TOP SECRET! Once I’m sitting behind the desk, you’ll feel like I’m in control and may be willing to pay a little more. (We learn this during training.)
1. That car we advertised at the unbelievable price? It’s a stripped-down model with a manual transmission and crank windows. Ever wonder about those ads that promise a minimum $3,000 trade-in value for your clunker? Those dealerships also pad the sales price to make up for the difference.
2. The best time to buy is at the end of the month, and it’s best to negotiate the trade-in separately. Negotiate up from the invoice price (what we paid for the car, easy to find on the Web), not down from the sticker price.
3. Please do the math. You can’t get a $40,000 Tahoe for $250 a month for 72 months! Even at zero percent, $40,000 divided by 72 months is $555 before tax, title, and license fees.
4. Despite the stories you’ve heard about sleazy car dealers, plenty of us are honest folks frustrated by the guys who give the rest of us a bad name.
5. Kelley Blue Book, Edmunds, and NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association) all offer guides for car values. We’re the experts who do this every day and can evaluate what a 2008 Honda Accord EX is really worth in our market.
6. Don’t expect retail for your trade-in and wholesale for our car. We have to recondition your trade, advertise it, warranty it, and pay interest on the amount we have in the car, then sell it for less than we want after it sits on the lot for months.
7. To get a great price with minimal haggling, call and ask for the Internet manager or fleet manager.
8. Go in armed and educated. Study the pricing of the car you like and have your financing lined up. If you walk in with nothing, you’re not a customer—you’re a victim.
9. Never pay the VIN-etch fee. It’s a $250 optional add-on that’s almost pure profit for us. And if you want us to tint your windows, apply rustproofing, or paint a pinstripe on your truck, I’ll probably charge you two or three times the cost of doing it elsewhere.
10. Forget the overall cost of the car. Let’s talk about what you want to pay each month. Then I can build in profit generators such as extended warranties and credit insurance, and you won’t even notice. Watch out for this!
11. Once you’ve agreed on a price, you think you’re done—but we’re just getting started. I’ll promise you just about anything to get you to sign on the dotted line. But if I don’t put it in writing, I may not remember the next day.
TOP SECRET! Once I’m sitting behind the desk, you’ll feel like I’m in control and may be willing to pay a little more. (We learn this during training.)
12. Banks almost never require you to buy a particular warranty or a particular add-on to get the loan. If the finance officer tells you otherwise, ask to speak to someone at the bank.
13. If your auto credit score is under 600, expect to get an interest rate higher than 16 percent and to put 20 percent down. If your score is under 550, we may put a tracking device in your car that will shut it off if you don’t make a payment.
SOURCES: Car dealers in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and New York; Sarah Lee Marks, a Las Vegas–based personal car buyer who sold cars for almost a decade; and Jeff Ostroff, president and CEO of carbuyingtips.com.