O/T- Negotiating a new car price

I've never bought a new car for myself (buying used daily drivers frees up funds for hot rods & motorcycles) and am wondering; How much do you negotiate the price on a new vehicle?

I'm shopping for a new '07 Chrysler minivan for my wife. We have cash in hand and will not be trading in another car.

Two nearby dealers each have identical vans that interest me. I've submitted e-mail bid requests to each dealer to see what they'll offer in addition to the existing $4K rebate. I have two things in my favor;
1. It's the end of the year and they both probably want to move inventory.
2. I don't NEED a new van-- I can walk away from a deal if it's not in my best interest.

Am thinking that I'll take the lower of the two dealers' bids and counter with an offer that's slightly lower... But how much?

What do you think?

 

First, I'd go buy a lightly used (1-2 years old) vehicle from a private party.

But, if you gotta have new, look on edmunds.com or kbb.com to find their invoice. You will also find a list of all of the incentives available.

Determine what you are willing to pay for the vehicle - right it down, make sure you and the Missus agree based upon your research.

Go to the dealer and start working them over.

Make a ridiculously low offer (at least $750-1000 below your number), make sure they understand that you are paying in CASH, today, right now, see what they say.

Don't accept their first or second counter offer. Move towards your number in small increments - like $50-100 at a time. Make them move in big increments.

If that doesn't work...

Tell them you are leaving and going to the other place, leave your name and number so they can call you back - get up and walk out.

Sometimes they actually make more and have more wiggle room when you finance. If that is what it takes, finance it and pay it off the next month - do wait a month to let all the paperwork clear.

Have fun, keep smiling, don't get emotional - they will try to get you to make an emotional decision. They are trained to do this.

 

play one against the other. definately tell the higher dealer the lower offer. then go back to the first dealer. do this as many times as possible. when one won't go any lower get them to throw in dealer options

 

here's what's gonna happen, you'll walk in and tell them you're interested in the van, they'll give a price you won't like,you'll go back and forth about 4-5 times, either you'll walk out or they'll give you what you want.If you're paying cash they should be able to take about 4-5k off of the sticker price.To save time walk in and tell them what you want to pay,and then tell them they have one chance to accept it,if not walk out, then they'll be more than happy to accomidate you.I work at a dealer and this is usaully the way it goes down. Don't let them take advantage of you,there arew plenty of dealers that will give you a great deal just to spite another dealer.

 

Read up -- dealer holdbacks, internet pricing, etc... There's probably a bit of wiggle room in pricing, but hard to say . . . usually where they get you in the shorts is in the finance department, but cash in hand makes that a lot better proposition. My father-in-law got a brand new Chevy 1500 WT with the 295 hp V8 for like $16500 recently, it was a a stripper model. There's a lot of info on other sites on how to buy a car "right". I get so frustrated with dealerships I usually want to joke the dumbass salesperson before I'm done.

 

Oh yea - we had a dealer (still do) offering those Suzuki Forenza's at a "smart buy" deal . . . it's actually a plan like GMAC has where you are essentially leasing a car, with option to buy at the end, but they advertise and lead you to believe you can get one for $8840 . . . sign me up. Walk in with that $$$ and they'll say, only if financed through Suzuki Finance, but if you do it for a month and pay it off, it's just simple interest note. I can't see where they're going to toss $6K out the window (car retails for $14K something) . . . but nobody would fess up to what they're doing on that. I imagine they're just banking that a lot of people don't have the dough to pony up the $8840 on the first payment . . . or the dealer was lying to me . . . which is entirely possible. Ugh -- I hate them.

 

Gary -

1) http://edmunds.com will provide you the exact invoice price of the vehicle, including options. Use that as your starting point.

2) There are several tiers to vehicle pricing. Some of that information is on Edmunds site - like factory-to-dealer incentives. Make sure you understand what's available before you negotiate a price.

3) End-of-year clearance pricing (especially on minivans, which have been selling slowly, no matter WHAT the dealer tells you) should be at employee pricing - which is 4% below invoice

once you know all these numbers, tell the dealer:

a) your're buying a car today
b) you're buying it for XX price
c) if they can't get to that price, you're going to XXX dealer down the street.

When they balk at c) (and they will), tell them:

d) you have a choice to make - you can earn a mini ($50 commission) for writing the deal, or not. The choice is theirs to make.

When you hit them with d), they pretty much cave every time. Just make sure to get the MANAGERS SIGNATURE on the paperwork before you leave the building - otherwise they often will try to get more money from you a week later - and legally, they can.

You should be able to pick up a DCX minivan well equipped for low 20's, FWIW.

 

For a small fee consumer reports can get you the exact dealer cost on any car, with all the dealer rebates, etc. You'd need to know the exact options, etc. to get it accurate though.

But if you do this, you can then start from what the car cost them, and negotiate *up* from there, rather than *down* from the sticker price.

