A neighbor couple of ours bought two Saturns (one after the other) and the no haggle aspect was a big part of it. My sister and her wife also don’t like to bargain on car prices.
Also, a local Chevrolet/Cadillac dealer advertises no haggle pricing. They post a price on the car and that’s what you pay. If the car stays in the lot, the price gradually drops until it is sold.
Why wouldn’t the buyer just accept dealer Bs offer right there and then?
Yeah, I am fully aware. I sold one car and the guy tried to scam me, claiming to be a police officer and wanted to “return” the car. I had to end up calling the cops and it was a big mess but all got worked out. Apparently this guy had done this to other people and the real cops basically told him he would be going to jail if I did it once more.
I had another car I was going to fix up and sell. I had basically bought it for scrap price. I sold it for exactly what I paid for it and returned the parts I intended to repair it with as they were still new in the boxes. I was done doing this at that time.
The next one was a running beater I gave away to a friend. Then the next one didn’t run but I put it up for $200 which I had been offered for it in scrap. I knew it had good parts and figured someone would want it for those alone. Someone wanted it so bad they offered me $250 and there was no drama. I guess giving away or selling that cheap will do that.
Selling used ANYTHING these days seems to attract nothing but crazies and scammers. Many things I would have sold in the past are now donated, recycled for scrap value, or thrown in the trash. The headaches just are not worth it! When I do sell, I kinda have a formula. 1. If the item is of high value, I will try selling it. 2. It the item is large and hard for me to get rid of, I will try to sell it so it can be hauled off, even if dirt cheap. The problem is that the last $50 riding mower I tried to sell was such a nightmare I cut it up with an angle grinder or sawzall and recycled the thing! It was an old John Deere and solid metal. The engine turned and had compression so I know it could have been fixed. The deck was also a mess. This thing attracted so many nuts I just cut it up for scrap metal and off it went.
Also, if an online ad like Facebook Marketplace, my ad explicitly states the following before ANYTHING else including the description of the ad… “If you ask “Is this available?” or it is obvious you didn’t bother to read the ad, you will be immediately blocked with no response.” You have a picture of a green pickup truck, there is a picture of it, and they ask “What color is it?” The trash gets taken out relatively quickly and painlessly and you don’t have to deal with the nuts.
Craigslist must have lost the real bad users that it was known for to Facebook. Facebook is FAR worse and Craigslist doesn’t seem too bad although the traffic/views will be far less. You don’t end up dealing with all the drama though although there is still risk as with any online selling.
What I think is that there are only a handful of cars I would ever want to buy, and none are newer than 2005. So whatever these car company executives and/or politicians want to do, I could care less! The next time I need a vehicle, I will be shopping on Craigslist, not at a dealer.
Yeah that’s what I did when the world was more sane back in 1974. Went to the local dealer and said to give me his best price. Then went a metro dealer and the price was quite a little lower at $4276. That number has just stuck with me. The local guy called and complained that I didn’t come back again for a lower price. I don’t like games. I dunno, in 81 I traded my Lincoln. In on a new olds. They gave me $1000 for it which was better than the $800 I paid for it. But then he called me to complain that it needed a tail pipe. Yeah and tires and who knows what. But he already had it sold to someone that likes Lincoln’s. I think he just liked to complain or mark his spot in the grass.
Fixed pricing will be on the EV models where the dealer is really a delivery and service center, you order online or at the dealership for a set price and there will be a supply of vehicles stored at a replenishment center so you only would wait about a week for delivery.
Because he will keep going back and forth intil one dealer won’t top the other. This is best done by phone or internet.
The kind of people who hate dickering over the price won’t leave dealer A in the firrst place. Most of the rest will take dealer B’s offer and never go back to A.
None of this disproves the fixed price thing won’t work. This is just normal sales technique.
CarMax and Carvana prove this works.
I’m not afraid to haggle but I’d prefer not to. I would be a big fan of an advertised price that is consistent from dealer to dealer. I treat any trade in as a separate transaction anyway. We can haggle on the trade in but the new car is $X, period. end of story.
