This plan may not work...

[thistlechaser]

I want to buy a new car. I know the one I want. I have the money for it. I want to interact with sales people as little as possible. I very much don't want to have to try to haggle.

I had a plan.

I sent the same email to all the Toyota dealerships in this area, telling them I was sending it to them all, telling them exactly what I wanted, telling them I'd buy from the person who replied back with the best price.

They all sent me the same exact price listed on their website. One guy added "I am wondering if my quote was the low number you received. If not, please let me know what adjustments in my pricing need to be made to make the deal work for you.".

Sigh. That wasn't the point of this. I asked for your lowest price.

I looked into car brokers (who will do the haggling for you), but they seem expensive.

I suppose I can reply back to the dealer I want to go with (who is also the one with the lowest price and is closest to me) and say "some other dealer gave me [some price lower than his offer], if you can match that, you have a deal".

Someone else on my friends list did this (the emailing them all idea) and said it worked, so I wonder why it didn't for me.

Any other ideas on how to go about getting a new car without needing to beat a salesman at haggling? :/

Comments

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Do your research somewhere like Kelley Blue Book. Make them a fair offer below MSRP that you're willing to pay, and tell them that's the price you'll pay and you don't want to haggle. If they try to haggle, walk away, or threaten to at least. And if they keep trying to haggle you after the first warning, really do it.

You didn't mention if you were going to be financing or paying lump sum (I could believe you if you said the latter). If you're financing, either get a loan lined up from your bank or credit union before you further engage the salesmen, or indicate whether you'll be going through them. If you're paying lump sum, let them know you're doing that at the time of the offer.

The biggest tool a consumer has against haggling is knowing exactly how much you're willing to pay and being willing to walk away from the table. If you're polite but firm with them and as long as you've made a reasonable offer, they'll deal with you.

It's been a while since I bought a car, but I knew walking into the dealer exactly what I wanted. They tried to convince me to buy a car onhand that I didn't want, and I told them no. I eventually got exactly what I wanted. The first time I bought a car, I think I used Edmunds and Autotrader.com, knew exactly how much I was willing to spend, and wound up buying the car somewhere else for exactly that price, no haggling.

Just googled a bit, and also found this blog post from Forbes about 11 common car buying mistakes, compiled from a few car buying websites I've used in the past. Haven't looked over the tips yet, but they might be helpful.

(ETA): Oh, other thing--wait for a holiday sale, if you can, especially towards the end of the year (Labor Day is a good time). Dealers will be wanting to clear this year's inventory to get ready for the new models, and better deals may be had.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Yes, lump sum, so at least I don't have to deal with financing. It'll be a big blow to my account, but in the long run I think it's the better idea.

One dealer is throwing off my numbers when I checked into Edmunds and another site.

2013 Toyota Prius Hybrid Two

Dealership website's listed price: $22,838

TrueCar.com says:
MSRP $24,995
Factory Invoice $23,967 (So the dealer is selling it for less than they pay for it..?)
Average Paid $24,137

Edmunds.com is going to send me more information from the dealers by email, looks like. For now they say:

MSRP from $24,200

So is it possible the sticker price of $22,838 is actually already good enough that I shouldn't haggle..? Other dealerships list prices of $24,000-ish, which isn't much higher than the factory cost, if that number is correct...

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

They respond well if you just go in person and say 'here is my money, that is what I want, give it to me please. I did that once. It was like buying socks. Took about 10 minutes.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I think that's going to be plan B. "This is what I want. This is what I will pay. Work for you? If so, let's sign some papers."

[tersa.livejournal.com]

IMO that should be Plan A, unless you want to haggle. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hah yes. I meant the idea in my post was Plan A. That failing, Plan B has moved up to Plan A!

[lokyst.livejournal.com]

I think the rule of thumb we used when buying our car was that for a basic 4 door car the Mrsp is about 5% markup over factory. We worked backwards and gave them 3%.

The markup is a lot more for SUVs and family cars so there is more haggle room.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks! That helps!

[gconnor.livejournal.com]

I think you are doing it right. I used a multiple-dealer-quote service, it was free. Not sure if it was Edmunds or some other site. They needed a phone number so I gave a google number, and then let all of them go to voice mail and just dealt with the ones who emailed me, like I said I wanted.

I also got quotes on similar models. I did reply to some saying I was thinking about a VW but I was also looking at quotes for the Honda.

My mistake was going to see the dealer who was closer, but who had *not* given me the best price. I wanted to go in there and see if I could talk him down by showing the lower quote from the other guy. But I got distracted and ended up signing a deal for a different option package for a higher amount. (Which I then backed out of... you can actually back out after signing, I found)

Are you doing a trade-in? that enters a whole other level of haggling. In that case they will need to see your trade-in car and you should really plan to take it to at least two different places to compare what they are offering you. Be prepared to walk away. I had a fairly new trade-in (8 yrs old in great condition) and made the mistake of accepting their offer for half the low blue book value. If they don't offer low-to-mid blue book value, just thank them for their time and get the hell out quick... then they will probably call or email you back with a better trade in offer.

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

The trick is to know *exactly* what you want, down to the last option, before you go into the dealer. Any uncertainty on your part gives them room to finagle you into paying for something that you didn't actually want.

[loup_noir]

I've always gone through dealer slime hell, so this is fascinating.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I wish I had thought to make an email address just for this. I now have five different dealers emailing me twice every other day (they must all be using the same email system, for every "personal" email they send me, I get an automatic one from the system saying the personal one is coming. Both arrive at exactly the same time). I was careful to give none of them my phone number! (I think in one case I had to make up a fake one and told them in the body of the message to only email me.)

There are so many mistakes you can make and ways they can trick you/talk you into things. :/ Half of me wants to just go in and pay sticker price to get it over with and out of there in one piece!

I do have a trade in, but it's 15 years old and the blue book value is just a couple hundred, so I'm not going to stress over that part. (That's why I'm going for a new one. At this point, any service over an oil change will cost more than the car is worth...)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the new plan. Exactly what I want, exactly what I'll pay. Meet it or I'll go elsewhere. Hopefully that will work...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I think it would be to me too... if I weren't the one buying. :P

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

I HAVE THIS SAME PROBLEM.

You could always reply, "I am not interested in haggling. I am not going to haggle about adjustments that will 'make this work for me.' Give me your lowest price, if it is the lowest among them I will take it. If it is not, I will not. Thank you for your time and assistance!"

However, I'm planning to use CarWOO. They have a free version and a pay version, but I think the pay version was only like $50, which in the scheme of car buying is not so bad. Your insurance company may also have a service that does the same thing for free; USAA does.

The services let the car companies see what the other dealers are bidding, and does not give them your actual contact information until you pick one. So they can't pull those shennanigans on you. :)

They will probably try to sell you warranty crap when you get there of course, but you can just say no to that. Most of car haggling services are only for the car sticker price; they can still try to argue with you on the "extras" once you get there.

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

I read this entire website:

http://www.carbuyingtips.com/carintro.html

in preparation. :)

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

Hahah, we even want the same car. ARE YOU SECRETLY MY GOOD TWIN, YOU ARE AREN'T YOU.

The reason the ones for the Prius aren't much different from the sticker price is that they are the "hot car" right now, so they don't really HAVE to haggle; someone's going to buy them because they're the new hotness.

I'm trying to get my old one to last until the July fiscal year thing, when they're at least trying to get rid of the old year models.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's a good point... Sometimes it seems like half the cars on the road here are Priuses!

And yes! We're twins of GOOD TASTE IN CARS! :D

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah ha! I hadn't heard of CarWOO before. Looking at it now. Woo! Thanks!