When Buying A Car, How Should I Negotiatge With The Dealer? Are There Any Tricks Or Secret Rules I Should Know?
Negotiating with the Dealer
You have picked out a vehicle at your local used car dealer. You have driven it and even brought it to a mechanic that you know and trust.
You ran the CarFax and it showed nothing bad. You are excited, you WANT this car, you cannot wait to show up at work with your new car. You are driving back to the dealership and you are ready to pull the trigger.
STOP !!!!!!
You are making one of the biggest mistakes a car buyer can make. You are ready to go into that dealership and make a decision based on your emotions. You are a salesman's dream.
Oh yeah they are even going to encourage you "You look great in that car" or "This is the perfect vehicle for you.
Do not fall for the phony excitement of a salesman. I am not saying he is not excited, he is, but for himself not for you. The salesman knows that once he creates the desire in you to own a particular vehicle he also knows your going to pay.
Rule 1: Do not show emotion be like the poker player, the less emotion you show. The more it seems that you could leave without purchasing the better a deal you will get.
Rule 2: You must have the strength to walk away. If you appear antsy to get out of the store you will get to the best price faster.
The salesman will try to get you as comfortable as possible. You will be offered coffee and popcorn or whatever other distraction the dealer has thought of providing. You will see shiny cars and colorful balloons oh the excitement. NOT!!! This is all part of the dealers game, when you see a flamboyant showroom think to yourself "This dealers previous customers paid for all these leather chairs, chandeliers, and mahogany furniture" because they did.
Does the salesman wear a two thousand dollar watch? Guess who paid for it. Is the manager wearing $500.00 Italian loafers and a one thousand dollar suit? that's right you're starting to get it.
If you need to be comfortable go home and get some rest if you are trying to buy a car be alert be prepared and most important be fearless. If you think someone at the dealership is not being straight forward with you call him on it and threaten to leave.
Do not be controlled during the negotiation process. Make the salesman look for you, and find you looking at other vehicles, every time the salesman gets up from the desk you should get up too. Go outside and look at other cars, any car but the one you want to buy.
When you start to finally get down to crunching numbers do not negotiate payment.
RULE 3: Never negotiate the payment or any aspect of financing until a price has been agreed upon.
If the salesman does not want to negotiate the price tell him you are paying cash with no trade (whether you have a trade or not).
RULE 4: Do not bring the trade into the deal until a price has been agreed upon.
If they are asking $20,000 for the car the salesman is going to try to get a commitment from you. They will want you to make an offer. Then they will ask for a partial down payment to present to the manager as a sign of your good faith.
The thing to do in this situation is to resort to the extreme "if you sell me this car for $10,000 I will go to the bank and get your money today."This is going to make the salesman scratch his head and eventually he is going to need to get up to discuss his "grinder " customer.
When a salesman stumbles over what to do he has the ability to call a time out. This would mean he will need to speak to the manager real quick about something. You as the customer can also call Time Out every time the salesman needs to speak to his manager you get up and go outside and look like your picking out another vehicle. When the salesman finds you outside ask to test drive another car as if your mind is not already made up.
Eventually another sales representative is going to come out of the office with your salesman. This person in the car business is known as a TO (turn over) he will be a closer and his job is to commit you to the vehicle. Hopefully you have done your research and you have a pretty good idea what would be a fair price on this vehicle you so recently fell in love with.
If you really want the vehicle make an offer for far less then you would actually be willing to pay. The dealer will always try to split the difference. This means if you offer $15000 on a $20,000 car the dealer is going to try to commit you to $17,500 that is splitting the difference.
After spending time getting your best price it would be time to present the trade if you have one. This is an extensive subject on its own so I will have to discuss it in my next hub.
Thanks for reading my hubs check out part 1 and 2 if you have not already and as always questions or comments are welcome.