The biggest issue I see with it is that the vast majority of buyers will not benefit much if they are leasing. All kinds of hidden costs can still be buried in the monthly payment…
I’m a cash buyer, I would appreciate less antics in the process. Somehow, I manage to convey that to most salespeople 
My favorite example of this was when my girlfriend needed a new car. We went to the local Kia dealer and they would never give her a price, just the financing and monthly payment amount, not even how many payments she would owe. I just felt covered in slime even being in the place.
My girlfriend is kinda like me and doesn’t want touch screens in the car as we see them as distracting and not as easy to control while driving as older stuff where you can press a button by feel, etc. She also wanted a manual transmission. She likes blue cars. They told her they had two base models on the lot and asked if she would rather test drive blue or black. Of course she wanted the blue one. It took them about half an hour to get it out of the lot because it was so parked in by other cars. They don’t get a lot of calls for the base models so it was trapped by other cars.
Of course the dealer wanted her to run a credit check and sign on the line before we even understood the terms. I told the guy we needed to think about it and look at other cars. I found a car she liked about 100 miles away and pretty much had a deal worked out within 5 minutes of calling them on the phone. It was the best, smoothest, no pressure car buying experience I had ever seen. Of course the finance people wanted to add a bunch of crap like warranties which she declined. It was such an easy experience and I ended up buying a car from them a few months later.
So, we drive home from her buying the new car. I open my mailbox and get my mail. There was a flyer from the local Kia dealer with several models highlighted. The one she had looked at was there. It stated this cars start at X price. The price was not bad at all and seemed quite fair for the car. Of course the dealer never stated that in person.
The salesman had taken my phone number and called back a few days later. I told him she had bought a car. Of course he asked a few questions and was wondering why it wasn’t from him. I told him how easy the process was at the other dealer and how upfront they were. I also told him “To top it off, I had a flyer from you guys in my mailbox with the exact car we looked at priced out at a very agreeable and fair price.” His response was “Well, those are just the base models with analog controls and even a manual transmission. No one wants those.” I had to remind him that it took the place 30 minutes to get one of the only two models like this off the lot because that is what she wanted. There was about a minute of silence from the guy. He knew he had screwed up. I made sure to tell him that I am not into wasting time and playing games and that the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth. Apparently this dealer is one of the worst for this crap from talking to others so it wasn’t just me. Several friends who wanted Kias test drove them there and then drive 100 miles to the next nearest dealer to actually buy one.
As for resale of used cars, etc… I think the nuts have gotten worse over time or maybe I have just lost patience with them. It isn’t just cars but pretty much everything used that might sell on Facebook or Craigslist. I used to sell used computers that I repaired years ago but it was such a headache compared to selling new. You made less money and the people were far more demanding, often with unreasonable demands and even serious threats. The headache just wasn’t worth it. Now I donate them to the local trade school after wiping user data and making sure they at least have a chance to be repaired so I am not just giving them junk which I can get recycled. Anything that came with Windows 7 or older is also junked unless they need computers to install Linux on.
Yes, there really is a difference from one dealership to another. The saleswoman at my new favorite dealership asked–just once–how I would like to pay for my car. I answered that I was prepared to write a check for the full amount, and the subject of financing was never brought up.
Now that I think about, my previous favorite dealership, where I bought 3 Subarus, operated the same way. Neither the Subaru dealership nor the Lexus dealership attempted to push financing, and they both took my personal check for the purchase.
I boought my last 4 new cars from Carmax. List price is not always the final price, if pressed they can throw in 2 or 3 grand worth of discounts. I so hated the car dealer game, I did not even go any where else.
You jogged my memory. I was sitting in the lounge of the local Buick dealer just waiting for my car to be done. It was a pretty small area and the sales folks assembled for their weekly meeting within earshot. Now I liked the owner and still do, but I was absolutely astounded by the way these sales people talked about potential buyers. They laughed and made fun of them as they reported on their progress in selling them a car. It just turned my stomach. I only dealt with the owner or fleet manager before but after that would never deal with or trust the sales staff. Just a bunch of jerks. This was 1987 so suppose times have changed maybe.
