Negotiating Tactics In Person

NEVER trade in unless is a junk like my wife's '14 Ford Focus.
Have money to buy cash (3 cars bough like that)
Borrow money from a bank at the lowest rate to cover the cost of the truck. Pay cash.

 

Unless you live in a state that your trade offsets the sales tax, which can add up.

 

IMO you make the deal BEFORE you order hence being able to walk away. You ordered. You waited. It's here. Are you going to wait again or start over at another dealer and wait months again? They can safely assume you won’t and therefore no power to negotiate.

A dealer / salesperson who is making a deal needs to figure out what it takes to put ink to paper. If you walk in already committed to buying their product they have no incentive to throw money away by discounting your deal. When you order the truck without a contract you have shown your cards. They know you want this truck. You have committed the time to wait. You gave them your cards to look at before you put your poker face on. What do you expect to happen in your negotiation?

 

I got a price from another dealer (lowest in CA) and got them to price match. Then got them to give me a few add ins for employee pricing.

 

This. I used the contact form on every dealer in a 200 mile radius and told them that I was contacting all dealers to get a quote. Told them what I wanted and said to make their best offer first. Some didn't respond. Some wanted to only talk or make me come in. Only two came back with pricing and it was pretty good ($3500 off msrp).

 

Just remember that whether you're buying or leasing, you're negotiating the price of the truck. NOT your monthly payment. If the salesman draws 4 boxes on a piece of paper, just tell him you're leaving.

Don't get sucked into a conversation about how you'll pay until after you've settled on a price. And know what you're willing to spend. Do your research on Bluebook/Edmunds/truCar/whatever.

If you've got so-so credit, you might want to get pre-approved from a bank beforehand. I've always had pretty good credit, so dealer financing has always been better than what banks offered, but it's good to have a backup.

-Craig

 

Worst way to get the "best deal" is to walk into a dealership. Find the dealers which have the vehicle you want in stock, and call the internet sales manager or fleet manager. Follow up with them in email and tell them what you want. List the invoice price for base truck and options. Have them send you a price.

If you don't want to haggle and think you'll be happy with an "at invoice" deal, you can walk in, tell them you're going to pay invoice and not a penny above. If they say no, move onto the next dealer. But dealing on phone and via email with the internet sales or fleet managers seems to be the best way to go.

Watch for add ons like window etching, undercoating, and other port installed options.

 

Don’t be afraid to walk out. I’ve said many times thanks for trying if you can’t do it we can still end on good terms. No different than negotiating on any other vehicle

 

Here are a few tips that worked for me. I've successfully leased a 2016 BMW M3 for $1k over invoice and just leased my wife's 2018 Toyota Landcruiser for less than invoice by using the following tactics. (Note that leasing or purchasing doesn't matter; the negotiation tactics are the same)

1) Configure and determine the fair market sales price via truecar.com. This will show you what the low-ave-high prices that the vehicle is selling in your area. Your task is to be somewhere in between the lowest to the average price paid for this car. The lower the better, but may take tremendous effort, especially since Toyotas are high-volume and sometimes lower margins for dealerships.
2) Request quotes from truecar. This will request at least 3 competing bids from local dealerships.
3) If you have Costco or USAA, do the same exercise as #2 and request quotes from participating dealers.
4) Have cash on hand OR have good credit
5) Use the actual quotes as your baseline for what you want. Here's the important part, have each dealership work to find the vehicle you want with the price you're willing to pay.
6) Here's the tricky part - many will offer another model with more options to confuse you. If they do, run another truecar build and make sure you get invoice prices for the different configuration.
7) Run all these numbers through leasomatic if you're leasing, or through a loan calculator based on the variables provided (MSRP, downpayment, interest rate, etc) to determine your estimated monthly payment.
8) Let them present their best offer. For now, focus their efforts on coming as close to the price you want to pay. They may confuse you with lower monthly payments to confuse you, but be careful because they pad their numbers. They usually do this with a higher down payment, longer term (72 or 84 month terms), and higher interest rates.
9) the most important step is to be confident in your price willing to pay. Don't let emotions get in the way. Be prepared to walk away and let another dealer work for their business. I've done this many times and you'd be surprise at how many come running at you with a better offer despite them already presenting their best and final!
10) Last tip is to negotiate this towards the end of the month and come in on the last day to finalize your purchase. They usually need to make a team quota and may often sacrifice profit just to meet their volume quota for the month.

