SW17LS

Just watched this video on YouTube, this is great. Car dealers are so full of crap. I actually laughed out loud when the manager negotiated against himself when he asked him for another counter before the buyer had even said no lol


If you’re ever negotiating with a salesman, when they won’t stop talking you’re in control.

Fizzboy7

Enjoyed the video. It's interesting, after decades of negotiating off of invoice, it's now all centered around MSRP. Hopefully as the year continues, things settle down and we slowly get back to how things were before covid.

SW17LS

How about that?

Having bought two cars in the last 6 months or so the look on salespeople’s face when you expect a discount off of MSRP is fascinating. They try their best to gaslight you that isn’t a thing. With the Pacifica I remember telling the guy, there are 160 of these within a 40 mile radius. Somebody is going to sell me one of these for what I want to pay for it. Somebody did but it was the hardest car negotiation of my life.

The S580 was similar, trying to tell me $3k off MSRP on a $140k S Class from last year that had been on the lot for over 12 months was somehow a deal. That was also very difficult but at least I wasn’t at the dealer for 6 hours like I was the Pacifica. Telling them what all the rebates were I was owed that they were trying to pocket was also hilarious. $10,000 in rebates and you’re offering me $3k off?!

Toys4RJill

Supply and demand. Cheaper cars will be harder to negotiate. And certain brands will obviously have the highest demands, especially those brands that sell a lot of hybrids. I see $20,000 credits on Mercedes where I am and GM trucks get $10K and even more for RAM. I was thinking of buying a 24 Legacy a few months ago and was told no discounts period. See ya”

Trackruner

This video just backups what I always tell my friends, if you don't like the deal, walk.

At the end of the day you have the power, not them. I have watched it happened so many times, when you threaten to walk, all of the sudden the price can magically come down. And if you do walk, you can always come back later, the deal will still be there. Never agree to a deal you don't like.

SW17LS

The point isn't the car, its the ridiculous games and scripts the salesperson and the manager try and use to convince him each deal is the most incredible deal, then they continue to negotiate against themselves because they are totally full of it. The dealership in this example provided the customer no service or benefit. He would have been much better served by just buying the car from the manufacturer for MSRP a'la Tesla.

Toys4RJill

Most buyers won’t do this as they are caught up on wanting a specific model or brand of car. Fuel efficiency and hybrid will likely have the highest demand. And buyer wants these models so the dealers won’t be willing to move

SW17LS

The problem is people only have a certain amount of time and energy to devote to a car purchase. For the S580 I negotiated with multiple dealers for 5 months. For the Pacifica it was about 2 weeks but the dealer that got me in tried to bait and switch me which resulted in a 6 hour in dealer battle involving the dealer's GM. Most people would have just gotten totally screwed after driving an hour and then finding out the deal is $200 a month more than what was agreed to over text....in writing!

Car dealers take advantage of people. In the case of this video, the buyer wasn't trying to negotiate a deal off of MSRP, he was trying to avoid having to pay 10% over MSRP. He had to do all that work and go through all of that hassle and pain just to be able to pay what the car costs from the manufacturer. At least in my case the deals I was negotiating were significantly off MSRP. Hard to justify from this guy's perspective how the dealership model benefits him.

Even for me, I negotiated $20k+ off my S580 and $13k off my Pacifica but if you look at Tesla, their pricing is dynamic. If I bought a Plaid today I would be paying $40,000 less than what one cost 2 years ago so the net is the same and its just a much less painful process.

Striker223

This. Most people don't start looking for a car until they NEED a car and they often even then procrastinate till the last week and scramble to buy something.

Dealers know this and try and screw people who may even know better but trapped themselves. I have two acquaintances that just did this song and dance since they went over lease limits etc.....

Its always best to buy when you don't have pressure forcing it, that one reason I always like having one extra car so if something happens it's never an actual issue.

link13

I have had relatively painless negotiations but the IS350 had been on the lot for a while. Apparently people didn’t want the IS without the trunk spoiler, but I specifically wanted one without the spoiler. It had been on the lot for six months so the dealer was motivated.

The Civic was on the lot for about 4 months and it a ‘19 and was still on the lot in December of 2019 when the ‘20s were out. I went directly to the internet sales manager and did everything by email. $4k off MSRP and then I told him I wanted to lease it with zero down. I did have to pay tax and title. There were not tricks.

