Great advice on this thread regarding negotiating.
Bottom line … be prepared to walk. There’s always another stealership down the road.
Thanks! I walked one time from a used scirocco (great car!) for $50. Almost drove away and the salesperson ran across the street to give me my price telling me it would come out of his pocket.
We are not desperate. However, I want a white car with a tan or grey leather interior. Period.
But am ok with not buying now. I appreciate the reminder to buy at the end of the month. I had forgotten that piece. I know how much we are willing to pay but do not have the small details down yet.
So! I have been told by friends that when they have gone to Mercedes, Lexus, Audi or BMW that the
sales team does not jump on you or pull stuff at the last minute. I have researched reviews for all and all reviews say names of good sales people confirming that this is true. Is it???
Varies in different areas. In our area, one of the four you mentioned has exceptional service, two are merely good and one is downright bad.
^which ones ?
That’s been my experience with multiple BMW purchases and one MB. Once you settle on a price you’re pretty much done. At the very end when you’re about to collect the car and doing final paperwork, there’s the expected “Finance Guy extras” where the finance guy tries to sell you extended warranties, window tint, various protection packages, etc. You can just say no to all of that pretty easily.
Also for MB and BMW it’s very common to order exactly the car you want unless you really prefer to buy off the lot. I always custom order, except for that one time in the story in post #99. You negotiate your price before placing your order. I suspect Audi works the same. Buying off the lot at the end of the month for a car that’s been there for a while can give you more negotiating power as you noted. It’s a bit of a weird incentive system between the factory and MB/BMW dealers where they’re incented to sell more cars but also have a limited allocation, so your ability to negotiate may vary from dealer to dealer depending on their allocations and volume.
Lexus dealerships operate the same way; they don’t want to p’off the valuable customer who will be later paying many $ for recommended regular maintenance.
Speaking of the maintenance visits, they are not cheap but you get your $ worth. Car comes out spotless, and for 10 or so years we owned it, there were no extra things recommended which is typical of other makes dealerships that use the FOER approach (fear of expensive repair). Oh, we see there is a gasket that is about to fail… wanna replace that for $200 before it could turn into a $1,000 repair? 
Bull.
Guessing we will enter the fray this weekend. I had planned on doing internet but my experiences have been with less expensive cars that way. And the end of the month is very soon. I am fabulous at negotiating and can hold my own as needed. H knows not to get in my way
B-)
As a follow up, here are some articles that describe how quiet the Mazda CX-5 has become,
This one is interesting, as it compares the CX-5 to a Lexus NX:
This next one is a detailed review:
Finally, this one talks about the many steps Mazda took to get there.
https://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2017/03/how-the-2017-mazda-cx-5-became-so-quiet.html
Go Saturday…very likely someone will want to CLOSE the deal that day…the 1st is Monday.
We bought a used Outback…2011 in 2015. It was a manual transmission with high mileage (100,000) and had been on the lot for two months. We politely said we would take it off their hands for $11,000. They were thrilled but ONLY if we could immediately close the deal. They took my personal check.
How do you know how long is “too long” on a lot and when they are going to wholesale it?
“^which ones ?”
Not sure it’s relevant to you since I live just about as far away from you as is possible and still remain in the continental US - SW FL. FWIW, locally Audi has excellent service (for sales, repairs and maint is another story), Mercedes and BMW are both reasonably good but complacent and Lexus is a bit shady and more like the other hucksters. But this varies by location, owner and management so again, unless you’re going to come on down and buy a car on vacation this doesn’t impact you.
In my town the Mercedes, BMW and Audi are all the same dealership. Lexus is part of a larger company that also has showrooms south of us. I drove Audi,Mercedes, Porsche, BMW, Lexus and a Honda in my last search. I went alone and told all the salemen I was just starting my search and would not being buying that day. The Honda was the only place that they didn’t respect that wish and tried to get the supervisor to push the what would it take to buy today line.
The Lexus sales person did push getting a price they would give on a trade in. They did this while I was out on the test drive. They gave me the quote on paper. I enjoyed the experience but ultimately the car was larger than I wanted. I strongly disliked the salesman for the Audi and BMW (same guy). I had gone in thinking I wanted the Audi. Loved the low key Mercedes/Porsche salesman. When it came down to deciding between two cars they parked them side by side. I was torn but ultimately went with Mercedes due to the salesman. We told them we didn’t want to listen to any talk of extended warranty or add ins. They honored that request. They offered me a lot less for my BMW. I showed them what Lexus offered and they upped the trade in. Overall a good experience.
