[grandam1979]

Maybe that’s why my deal was smooth no trade in.

[NeighborsComplaint]

Originally Posted by grandam1979

Maybe that’s why my deal was smooth no trade in.

Trades will muddy up the waters. I've always negotiated the best deal I can a without mentioning my trade. If they ask, I just say no trade. Then once the price out the door is established, I say "You know, you've been so good on price and all, maybe trading my car in isn't such a bad idea after all. What's it worth off of our deal?"

[grandam1979]

Originally Posted by NeighborsComplaint

Trades will muddy up the waters. I've always negotiated the best deal I can a without mentioning my trade. If they ask, I just say no trade. Then once the price out the door is established, I say "You know, you've been so good on price and all, maybe trading my car in isn't such a bad idea after all. What's it worth off of our deal?"

I’m not that smooth I could never pull it off

[Gator67]

The most annoying gimmick dealers around here use is to advertise a car for a low price, but to get the price, you have to use in-house financing...typically 95% to 100% of the out the door cost, at like 2-3x the going interest rate, and you can't pay it off for 6 months. Last summer I was shopping for a car for my son, and I ran into this scenario at a local dealer. After a test drive I offered to pay cash on the spot at the advertised sales price, but the salesperson said the best they could do was the advertised sales price plus the roughly 2k in interest they would have collected had I used their financing. They would only budge a couple hundred dollars, full tank of gas, a promise of no F&I tricks. I was so annoyed with it, I just walked away. But I shouldn't have. In the end, the cash deal was fair, and I couldn't find anything better. I went back two days later, but the car was gone.

[vertigto]

Not sure how they can enforce you paying it off whenever. Typical sales ploy, unless somehow it's in written into the contract...yet to see that myself.

[71GP76TA]

Originally Posted by nas t eh

I can imagine the condition cars getting traded in would get lied about or undisclosed all the time, but even this would not always be intentional as so many don't even notice their car has an issue till it is really obvoiuse. With a full shop to check it over it should be pretty hard to pull the wool over your eyes and for you to get taken advantage of?

Words I heard from car salesman on my last three buying experiences, "This is our Lowest price", "You won't find a better deal than this one". " We are at the bottom, You can't get a better deal" maybe you have never said these words. But three different salesman said these words and they were not true, walking away dropped the price later the same day or the next day.

What have you heard from a customer who was buying and did not have a trade in for you, that was bad and cost you money?

When a customer trades in a vehicle its always a year newer than it actually is. Last 2 trucks I took in trade were a year older than they actually were. Shame on me for taking the customers word and not checking the door jamb sticker before throwing out a number.

They always have more miles than stated. Its amazing how a person can be 30-40,000 miles off on a car they drive every day or not know what year it is. Like I said.. customers are.... well you know...

I can't count how many times a customer says.."there's nothing wrong with it". Run it down the road and back and the trans slips.... I could go on and on..

We do not negotiate. the price quoted is our best price. We have probably a half dozen negative reviews on yelp and google because we refused to negotiate. Our prices are very competitive. We sell a fair amount of cars every month and have been in business at the same location 15 years.

[Chris65LeMans]

Originally Posted by NeighborsComplaint

Here's a tactic some dealers use ... they ask for your keys to appraise your trade and then play "who has the keys?" while they try to work the deal. This happened to me about 10 years back. After my third time telling the sales manager "There's nothing more to discuss, get my keys, I want to leave", I scooped up the keys to the demo car I test drove off the his desk and told him "Fine, I'm taking your car for an extended test drive while you look for my keys" and got up and started walking away. Amazing how quickly they found the keys.

That’s some scumbag stuff there. Almost as bad as this move.

(From “Vacation”)
https://youtu.be/HD6NCnwNQk4

There’s a movie out there about a car dealer called “Suckers” that is pretty funny.

[Heybuck]

Its a few years since I bought any new cars, I used to buy at least one per year for my business. Now I've down sized, no employees, that's no longer part of my life.

But when I was buying, I always knew exactly what I wanted to buy, I would fax or email every dealer in a 40 mile radius telling them exactly my specifications and guarantee that I would sign a contract THAT day for a cash price. No trade in, and no gimmicks from the dealers. And I would accept any colour combination. Best price on the day got the sale. No later offers etc. If things were tight, I'd have a bank loan set in place before I emailed out.

