And want to get the best deal. Need a four door with Hubzillette coming in late April (Hooray for me!).
It’s a 2004 Nissan Altima for $16,997 sticker price (more or less in line with Blue Book). Car looks great and everything but I know the LAST thing you do is pay that sticker price. I admittedly don’t know the mileage, it’s one of those cars where you have to turn on the ignition to see it. I looked at the car unmolested, but I imagine I will the next time I visit on Wednesday. I’m still in the “just looking” phase, but if the mileage is fine, that’s my car.
Financing will be done thru my FCU at a nice rate and that’s all taken care of. The car is at a Nissan dealership here in Hawaii.
IYHO:
How much shall I ask off? My dream is to pay less than 15,000, so the monthly payments will be under $250. In other words, what’s a reasonable leeway with a sticker price?
What would be the best tactic?
What has worked for you?
What happens when the salesman needs “to talk to his manager”, I don’t really want to spend all day there. Nor get escalated to a hard seller.
I tried to look for past threads, but could not find any. I’m sure there out there, does anyone remember any threads?
Basically, thats a great price. The trick is to know what the private seller blue book is and the trade in value. That gives you an idea of the spread the dealer is working with. Obviously, spread equals profit. When he goes to talk to his manager, it does two things. First, it makes you sweat. Second it buys him a little time. All sales people know exactly how low they can go to get the car done, but everything they take off comes out of their commission on that vehicle. He doesn’t want to give you everything you want, since he wants to get paid. Also, he hopes you haven’t done your homework, and don’t know how low he can go. I always try low-balling, almost to the point of being extreme and then let him bring it up a little. That way he feels like he won something, and you still have spent close to what you want. Good luck and congrats.
The last time we bought a Ford (and I do mean the last time), we researched the vehicle on the web and found the dealer’s price. Then we went with the fleet sales manager instead of car salesman guy. So when he told us that the car was $217 over their price, we knew that it actually was.
The cars I drive now don’t allow for a lot of haggling with sales people, but I have bought two dealer demo vehicles (used in TV commercials and such) and gotten used car prices on new cars.
I have always found that having a relationship with a dealership helps the most.