More a percentage thing in this case… $250 when buying a $50k car is one thing, not budging $250 off a $4450 car with a $2100 trading in value is another
Bought a Saturn once, in their early years when they were a “no negotiation” company, but I was able to negotiate the amount I got for my tradein, so I think the system of no negotiation is really kind of a farce. Unfortunately, so was the car.
This summer I bought a used Dodge Challenger. I’ve wanted a used one with particular features, year, and color. I found one just like I wanted at a dealership about 3 hours from me. The dealer was asking around $20K for the car. Based on my research, I thought around $15K was a fair price. The most he would come down to is $18K, and he was" giving me a bargain!" with that price, and insisted I come into the dealership. Well, I wasn’t going to drive 3 hours unless we could get closer on the price. We went back and forth, and he wouldn’t budge any further. So I walked away, he could keep his car.
About a month later, I found a nearly identical Challenger that I paid right at my fair price for. Screw that dealer.
I don’t mind negotiating with dealers. You have to be willing to walk - which I’ve done several times over the years. And more times then not the dealer called me a couple days later saying they’ll meet my price.
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Kudo’s to OP for being able to walk away. That is where I fail in negotiating, lol
I paid $1,000 more for my truck than what I was comfortable with a the time- because I just could not walk away from it. It was exactly what I was looking for, had some extra bells and whistles that weren’t necessary but made it look nice, and was even the right color.
But, 10 years later, and my truck is still running strong, the only major repairs I have had to do is a radiator (and lots of tires due to my extra heavy right foot…)
It’s been more than worth that extra $1,000 over the years.
but at the point right before the sale, the dealer could have jacked up the price and he still would have had me, lol
Paying more that you’d like isn’t necessarily indicative of the wrong bargaining method. When choosing a shop to rebuild my truck’s automatic , after getting tranny shop recommendations from my regular mechanic, & visiting with 3 or 4 different tranny shops, I chose the one with the highest price. And based upon the excellent work they did, that was the correct decision.
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I have used the following method when I bought my last 3 cars–all of which were Subarus:
I visited two distant dealerships, and got price quotes from them, including the amount that they would give me for trading-in my old car. Then, I went to the Subaru dealership located ~5 miles from my house. Their initial “deal” was not quite as good as the offers from the two other dealerships, but once I showed them the numbers from the other two dealerships, they matched the lowest price.
In reality, I didn’t want to have to buy a car from the distant dealerships because–unlike my local dealer–they don’t give free loaner cars when you bring your car in for service.
So, I wound-up getting a good price, and I wound-up with the convenience of a dealership close to my house that also gives me a loaner car. And, even if you can’t quantify it, there is something nice about walking into the local dealer’s service department and being greeted by name.
And yet another dealer won’t budge from their asking price. This time on a Hyundai accent.
It seemed to be a great little car, but they were asking roughly double what it’s trade in value is. I offered $400 less, checkbook in hand. Salesman had to check with boss (I miss dealing with someone who could make their own decisions). Boss said they had only had the car a few days so they weren’t going to come down any at all. I pointed out to the Salesman that the pictures on the website have trees with green leaves on them. I told him thanks for his time but I’ll keep looking.
“were asking roughly double what it’s trade in value is”
Do you understand how businesses work?
Ever heard of kelley blue book?
You should check it out . . . you can very closely estimate what the dealer paid for the car, and what you should be paying, when buying from a dealer
Just because the dealer bought it for a low price, doesn’t mean they’ll sell it to YOU for that exact same low price
Had a friend who worked at a dealership, he switched to selling used cars because it was more profitable than selling new cars. Sure plaid pants and white shoes are a stereotype of the past but Bill Murray is starting up a nostalgic, or nauseous golf clothing line, as you choose.
Lets see what is going on here. Dealer takes trade in-vehicle might need tires-a complete detailing is a $200.00 dollar deal-possibly needing work that did not show when first looked at besides oil change-salesman gets a commission for selling vehicle. The market also effects the dealers desire to turn it quickly or wait to get the price they want.
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Wow. That escalated quickly. I’ve been buying cars and farm equipment for over 30 years, I know how businesses make money. That’s why I didn’t offer 2k for it. But I don’t think you should try to make a week’s profit off 1 deal. Car in question didn’t have new tires and wasn’t exceptionally clean. Might have had oil changed though. Kelley Blue book trade in value was 1900 to 2100. 4900 was the price carved in stone. 2800 is pretty steep for a vacuum job and a oil change.
I’d gladly skip dealers but all the private party offerings have 150,000 miles at the least and rebuilt titles.
And let’s not forget the dishonesty involved when telling me they just got it in on trade. We haven’t had green leaves on trees here for at least 2 months.
How about telling us the following
Make
model
trim level
mileage
transmission type
vehicle condition
title status
your zip code
Then we could roughly determine what that car should be selling for in your area
Without that information, further discussion is rather pointless, IMO
Why is that apparently a surprise to you ? That is why they have general mangers to make decisions like that. Maybe the salesman knew he could sell for x amount under posted price but anything lower had to be approved.
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Didn’t say I was surprised. Said I missed the days when a salesperson (can’t say salesman for fear of upsetting someone) was able to make his own deals. Maybe the Midwest is different than other places but i remember buying something and not having to sit and wait for 20 minutes each time an offer was made. I got up and left one time trying to buy a 2001 pickup. They called to see what was wrong and I just said I had better things to do.
And db4690, I wasn’t asking what the car should cost. The Web is full of sites for that purpose. I was just expressing my opinion on dealing with car dealers since this site is made for "cartalk"
I’ll sign out on the topic now. Seems to be going in a bad direction
There’s a link somewhere on this Car Talk site written by a car salesman. He explains the salesmenship methods he uses to get the best price he can for his cars. OP might take a look around the main page here and see if they can find the link. Maybe search on “car salesman”.
I presume OP understands that if the dealership thought they could never get a better offer no matter how long they wait, they would accept the offer the OP made.
Since you won’t provide that information I requested, we won’t be able to judge the asking price of this mystery vehicle
To be honest, it sounds like you just wanted to vent, without really giving us any details
If you’ll go back to my original post you’ll see I never asked anyone to judge the asking price of any of the cars I looked at. I did intend to vent my opinion/frustration at the car buying process. We didn’t have this kind of problem when buying our last 2 vehicles. Maybe it’s because I’m looking at cheaper used cars for basic transportation. Or the process has changed. I hope it’s not this way when we replace our honda in a few years. I might stay home and let the wife handle it. Anyway thanks to all who listened to my ranting. Looks like im going to take the cash I was going to put towards a work car and apply it to the f150.
I’ve had numerous salespersons leave to “go talk to the manager”. Sometimes they really are, sometimes they’re back there punching on the calculator seeing how much less their commission will be, sometimes they’re just copping a smoke break. Then they come back with “I really went to bat for you”…
Covering overhead, the salesman’s cut, applying part of the sales profit to keep the service dept. up and running, and their investment in the car all come into play, and if it’s a model they think will get just the right guy looking for, it is difficult to sway them much. I’ve never tried to wiggle more than 5% off their price-it just aggravates them and spoils any relationship we may have in the future.
LOL, ain’t it the truth!
The whole act is well rehearsed. They know exactly how much they can come down, and no “manager” would authorize anything less even of they DID actually go see him and “go to bat for you”. The act is almost funny to watch.