Easy. Go to the dealership and look at cars, note the makes and models and years, go back home and look that shit up. It’s POSSIBLE that a particular car will sell between the time you get home and do the research on it, but not likely, and the last time I looked, there are approximately one hundred gazillion used cars out there, and very, very few of them are actually great bargains, unless the customer knows more about that particular car than the dealership. Most dealerships expect a customer to look at cars and then go home to think about it. They don’t like it, but they expect it. What they LIKE is to have someone drooling over the car and forking over the first price they hear.
Another way to make the Internet work for you is to go to the manufacturer’s web site, see what promotions are available, and print them out. In my experience, the dealer is either unaware of a lot of these, or they’re “unaware” (wink wink) of a lot of these.
You don’t even have to go through that if you bring a KBB with you. My point is that knowledge was available before the internet and that didn’t stop salesman from playing the game that is part of the custom in the U.S. Salesman are doing what salesman have always done and haggling is still part of the game. Again, IME, I’ve seen no indication that there’s a new game in town as far as there being an end to haggling; the dealerships are still “old school” in that regard.
Salesmen might be trying to play the old game. However, customers are not obliged to play it, and can and do walk out the door when salesmen try to engage them in the old dance. And my husband and I have bought a couple of cars lately. Some salesmen WILL try to engage us in the dance, while others will take us at our word that we won’t play it. The ones who will give us their best price, and who won’t lower the price when we say it’s not good enough, are the ones that we consider when we make our choices. The ones who try to negotiate when we refuse the first price are the ones we avoid buying cars from.
I think it’d be incredibly rare for a dealership not to know about every single rebate and/or special deal
in effect. There’s probably a meeting of all the salespeople at least weekly to make sure they’re up to speed on the latest promotions.
The best tactic is to find the make and model and options you want, and call around to all the area dealers and get their best price over the phone. Then you take the lowest price quoted and play them off of each other. “I just got off the phone with Mark at Lincoln/Ford/Mercury on 16, and he’ll give me this price. I’d rather buy the car from your dealership, can you beat this price?” If yes, great. If no, next call.
Awhile ago someone on this board (not the pit, I don’t think) posted this inside baseball about how the car dealer salesmen work (think it was new cars, but you get the drift). The oldschool process is mostly for the uneducated/unsophisticated/great unwashed.
Follow up on the OP: We did buy from the competitor Toyota dealership, but emailed them first. Aha! Got a much better price than we’d been quoted at any of the “brick ‘n’ mortar” showrooms.
Although when we got to the dealership, we were told that the price was much higher.
When we explained that “Greg” (not his real name) (his real name was Jake Shimansky) at their dealership had quoted us a price that was better than what the salesperson had, said Olde School Polyester Shirt With Clip-On Tie Good Ol’ Boy rolled his eyes (yes, he rolled his eyes in front of the customers): “Well, those internet guys, they don’t really fight for the best price, they just give a single price”. Followed by an “I just don’t get it” shrug.
We asked to talk to “the internet guy”, and bought a car from him. He didn’t push “options” or “Sport Rallye” packages on us, and encouraged us to save a bundle by going all-manual: transmission, locks, and windows (which my daughter’s friends are baffled by!).
I’ll never forget my first car-shopping on my own. I wanted two doors and a man-trans. I had $5,000 to spend, and I was 24 years old I think.
The first lot I stepped onto, I looked around for a bit and found one I wanted to test drive. The salesman popped off with “Well, that one there’s a stick shift you know, young lady,” and I just stared at him. “I drove here in that ‘stick shift’. I’m looking for another one. Thanks.” And I left.
The second car I bought, I drove for two years and sold it for the same amount I purchased it for. I basically drove it for the equivalent of the monthly payments, and broke even. My parents taught me well.
It really is baffling. Do people still think that the man is always the one giving his wife an allowance? My husband works full-time and I usually work part-time (I’ve been off work for a while now) - I have the time to do all the banking, so I do. I let HIM know how much money we have, even though he’s the one making all of it. We both went to look at cars because that big a financial decision needed to be made by both of us.
First mistake. Never, ever buy a car from a Toyota dealer. The crook ratio is the highest in the new car lot biz. AFAIK, they are all like that. The cars are fine, the dealers are not.
The very best deals are often just using Edmunds and asking for a quote by email from a number of dealers. There is no downside to speak of, and they often give a lowball figure, and why not?
Lynn’s right, you’re wrong. Especially as you mentioned “KBB” aka Kelly Blue Book, which has about zero credibility nowadays. Either use NADA or Edmunds.com. KBB is now mostly used by car salesmen and insurance adjusters to show you bogus values.
As far as I’m aware, if you want to buy a new Toyota in British Columbia, you will pay the sticker price. No haggling, no nothing. If you are an incredible bargainer, you might, just maybe score some free floor mats. I’m not sure if there is some other super secret way of getting a new Toyota for cheaper here - if there is, I’m not aware of it.
Well, things area little different in the Great White North. But even when a car is in such hot demand, there’s no discount, you can still get ripped off by the dealer:
- Price over Suggested Retail
- Changing the sticker price
- Adding extra charges to the sticker “dealer prep”
4.cheating you on the trade-in - Giving you a higher interest rate.
- Making you pay for unwanted or overpriced extras like “top coating” etc.
and so forth.
You could try a Canadian version of Edmunds by figuring out exactly what you want (even hypothetically) then emailing all the dealers within 200 miles.
http://www.canadiandriver.com/1999/02/19/do-it-yourself-dealer-cost.htm
When we went to buy a car for my husband, we went to a used car lot of a friend-of-a-friend. When we set foot on the lot we were pounced upon by a newbie looking salesman, and we immediately asked for the owner by name. He starts to go off to get him, and we trail. He starts asking questions, what are you looking for, what are you looking to spend, etc. Our answer to the latter is basically “we are looking to spend nottoomuch for what we wind up with.”
Sayeth salesman: “Well, it’s not the price that matters, you know, it’s the payments!”
Us: :dubious: :dubious:
Salesman: “…I’ll go get Bill.”
Husband: “Yeah, you do that.”
ETA: This was at the absolute HEIGHT of the recession, when all of us were hurting from the notion of “it’s not the price that matters, it’s the payments, creative financing rah!”
Yeah, some of my otherwise smart friends have been burned by just that.
“So how much is the car?”
“Only $200 a month!”
Wow. I worked for a ‘One Price’ group of dealerships for about 13 years including two Saturn stores. Things were so much easier. And, actually, the last time I bought a car it was from a local Scion dealer and they were the same way. Quite a few of the dealerships around here are like this. I’m actually surprised to hear that there is still so much dealing going on. (I’m in Ohio.)
I’m laughing. I told the guy “I know it’s a Toyota, and there’s a waiting list, but I still want to feel like I’m getting away with something. Some brilliant piece of negotiation.”
“Well, you could demand free floor mats.”
So I did.
Oh, yeah. I got floor mats. For free.
I gave up doing this awhile back, after contacting numerous dealers for quotes. I never got any kind of realistic quote, and often the quoted prices were not on models I was interested in.
They seemed more interested in getting me into the dealership than in making serious offers.
After test driving a used jeep priced 6500 I drove away from the lot in it for 2750 Cash. Great car.
Yep haggle is my middle name.