If you're pecial ordering the minivan, this can actually put you in a better postition. "I'll give you X amount over your cost, pay you in cash and and pick the van up the day it hits your lot. So you make that $$ without it cluttering up your lot."

My sister did this a few years ago and got a brand new turbo VW golf for $500 over cost.


Also I have heard that CHrysler has an insane number of unsold '06 vehicles cluttering dealer lots and their plants and are desperately trying to get rid of them at deep discounts. Don't know if it applies to the minivans though, I've mostly heard it about trucks and SUVs.

 

I bought a closeout 05 altima. 3 months later the 06 altima was 3k less with more options. Buy a program or slightly test driven model of you can, the depreciation is a m*fer. I wish I would have got an 04 for much less. same warranty is available.

 

Work up from invoice price, not down from sticker. The Chrysler T & C my wife drives was bought for invoice price. I did pay cash and had no trade in, and that helped me a lot. If you are financing and trading in, the dealer sees it as three transactions, and therefore three ways to profit. If they can get you on all three, they will, but normally, they use one to make up for what they gave up on the other.

Watch out for dealer scams, such as VIN etching. Costs them less than $20.00 to do, and they try to charge over $200.00. Ask about dealer prep charges. Let them know you're familiar with dealer scams.

Had the Nissan dealer try to charge me $236.00 for VIN etching. Told him that VIN etching was listed in top 10 dealer scams, and I didn't want it. He said it was already done. We finally agreed that I would pay $26.00 for it. When I got home, I discovered that they hadn't done it. Went back and made sure all the customers heard me complaining. Got my money back in a hurry.

When you see low prices in the ads in the paper, they will have a stock number associated with them. That price only applies to that specific vehicle. It is usually a white one, with few options, in other words...a bait and switch scheme.

 

Just a thought. I am not sure it is wise to tell the dealer that you intend to pay cash. They make extra money when you finance even if the buyer uses an outside financing source. I doubt that cash is a motivating selling feature as it once was. Just my thoughts. Good luck with the buy. I hate buying a car, unless it is a old one, hehehe.

 

I understand you want new, but the best deal is to buy a nice, clean two year old van with under 20,000 miles on it. You should be able to pick one up at nearly half the price of 'new' and still have a gob of factory warranty remaining.

The worst possible financial decision to make, is to buy a new vehicle, in my opinion. Unless you can afford to loose the initial $5-6 grand the first year.

Yeah, I'm a used car dealer, but seeing the quality of used cars available, I'll NEVER own another new car.

Good luck on your choice.

J

 

One other option you have, find a Hertz, Avis or some other rental agency near you and find out where they sell their vehicles. You can usually get a car that is less than a year old with 20,000 or less miles on it at a good deal.
I have bought several for my wife from Hertz and had good luck with them. They keep all of the the service records on these cars and anything that has happened to them. You can usually get these cars for $10,000-15,000 less than a new one.
The Hertz dealer down here was selling all of his 2001 Grand Am's to a dealer across the street and he was marking them up $5,000.00 and selling them as used cars. This was back in late 2001.

 

BUY IT OVER THE INTERNET! I bought my new 2006 vehicle (paid cash ) in Jan. over the internet after researching Kelly Blue Book new car prices, invoice prices, etc. Got prices from two dealers and bought the car on the last day of the month from the lowest. It was great because I negotiated the "out the door price" from home and did not have to waste 8 hours in a dealership where they try to break you down, buy today and sign here NOW. Total process took about a week but it was worth it as I was always in control of the deal from my home, not under their control in the showroom.

 

When i used to sell years ago the mark-up was 10% on the base price and 15% on the options. Take a calculator and figure it up on the spot so you have a close idea what they have in it. start offering lower with them and work your way up.

 

I work in the industry and I'll tell you right off that there is not much profit in these vans but there is deffinitely some negotiating room. The best thing to do is to shop. Find 3 dealers and get a quote from each asking each one to beat the other. Go back to the dealer that you're most comfortable with in the end even if there's a difference of a couple hundred dollars, because that's where you'll most likely get the best service. In a lot of cases dealers would rather make no money or just their hold back then lose a potential client so deffinitely shopping around is best. You will also always get a better deal on something in stock then something you have to order so try not to be too fussy with your options/colors. Good luck!

 

Don't have time to read through all of this right now. But I did catch somebody say to make sure they know you are paying cash. That's exactly that opposite of what you should do. Dealers make money on the finance end. If they know they aren't going to get that money, if may effect the price of the van. If anything, tell them that you'll consider financing with them if the rate and payments are agreeable. They may have rebates and incentivised rates. If you can get 0-4.9%, keep your money in savings earning interest.

Also, this is the biggest selling week of the year for them. The end of the year taxes thing is way overblown as a marketing tool. You'd probably be better off on a Wed. morning in early January when there is nobody else on the lot.

