So our family has bought a 3rd car....a Toyota

[Texacon]

Wow.  How not to haggle on car price.

Progressive_In_NC (308 posts)     

Tue Nov-25-08 02:39 PM
Original message

So our family has bought a 3rd car....a Toyota
For years our family of four has had 3 cars. A commuter car for myself; a family car for my wife and kids (and me on the weekends); and a Ford Truck for hauling stuff (it sits parked most of the time).

Well, my wife's car is 9 years old and it's giving out; it's an old Ford minivan. We just went to look, and we went to the ford dealership. We test drove a Ford Freestyle and we liked it a lot and sat down to talk terms. The price negotiation took 45 minutes and was painful, the dealer didn't want to come down on the price at all. We got a hard (HARD) sell on finish protectors and things like that. They brought us a deal sheet that had 6 or 7 extra "fees" on it; and they tried to sell us a 5 year/60,000 mile warranty that cost $3200.00 and covered a limited number of things on the car.

They also offered us the low end of the range for our trade-in and were not willing to budge on it.
Judging from the three other groups of folks in the entire dealership, one would have thought they'd be more than willing to deal a bit.

So we said we'd like to shop around. On the way home, we stopped at the Toyota place. They put us a Sienna, and we liked that too. When we sat down, we were given a deal sheet with 2 fees on it other than the price of the car. The price negotiation took 5 minutes and the dealer didn't even counter when we said we wanted $2500 off the price (the guy at the Ford place nearly went through the roof). There was no hard sell on the extras, and they offered a 7 year/100,000 mile bumper to bumper (everything included) warranty. They also guaranteed that if we didn't need it we would get the full cost of the warranty ($2195.00) back from them at the end of the term. If we only used a portion, we would get the difference back.
And they gave us the high end of the value of our trade in too.

Every table in the showroom had someone sitting at it waiting to talk to a sales rep (I'd guess there were 20-30 buying parties there as we were leaving.

Of those two experiences, one felt very consumer friendly and the other felt very adversarial. I never expected to own a Toyota, but after the way I was treated at the Ford place, I am pretty sure that in Raleigh, it's not the Detroit workers or quality that's the problem.

 

No wonder they didn't spend much time haggling.  I usually get between $10 - $12k off sticker.  How 'bout the rest of you?  I think this DUmmie is an idiot when it comes to buying cars.

KC

[Traveshamockery]

No wonder they didn't spend much time haggling.  I usually get between $10 - $12k off sticker.  How 'bout the rest of you?  I think this DUmmie is an idiot when it comes to buying cars.

When it comes to buying cars, my husband walks in with his laptop and has all of his figures and different scenarios in a spreadsheet and fires that baby up before any negotiations begin.  He's done the research beforehand of prices.  

And I don't dare fall in love with a car because he will grab my hand and we will walk out if they don't deal fair and square.  

And it works.

[Duchess]

Wow.  How not to haggle on car price.



No wonder they didn't spend much time haggling.  I usually get between $10 - $12k off sticker.  How 'bout the rest of you?  I think this DUmmie is an idiot when it comes to buying cars.

KC

Yet their 'rat leadership wants to pass "card check" and end secret ballots so the extortionist unions can go into "right-to-work" states and ruin the auto business there too. And they call us out for "voting against our own best interests"? At least when we do it, it's in support of a principle over pocketbook.

[Rebel]

3 cars? In this economy? Why doesn't the Dim give one of those to that UP thing? 

[Texacon]

When it comes to buying cars, my husband walks in with his laptop and has all of his figures and different scenarios in a spreadsheet and fires that baby up before any negotiations begin.  He's done the research beforehand of prices.  

And I don't dare fall in love with a car because he will grab my hand and we will walk out if they don't deal fair and square.  

And it works.

hehe your husband sounds like me.  I have all my sheets printed out before I walk in, I have already called my bank and have any financing I need in place (in case they don't have any deals), I have already checked my trade and their invoice prices, I know their hold back, factory to dealer incentives (yeah they get that money and never mention it), etc .... 

In my case it is not so much haggling as me saying "I'll take $x for mine and give you $x for yours.  Take it or leave it.  Very little room on my end.  They make money and I save money, it is a win-win.

KC

[BEG]

Every table in the showroom had someone sitting at it waiting to talk to a sales rep (I'd guess there were 20-30 buying parties there as we were leaving.

I have never seen 20-30 BUYING parties at any dealership. 

[franksolich]

Way to go DUmmy, you just ****ed one of your brethren in Detroit.

Yep.

