[bplewis24]

I'm not a professional or educated negotiator, but I've had good experience with the following 2 simple rules:

1) Know what you're willing to pay before you arrive.

These aren't the good 'ole days where you didn't know much until you arrived at the retail/sales location. Today, you can get virtually all information about an item AND the market demand before you show up, on the internet. Do comparisons with similar feature/packaged cars around the country to see what seems like a reasonable price, and if you still want to go lower than that, so be it. But know your top dollar amount before you walk in, and find a reasonable-but-not-disrespectful amount below that to offer as your starting point.

2) Be prepared to walk away.

That's it...that's the most important rule for me. If you're not prepared to walk away, you're going to lose the negotiation unless you get lucky. Don't haggle...don't complain, and don't try and outsale the salesman (i.e., talking about your Mom's bad hip that you just had to pay to have replaced, etc)...if they aren't willing to come down to your price, say thanks with a smile, handshake, and walk away. The less emotional and disingenuous you are about it, the more likely they are to view you as a calculating person of action...who is likely going to purchase if the right price is offered. If they stop you or contact you afterwards, they're willing to talk, if they don't, they were never willing to come down to that price to begin with.

I recently purchased my 2011 BMW 335i coupe for $35k. I got the lady to come down $2.7k off list price. As soon as I mentioned I liked the car but I needed them to come down on price, she basically said there was no way they could come down more than $300. "There's just not thousands of dollars off list prices like there were before the downturn."

I said okay with a smile, I understood, and I didn't want to waste her time. She gave me a few excuses and sorta pouty looks. I said I understand, and that if they can't come down, then they can't...and that it just wasn't meant to be. Eventually she said that $35.3k was the lowest she could go (off a list price of $37.8k). My top dollar price going in was $35k, so I budged on the last $300. She said she'd have to get approval on that price and that it wasn't guaranteed. I said if she could get approval on that price, I'd walk away with the car today. That was that, and I own the car.

One last thing for you to consider: you stated that it's a manual transmission, which is rare these days. Some of your leverage is lost in negotiations because of that. Simple supply/demand factors there. How much is hard to quantify, though.