http://biz.yahoo.com/cnnm/080702/070...pf=family-home

 

Very true!

7. Your the only dealer I deal with and I will come back everytime to buy my next car from you.

 

Agree there's some great advice. 1. is an impossible concept for my wife to grasp though. I know it's cost us a bit on some of our cars. I just have to go in with good information on what the car is worth. Otherwise we'd be totally screwed. We've never really been guilty of the others though, esp the monthly payment. I always have financing pre-arranged but give the dealer the opportunity to meet it or beat it. They have every time. Without the pre-arranged financing I know they'd get us for a bit more $$ on the rate.

 

The salesman have so little to do with the deal. It's the sales and F&I managers.

 

joan and i spent nearlly 3 months talking to our salesman... not about a particular hhr but going in and looking at the various ones he had on the lot... he knew that we were looking at other dealers as will... when we saw the 06 spring edition on his lot.. it didn t have side air curtains... gave him a list of the absolute options we wanted... would not deviate... took a couple of days of him searching and getting the other dealer to ship... but we got what we wanted except for a trade in deal... we had a 90 jag and 69 elcamino to trade... the dealership offered use $8,000 for both

we sold the two privately... got $4000 for the jag and nearlly $16,000 for the elcamino...

so if you take your time... and are not in a rush to buy the first car you fall in love with you can come out feeling good.

the one i don t feel to good about is my 83 ford f250 4x4 that i traded in last fall... i knew that it was in very good condition........ but couldn t find a good online trade value for it... highest i could find was about $1,950... asked $2500 and got... yea... then he turned around and sold it for $5000. glad i am not trying to trade it in todays market. i ended up with loaded 95 dodge ram 1500 for $5,999 bet i could get it for 10 bucks today... got to have a truck

 

I was also told by a former salesman that never, never, ever let them know that you want to trade in a vehicle until the last minute and if any, the financing dealing is done. This way you get the best price possible on the vehicle purchase.

 

^^^
right he didn t know we had a trade in until the price was agreed on... then we told him our down payment and that we wanted to see what they would give us for the trade in

also... my wife and i have an understanding... we ask no questions until we have a side bar... without the sales people. it s easy... if one of us has a question... we just excuse ourselve until we know what our question is going to be.

we leave their area... they don t leave us alone... i know this is just me but years ago i swore when the salesman left us in his office he was listening to us somewhere.... we where looking at an 80s chry town&country wagon (had the plastic woody trim) and chevy celebrity wagon... leaning to the chevy... joan an i preplanned this... we ashed $1800 below his "bottom... can t go any lower"... he had to ask the sales mgr... while he was away... joan and i started talking... "if he doesn t give us what we want, we ll go get the T&C" that sucker was back in a flash with the price and the other goodies we were asking for.
to this day i think they are listening and always walk out side to talk.

 

REDFLYER, It was probably not your imagination. Back in the 70's I worked at a Chevy, Olds, Pontiac dealership in Massachusetts and all the sales desks were bugged. When the salesman (no women back then) left the customers alone while he presented their offer to "his boss", he and "the boss" would listen in while the customers discussed the deal. I'm SURE this unethical practice is no longer tolerated (at least officially).

 

Dealers always ask about trade. I always tell them we will deal with that later.

I seem to have good luck with cars. The dealer usually takes of a couple grand from what they are asking without me even trying. Considering I priced out my SS on Chevy.com and I paid pretty much identical to what chevy.com said. I saw I got a good deal, no markups, nothing. Also helps that I had another dealer willing to sign me for cost. That motivates any dealer :)