I’ve never seen that. It doesn’t matter what they offer for trade, or what the car costs. It is the bottom line figure that is important.
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Oh, this has gotten too serious…
We all know that when you are Amazon Prime, all shipping is free, and if you negotiate the price down on the car and cost more than $35.00, you get free shipping…
When I bought my 2020 Honda Fit, Destination and Handling was $955.00, if only my Amazon Prime was current back then… L 
L . . .
Read the Fine Print!!!
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That’s what I liked best about the buying process for my Tesla. Everything was pretty much worked out price-wise and trade-in price before I went back to the dealership after deciding to buy one. I was in and out of the dealership in an hour- and half of that was waiting for a salesman to free themselves up from other customers during a bust time.
Not sure what JT’s experience was with his purchase, but I know mine was rather quick.
After test driving several cars my wife decided what she wanted, I searched the dealers’ inventories and also favorable financing deals through the maker, texted a dealer’s online sales department with an offer to buy a very specific car in their inventory at a price we were willing to pay, one counter offer and my final and they said OK, we drove there and bought the car. The dealer wasn’t close by so I’ve never been there again, but so what? The car is the same everywhere and a new car warranty is good at any dealer.
OK, admittedly, I am not a Tesla fan nor have I followed the news on this this, but; what if your “happy, go-lucky” Tesla buying experience occurred just prior to Tesla’s price cuts?
I do not know if anyone who just missed the price drop received a rebate or not. All I can say is Costco has a 30-day price-drop guarantee… L L . . .
Posted from CNBC News…
Tesla cut the price of some Model 3 and Model Y versions in the U.S. after the company reported third-quarter deliveries that missed market expectations.
The starting price for the Model 3 is listed at $38,990 on Tesla’s website, down from $40,240 previously. The long range Model 3 fell from $47,240 to $45,990. And the Model 3 Performance fell to $50,990 from $53,240.
Tesla’s Model Y Performance sports utility vehicle now starts at $52,490, down from a previous price of $54,490.
I cannot agree with that statement… I know I am not talking about a Tesla, three of our vehicles are an '85 and a '19 Toyota and a '20 Honda… But our local dealers offer Lifetime State Inspections, Oil Changes for life, Engine guaranteed for life, and parts and service for life…
But my wife’s '85 Toyota, that she bought new, 39-years ago, still gets state inspections and oil changes for free… And when the '85 needed a new A/C Compressor and Starter, it took several days for the correct components to come in, they parked the car inside, in an unused bay, rather than left outside in the lot with the rest…
What if Honda had dropped the price on your vehicle 31 days after you bought it through Costco? Though I did get a message telling me that since I reserved a Cybertruck I could, instead, get $1k rebate on a MY and 6 months of free super charging. They couldn’t retroactively apply the rebate, but I wasn’t mad about it.
My MYP was $52k OTD when I got it back in September. Before I bought the MYP, I had told them that that is what I was interested in. Just before I decided to pull the trigger and buy it, the pperson I had been dealing with through texts said they had a Model S demo that they’d let me test drive as it had similar performance numbers to the MYP.
Keep in mind, the S base price is $70k, so that would be like a GM dealership saying I could test drive a Corvette when I was wanting to buy a high end Camaro.
I test drove a M3SR and liked it enough to buy one. The salesman said they could get one from the factory before the tax credit expired. I traded emails with him a couple times to make sure of the delivery date. When I went in to pick it up he was busy with another customer so another salesperson did the paperwork after she was finished with another buyer. There’s no commission pay structure so this didn’t ace him out of any money. The buying process was no more than an hour and I drive my new M3 home.
As far as price drops are concerned, I bought mine after the autumn 2022 price drop and well before the autumn 2023 price drop. Stuff happens. Manufacturers of ICE vehicles have price incentives from time to time and someone might miss out on one of those.
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Or, they might luck-out with an unintended bonus. Back in the early '70s, I was dating a woman who bought a new Mustang that came with a rebate of… I think… $500. A few months after she received her rebate check, another rebate check–in the same amount–arrived in the mail. We had a nice little celebration in her apartment that night. 
Ha ha. I got a $3000 check from the irs in error. When I finally was able to connect with an agent, I was told I had ten days to return the money or I would be in trouble. Yeah certified mail, certified check, copies of everything in the file. Can’t be too careful.