The moral of the story is to do your homework! Finally, know that the best dealerships value you over your lifetime as a customer versus the profit on this one purchase. Sadly many people make it too easy for dealerships to take advantage of them. Good luck with your negotiations!

 

If the dealer closes at 8pm, get there around 7:45 on the last two days of the month. Tell him if he beats around the bush and makes you wait or doesn't deliver, you'll kill the deal and you'll both be screwed!

 

gotta make them afraid of you, when ya test drive it ask if you can test the air bags. then on the highway ask if you can test the collision detection. and then ask what happens if you press the start button while driving on the highway, ya gotta reach for the button while asking tho. but make sure you have someone who has a true car value thing before contacting the dealership, that helps a little bit. But being crazy helps more i got a 2018 offroad for 33k then after taxes and licenses it was 36000. painful to pay but a good truck

 

I used consumer reports auto program and got 4K off msrp walked out at 34.2k before ttl. I emailed 4 different dealers and then walk out at least once. They will call you back in a couple hours if you guys are close.

 

I guess I was lucky. Just got a 2018 Off road 6MT with tech package for $700 under invoice. They even set the lease up through US Bank because the rates and residuals were better with them than Toyota. Didn’t take much work to get that deal.

 

What worked for me:

1) Figure out what I want to pay to the penny. I did this by checking this thread https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-tacoma-model-package-option-costs-master-list.388345/ and learning about hold-back, TDA, etc.
2) Find dealership via email that was interested/willing to get the exact truck I wanted.
3) Make offer over email including $500 deposit - most won't cash/charge this anyway. If they reject or counter offer just say thanks for your time and continue the search at different dealerships. 9/10 they will come back again. Never give in though. It's take it or leave it. As long as your price leaves some amount of money in the transaction for them even if it's only a couple hundred someone will eventually do it. High volume dealerships are more likely to accept.

I went through a handful of dealerships before I found one that accepted. That's not including the many many dealerships that won't discuss anything over email. They always want you to call or come in. I don't do business with those dealerships. Waste of time. Everything was sorted over email and the first time I stepped into the dealership I was writing a check for the agreed upon price and driving the Taco home in less than an hour.

 

My last few vehicles have pretty much been negotiated over the phone/internet. Do the research, decide on a fair price that you’re willing to pay, and reach out to several dealers.

 

At least FORD is consistent.....junk after junk..My fiance has a 2012 Focus.It's not worth anything. Next time the transmission fails that spot will be it's final resting place!

 

There are 4 dealers on 101 all within 35 miles from one another. It’s amazing how different the all are. The one we decided on gave me the lowest price by $3000 over the phone on the initial call before I even mentioned another dealer. Got a GREAT deal on a lease. Not much in the way of any other negotiation and I’m cool with that. They treated my wife and I with respect and we like how they do business. They also sold 4 TRD OR 4X4s (including mine) by noon and they opened at 10! They don’t have to negotiate.

My point is, call around for the best price and find the least douchie sales person.

 

Just call the fleet manager...my 4th vehicle bought this way. They just pull out the invoice and that is what you pay...no haggling. Did all the finance paperwork in the office as well. Driving home in 45 minutes. No hassle.

 

100k tractor..... truck you bought was probably 25k.... and you don’t understand why the customer service differs?

 

Call the dealer and see if they have a Costco program or fleet guy. Those are who you want to deal with, they'll give you the no bull shit deal typically 400 over invoice.