I would always do this within the last 3 days of any month and got some amazingly good deals. (I might add that very occasionally my employees were not that happy with some of the colours, but hey - they were getting a car for 24/7 use on my dollar. Bad Luck).

Never had any issues selling off the old cars either. I had a tame used car guy who used to snap them up because he knew I had them serviced correctly and none of my employees abused the cars.

Worked for me.

[71GP76TA]

Originally Posted by Chris65LeMans

That’s some scumbag stuff there. Almost as bad as this move.

(From “Vacation”)
https://youtu.be/HD6NCnwNQk4

There’s a movie out there about a car dealer called “Suckers” that is pretty funny.

I agree..

[fiedlerh]

Just before Covid wife found a used 3 year old Civic stick shift she liked at a Honda dealer. Honda corporate was offering 0.0% used car financing. The dealer played all the usual tricks. After negotiating the price, they snuck in gap insurance, job-loss insurance, and fabric coverage, to the monthly payment.

One thing that is essential is to have a car payment calculator on your phone when you are negotiating. We discovered their deception and told them to take all the extra crap off. I would have walked, but the wife liked the car.

A month later they contacted us with a trade in offer saying "we can upgrade you to a Civic with an automatic trans." The final insult was to offer us $5,400 for a car we just paid $14,000 for a month before.

BTW,there is a shortage of used cars right now. Dealers in our area are desperate for used cars, but it doesn't mean they will pay more.

[71GP76TA]

Originally Posted by fiedlerh

Just before Covid wife found a used 3 year old Civic stick shift she liked at a Honda dealer. Honda corporate was offering 0.0% used car financing. The dealer played all the usual tricks. After negotiating the price, they snuck in gap insurance, job-loss insurance, and fabric coverage, to the monthly payment.

One thing that is essential is to have a car payment calculator on your phone when you are negotiating. We discovered their deception and told them to take all the extra crap off. I would have walked, but the wife liked the car.

A month later they contacted us with a trade in offer saying "we can upgrade you to a Civic with an automatic trans." The final insult was to offer us $5,400 for a car we just paid $14,000 for a month before.

BTW,there is a shortage of used cars right now. Dealers in our area are desperate for used cars, but it doesn't mean they will pay more.

We are being forced to pay more in the wholesale market. The new car stores are really sticking it to us independents. If we want inventory.. we have to step up and pay the money. My lot has only been half stocked for months. We usually carry 60+ cars.. I'm doing good to keep 30-35 on the lot ready to go.. Last summer we dropped down to 15 on the lot ready to go...

[Chris65LeMans]

Originally Posted by fiedlerh

One thing that is essential is to have a car payment calculator on your phone when you are negotiating. We discovered their deception and told them to take all the extra crap off. I would have walked, but the wife liked the car.

That's why car salespeople will always ask you "What payment are you looking for?" Then they can bundle all kinds of crap into the deal and just add a year or two to the loan.

That's why I won't ever talk monthly payments with any salespeople. If you're financing, having your loan calculator handy is a good idea to keep in your budget, but don't share this info with the sales guy.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by Chris65LeMans

That's why car salespeople will always ask you "What payment are you looking for?" Then they can bundle all kinds of crap into the deal and just add a year or two to the loan.

That's why I won't ever talk monthly payments with any salespeople. If you're financing, having your loan calculator handy is a good idea to keep in your budget, but don't share this info with the sales guy.

When the car salesman starts telling you it's only going to cost you XX$$$'s per day, you need to run like hell!! Buy here, pay here lots are the worst for this. Generally, whatever the down payment is on the car is what they have in it total. That way whatever payments they ever manage to pry out of the buyer is their profit margin until the car falls apart and the buyer stops paying. Then they decide if it's worth the hassle to repossess or just let it go to scrap. Many of my customers have fallen into this trap. Interest rates today still 18-24%.

[The Champ]

I never talk payment with the dealer. EVER.

I negotiate the price of the car. If I have a trade, that discussion comes after the negotiated price is determined.

The next step is that I make it clear I'm not interested in ANY dealer additional profit items. I let the salesman/sales manager know that if the F&I person even attempts to add in any additional profit items that I will walk out the door.