Just sayin is all. Sometimes they claw back and sometimes they don’t. Too late now but at least need to notify the sender.
I apologize in advance this got really long, but I believe it is a Teaching Experience and worth the trouble reading it…
Funny you should ask…
We lived in Italy in the late 1970’s and we had to negotiate for everything, even to have our trash picked up. Afterwards, the trash collector and I would laugh and joke and share a glass of Ouzo or Grappa. Every trip to the market was an adventure in sharpening our negotiation skills. I have no problem “leaving the table” if the negotiations are not going anywhere. But once the contract is drawn and signed, I respect it as I expect the other party to respect it…
In the mid 1990’s our home was damaged by tornados that tore through our town of San Angelo. Although our roof was damaged, it did not leak. Some of our neighbors had not only the shingles, the felt paper, but also some of the roofing torn off. They were in desperate need of roof repair.
It seemed that roofers from all over the country converge on town. We noticed that a lot of roofs simply had tarps nailed down and the roofers went on to other homes to get more contracts…
We took our time and contacted one of the locally owned roofers and we wrote up a contract that really laid out the law for them… We added an Addendum to the initial contract and they had 90-days to start the job, once the job is started, it must be finished in 5-days. They could not subcontract the work, they must perform the repair with their own employees…
We always include the “Time is of the Essence” Clause in every contract we sign… You see, like I wrote earlier, we lived in Italy and they had a very laid back attitude about deadlines. Ask them when they are coming, it’s “Domani” (tomorrow, maybe…), when they do not show, they might apologize and say, "Dopo domani…) (which loosely translates to sometime after tomorrow, whenever…).
So, in the roofing contract, the Time is of the Essence, gave them 90-days to start and if the job was not started by that date, the contract went Null and Void… If the job was not completed in 5-days, the roofer would be penalized $200 a day.
Well, they did get started within the 90-days, but after the roof was torn off, it became apparent that they were sub-contractors and were not trained roofers. When they laid the felt paper, they started at the top of the roof since it was easier to lower the roll of felt paper than to raise it up a row. The results of that meant that the lower row of felt paper was overlapping the upper layer allowing any water to leak under and not shed off. I made them relay all the felt paper with new paper since they stapled it down so securely that it just tore. I called the roofing company and they said they had no other crew to work the job…
When they started installing the shingles, they had their nail guns wet so high, many of the nails punched straight through the shingles. In this instance, I had the city building inspector come out and perhaps the nail the coffin for this team was when they removed the electric attic fan and they did not mark the spot where the hole was and the inspector stepped onto the felt paper covered hole and fell in… It’s a wonder he did not injure himself, but he immediately condemned the installation and installed a Stop Work Order…
State Farm, my insurance company who was paying for the new roof, immediately contacted the roofing company to let them know that any subsequent water damage to the home would be their responsibility and that they had better get a real roofing team out there to fix the roof.
Well, they did, they tore everything off again and started anew. But due to the way the Paper Work for the Stop Work was issued, the roof installation had to be re-inspected to pass…
Seventeen (17) days later after the initial start of the job, the roof passed. We sent the Roofing company the $5,000 minus the $200 times 12-day delay or just $2,600 as specified in the contract…
They were not happy and they tried to sue us in small claims court. We then counter sued them for an additional $1,000 for using sub-contractors in violation to the contract.
Well, they lost, and the judge who also had issues with his roofer, not only threw their case out, he awarded us and additionally $500 for the sub-contractor use…
Well, that was quite a detour from your original question…
Actually, the reference was a joke about Costco, I am pretty sure the refund is only offered on items that Costco actually carries, not their specialty programs…
We bought our Honda directly from the dealer and I wrote about this previously over a year ago. The meat of the deal occurs at the end of the posting. But I would recommend you read it. Nothing like learning about something you never knew you could do…
No matter what is in a contract, all you have to do is cross it out and both parties initial it and that clause is out… If the contract does not have something in it that you want, you simply add an Addendum Sheet and both parties sign it…
You don’t think that the initial roofing contract had any of those conditions in it? No, all the conditions were added with an Addendum Sheet. And I hope you do not feel sorry for that roofing company, at any time they could have said “no,” we do not agree to your conditions, then if they had second thoughts later on, all they had to do was delay the work and the contract would have gone null and void at 90-days…
But No, they were greedy and so greedy that they hired untrained people to put a new roof on our home… And even after I called them with the problems, they left them there…
I will finish with this, I honestly cannot say how I would feel about a rebate that magically came about suddenly… At the 30-day mark I probably would not have much to say.
