather than reduce the price of the car. Ask if they have any additional discounts and look for offers on their website. Do as much research as you can before going face to face with a person so you’ll be less likely to be swayed by their arguments.
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Also “Never “tell them you have a car to trade in until you made your best deal for the car.
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Lastly
Time in a dealership is never on your side. You can do everything online with multiple dealers. The more they go to the manager and make you wait is a psychological advantage for them. I give them “one “time to go to the manager. If they have to go twice I ask for the manager to be brought to me. Then I just finish with the manager. I give a 30 minute time limit. Same with the finance dude. I walk in and say “I don’t want anything extra just give me the papers to reject it “. If you want to see someone get pissed… this is it. One guy years ago told me it’s the law he needs to go over every item with me. I told him to show me the law stating it. Lol. I was out in 20 minutes.
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The last few times we have purchased cars, we have come to the dealership with a bank check, or a personal check (if they accept those, and many do these days)…for the amount we expect to pay. And yes, we did walk out one time without purchasing a car.
We live about 40 minutes away from this particular dealership. I had done pretty extensive research on the value of the car I wanted. Plus it was the last year of an old body design, and the dealership had it in the auction line! So…when they didn’t agree to my price, I left. By the time I got home, there was a message on my answering machine saying they could meet my price point. I called them back and reiterated what that amount was…out the door. It was $20,000 or less. This was in 2003. I told them I wasn’t thrilled about driving back there and if they didn’t meet my price point, I was going to be very annoyed. They came in at $19,999. So they had to give me $1 change!
The last car deal was similar. We were within $500 of price. I told them I wasn’t going to budge and they needed to either figure it out, or I would shop elsewhere. Somehow they “found” an extra $500 to make the sale.
It’s a huge game at car Dealerships, and I HATE car shopping.
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What I have in mind is not a popular car. They don’t keep many in stock. They are offering about 2% discount from MSRP. That seems too little. Another dealer wouldn’t even give any discount.
Our son wanted to pay in cash for his new car. Salesmen don’t want to deal with cash, so he pre-financed through Navy Federal and also had cashiers check.
We used Costco and they referred us to several dealerships that were, at least 30 to 45 minutes, out of our area. Our son had done his research and knew exactly what the car should cost.
We always told our kids “When you buy a car, don’t get hooked on extras or color. It needs to be reliable because the main goal is transportation. Aftermarket, put whatever the hell you want on it.”
The first set of dealers said that our son had erred on the price. Son said, “no problem, I can get it for my price, up in LA”. Those fools kept calling with games.
Went back to Costco and received 3 more referrals. Two of the 3 were up by $2k to $3k. The third dealer told our son, “we’ll meet your price in cash or credit. We have a hybrid and if you don’t care about color, it’s yours.” They emailed a picture copy of the VIN and the features. Son said yes.
We drove there ~45 min. They already had the contract written up. “All we have to do is confirm the drivers license”.
They asked him if he wanted to try their financing, but our son decided to pay in cash. There was no pressure from them.
We kind of forgot about looking at the car and then the Costco rep salesman said, “Hey don’t you want to take a look at your car?”
It turns out that the car they presented was in the color that our son would’ve originally selected. In that neck of the woods, the rep said that it wasn’t a popular color, so it wasn’t selling. That Sea Foam(?) blue Camry hybrid had additional features that our son wasn’t expecting.
The price that our son paid, is the price that they sent in their email.
Our son didn’t like the initial experiences, but that 3rd dealer stuck to Costco‘s price guarantee and we’re glad that it worked out for everyone.
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I love Costco. I wish they ran –- ummmmm — everything in the country.
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We also used Costco to get a written quote and then negotiated with other dealerships to go below the Costco price.
We never bought from the Costco assigned dealer but it was great to get that quote so we could bargain down from a fixed price that might’ve started higher without it.
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e-mail is your friend.
Contact dealers in your area (or within your state, if willing to travel to save a few bucks), give them, make, model, trim pkg, color and any extras that you seek. Ask for their best out-the-door price. Tell them that you will only deal with email. Some will ignore you. Some will call – block unknown numbers. Others will engage electronically. Best price wins.
Yes, check Costco if member. I used to be able to get multiple quotes by entering zip codes from different regions of my large state.
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