I already know the what the interest rate is at my CU (currently 1.9%) and am preapproved, so if I am planning to finance the vehicle, I already know the maximum interest rate I will pay. If the dealer can beat my CU, I'll do a credit app. Otherwise, just do the paperwork and let me write you a check.

This really streamlines the BS.

[GoatRider]

Originally Posted by 71GP76TA

We are being forced to pay more in the wholesale market. The new car stores are really sticking it to us independents. If we want inventory.. we have to step up and pay the money. My lot has only been half stocked for months. We usually carry 60+ cars.. I'm doing good to keep 30-35 on the lot ready to go.. Last summer we dropped down to 15 on the lot ready to go...

What part of California are you in? Do yo have any 2017-2019 Toyota Avalons or Kia Cadenzas with the top option packages?

Only half kidding - both the dealers and the used car only lots here in AZ are pretty sparsely populated with 2-4 yr old large sedans!

[71GP76TA]

Originally Posted by GoatRider

What part of California are you in? Do yo have any 2017-2019 Toyota Avalons or Kia Cadenzas with the top option packages?

Only half kidding - both the dealers and the used car only lots here in AZ are pretty sparsely populated with 2-4 yr old large sedans!

Central CA... Modesto area. . I don't have either in stock.

[NeighborsComplaint]

Just a followup. My son is loving his Maxima.

[1965gp]

Okay- my opinion on this has completely changed.

My daughter turns 16 next week, has straight A’s, plays on the basketball team and NEVER asks for anything so I am getting her a nice car for her birthday.

There is nothing available right now- I have been looking casually for a couple weeks- hard for the last week.

Challengers are like gold- for 20k you are getting a beat up 6 cylinder with 75k or a 8 cylinder with 120k. Add to that situation that those 6 cylinders usually die around 100k it’s not an option.

Mustangs are good option but again- most of them are beat up. All but one of the Ecoboost cars I looked at either had hacked up exhaust or aftermarket changes under the hood.

Camaro’s are not an option because of visibility and well.... Gm killed Pontiac.

I probably went to look at about 25 cars.... 5 of them were sold before I got there (but were available that morning) 4 were new cars or lease offers that didn’t actually exist (but got me in the door) 10 of them I walked away as soon as I saw the car. I actually drove 6 or 7 of them.

Ended up buying a 6 cylinder 2016 mustang. Had to pay over NADA retail for it but it was the only car I actually felt comfortable buying and didn’t look like it was jumped over a river.

Now- I love the negotiation part. I like to pick apart the car, I like to commit to the order that day if the price is right.... getting to talk directly to the manager is like getting to the next level on a video game!

None. Not one of these dealers would negotiate.

One of them told me they only accept in house financing- no other options. Otherwise I would have bought their car. It was priced right, but they were going to make the money on the financing.

I think since the price is no longer negotiable- you need a trade, financing or other options to be able to ‘work’ a deal.

They wouldn’t negotiate pricing, but if I had a trade I could have said ‘if you give me another 1000 for my car we have a deal’ and it might have happened.

In my case I wanted a concession to fix the rear bumper. I knew the car was priced at market price and was relatively nice- it was going to sell in 24-48 hours. I asked for money off to fix the bumper - they said no. I said okay, I am going to look at this blue one down the street for the same price (I had already decided against the blue car).

They said let me tell the manager- I replied with ‘as long as I can’t tell that car has been bumped in the back and it lines up I will buy your car- otherwise I’m going to buy the blue one. They came back and said they will do the bumper in house. Probably saved me $500 and the hot to sell a car the day after they got it in.

So in a very long winded way- I now think the prices are going to stay constant (because people are weak!) so you need to have other variables (financing, trade, repairs, tires, etc) to work your best deal.

[Greg Reid]

Supply and demand. That will never change for any commodity I don't think. I hear that even the car rental places are buying up used cars because they can't get new ones. Hard to compete with them when they are probably buying them up in batches.

PS-Neighbor's Complaint, that's a nice looking Nissan.

[NeighborsComplaint]

The hustle hasn't really changed but gone are the days of high markups and lots of room for price negotiation. You're not dealing with some "Western Ave." used car lot these days. The dealers are pros and know the numbers. Most dealers won't bother to negotiate unless the car has issues. The price is the price on a good car, take it or leave it. In the current market, they can do that. You walk away, the next guy will assuredly buy it and the used car supply is drying up as new car production is slowing down.