What has always worked for me, is knowing the dealers cost price of the vehicle, and negotiating up from there instead of trying to go down from the MSRP. Here in Canada, we have www.carcostcanada, which for a fifty dollar investment will give me the cost of three autos, complete with all options that I am looking for. A subscription to the consumers guide should do the same in the U.S. but you folks may also have the equivalent of our carcostcanada site. My last three trucks, I have paid $1200 over dealer cost for. I walked into the dealership and said, how much do you feel you need to make on a truck sale. The salesperson said that the dealership liked to make $1200, which I then added to my cost analysis, and I offered him that amount for the truck I wanted. I had do be firm about it, but two dealerships have sold me trucks for that amount over dealer cost for the last three I have purchased. It required that I know specifically what I wanted, and that I drop fifty bucks on carcost for the dealer cost information (three times, for a total now of $150). In addition, carcostcanada gave me a $100 coupon redeamable when I purchased the vehicle in question. The dealerships I dealt with would not honor it, but for a hundred bucks, I was not going to a different province to get a truck. This has worked for me - others mileage may vary. Suffice to say that knowledge is power. Go onto the manufacturers web sites and "build" the vehicle you want, and print it out. Then go look at the stickers on the models normally stocked by your closest dealers and decide what you can and cannot live without, and then find the dealers cost and deal from there. If they will not deal, find another dealership. I had to do that on the first truck I got these prices on, but after that, my local dealership learned that I would go elsewhere, and began to deal fairly, or as fairly as one can expect from a car dealer, lol.
--- In AirstreamList@yahoogroups.com, Anne Pearse Hocker <aph948@...> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I just barely escaped with my life from a classic car dealership buying experience. I wound up walking out and almost ran back to my old truck.
>
> I think the standard negotiating process with the old tricks of leaving you to sit for lengthy periods of time while they "talk to the boss," doing the dreaded four-square deal scribbled on a blank sheet of paper, and the topper, when you walk down that narrow hall to be entombed in a small office where the "financial and insurance guy" proceeds to try to recoup any savings you fought for on the showroom floor....well, let's just say it didn't work for me.
>
> I will probably never submit to it again, and am wondering if anyone has had any experience with car (or truck in this case) buying services? I know you have to pay for their service, but if it will eliminate the traditional showroom/dealership experience, I might be willing to do that.
>
> I am also looking online through edmunds.com (and the search area they allow) and Carmax, but I just don't think I'm ready for a franchise dealership again.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
>
> Anne in Va
>
This site is not sponsored by or affiliated in any way with Airstream Inc, Thor Inc, or the WBCCI.
0 comments:
Post a Comment