SW17LS

That’s hilarious because the spoiler is so easily added lol

Im waiting on mine to be delivered now

mmarshall

I watched the whole video, and had several thoughts.............and I think I know that dealership in Virginia, even though they did not show the name. It is just a few miles from my house.

This dealership is partially full of crap and partially not. I don't believe for a second what the salesman said about the Corolla Hybrid being their top seller......by their own admission, they can't even get an adequate number of them in stock to meet demand. At most Toyota shops, the RAV-4 is far and away the top seller....and national sales figures usually show it trailing only the Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado. And, if anything, the Corolla Cross is just as hard or even harder to find in dealer-stock than the Corolla Hybrids. I waited for months just to get a chance to test-drive one, much less buy one. The dealerships should probably be ordering more of them......but, maybe, they are in fact doing so, and just not getting the order-requests.

The dealership does have a point, though, about high demand and low supply for Corolla Hybrids making it difficult to bargain on....but on the other hand, they may (?) have been offered an incentive by the factory to sell X number of vehicles by the end of the month, regardless of dealer profit on each one. So, the factory itself may be making up for what the buyer would normally be paying the dealer in the Additional Market Value. That, of course, could be one reason why the manager was willing to take off so many of the added charges.

Even at $27,400, that IMO was a good offer.....I probably would have taken it at that price, even though he lucked out even more and it eventually came down to very close to the $26,500 he originally wanted.

The fact that the buyer had a '99 Avalon with 300K miles on it shows you how well-built Toyotas were back then...although possible, he's not likely to get 300K out of one of today's Toyota products, with the possible exception of the 4Runner and the now-discontinued Land Cruiser.

And, once again, this shows why I always liked the no-dicker/no-markup/no-discount policy that Saturn, Scion, and (for a few years) Oldsmobile used. MSRP MEANT MSRP...with tax and tags. Dealerships were not allowed to adjust it with anything except factory-approved accessories. Some will argue that those companies went out of business, which is true, but it was not because of that no-dicker policy...it was because of the product itself, and the way the division was managed.

mmarshall

If you are a repeat customer, some dealerships like that, and are more willing to knock off some of the extra B.S. charges. When I went shopping with my brother last year for his new 2024 Kia Seltos SX, they had only one or two available, at several thousand over list with the Added Market Value. The salesman and manager remembered us from the last purchase several years ago...my brother had gotten three new Kias before from that shop over the years. I looked the salesman right in the face, and didn't pull any punches. I said..."Look, before we start any other dealing, my brother and I have helped keep this place in buisness. Demand or no demand, I will consider ANY mark-up over list to be an insult to us". He looked at me with a more or less sympathetic gaze, said he'd take it to the manager, and see what they could do. A hour or two later, my brother took it home....either at the dead-on-MSRP or very close to it. I don't remember the exact figure, but it was around 33K....I'd have to check the bill of sale.

SW17LS

Its not, dealer is in Hampton Roads, VA.

Then just sell the cars at MSRP. The manager is willing to back off all the fees because they realized they're not going to be able to screw this guy and they want to sell him a car.

It wasn't a good offer, and he didn't "luck out" he paid MSRP, which is what he should have been able to just walk in and pay.

I am a very experienced carbuyer. I have never seen any benefit to being a repeat customer...none. In fact when I got the S580 I got it from the same dealer, but literally everybody I dealt with in 2020 is gone. Salesman, sales manager, finance managers, service manager, service adjuster. The salesman tried that line with me "you're buying a relationship with me" and I reminded him of that, what are the odds hes even there 2 years from now? Nobody else has been.

Of course the dealer gave you the deal you wanted, you thought the guy in the video paying over MSRP would have been a good deal, and you think paying MSRP is a good deal. Its not...MSRP is what it costs lol. They did you the courtesy of not gouging you up the pooper by making you pay MORE than full MSRP. What great people.

Trackruner

In my area the repeat customer thing went away during Covid. All the dealers near me started marking up their cars and it didn't matter how many you bought from them. Some of them didn't do "market adjustments" but instead did $3,000 for the air in the damn tires.

So to me if they aren't willing to treat repeat customers well (as OP also pointed out) what is even the point of dealerships? Just do what Tesla did and eliminate them. My aunt wanted to surprise my uncle at his retirement party with a Model S and she ordered one in maybe 15 minutes online. It was super easy. When it came in she hid it in my garage until the party.

I would love to see legacy car manufactures go the online route. Dealerships are worthless middlemen.