Laughed my way out of the dealership

I used this tactic when buying mine. I received a price at invoice plus tax and title from a dealer in another area and used it when making my $500 OVER invoice offer. My dealer knows me and knows I will get on a plane to save $$$. I took an $89 flight to West Palm Beach to buy my MX5 at $2500 less than I could get locally.

The out of area dealer knows he only has ONE shot at getting business from a buyer out of area and will always give them the best price. I used those emails to buy locally. My dealer is happy I offered more and did not ask for a price match. I was fair with them. I do all my service there as well. I pay them for oil changes. All of this establishes some good will and helps when buying later on.
I used the same tactic when leasing my wife's CRV. Showed the dealer a $2500 discount from a dealer up north. They met the price and my lease for a CRV EXL w NAV was the same price they were advertising CRV LX leases for. After a year we are in an equity position. Saving money at the beginning pays dividends later on.

When I had my Vette , guys were paying GM Supplier prices for the new 14s A handful of high volume Vette dealers were selling them for $8000 off MSRP....They drove the cars for a year and sold them for nearly what they paid to buyers who did not know of GMSP and who don't think to buy a car 600 miles away.

 

That's all the dealer wants. If they know for sure you'll walk. Yet know your offering a fair deal to them and you'll be in and out in a couple hours. It's a easy deal and a win win for all.

 

Love buying them, because if I sense I am at a crappy one, then I straight out crush their hopes and dreams. All my buddies and their families take me with them to dealerships. So surprised at my last dealership experience. Bought my wife a Subaru Forester. Dealership was straight out honest and easy to deal with, and we got it for $400 under invoice. Only thing more were tags/title/etc. Hell, even the doc fees were cheap! I feel dirty saying it, but it was actually fun! Anyone looking for a Subaru in the DMV area.... Check out Stohlman Subaru in Tyson's Corner, ask for Carol (it's a guy, not a girl).

 

Oh. I don't mind going with other people when they buy there's. I just don't like spending my money.

 

The best experience I ever had buying a car was when my wife and I got our 14 Subaru Outback. When it came time to negotiate, the first thing the sales guy did was show me a copy of the invoice for the car, and then followed that with offering $400 less than invoice, then following THAT with saying he'll take advantage of a $1000 factory incentive expiring at the end of the month for his profit. I was like, okay, sounds good . There was no haggling, and I was super happy with the price being a couple thousand under MSRP.

 

So my local Toyota dealer calls me @ 3:40 today and says they can give me $24,650 for my truck....Hmm I wonder what changed their mind? So my response was sorry but no thanks I am talking to another dealer at the moment.

 

If I could have you re-wind and try that conversation with the dealer differently, suggest saying something like this.

"I am headed over to speak with another dealer about a different Tacoma. However, if you were willing to sell me the truck for $X and give me $X for my trade, then I will call that dealer back to say that I am not coming. So, let me know in the next 30 min because that is when I am leaving to potentially buy that other truck"

At least this way, you are not completely shutting the door on this dealer and you are truly putting the ball back in their court.

 

I use a broker. My credit union has that service for a few hundred dollars. So, I never deal with dealership sales at all.

Costco and others offer this service or similar as well. And some dealerships even offer a "no haggle" guarantee, usually for online sales.

I've got better things to do in my life then waste it playing games for hours and hours with sales. Seriously, I don't know why anyone puts themselves through that.

And screw the test drive with a sales representative tagging along. If I can't take the vehicle for the afternoon and drive around in it for a few hours, take it home and park it in my driveway, garage, have the family clamor in and out of it... that's important to me.

Reading this thread I was quite surprised to learn so many of you still drop in and get abused by the sales team.

 

Maybe they have a buyer for your truck.

When I traded my F150 KR, it was sold before I left with the new Tacoma.

 

One-price shopping for vehicles doesn't work. Saturn tried it for years and finally gave up. Customers ignore "1-price" setups. You show them the "best price" they can buy the vehicle for and they just say...."um, ok...I'll give you....blah, blah". Besides, whenever a trade-in is involved...the "1-price" goes out the window. Just too many variables when it comes to setting the values on trade-ins....condition, mileage, damage history, service history, # of owners, title history, supply and demand, etc. There will be differences in what different dealers appraise the same car for.

I just want to add.....there's nothing "wrong" with a dealership and/or sale people making money. That's why we all go to work. Imagine if you showed up to your job everyday and had 12 people waiting to tell you that you have no right to make a living today.

 

Agree with that. The overall profit made (dealer, salesman, and Toyota themselves) seems to be high. I wonder what the true vehicle cost is. Guessing about half or less than MSRP. Regardless, all of the pricing is determined by supply/demand.

 

No, no....not that high. Margins for new vehicles....both from the manufacturer and down the line to the dealer are never as high as people think. Money on mass-produces vehicles is made by sheer volume and the financial wing of the company....like Toyota Financial Services, Ford Motor Credit.

 

Actually no. The actual cost of vehicles is a few thousand less than invoice. Dealers don't buy the cars they inventory and move. Dealers make money on that difference as well as finance and extras or add ons. They also make bonuses from the manufacturer when they hit there targets or "quota" for the month or quarter. That's were big money can be made by high volume dealers. Salesman make about 100-150 per car once you get down to 500 of invoice so most car salesmen sell between 12-20 cars a month. So if they gave every car away well. That's not much of a living.

 

I agree.
Most industries, there is more money in the banking side then the product side.

 

Welcome to the club! You are 1 of 4 people on this website who knows that dealers do not purchase their Tacomas at the invoice price that is listed on the sheet. Why does no one know this?

 

Abused? I sold cars before. I would never have a problem letting a customer take a car for several hours if he/she was serious about buying. Also, you are wasting your money. Why would you spend hundreds of dollars having some company "negotiate" for you when you can make it so simple by just telling them the price you want (which is all that company is going to do anyways.)

 

No, I think most people on this website are well aware of factory incentives and quota bonuses.

 

Margins on Toyotas in 1996 were 15% Today they are 6% or so.....They did not lose the other 7%. The guys who got hurt were frontline sales. Their gross is cut and more is made on the backend. Which is why dealers screamed and threatened TrueCar for their actual dealer cost model. They don't give you actual dealer cost anymore. Only Invoice. We know there is plenty behind Invoice. TrueCar started a "race to the bottom" in profits for Dealerships.

But Personally I don't try to buy a popular model at invoice. I will offer $500 above. and did. I actually LIKE my Internet sales guy. He is the most un-carsalesman I ever met. ( I tipped him $100 after the sale, (he put it toward a Breast cancer drive the dealership is matching) Good guy......

TrueCar is not what it was. Its just a lead service for dealers who pay them $299 a pop. TrueCar USED to be a huge benefit to the buyer....Not anymore. MAny here claimed dealer would not accept TrueCar pricing or put it towards a vehicle with $1000 pack on it.."accesories" like $89 Nitrogen...$200 Vinyl pinstriping,

http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/hub/chi-inc-truecar-auto-dealers-bsi-hub-story.html

 

Dang, Truecar gets 299 for each car they help sell? Wow, that's a lot of money!

 

Comes right out of the vehicles profit......That could be in the buyer's pocket without using TrueCar and just making an offer comfortable at invoice or above . My dealer quit their deal with TrueCar. Who needs them when buyers today are calling out of area dealers for best pricing and getting it?