 

I researched this site when my mother in law wanted to buy a car. I learned a lot from it. Get your financing elsewhere. No matter what good deal you think you are getting, they can usually get what they want out of you in the financing.

http://www.carbuyingtips.com/

 

This time last year my Wife and I were in a similar position -- looking for a nearly new mini van (uugh -- glad it didn't work out, the $4K Tahoe is much better than any new van) -- so new years eve we went out car shopping.

We had $12K in cash to spend, no more, no financing. We pulled onto one lot with 2 nearly new Kia vans -- about 3000 miles on each. I told the salespunk what I wanted he said we could likely get one of the Kia's. we drove, the wife liked it, we started to haggle.

The salespunk made a "mistake" with the price. He thought they were for sale for about $14K, they were listed at $19,500. He left and was repleced with the assistant manager -- she went down to $15K, we didn't move. Next the manager arrived, we got him down to $13,500, again we didn't move. he eventually threw his arms up in frustration - literally and asked "where the hell we got this ridiculous $12 figure?" I calmly explained that we had that much money, in cash, once again.
He left, very red in the face.

We left without the van, but having learned that by sticking to your guns and not getting emotional you can save big bucks.

Good luck with whatever you decide -- but isn't a classic wagon just as practical as a minivan????

 

A guy here at work just bought an element. He sent a fax stating he was willing to give $x and wanted x options. Sent it to almost every dealer in 200 miles. Took the acceptance reply from 1 in a remote part of the state to the closest to us, and they bit. He got this info from Consumer Reports, said it was well worth the fee.

 

You didn't save any thing at all. You wasted a couple hours of your life. You can't save money on a deal if there is no deal.

 

Asked to see the invoice of the van you want to buy, at the bottom there will be the invoice price and also there will be letters "EP" with a price this is the employee price you should be able to get that price and all rebates will be deducted from the EP price. If they won't do this then your not getting a deal. This cuts through all the bull negotiating price.

 

Doubt that you could buy a van at employee price. I worked at GM dealerships for 10+ years. They just changed it a year, or so, ago that dealership employees could buy at that price. Keep in mind that "employee" mean employee of Chrysler Corp. and not an employee of the dealership.

To get employee pricing, the dealer has to verify that the customer works for Chrysler, then send proof to Chrysler. Chrysler credits the dealer the money for the "employee" discount.

At least, that's the way it works at GM. We wouldn't lose the money to sell to a regular customer at employee price.

 

i'll sell you a 73 econoline for $400. you can pack about 30 people in it and still have over 20 large left over for your hot rods.

 

You can't save money when you're buying anything - you can only spend less with one merchant vs another.


Research any large purchase thoroughly and do the fax thing. My brother bought his Brand X that way. Faxed his wish list to about 50 dealers and told them they had ONE chance to get the price right.

He did pretty well and even had the dealer pick him up at teh train station when he went to get the car.

 

A little o/t .. I wnet to buy a new harley they asked me how much i wanted to finance. I asked what??? You dont take cash!
Ya they do. They do get a kick back from the banks on financing but they will sell for cash and in your case you should be able to save some big bucks. Harleys are harleys.. Yup thats the price
Dave
ps: ask em if they got an aunt with employee pricing left to burn? an uncle? I saved quite a bit on my 05 colorado and i didnt even expect the employee discount but ive got a friend.

 

Take an hour or so and read up at this site and go in informed on what can and will happen at most dealers when trying to purchase a car. Good Luck...H

Price ain't everything, DON"T get scamed.

Top 10 Car Dealer Scams AND
How To Buy New Cars & Avoid Car Dealer Scams
http://www.carbuyingtips.com/carintro.html

 

From that site.

"The end of December is a good time for car buyers to buy a new car. Our $avometer Database shows how well our visitors did buying a car at Christmas. Everyone is out buying XMAS gifts, leaving new car dealer lots void of customers, motivating dealers to cut prices, and break year end sales records."


In reality, December is usually one of the very best sales months of the year. Most years, it was the biggest profit month for the store.

There's a lot of misinformation about the car business and car dealerships. I'd be real careful about using some of the "tips" that have been posted here. The advice about researching prices, rebates, and incentives is dead on. www.edmunds.com is real good. And using the dealers internet sales dept. is good advice. Most of the other stuff I've read here is just not accurate.

If you need any help getting a fair price, pm me. I'd be glad to try to help.

 

Check out all available dealer incentives and rebate possibilities, I missed out on a $1K incentive when playing poker w/the dealer on a new VW diesel.
It wasn't advertized, but the dealer applied it after the fact, to net the $1k for HIS bottom line when they tallied up their sales figures. My final cost: $18K

 

I'm in the same position and its blowing my mind..I'd like to have a near-new Passat or Audi stationwagon (Thats what the wife would like)..If I can't find the 03-05 model for less than 20K I'm going to find an early 70s Chevelle wagon or 66-67 Chevy II wagon put the money in that and have something that will appreciate and non-electronic..I feel for ya man..you want to have something dependable for the family, but not have it depreciate 2000.00 just for driving it around the block.....