How far down do dealers generally deviate from the Internet price? (vehicle, 2015)

[Drago45]

Can one reasonably expect much of a discount from the list price on the Internet? Or do they publish the lowest price possible to keep you from going to another dealer (with little room for haggling)? Also is it possible to haggle online? It seems like they all want to talk on the phone or get you to look at the car in person. There are a couple of cars I'm looking at where I have to drive an hour or more to see. There's no use driving that far IMO unless we agree on a price.

[JONOV]

Originally Posted by Drago45

Can one reasonably expect much of a discount from the list price on the Internet?

Is it a new or used car? Used cars, it depends, but many times the internet price is their bottom dollar, or close to it. New cars, you want to make sure that it isn't MSRP or MSRP-Rebates.

Originally Posted by Drago45

Or do they publish the lowest price possible to keep you from going to another dealer (with little room for haggling)? Also is it possible to haggle online?

It is possible to haggle online. Many internet sales departments don't haggle much, though. They exist to do volume sales, to customers that they are well aware are shopping everyone at once.

It seems like they all want to talk on the phone or get you to look at the car in person. There are a couple of cars I'm looking at where I have to drive an hour or more to see. There's no use driving that far IMO unless we agree on a price.

Yes; you can't sell a car over the computer/phone, especially a used car. To a certain extent, every single used car is different and until you see (smell and drive) the car, price is a moot point. For example, I remember when we had a car priced $1,000 below the market; the reason it was prices so low was that it had been used by a lady who rescued pitbulls. It smelled like dog and dogs had exacted a lot of wear and tear and smell. People came in to see, and left disappointed, until I sold it to another dog lady who appreciated the fact that it was a well maintained diamond in the rough. How far apart are you on price? Is it a one price store? There are more one price operations than Carmax, and many dealership groups in some markets are moving that way, and they won't budge on their prices.

[Hemlock140]

It depends, if they call it an "internet price" they may stick to it as already being discounted. It still doesn't hurt to make a lower offer, if they want to make a sale they will often drop it more. I would never pay more than $3,000-$6,000 below the sticker price.

[Drago45]

Originally Posted by JONOV

Is it a new or used car? Used cars, it depends, but many times the internet price is their bottom dollar, or close to it. New cars, you want to make sure that it isn't MSRP or MSRP-Rebates.
It is possible to haggle online. Many internet sales departments don't haggle much, though. They exist to do volume sales, to customers that they are well aware are shopping everyone at once.
Yes; you can't sell a car over the computer/phone, especially a used car. To a certain extent, every single used car is different and until you see (smell and drive) the car, price is a moot point. For example, I remember when we had a car priced $1,000 below the market; the reason it was prices so low was that it had been used by a lady who rescued pitbulls. It smelled like dog and dogs had exacted a lot of wear and tear and smell. People came in to see, and left disappointed, until I sold it to another dog lady who appreciated the fact that it was a well maintained diamond in the rough. How far apart are you on price? Is it a one price store? There are more one price operations than Carmax, and many dealership groups in some markets are moving that way, and they won't budge on their prices.

It is a lightly used car (2014) with only about 10k miles. The dealership is an hour away so I thought I'd try negotiating online before making the trip and possibly wasting both of our time. It does seem to be priced reasonably (about 5-6 K less than the list price for a new vehicle of this model) so I'm thinking they will not go down much if at all, I think the car just arrived on their lot last week.

[Drago45]

So I checked the carfax of this car I'm looking at. It was a leased vehicle, had three owners, and there is a lien (but no details). Is this a red flag? It's a 2014 with about 10k miles. Is it possible that I would have to deal with consequences from this lien?

[Drago45]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

It depends, if they call it an "internet price" they may stick to it as already being discounted. It still doesn't hurt to make a lower offer, if they want to make a sale they will often drop it more. I would never pay more than $3,000-$6,000 below the sticker price.

I guess it cannot hurt, just didn't want to take a trip if there is no way they would lower the price. It's a 2-3000 more than I was looking to pay but has less miles on it than other vehicles with this year that I was looking at.

[southernnaturelover]

The "internet price" on my Sonata was $16,995 but I talked them down to $15,500, so theres still wiggle room.

[eaton53]

When it comes to buying cars, everything is negotiable.

[SAAN]

Typically most dealers I have visited almost refused to go any lower on their internet price and when no one buys the car, the start to lower it. If you just leave and they still wont lower the price, its either someone else buys it or you will see it listed 2 weeks later for $500-1000 lower

[mkarch]

If it's only $5-6k under list for a new vehicle, there's probably some wiggle room. Price the current comparable model through carsdirect (actually submit a sales inquiry) and see what they'll do on a 2015. You might find out that the new model can be had for not much more than the used one. Then use that to negotiate.

With used car prices as high as they are it's difficult to see how it's worth taking the risk on a car someone returned after owning it a year when new is not much more.