vader1

Looking at three cars, all certified used at the specific dealer, all out of state. I know the asking price of all three, one is fair the others are optimistic but not hugely so.

I want to bid on them in the order I like them. I will give a low-side-of-fair offer (given what similar cars are advertised for), see if they take. If they counter with something that is in my acceptable range I take it. If it is a little high of what I think is fair I offer within a few hundred bucks and see if we can make a deal. If that does not work out, thank them for their time and move to my second choice and try again.

So the first one I make an offer that is $2,500 below the ask, but given the price, in not super unreasonable. I want to see how they respond. I ask the sales guy to run it by his manager and get back to me with his thoughts. He sends me paper work to sign at full asking price. I email back, asking if this is where they are firm and did he have a chance to run my offer by his sales manager. That was yesterday, have not heard back. Not going to give chase.

I am on to car choice number 2. Made a fair offer but this time their ask is quite high and according to the web have had this car in their inventory since February and have only raised the price. I have yet to hear back, but am hoping for something fruitful before moving on to car number 3.

I have read from people claiming to be salespeople in threads like this saying they just jerk around people from out of state and don't care much. That an online buyer is not worth as much as a guy in the store. But I do not understand why in the days of internet business you just don't be straight with people, see if you can come to an agreement and make some money. There is money in moving VOLUME, and if you are fair or honest and don't play games you can expand you business from one that is primarily local to one that potentially has a customer base across the US.

This kind of stuff really does not happen in any other business and they are happy to deal with you. Car dealers are just odd for some reason. I used to work for a dealer wayyyyyy back in the eighties and they would try to wring people out and if they could not, they would shoo them out the door. There was a ton of money to be made by making less than their optimal but selling to all reasonable customers. The dealer I worked for went out of business for various reasons but one among them was that they treated each car like it was some rare commodity they had to get extreme values for, instead of realizing they had competition, and if they sold a car for less than they wanted, they could just order another one and make the same deal. The car was not rare, it was a mass produced good. And the more deals they would make, the more profit they would make.

This is just a general rant but the games seem pretty stupid to educated buyers. There must still be a ton of un-savvy people out there that it makes no difference to change.

sam_spider

Precisely, and obviously the games still work or they wouldn't do it.


We had a similar experience recently at a local GMC dealer, they tried to play the silly games with my wife (I wasn't there with her) and I told her to walk away. Local Chevy dealer was far better to deal with and we ended up buying from them, my wife then drove to the GMC dealer and showed them what she'd bought. lol. Sales guy was quite annoyed.

CMK

Sometimes you luck out, and sometimes you have to get your timing right. Wait 'til it's close to the end of the month and re-engage with these guys to see if they're willing to bend on price to get another sale in before August closes out.

EastS2k

Can't wait for the day when the direct sales model that tesla is using becomes mainstream...

imo the current dealer system is horrible, that's why if I am going used I buy private party.

adrs2k

I've bought two new cars in the past 3 years and it was a piece of cake.

QUIKAG

Just need to find the right dealer. I've had good luck the last several car purchases. I just avoid the ones with bad reps.

Marioshi

I agree that a lot of dealers are stuck in their ways and that it doesn't make sense not to take care of online sales. Some dealers make a living at it, in the Corvette world, the number one and two Corvette dealers have a huge share of the market because they are straightforward with customers and willing to do business with people out of state. I ended up buying my Corvette from a dealer in Ohio and having it shipped to California and it still saved me thousands of dollars over buying it here.

None of the local dealers even wanted to give test drives (that rare commodity syndrome) and they were all asking a markup over MSRP.

I have had better luck recently, I found that most of the dealers in the auto-mall just south of me are pretty good. I had previously not shopped there much (Sacramento has quite a few places to buy cars) but now I pretty much stick to them exclusively. I have gotten good customer service at most of the places I have been.

There are plenty of dealers still out there with an F U attitude though, the biggest Ford dealer in our area by far has the WORST sales people, and all their GT350s are marked up like 40k over MSRP. I was blown away when I went in there and there were dozens and dozens of people making deals. They couldn't even find the car I came to see and proceeded to waste over an hour of my time.

mosesbotbol

I have bought three cars out of state online. I only haggled down $500 on each car due to me being out of state and having no recourse on any Lemon Law. I am in the process of looking for a car online now with trading my car in. I wonder how this one will work out?

CosmosMpower

Depends on what kind of car you're buying. If it's a normal car like an Accord or Camry where volume is the key walking away from a deal over a few hundred bucks is probably not smart. If you're trying to buy a limited production or rare color/options sports car that don't come along very often they are probably going to hold out for the asking price.

If you want to haggle and offer a low offer then work your way up why are you upset that they want to play games with you? Just offer what you're actually willing to pay up front and maybe they take the deal. It works both ways.

mosesbotbol

I agree. This isn't haggling for rupee discount in Mumbai. Offer your realistic price and if not that; end of story. This has to be a two way street and no game playing. For me, it's more about the right car first and then realistic price second. I'll pay a slight premium for the right car.

If you got them that much lower, is the car really that good? They are no dummies either.