Quote:
|
Originally Posted by willravel
3) Bring cash. If you have to buy an expensive briefcase with a lock and handcuff it to yourself, so be it. You'll just look like a Bond villan for a few hours.
|
I would most definately NOT recommend bringing cash. It's great for the movies, but not practical in real life.
Most dealerships won't even accept a large sum of cash, opting for a cashiers check instead would be a much more secure way to bring your funds with you.
I'm a pretty good negotiator, if I say so myself.
Here's a couple of things that have worked for me in the past - although I have only bought 4 or 5 of vehicles for myself, I have negotiated for probably 20+ cars for friends, co-workers, etc.
So, without further ado, here's my strategy -
First of all, research is key. Know what a fair price is for a car, and understand that you'll likely be paying near that. Offering substantailly below what a vehicle is worth will more than likely not work - it will probably just annoy the salesperson and you'll be wasting everyone's time.
Try and keep an ace in your sleeve at all times - preferably, your whole hand - until after you have finalized a price.
For instance, if you are trading a vehicle in, are paying up front, or have a dealer coupon, don't let them know until after you have established a firm price. Also, make sure you are more than willing to walk out at any time, don't give in to pressure to "buy now" for whatever reason.
When I purchased my last car, myself and the salesperson finalized a price about $3,000 lower than the listed price. After we had done so, I let him know that I would be trading my current vehicle in. Initially, he tried dicking me over on the price, but when I said that I would accept no less than the trade in value - per the bluebook price, and started to get up, he changed his mind pretty quick and sat me back down. Once I had gotten a fair deal on my trade in, I pulled a wrinked printout off the internet that had a coupon from the dealership that had $500.00 off the purchase of a vehicle. He obviously wasn't very happy with that, and made excuse after excuse as to why I was unable to use it. I stood up, thanked him for his time, and walked out.
As I was climbing into my car, he literally ran out to catch me and said that he had "spoken with his manager" (a common sales technique, especially useful to allow salepeople to save face if they were trying to sell you something at an unfair price) and just this one time, and one time only, they'd let me use it in addition to everything else that we had previously negotiated. I told him that I certainly appreciated it, got his card (again) and left. Two days later, he called me up and asked if I was still interested in the car. I fibbed a bit and said that I was actually going to pick up the same model from another dealership that Friday. He asked what price they had given me, and I quoted him a price of $100.00 less than what he had offered me previously. He tried to compete with them, of course, and gave me the good ol' "If you guarantee me that you'll purchase this car, we'll match their price and throw in 3 free oil changes. I have to know right now so I can arrange it with my boss, blah blah blah" I happily accepted, getting the equivalent an extra $100.00 off and probably $80-90 in free oil changes
Ah, one more tip if you are buying a vehicle with a minimum trade in.
If you have a relatively decent vehicle that you'll be trading in but what to buy a car relatively soon, sell it - of the two people that I know that have done this, they simply took a newspaper ad out and priced it approximately $1200.00 less than it was worth for a very quick sale. It sold within 48 hours of the ad running. He then bought the worst car I think I have ever seen, it just barely ran, and needed a jump every time you started it. At any rate, he pocketed the 8k or so he made from the private sale of his car, bought a $250.00 beater to trade in at the minimum trade in price, which was substanially more than the $250.00 he paid for it, then applied the money he had gotten from selling his car towards a downpayment on the new one he was purchasing...