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Originally Posted by jferrell
Hey I'm fairly new but I figured I'd throw a rock in the pond on the issue. I'm a Client Advisor here in NC and I think it's a tough balance to find a fair deal for both sides. I have never heard of "Galves" here on the east cost but I do know we typically use Manheim for used car pricing as it gives us the last 30 days of wholesale pricing. I typically use Edmunds TMV(usually lowest), KBB(usually crazy high) and NADA(what the banks like) and that helps me to be fair. One thing I would be cautious of is trying to determine how much profit you'll "allow" a dealer to have. The thought process that they can be "stubborn" is more like they are watching their return on investment. As a CA I typically ask the question "If I asked you to invest XXXX amount of dollars, how much would you want guaranteed in return". Most customers are pretty reasonable at that point, you would probally not take 500 or 1000 dollar return on a 30 day investment of 25,000 which you may or may not turn in 30 days either. Stable value mutual funds average 5 or 6%, car business is risky business. Remember your CA usually has three interest if he's good, helping you get a car that in your budget and right for you, helping himself(he may make 20% or 25% of the profit if he's lucky) and helping the dealership(not giving away cars for no reason). There are two types of people regarding discount the type that has a budget and if he requires a substantial discount(thousands and thousands) then as a CA you've done wrong to put him on the car he's on, or the type that wants to win that wants to walk away feeling he's won and you walk away asking why you even bothered. I sometimes laugh at the thought of walking into random places and asking questions like "Whats your best price" or "What's the lowest you'll take". I want to see a hiring manager ask someone that one day and see their reaction, not really that'd be rude.
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I don't mean to resurrect an old thread, but I appreciate the insight. I am the guy who want's to win. I do not want to overpay for a car. I want the dealership to keep his lights on, but I don't want him paving the parking lot in gold because I was a poor negotiator. I feel like the dealers around me are used to wealthy old people who would rather pay MSRP than get a decent deal. Maybe they can afford it and don't care, but in order for the dealer to sell a car to me, he has to earn it.
I also feel that dealers in general are liars. They tend to start out with an asking price that is above market value and then you have to fight just to get to market value. Then they low ball you on your trade and you have to fight to get to market value. I also think they lie about "how much they have in the car".
I get it, sometimes a deal gets to the point where it is no longer worth it to sell the car and so the dealer says no, at the same time there are plenty of other cars on other dealers lots depreciating away, so the same goes for the buyer and so you walk away. In this transaction, however, I feel that the buyer should have more power than the dealer tends to allow. The reason being is that most of us buy a car once every 3-5 years while they sell 20 cars a week.
So, how do you recommend we get the best deal, without asking "what is your best price?" My thought is that we do our homework, find out the actual market values of the car you want and your trade, get financing before you walk in and say, "Here is my trade, here is $30,000, I want this car." Don't haggle, stick to your guns and walk away if they say no. That way you know if they really do have too much in the car, or your trade really isn't worth that much, or they are just more interested in waiting for a moron who will over pay.
What do you think?