But I have read that some buyers were given a “wink and nod” to come back in a week or so and they could get a better deal… And a few who had signed the contract prior to the rebate but picked up the car after the rebate and did not receive the rebate… So, I guess it all depends…
But in any case, no contract is written in stone, if you feel or think that a rebate might be just around the corner, then have the Rebate Addendum Clause added to the contract. The dealer has the right to agree or not, but if they agree, you might collect a tidy little prize…
To the best of my knowledge, she didn’t notify Ford, and I also believe that they never did a follow-up with her to claw back the money.
Is there an executive summary for those of us with an attention deficit?
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+1
I don’t suffer from ADD, but I refuse to read a post that is so excessively long.
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Hmm, Amazon, free shipping with Prime?
I enjoyed reading LoudThunder’s post. It had a lot of good info presented in story format. Many of those tactics I employ myself. Here’s my Cliff’s Notes version:
- Everything is negotiable.
- You can redline any contract to add verbiage to change or enhance clauses to suit your needs and desires. Both parties must initial to make it binding.
- The phrase “time is of the essence” is particularly powerful tool to ensure your deal/project completes in a timely fashion. I include that on any contract where work is to be performed and it has proved worthwhile on several occasions.
Here’s my addition: If it’s not on the contract, it doesn’t exist. Where written contracts are involved, no verbal agreements outside of the contract are valid or enforceable. This goes for any car deal at a dealer. The salesperson says they will include floormats or some special detailing to be done later? It needs to be on the purchase agreement or they can deny that later, after the deal closes…
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Thank you, but this leaves the inevitable question of…
In the post to which you referred, why was so much verbiage necessary in order to communicate those points?
That is why my purchase contracts always include the following words:
No dealer sticker or other identifying marks will be placed on vehicle.
It wasn’t necessary but it was perhaps more entertaining- at least for me. I come here for both purposes. Sometimes to glean information from other’s experiences, sometimes just for entertainment.
Yes! I think we’ve both expressed our disdain for any and all advertising before. I do exactly the same thing. Sometimes throws them for a loop. I had one sales guy tell me- the owner won’t let any car leave without our dealer logo on the car. I asked if they would prefer to lose a car sale over that requirement? In the end, I settled on letting them install a license plate surround with their name on it that I promptly removed when I got home…
Good one, but I did warn you in the beginning, I also gave you a Thumbs Up…
Your loss, I bet you only read the instructions after the “what-d’you-call-it” does not fit the “rigamajig.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=–==-=-=–=-=
Once again, I apologize, there is no Executive Brief, where all the salient points are left out for brevity, only to have the “executive” exclaim, “I don’t get it… what’s an addendum sheet, are you overpaying, doesn’t make sense, I’m going to the club…”
I wrote that this is a Teachable Experience, so it cannot be so short and concise that all the important points, “the hows and whys,” are left out…
We’ve all heard of “Speed Dating” where you only have to talk and listen to the other person for a couple of minutes… Well, this is intended to help others do not know how to negotiate (the salesperson says it’s the best deal I’ll get…) or how to get up and walk away (But it would be rude to get up and leave if the price is more than I can afford to pay…).
I never attended a “Speed School” where the classes were only a couple of minutes long, so it’s important to explain the “whys and wherefores…”
So @VDCdriver, if you are still here, what is your opinion if I tell you, “That’s our Policy…”
I would ask for a copy of the “policy…” Most folks know that a policy is a made up rule with no foundation based in enforceable law… I love the “No Return” store policy… Did you know that if the product is defective, the store cannot refuse to accept the return? Oh many still do, and you have to determine if the battle is worth it… Some are, some are not…
Many cases, it’s like being 6-years old again and playing “Chutes and Ladders” with your two-year older brother of sister, who makes up rules whenever they are losing… Sometimes it’s just easier to “pick up your piece” put it back in the box and leave the table…
But that’s the whole purpose of an Executive Summry at the beginning of any presentation- to summarize all the salient points. The rest of the document serves to educate and expand on those points if necessary 
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