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i bought my first new car last year, a 2011 camaro 2ss/rs.
i have GM supplier discount pricing thru an agreement the company i work for has with GM.. and i got a 1,000$ voucher from Chevrolet.com towards the purchase of a new car randomly one day as i was browsing the site.
i contacted a local dealer and asked if the two discounts could be combined, and he said yes. i also told him (lied) that i was talking to another dealer that i met thru truecar.com that was advertising a similar car for less than the one they had on sale and that i would go and buy their car if they didnt want to sell me theirs.
long story short, i talked to him on the phone maybe 3 times, but mostly over e-mail and i went in with a check and just test drove it, signed the papers and left.
the best part was that those discounts/voucher couldn't be combined. not sure if the guy messed up or just wanted to sell a car but i got a great deal.
i avoided that 4-square sheet thing, the pushy sales person, the back n forth of "let me ask my manager"... the "we need to keep the lights on" crap.
i bought my first new car last year, a 2011 camaro 2ss/rs.
i have GM supplier discount pricing thru an agreement the company i work for has with GM.. and i got a 1,000$ voucher from Chevrolet.com towards the purchase of a new car randomly one day as i was browsing the site.
i contacted a local dealer and asked if the two discounts could be combined, and he said yes. i also told him (lied) that i was talking to another dealer that i met thru truecar.com that was advertising a similar car for less than the one they had on sale and that i would go and buy their car if they didnt want to sell me theirs.
long story short, i talked to him on the phone maybe 3 times, but mostly over e-mail and i went in with a check and just test drove it, signed the papers and left.
the best part was that those discounts/voucher couldn't be combined. not sure if the guy messed up or just wanted to sell a car but i got a great deal.
i avoided that 4-square sheet thing, the pushy sales person, the back n forth of "let me ask my manager"... the "we need to keep the lights on" crap.
omg such a bad thing right? lol relax. not like i lied to a nun or a girl scout.
ultimately it was their call if they wanted to sell the car. i just persuaded them a little bit by mentioning the competition
I bopught my wifes car over the internet i bargainig in 2004.That was because it was i the next toen tho. Only showed up to sign paperwork and take possession.
the last new/leased vehicle we were looking for did not actually exist on dealer lots nearby. I found a couple we would be interested in, both across state lines (i contacted local dealers but since it was not on the lot not much interest in dealing...). Via email i negotiated the final lease price as well as the trade value for ours going in (a 4runner that actually was at lease end, we made about $2k on trading it over dropping it off at Toyota), just needed a test drive and we were done. Took a 1.25 hour drive to the dealer, and actually did a spot delivery to pick up the new one same day.
I'd do biz the same way next time if i can as well, though likely easier on new over used
I bought 2 cars from dealers over the phone last year. Both times worked out quite well. Both times I gave them a take-it-or-leave it offer that was reasonable enough to give me a fair chance they'd take it, and both times they did. The first time went really smoothly because the person who answered the phone was authorized to make a sales decision. That transaction lasted about 5 minutes.
The second time it had to get moved up the chain of command a couple of times, but once I got to speak to someone who had decision-making authority, he ran some numbers and got back to me within 20 minutes with an answer. Total time between first contact with the dealership and close of sale was about 4 hours; total time on the phone was maybe 20 minutes.
I just bought a car at a dealership last week and the manager came out and used the old-school, pushy 4-square technique. I sat through about 3 minutes of that before I told him that if he didn't stop talking to me I was going to get up and leave. After that I was able to keep the conversation focused on how much trade allowance they were going to offer, saying in essence "if you want me to pay your asking price for your car, this is what you need to give me for mine. Once we agree on the trade difference between them, we can talk about everything else in your little squares." After they stopped trying to pencil-whip me it went pretty smoothly.
Last edited by Drover; 05-14-2012 at 06:53 AM..
Reason: forgot a word or two
Bought about 10 vehicles in the last 10 years through email/phone calls. Usually the internet manager is treated like a step child by the dealership, as in "hey he/she sold 20 cars" but the margins are less than what the floor salespeople get. I rarely trade in a vehicle so that takes a big headache out of the equation.
My sister has bought 3 BMW's online. She was recently divorced and a dealer told her to bring her husband back when it was time to buy.....she never went back after that. She orders her cars (stripped, to kept price low) and bid 10 dealers within a 3 hour radius on the identical car. The "spread" on the lease quotes was $200 a month difference on the IDENTICAL car. She did find it odd that a very large BMW store didn't sell through the internet, they emailed back and said please come in and see a salesperson. They are notorious for high prices, $750 dealer fee etc so that didn't surprise me when they didn't want to sell a car on the internet for a lower margin.
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