I posted earlier today about buying a work car. It was a trade in to a Chevy dealer. We went and looked at it and it looked and drove great. Seemed like a great little car.
Then I talked to a salesman. Basically wouldn’t come off the asking price plus $388 document fee. Seems steep for an office clerk to type up the title.
They asked $4450, I offered a check for $4200 and I’d drive it home. They wouldn’t budge. They still have their car
I’m sorry, but $4450 is just too steep of a price for a 2005 Chevy Aveo, if that’s the car you’re now referring to
Even considering that a dealer will charge more for a car, versus a private person, it’s still too much
You did the right thing, by not buying the car at the dealer’s asking price
I always say, if anything at all doesn’t add up, then you walk away
Plenty of used cars out there
You could get a 2005 Camry, which would be better equipped, for that price
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+1 to db’s post.
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Oh, I don’t know that that’s enough reason to condemn the dealer. If they seem confident that they would be able to get their full asking price from the next buyer, why would they bargain with you? It’s not personal. I mean, if I were selling a car and I knew darn well that I could get my full price tomorrow, I probably wouldn’t negotiate a lower price for you today.
On the other hand, I too have a bad taste from some car dealers. I’ve bought cars from dealers that were a pleasure to work with, and I’ve walked away from cars that I wanted that were for sale for a fair price just because of the way the sales staff talked to me.
It was the kia. I’ve had better luck with cheap cars thru dealers than private parties. I’ve helped the kids get started with cars and had pretty good results. I know it’s not personal, if they still have it in a month I’ll stop by and see if they want to sell it then. I have the luxury of time.
Maybe they just put the Aveo on the lot. If so, they might need a couple of months without a sale for them to drop the price.
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Title trasfer and tag registration fees can be costly in some state.
It’s best to be in a frame of mind to walk away from a car without a second thought if the seller isn’t interested in making a fair deal and if you have the money you decide what a fair deal is at the time. There’s just too many fish in the sea to become frustrated over every cast that doesn’t catch a trophy.
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What if you as a private seller had a 2005 Chevy for sale that you were dead set on the 4450 price and someone was haggling you down to 4200 dollars.
Would you think the potential buyer is a weasel and trying to lowball you?
As long as dealers stick to the practice of negotiating prices I’ll dread buying from them. If I brought that kia in to trade I’m sure they wouldn’t have thought it was so valuable.
I don’t mind paying a fair price and I didn’t offer an insulting amount. But they didn’t accept and I left. No big deal. I basically don’t like the whole process.
I don’t know why people don’t do this. If one salesman isn’t treating you the way you expect to be treated, go to the sales manager and ask for another salesman. I’ve done it before. The second salesman has always been more accomodating.
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Well, you apparently found one NOT in the practice of negotiating. So what’s the problem?
;-]
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It would depend on how they interact with me
If they were polite, it might not bother me
But if the guy said “Look, dummy, nobody’s going to offer you $4450” . . . then I might tell him to take a hike because we’re done talking and I’m not selling the car to somebody who is rude to me
I don’t think anybody here or anywhere else really likes car dealers. I also don’t particularly care for real estate agents, but there are times that you have to deal with them.
You have to find someone that you are more comfortable working with. But just to give it another spin, the dealer is free to ask whatever they want for any car even if the price is crazy. The can put that Kia Rio on the lot for $100K, it is your responsibility to make sure you pay the right price for the car or otherwise walk. The dealer would eventually have to lower the price but some prefer to sell these cars off in an auction if they are going to sell it too cheap. That way they have less headache and liability.
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I don’t know about anyone else, but if I really wanted $4450 for a car, I would ask $4995. Nobody likes to pay an asking price.
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Automakers are trying a lot of new things with regard to pricing. Surveys show that much of the stress from car buying is from the negotiations. All the Lexus CPO cars (which are a third of overall Lexus sales now) are priced at their selling price. No negotiations. Subaru dealers in my area also “Pre-discount” their new cars. The discounts are shown on the car and they sell without negotiations on the car. Tesla only sells its new cars at full sticker price and buyers claim it is an improvement. This post is interesting because Chevy dealers are known for discounting new trucks by as much as $10K.
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Here is how I avoid the stress on buying a car, determine whether or not the car is good, and don’t lose any money. 1.I look at cars on Sundays when the dealer is closed and no salesman is around; 2. When I see what I think is a good used car, I watch the lot. If the car stays on the lot, I assume that there is something wrong with the car. If the car sells and is no longer on the lot, I assume it was a good car; 3
I save money this way because I have shopped for a car and not spent a dime. I got away with this for 33 years. i actually drove the same car 33 years and my system saved me money.
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The one time I purchased a new car from a dealership, when push came to shove, I caved and paid $500 more than I the price I thought I could get them to agree to with some more bargaining effort. That made financial sense in my case b/c I could earn more than $500 for that same amount time elsewhere. Car salesmen know how this time factor affects their bargaining position of course and so they often won’t cut any kind of deal at all if you show signs you are in a hurry.
Reducing bargaining time to make money elsewhere isn’t the only way to do it though. As a kid my dad – he didn’t have any easy way to make money elsewhere – so would take me with him when he was buying a new car. I had an opportunity to watch the deal going down. He didn’t care how long it took, he’d bargain as long as the salesperson was willing to talk, and offer up free coffee, until he got the deal he wanted. Or if he didn’t, he’d go to the dealership in the next town over. It would often take a dozen trips to the various dealerships. I found the whole deal-making process sort of fascinating. Plus instead of coffee I got free candy from the salesperson, so who wants that to end? The longer it took, the better as far as I was concerned. One time I was sitting there watching and listening – I wasn’t allowed to talk, only watch & listen – after hours and hours of bargaining I thought he had a deal agreed to: $2750 “on the road” . “On the road”, that was supposed to mean the entire amount. Pay that amount and drive away with the car paid in full. But the salesman at the very last minute added on sales tax. “No deal” says my dad, it’s supposed to be “on the road”. lol … anyway a few hours more and the deal got done, I think it turned out to be $2800 on the road.
Guess who called me today? A customer service rep from the dealer. She asked why I didn’t buy the car. I said we just couldn’t agree on a price, plain and simple no hard feelings.
She asked some details and said she’d get back to me. A couple hours later the salesman called and wants me to come back in and try again.
I said I had the checkbook open with pen in hand yesterday. I told him I had a couple others to look at.
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They want to play you like that because you will never go back there once you really don’t like the car they sold you. At those prices, the customer is a one-timer.
I dunno, I guess everyone has their breaking point but just watching from the sidelines, for $250, they didn’t get the sale but more importantly you still didn’t get a car. I don’t ever get upset and have both walked away and almost walked away just to see if it was a ploy but most of the time a month later the price is still the same or higher.