I have been quoted a price of 19,900 for a new car, *, **. I will be paying for the car in full.
1.How low can I start out?
1a.Is 18,500 too low?
How much can I expect to pay in taxes?
3.For all of my offers, I would like to propose a “Not a penny over X” number, meaning that all taxes, fees, etc are included. What is the best way to say this?
I’m not against offering 20k flat.
4a.I assume this offer is agreeable. when do I make this offer? How much am I leaving on the table with this offer?
2011 Honda Fit, Sport with Navigation. Trim and Color I want, at a dealership an hour out from me.
** Yes, used cars are better, deprecation value, five seconds off the lot, etc etc. I understand this, suffice to say, I want a new car.
Georgia state sales tax is 4%, so for a $19,900 car, the sales tax would be $796. Title/registration would be a separate fee; check your DMV’s website to find out what those would cost.
Fit’s don’t depreciate real fast. When we were looking for a fit, the used ones were nearly the same cost as the new ones, during the August Blowout or whatever they were calling it. We eventually went with a new one for this very reason. At very nearly the same cost, why buy someone else’s trouble?
http://www.edmunds.com/ will give you a good idea of what you might be able to get a dealer to drop their asking price to.
Unfortunately, it seems like a Fit Sport w/Navigation doesn’t give much ground–the dealer invoice+destination charge is $19,316 where I am, compared to a MSRP+destination of $20,010.
Go there on a Monday, take a look at the car, say you want it. Then change your mind, tell them it’s just too much. Don’t make a counter offer. Leave.
Come back Wednesday. Tell them you’ll take the car if they can drop $5000 off the price. They’ll say no. Tell them you’ll think about it more.
Come back Friday. Tell them you just can’t afford the asking price. Ask them what they can do. Whatever their first offer of reduction is, hem and haw, wait a while, then say no, you can’t afford more than $2000 less than that. Hang around, tell them you have no choice, you don’t have extra money to spend on it, that’s all that you have. Ask them what else they can do. As 5:00PM approaches on Friday, they’ll keep coming down. When the salesman says his manager won’t let him come down any more, hang around a little while longer. Then tell them you’ll sign right then if they take another $500 off.
Sounds like you know exactly what you want. It’s kind of a shame you have already decided where you want to buy it as well, because this eliminates a powerful tool - playing two or more dealerships against each other.
What you have left in your tool kit is information. Find out what other people are actually paying and what the dealer invoice is. Note that dealer invoice is not actually what the dealer pays the manufacturer, so no matter what they tell you, they are making money, even if they sold to you at invoice. Sites like edmunds.com are useful for this.
Based on a quick (<3 minutes) look around the web, 19.9K is a reasonably fair price for the car you describe, assuming you are looking for an auto tranmission - manuals are almost a grand less. The Fit is pretty popular, and Honda’s not having any issues selling them, so there’s not much discounting to be had. Still, there’s probably a few hundred bucks you can get the dealer to wiggle on the price if you are a big enough jerk about it - and being a jerk is pretty likely to be required.
You can try for $20K flat out the door, but I doubt they will bite the first time. You might also try to start at $19.0K plus taxes and fees and see what they say. They will no doubt add things on - the dealers near me like to include accessories and dealer-installed options. You don’t have to buy these if you really don’t want them, and even if you do want them, remember that every single thing is negotiable.
Walk out at least twice. They will call you within 24 hours to say they might be able to make something happen. To even have the opportunity to walk out, you have to start lower than you think they will take, and lower than you are willing to go. Conversely, they will start at sticker and work down. You will meet in the middle somewhere.
If you could do it closer to the end of the month, you’ll be in a better bargaining position. Dealers and sales people/managers really are more motiviated the closer to monthend you are. A deal they say no to on the 15th might be very attractive to them on the 29th.
If the specific car you want is sold before you get to it, don’t worry - dealers can get them for you from another location pretty easily. This is something they do regularly for both new and used cars and may not add much to the final price.
Though, they might be more inclined to cut a deal on stuff they have on the lot, which means less selection. If you want any specifics beyond model / trim level, that makes it more likely they won’t have such a car, and won’t be as eager to obtain it at a lower price.
If the OP doesn’t care about color etc. this gives more flexibility.
The last 2 new cars we got (a CRV 5 years ago, and a Civic 12 years ago), we had specific model / trim / model year ( December 1998, the 1999s were already out, but we were happy to get the 1998) requirements but nothing beyond that. We wound up with white, both times (evidently not that popular a color!) because that’s what they had. We didn’t care.
I sold cars for a year (hated it), and this argument about the end of the month is far less compelling to most dealers than some members of the public would have you believe. I’m not saying that the time of month is completely irrelevant, but there’s no guarantee that it will make a difference.
As Mama Zappa said, your bargaining position becomes far, far weaker if the car is not already on the lot. Getting rid of existing inventory is much more important, in general, than selling a car that you don’t even have yet. Transferring cars between dealers costs money, and cars already sitting on the lot cost money for every day they sit there, so selling existing inventory is generally the dealer’s first priority.
Second the suggestion of a car buying service. The previous post linked to one from USAA but I think Cars.com, Consumerreports.com and Edmunds.com all have such things. You specify year, make and model and then get emails from the fleet sales rep at various dealers. (BTW, I have a 2010 Honda Fit, Sport with Nav and I love it.)
Find the car you want, and look up the invoice price on any of a number of web sites dedicated to this. You may have to pay a nominal fee ($10 or so).
Depending on how aggressive you want to be, offer them $300 over invoice. That’s a reasonable profit for them to make, especially given manufacturer give-backs and other behind the scenes dealing.
They may come back and insist that you include delivery and dealer prep charges, plus a higher markup. Tell them you’ll pay the delivery, but no f’n way you’ll pay dealer prep - how much does it cost to wash a car? They’ll scream and yell, and you’ll walk out.
As noted, check with them later in the week or later in the month (they get very anxioius about their month-end numbers), and they may come back and say, OK, invoice (they may even show you their invoice if it differs significantly from your info) plus delivery, plus, say, $1000. Tell them $300 again, and if they offer $500, go ahead with the deal.
The key is to be willing to walk away from the deal. Not just to seem as though you are willing to walk away, really, truly, be willing to walk. They can sense if you are for real or not.
Too bad you’re not in New Jersey. I would send my husband to assist. As was just said, actually getting up and walking away is generally the final step before you get your deal. (We’ve had salesmen follow us into the parking lot offering lower and lower prices when in fact we had actually just decided we really didn’t want the car. )
The idea that you’re paying in full for the car isn’t a dealer incentive. They make more more when they get someone to finance. My sister bought a Nissan Juke a few months ago, paying for it at the time of purchase. The saleman was falling all over himself trying to get her to finance, even if at 1%.
It may be better for the dealer to think you’re going to finance at least part of it, to get a better price. If they get a kickback for people who finance, they may commit to a lower price. Then when they start talking about how you’re going to pay, just tell them you’ll be writing a check.
If they really like financing, are are willing to give you a better price, you can finance it and write a check to pay it off 10 days later.
To the OP, one way to do it is to show them a check already made out for $20,000 and tell them if they can get out the door with your car for that, it’s theirs. Tell them if they can’t, no problem. You don’t want to discuss, just a yes or a no will do.