The friends-of-the-laboring-classes primitives, who also have a habit of hiring non-union carpenters, plumbers, and electricians, show their blatant hypocrisy once again.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Wow.  How not to haggle on car price.



No wonder they didn't spend much time haggling.  I usually get between $10 - $12k off sticker.  How 'bout the rest of you?  I think this DUmmie is an idiot when it comes to buying cars.

KC

You're being kind of harsh on the DUmmie, there, its point was that the Ford dealer wasn't giving ground on EITHER end, and the Toyota dealer was, plus without trying to screw them on a bunch of add-on costs over the bait price.  The DUmmie made the point pretty well, I thought.

In my own case, I don't buy new cars anymore, period.  I have enough mechanical background to know what I'm looking at when I pull the sticks, check the seals, and test drive, so I'm pretty comfortable shopping for used cars.  I don't have to impress clients, so there is no economic benefit to me in paying for new, and by and large my experience has been that a car that has gone the first 100,000 miles will make the second with proper routine maintenance (not the third, however, if it has a GM automatic transmission).

[Texacon]

I have never seen 20-30 BUYING parties at any dealership. 

I didn't think about that.  I guess this one is a stretchy too.

KC

[Texacon]

You're being kind of harsh on the DUmmie, there, its point was that the Ford dealer wasn't giving ground on EITHER end, and the Toyota dealer was, plus without trying to screw them on a bunch of add-on costs over the bait price.  The DUmmie made the point pretty well, I thought.

In my own case, I don't buy new cars anymore, period.  I have enough mechanical background to know what I'm looking at when I pull the sticks, check the seals, and test drive, so I'm pretty comfortable shopping for used cars.  I don't have to impress clients, so there is no economic benefit to me in paying for new, and by and large my experience has been that a car that has gone the first 100,000 miles will make the second with proper routine maintenance (not the third, however, if it has a GM automatic transmission).

I would prefer to buy used and let someone else take the hickey on depreciation but I do have clients to impress.  I sell in a fairly exclusive neighborhood (for our area) and it looks better when they get in a vehicle they are more accustomed to. 

KC

[DumbAss Tanker]

I would prefer to buy used and let someone else take the hickey on depreciation but I do have clients to impress.  I sell in a fairly exclusive neighborhood (for our area) and it looks better when they get in a vehicle they are more accustomed to. 

KC

And you're absolutely right to do so, appearances do count very heavily with clients, and just as much with the supposedly-sophisticated as with the mob.  If they do not see the expected marks of a high-roller they tend to think "Scraping by" instead of "Thrifty."  It's just human nature, but when you are dealing in client service you have to play the expectation game or they'll dump you for some dumbshit with a pricier ride and a higher price on the theory that 'He must be better, he charges more.'  I'm glad I'm not in private practice.

[USA4ME]

No wonder they didn't spend much time haggling.  I usually get between $10 - $12k off sticker.  How 'bout the rest of you?  I think this DUmmie is an idiot when it comes to buying cars.

Depends on the car.  Ususally you can knock off 15-20% off the sticker before you even start.  But like Traveshamockery's husband, I usually go to Consumer Reports and look up the base price and all the cost of the options so I know what the dealership paid for it and, depending on the car, offer $200 to $400 over that.

We've got a bunch of dealerships in this area now that don't even have sales people, they just give the car a price and that's what you pay.  I've checked and on average they mark it up around $300 over their cost so all in all it's  not that big of a difference, you just don't get the fun of dickerin' for the car.

.

[Odin's Hand]

The Toyota plant in Princeton, IN, where the Sienna is manufactured, is not a UAW shop.

[Duchess]

The Toyota plant in Princeton, IN, where the Sienna is manufactured, is not a UAW shop.

But I'm reading that Hussein is leaning towards supporting the Big 3 bailout.

[Eupher]

hehe your husband sounds like me.  I have all my sheets printed out before I walk in, I have already called my bank and have any financing I need in place (in case they don't have any deals), I have already checked my trade and their invoice prices, I know their hold back, factory to dealer incentives (yeah they get that money and never mention it), etc .... 

In my case it is not so much haggling as me saying "I'll take $x for mine and give you $x for yours.  Take it or leave it.  Very little room on my end.  They make money and I save money, it is a win-win.

KC

Bingo. Although, I have to say, I buy so few new cars that each time I do, it's like starting all over again. They have so many options/incentives/pitfalls that doing the homework on the front end seems to get more and more involved each time.

But in the end, all I'm after is a fair deal. I want the stealer, uh dealer, to make a few bucks and stay in business.

I just don't want him to make all of it off of ME.