At the end of the day, you still get the lowest price you can get?

Thanks.

I subscribe to Checkbook (CarBargains’ parent org) for ratings of local service providers, and it’s awesome. I don’t see any evidence that they’re an org that abuses the nonprofit label (unlike, say, some health insurance companies).

I did a BUNCH of work and ended up with $17,000 for a $21,450 2010 Jeep Patriot Sport with some options. (Package 24E to be exact.)

That’s only 79% of sticker or almost a 21% savings from MSRP.

I’d like to ask – anybody who did a ‘fax-a-thon’ or otherwise email/internet negotiated – did you get a price close to that (discount wise)?

I may be wrong – but I would be willing to say that you didn’t get a price as heavily discounted. There is a reason for this – and the main reason would be the extra legwork involved to ultimately get a price so low is beyond most peoples’ tolerances.

So a car negotiation service where you pay $200 or even $500 might not be so bad when you consider you’re probably going to get a price that $1,500 lower than even what you negotiated on your own. So net – you’d still be ahead $1,000 and you did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to get it done. (Other than research and fall in love with the car.)

Post your response – I’m very curious to get your feedback on my comments.

and, actually, my salesperson told me that with specialized internet departments at dealerships, they know there are people like me (us) who know exactly what they should be paying for to get a car. they realize there’s no way around it.

I just bought a car last weekend with the same tactics. Same thing happened to me. I also got the car I wanted with the lowest dealer.

“We have been able to stay in business for over forty years and still manage to sell new Honda cars in spite of these guys, because we have much more to offer than price. My husband (the Internet Sales Manager) has been with us for over a decade and he is empowered to do what needs to be done in order to take care of our customers. Your salesperson at this dealership can do nothing for you beyond the sale, and won’t be employed there when you need help. Thus, they only care about selling a new car now and will do or say anything to get you to come in . . . to include outright lie to you.

We sell the car at the price we quoted without gimmicks and games, and offer our customers a long term relationship rather than a one time sale. This is worth paying a bit more for.”

I didn’t want a long term relationship from a car salesman. I wanted the lowest price.

Tim

I followed this method to purchase my car. Here is the exact quote I received from the second lowest priced dealer:

“Some people will do anything to get a better deal. Some Honda dealers will say or do anything to sell a car. Either way there is no reason for us to beat or even match this bogus price quote. I can assure you that you will pay more than the quoted $18,100. This is what they do . . . all the time. As Michelle told you earlier, we have much more to offer than price. We don’t need to loose money to sell our product. If you are unable to appreciate this and price is all that matters to you, I am just not interested in your business.”

I was able to purchase the car at that price with no problems from the lowest priced dealer.

1. Decide what car you want, model, color, options. Have a second color in mind.
2. Find out invoice price online, rebates, Edmund, TrueCost.
3. Go to Cars Direct.com and email several local dealers and request to respond through email. Dealer that gives the best price, I go down to pay a visit.
4. Arrive at dealership, test drive car, sit down and negotiate price a little more, I like to buy below invoice. It’s not often I purchase a vehicle so I don’t mind doing a little work.

1. go to a dealer and see what they offer u for xyz.
2. Next use (cant recall if its edmunds, cars.com) that lets you email several dealers close by for the exact car u want.
3. Wait back and relax
4. offers pour in

I even said dealer x is offering xyz (-$100 from what they told me) + 3 oil changes (not true) and got some to match it.

1. Fax a complete description of the car you want to the 5-10 closest dealers.

2. Take your best response and write on it, “Can You Beat This??” in big letters and fax it to your top few dealerships.

3. Go to best dealership and purchase automobile.

Not sure how carbargains improves on this strategy.

I am a person who hates haggling. For whatever reason (maybe because most of it was via email), the process was not terrible. It also wasn’t particularly tedious or time-consuming. I would feel a little cheated if I paid someone $200 to do the little bit of work it actually involved. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy to pay people to do work, but I think the price point is a little bit high for what is actually involved.

A flat $200 fee doesn’t provide them with an incentive to give you the best deal possible. It only provides them with the incentive to do a “good enough” job. I would much rather they base their fee on a (small) percentage of how much they save you versus (say) MSRP.