TLDR: Vehicle I want is only available/configured, RWD/V8 pickup, at a few select dealerships in under 500 miles from home base. How do I get best price without having to resort to an awful dealer trade scenario?
Yes, it's new. Used is even worse case.
No different than buying at a dealer in person. I've bought a lot of cars that way, and in fact am shopping for a cheap convertible for myself. I'm looking all over the east coast, not just in my local area. It can give you more leverage to say that you're shopping all over the country/east coast/whatever. Tell the dealer that another dealership in Walla Walla has vehicle X for $1500 less than theirs. I even show them the example...I'll e-mail them the link to the other car(s) I'm looking at and ask them if they can make me a better offer. Either they will or they won't.
If you're shopping for a new car, it's even easier because the dealers can't argue about condition of the car, maintenance history, etc... It's simply price vs price.
Yeah, it's no different. You tell them you're willing to travel for the right vehicle at the right price, act serious, and be ready to make a deposit. Some dealers love internet sales because all the dicking around is over quickly. Some hate internet sales because they don't think they can strongarm you if you're not in the showroom. You'll get answers from the first kind, not from the second (or if they do answer, they'll be easy to spot).
Make sure the dealer quotes everything. Had a few customers that beat my deal, except I included freight, prep etc. and the other guy didn't figuring he could strong arm you once he got you onto his property.
Tell the salesman you need the out-the-door price, because you're going to show up with a cashier's check for that exact amount.
I bought my wife a new XC70 a few months back. I looked at cars in Raleigh, Fort Worth, Dallas, Tampa in person to figure out what colors and options we wanted then relied on the internet from there to find the car we wanted. Bought it from Myrtle Beach via the internet. That is a little less than an hour from home, but would've traveled to where the car we wanted was located instead of monkeying around with a dealer to dealer trade scenario.
car39 wrote: Make sure the dealer quotes everything. Had a few customers that beat my deal, except I included freight, prep etc. and the other guy didn't figuring he could strong arm you once he got you onto his property.
Man, I had this happen on a special order truck in 2002. Most dealers wouldn't even touch a special order so I was PISSED, the manager was a dick but it ended up being ok. I loved that truck...
You can do this via phone or email. When I did this a number of years ago, I did it by phone because it seemed more legit at the time. When I worked at a dealership in WI a few years later, we sold a car directly to a buyer in CA via email, without them ever stepping foot in our showroom.
If you do your negotiations by phone though, make sure you get the offer emailed to you by the sales manager before making your trip, and/or before they get sellers remorse...Luckily when I learned this the hard way, it was actually a local dealership. So it was minimal time wasted.
As already noted, I would also only negotiate an 'out the door' price and let them figure out how they need to work the rest of the numbers to get there.
Driven5 wrote: You can do this via phone or email. When I did this a number of years ago, I did it by phone because it seemed more legit at the time. When I worked at a dealership in WI a few years later, we sold a car directly to a buyer in CA via email, without them ever stepping foot in our showroom.
I had a coworker who did it by fax. This had a couple advantages -- it meant the dealers couldn't call and harass him, and it meant that everything they quoted was automatically a written offer. This was in the late 90s, before car dealers had really embraced email.
When I contact dealers via internet they quickly go to "how soon can you stop in"? game so once I jumped ahead and asked them how soon can they run the car over to my work office?
I just did it this week. New Honda Accord. I had a competing dealer ad for a lease that is way below the current national promotion, so I reached out to the nearest dealer. I said if you will beat this competitor's deal, I will be there with a deposit. He said (via text) "send me the ad". So I did. And I said I don't want to waste time if you can't beat the deal. He said come in. So I did.
Initially, they offered a worse deal, and I said "I will write a deposit check right now" if you make the deal I referenced. So they did. And I picked it up tonight.
I'm beginning to think that money talks.
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