I went car shopping with a recently divorced friend. It was her first time buying a car. We went to about 8 dealerships. I was really disappointed in most of them. She ended up with a Subaru. The salesman was decent but the finance person was terrible. He tried to sell her on multiple extras and used scare tactics. I kept repeating she just wants to purchase the car as is. If you aren’t interested we will go elsewhere. She saved a lot of money having me there. She was weakening on several items including getting seats treated. I told her she could always get that done cheaper after purchase locally. In the end she loves her car but I clearly saw how they push the extras. Turned me off and if I was purchasing a Subaru I would drive further and check out another dealership.
“How do you know how long is “too long” on a lot and when they are going to wholesale it?”
Again, varies by dealer and area. You can get an idea by researching the average length of time it takes to sell various models. Last time I looked, the Porsche Cayenne sat on average longest on lots with an average sales time of just over 60 days. So if I were looking at a Cayenne, I’d consider 70-80 days + to be where the dealers were starting to get antsy. That’s a huge outlier, though, with most cars selling far more quickly than that.
Remember, though, almost all dealership transactions are based on a month unit of measurement. Most major decisions are made with the idea that the end of the month is the key measurement point and management is laser focused on month end results. So psychologically, many nonsales decisions also get made with that same “month” thinking. If I had to make a guess, in general dealerships will not be too eager to deal on a car that they’ve had less than a month, will start to be more interested in cars they’ve had more than a month and start to get very interested in making a deal or wholesaling cars they’ve had more than two months.
Edited to add: I really couldn’t care less if the salesguy is nice, pushy, patient, a jerk, whatever. Again, I’m only going to be dealing with him for the test drive (15 minutes) and then another 10-15 while he gets the yes/no. So I don’t choose dealerships based on whether the salespeople are “nice”. I don’t particularly like the jerks, but my ignoring skills are highly developed having raised two teens.
“Lexus dealerships operate the same way; they don’t want to p’off the valuable customer who will be later paying many $ for recommended regular maintenance.”
Good example of how much this varies by area, though. In BunsenBurner’s area, it appears the Lexus dealers give good service. That has not been my experience here and anecdotally, wasn’t my business colleague’s experience in another major metro area years ago (haven’t lived there for 10 years now so that may have changed there.) In our small area, the Lexus dealer has been open about taking the approach that they are the only Lexus dealer within an hour’s drive so they are comfortable not negotiating and that the convenience justifies a several thousand dollar upcharge. Similarly with service, they feel there are no dealer alternatives so do not need to be especially helpful. This is why I bought my last Lexus from a dealer several hours away and why I get my service done at an independent mechanic. But again, it’s highly regional so the Lexus dealer in your area could be fantastic. YMMV.
If it’s a new car, there is a sticker on the driver’s side door jam which shows the month/year the car was manufactured. Some dealers put the pre-delivery inspection paperwork (completed shortly after they receive the car) in the glovebox, so check the date on it (you may have to ask to see it).
Sometimes higher mileage (lots of test drives) is an indicator, but not always.
Our last SUV purchase was a Toyota. I took a pic with my phone of the window sticker and VIN number after test driving. Then I went home and signed up for the Toyota Owner’s Club - a free website where owners can track maintenance, download manuals, etc. I’m sure all manufactures have an owners’ website.
I just needed to set up a free account (email and password) then punched in the VIN number. I was able to see the service history; the dealership had taken delivery 2 weeks prior and no other work/repairs had been done.
Speaking of Lexus (above) it’s funny to see Lexus owners getting their service done at the Toyota dealership due to the lower cost!
The 2nd generation Cayenne has been around since 2011. That’s a long time. The current model is at the end it’s product life cycle. Porsche is introducing its 2019 Cayenne in about a week or so. So, any lenghtening in days on the market could be due to buyers waiting for an all newly redesigned Cayenne, if buyers have been in the market more recently.
I’ll be going to our local Porsche dealership for a concours event on 10/7 and the new Cayenne will be unveiled there.
We are getting a bit off topic with the Porsche SUVs. Even though they are very quiet at US highway speeds, they are out of the target price range.
No, not really. Checking dealer inventories here in the SF Bay Area, for Macans and Cayennes, asking prices start from mid 40’s for 2017 Macans to mid 50’s for 2017 Cayennes. And with Porsche releasing a new Cayenne, the old ones become much cheaper.
Now these lower priced Cayennes and Macans won’t be fully optioned models, but for a Porsche, I’d personally settle for a lower optioned model. That’s me, I’m a P-car enthusiast.
I own a P-car as well. Love it, but I still wouldn’t recommend them to the OP, because even if you can buy it relatively cheap, maintenance is not cheap. For example, a set of tires for mine runs $1400, and are good for about 15K miles.
The Audi A4 seems to be the leading contender for the OP, would the maintenance for the A4 be significantly cheaper on that model versus a Porsche? They’re both made by the same company.
BTW, Tire Rack has OE tires for the A4 (base, I think, not a Quattro) at $320 per tire. So, roughly the same as your P-car with mounting and balancing. There are obviously less expensive tires available for both vehicles.