Thread: How to not get screwed by a dealership
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Old 08/26/2008, 03:03 PM   #65 (permalink)
Jabber
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Quote:
Originally Posted by THE_SilverBullet View Post
Very good info!

I would like to ask a few questions if its ok.

First, my ex-boss used to sell cars in the past and I remember him mentioning to me that dealers will list the sticker price about 8-10% higher, which leaves them room for profit/haggling. So if a car was $20,000 sticker price, you could haggle $2000 (but they wouldnt accept $2000 less because then they would not have any profit), but you could haggle down to $18500 or $19000, is this accurate or correct?

Second, if I have a trade-in (such as my 2000 3G GT), wouldnt I be better off selling it privately to get more money for it? If I sell it to the dealer for trade-in, they're not going to give me full price, because they have to take the time to make any minor repairs, inspect it, then sell it for higher then they gave me for trade-in so they can still make a little profit on it. Correct?

Third, are "car buying services" a good idea? My credit union offers a car buying service for like $200 but they supposedly find the car with the options you want, the color, etc, but do not know how good a deal you can get on the price though. Any input?

Thanks alot!
Sorry, just saw this now.

Dealers are not allowed to change NEW car stickers. We can add an "addendum" sticker and charge whatever we want for whatever item. It has to be displayed right next to the Monroney Label. Used cars we can do whatever we want with. The latest trend seems to be marking up a car 2,000-2,500 regardless of price. This usually doesn't apply to internet deal. Most internets deals are marked up a max of $500. Why? Simple. I have 6 seconds to get your attention since you can search 100's of cars with the click of a mouse. The fastest way to get your attention is with price. Drop the price down to close to our bottom line and roll the dice. If I leave it marked up by 2,000 and I'm the highest one online, what are the chances of me getting a call on it? SLIM.

Selling privately will always get you more money. But is it worth having to spend money to advertise it, getting phone calls at all hours, having people wanting to joyride it with no intention of buying, etc, worth it? Some say yes, others say no. That is totally up to you. But, in general, you will get more if you sold it off the curb than by trading it in.

Car-buying services are a HUGE joke in the industry. Dealers pay for the leads through credit unions. You don't necessarily get the best deal just because you are using your credit union. Since the dealers pay the credit union to send you in, and there is nothing in writing that says I have to sell you the car for xx dollars, it works great for dealers. If you do have a credit union where they say you can buy it for $100 over invoice or something similiar, there will always be a dealer that will beat that number. So it isn't the lowest price out there.
Last edited by Jabber; 08/26/2008 at 03:10 PM.
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