Buying A Car…The Old School Way

Mention negotiating car prices with a used car dealer and you’ll make someone cringe. Nobody likes it. It’s time consuming, stressful and frustrating.

If you’re willing to invest some time online, you might be able to match wits with your next salesperson. Research the original price of the car when it first came out. Use this to determine the dealer cost. (The cost of the car when the dealer brought it from the manufacturer.) This cost is includes the dealer invoice, and the holdback.The dealer invoice is the cost the dealer paid for the car.

Both Edmunds and Kelley Blue Book are great places to research dealer invoices. A holdback is a rebate the manufacturer pays the dealer when the car is sold. Rebates are based on the make and model of the car – around 2-3% of the total value of the car. Subtract this holdback from the costs and you’ll quickly realize how much the dealer actually paid for the car. Any hidden incentives to the dealer should be calculated. This is a hard one to arrive at – seeing that it’s called a “hidden” incentive.

If you can crack this code, be sure to bring it up in your price negotiations. New car dealers ask up to $5000 over their cost of the car.Congratulations if you’ve made it this far. Most people don’t. Your next step is to start around $4k below the advertised price.

Make them work for your business – you already expected this turf battle. After either you, or the sales person, have had enough of this “guess-my-price” game – you already know what’s next. “Let me go talk to my manager.” Classic sales tactic.  

The salesperson will head off to his manager to give him a good chuckle with your offer. Then, they’ll talk about last Sunday’s game and debate about the merits of the last singer voted off American Idol.   Most people dread this situation, lose the negotiation and get stuck with a deal they’re not happy with – or just walk away disgruntled.What’s the solution? The one-price, no-haggle pricing structure is giving traditional car dealers strong competition. The one-price method eliminates the negotiation and makes car buying stress-free. 

Imagine buying a car and your salesperson works with you the entire time. Better yet, when the salesperson goes to his manager, it’s simply to introduce you to him. And the icing, nobody tries to “close” you with lines from the movie Used Cars. Don’t believe this actually exists? See what the buzz is all about at this New York Used Car dealership