Maybe not. I don’t remember the year but our female superintendent was at the olds dealer and toward the end the salesman told her to come back with her husband. She informed him in no uncertain terms the she was the one buying the car not her husband. Ha ha ha. Red face.
I will say the both Acura dealers we have used have been super in dealing with my wife alone. None of these issues, so that tells me something.
In this area you can’t even give stuff to the metal recyclers unless you sign a form w/your name and address. It seems like all the metal recycler would need to know is that you don’t want it, and they can have it. No form required. Does anybody know why they need to know that info? Many folks here are turned off by the need for this form & refuse to give the metal recycler anything.
Then those people have a problem . The form is so that theft can be controlled . It would be too burdensome to have a list of things for the recyclers to have certain items signed for.
I didn’t even get that far with a metal recycling firm near me. I naively thought that I could collect a few bucks by taking some old metal fencing to them, but as soon as I drove onto their property I saw that their grounds were like a minefield of broken metal fragments covering virtually every square foot.
I quickly decided that getting a few bucks for some old fencing was really not wise if it resulted in one or more tire punctures, so I made a quick k-turn and left that place. Luckily, the county folks take metal for recycling 4 times per year, and no forms are necessary. Just drive in and open your trunk, and let their employees unload your old junk. Then, you simply drive away. No money in exchange, but also… no forms and no danger of tire punctures.
About once a year I make a trip to the landfill with a trailer load of junk too large for the normal garbage crew. I was a little early this year finding that a squirrel made a winter home in our deck box and are a great big access hole in it. At any rate they have four bunkers for drop off and concrete landings. I usually stop and walk the area to check for nails from sloppy contractors. Four pretty new tires plu two fairly new trailer tires makes me a little cautious. I have found a handful of nails in the past.
Glad I went a little early because the landfill caught on fire restricting public access. With the smoke from Canada and the landfill, they want us to stay away. In the old days you just dropped it off at the public incinerator but the landfill was seen as more ecologically sound. I thought it kind of ironic that Mother Nature would just decide to burn it anyway. Who knows how long it will burn? When the peat
bogs catch on fire, it can burn under ground for a long time. Kills the rats and snakes.
I don’t know but can guess. There is enough theft of materials in your area that the scrap dealer will do it or risk accusation of being an accomplice to theft. The state or local government in your area might have taken that stance for the reason given.
The thing about that is that is automatically filled in before the person sends the message. Some might not have realized they still had that message still written in when they sent it.
The metal recycling is probably an issue with state law. You must show ID and sign a form saying this metal is yours or legally obtained here if you recycle more than $50 worth of metal. It used to be air conditioners, copper wiring, and pipe that were getting stolen. Now it is catalytic converters.
Missouri is looking at passing a law about catalytic converters limiting you to one per day, requiring proof of ownership, etc. I am not sure where this legislation is right now but know it hasn’t passed yet. The last time I was taking in metal, a guy had a cut up junk car on a trailer. He asked about the catalytic converter. They told him they no longer pay for them because of all the theft. He said he just wanted it gone and wanted to just give it to them which the yard was OK with. The guy was OK with that but obviously he didn’t steal it for metal value if we was just wanting to give it away.
I see lots of ads around here on Facebook Marketplace where people will come to your place and haul away scrap appliances, mowers, and other metal for free. I would be money ahead to give away my steel junk but I am nervous about people casing my place to come back for something of higher value at a later time. A lot of people who pickup scrap are living on the margins of society, cannot get a normal job due to their record, etc. While the steel is only worth a few cents a lb and costs me more in time and gas to haul it in, a lot of the computer waste I generate from my business is worth $15-20/lb so that makes up for it. A cat litter bucket full of computer boards can be worth more than an entire pickup filled above the cab with junk metal.