Is the car buying system broken? (driver, price, Jeep, repair)

[Zhang Fei]

Originally Posted by 415_s2k

It costs Coca-Cola way less than a penny to make that 20oz you just paid a buck seventy-five for.

FYI, the sugar content alone costs 4 cents.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by us66

It's a system designed to maximize profits for the manufacturer (and to an extent, the dealer) and screw the customer all at the same time.

That is funny. The NEW CAR department of most dealerships barely break even. The money is make on used cars and the service and parts departments.

With all of the information that is READILY AVAILABLE on the internet, if you overpay, it is simply because you did not do your homework.

[getmeoutofhere]

When I was selling, if someone came in and "I don't want to haggle", it always means that person would argue for hours over $4. People don't want a different system. If they did, they wouldn't act like they do.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by 415_s2k

It costs Coca-Cola way less than a penny to make that 20oz you just paid a buck seventy-five for.

Uhm... no, it does not.

[us66]

Originally Posted by ferretkona

My last two trucks I did purchase thru CostCo. I was given a price thousands under the sticker and given a 7 year 100,000 mile warranty for free. I drove to the dealership and was driving home within the same hour.

If you think buying a car is adversarial, wait till you purchase a home.

I tried Costco with the last one. Costco didn't offer anything on price with a Malibu Maxx I nearly bought that I couldn't otherwise get. My wife qualified for a GM employee/family discount back then and we got the Aura fairly cheap that way. Costco price for a GM is at the supplier price, which more or less splits the difference between the retail customer price and GMS. Buying a house was actually easy. I bought a FSBO. I think there was one round of counteroffering. I paid a few bucks too much for it but the local property taxes are cheaper than other comps I was looking at in nearby cities.

Originally Posted by bisjoe

It's because of the big-ticket nature of the purchase, like a house. Some of the bigger SUVs these days cost as much as a house did in the 70s.

.

...or what mine is worth now.

[Houston3]

Originally Posted by Drover

Though we live in a haggle-averse culture, we are still highly inclined to haggle on large-ticket items even if we claim to hate it.

But you can have a haggle-free experience if you want it. All you have to do is pay sticker. What's a "haggle-free" experience worth to you?

It's easy to have a haggle-free experience.

When you go in and the salesperson comes to you tell them to give their card and you will get back with them IF you find a car that you are interested in..

Find the a car you like and want find the salesperson and tell them to give you the best deal they can and if you don't like it you are walking no chances on making the deal better.... Just do as much homework as you can before you go in...

And if you don't like the deal.....WALK...

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Houston3

It's easy to have a haggle-free experience.

When you go in and the salesperson comes to you tell them to give their card and you will get back with them IF you find a car that you are interested in..

Find the a car you like and want find the salesperson and tell them to give you the best deal they can and if you don't like it you are walking no chances on making the deal better.... Just do as much homework as you can before you go in...

And if you don't like the deal.....WALK...

Interesting how your "haggle-free" method involves haggling. And unless the sales person is also a manager who has the authority to quote you a price, they're most likely gonna tell you to get stuffed.

[manderly6]

Just do everything on line if you don't like the face to face interaction. Once you find the car you want send emails to several dealers telling them what you want and to give you their best price. No high pressure sales since you aren't talking to anyone.

Once you get the lowest price you can go in and buy the car.

[stan4]

I liked the way the last guy helped us with our new Caddy.

He said, "I'm not here to sell you a car; I'm here to help you buy one."

What was weird is that we didn't even haggle...they just gave us the price we thought was fair.

If it was always like that, people would always enjoy the experience.

Then again, we weren't demanding a $45k car for $20k. The buyer has to be reasonable, too.

[Bakeneko]

Why does the car buying system have to be like a high stakes poker game? It's a completely adversarial system and there's no reason it has to be. Why do we need salesmen? Why do we need high pressure sales tactics? Why can't it be like going into Costco and buying a television? Why does it have to be that one customer can walk in and pay thousands less than the one previous?

The whole system seems flawed to me and it seems downright silly to me that to purchase a new automobile I am the one who must jump through hoops of fire, deal with a rogue's gallery of supervillains (like F&I Man- if I want the extended warranty, I'll ask! and Sales Manager...no one gets out alive), worry that the dealership is padding the interest rate, read all fine print to ensure the salesman didn't forge my signature to add a year to my finance contract, and after all that, wonder if I got screwed on the trade-in, or conversely, if I got too much for the trade-in, and got screwed on the new one. One of the joys of life, getting a new car, is ruined by having to swim in the shark tank.

Wow, was just having this same conversation with the husband the other day - except it was about the health club. And the cell phone contract. And adding Showtime to our cable so we could Wath Game of Thrones.