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That's a bit like saying you can defend yourself in a murder trial. You're welcome to try, and believe you can.
Complete nonsense.
I'll ask you again... do you really think a broker can do better than a third off on a new car?
Another thing I'll certainly do that a broker can't.
I'll put in the time to search under every rock for the perfect car, no matter how long it takes.
I'll also go wherever I have to go to get it. I can do this because I only have one client... me.
All an auto broker can save me is time. Nothing else.
Well, I don't care about the time and can put in a lot more of it, so this person is only another expense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cvetters63
if the car is what I'd pay for it, I'll buy it.
This is the key thing... knowing what is and is not a good price. If it's not a good price, I'm not even going to look at it.
Put in the time and do the research. It's not theoretical physics or brain surgery... there is nothing here that can't be learned.
I did.
Two weeks ago, I bought the cheapest Cadillac XTS Platinum for sale on in the entire United States.
Scoured every site, every single day until exactly what I was looking for showed up. Drove hundreds of miles to get it.
It took me a hell of a long time to find the perfect car. I lost count of how many I looked at.
No shady BHPH, accidents, private party or any such. New car dealer, mint condition, not a thing wrong with it.
No broker will do what it takes to get it just right... they'd starve if they had to do that.
Yup, they take it and then you spend 2 hours with the "business manager" doing the paperwork, where they try and push all types of warranties and extras.
It is AMAZING to me that a sales person will spend an hour telling you how wonderful and perfect a car is; and then two minutes later you have a business manager telling you the car will essentially fall apart as soon as you leave the lot if you don't buy extra coat protector; specific electronic warranties, etc. Such a scam.
When the car does break you will be happy that you have it.
I have never had them try that on me. I walk in knowing invoice, what discounts/rebates are available, the range of my trade in and what I want my payment to be. They won't rip me off on interest rates either because I only do 0%.
Last trade I did, the offered exactly what I expected, which was about 5k lower than I could have sold it for myself. The car had high mileage for it's age (2016 w/52k.) but was pristine...they sold it in 6 days for 6k more than they gave me for it without even sending it to detail first. I got the exact car I wanted (2019 Special order.) for the price I expected, financed over 36 months at 0%. Actually, I take that back...it was a little lower than expected because they honored the rebates that were in effect when I ordered the car and also applied a new rebate that was running when I signed 5 weeks later.
When signing in finance, they did mention some of the extended warranties and such but never pushed them.
They were happy, I was happy...it was all quick and painless.
I sold cars 25 years ago and I remember "sales consultants" trying to push the 4 square thing. No one ever actually used it and I've never seen anyone use it since then either.
LOL. Must of been a big push, 25 year ago. I sat down with a saleslizard at a Ford dealer, back then. He grabs a piece of blank copy paper and draws the four squares. He then furiously scribbles figures in all four blocks, and ( with great flourish and dramatic determination) spins the paper around to face me. I ask what he thinks he is doing? He tells me this is how they do business. I tell him, "It's not the 1950s, the truck I want is sitting on the lot, and you advertised it in the paper for roughly dealer invoice. So you can throw the paper out and cut the BS, or I can leave". That's the only four square slimeball I ever danced with.
I just never deal with them anymore. The last 3 cars we bought, this is what we did. We knew exactly what we wanted down to color, every option, etc. Went to the car manufacturer's website and found where they had one. Emailed them and basically said, "You have this car, I want it, this is how much I'll pay. Yes or no." They always come back with, "Well, come in, blah, blah blah." I just come back with yes or no. They'll keep coming back with are you financing, do you have a trade, etc. I repeat, yes or no. If they say no, well then I move on. If they say yes, I will say, "I will be there on X day at X time. Please have it ready."
I show up, drive it, check it out to make sure all is OK. Our credit is near perfect, so I know we qualify for their best interest rate, which has been 0% on the last cars we bought. Never traded in a car; we always sold it ourselves. We did buy an extended warranty last time, but we found one online through another dealership (dealerships will sell you just an extended warranty) for a certain price. They wanted to charge us twice as much. We showed them the quote from the other dealership, and they matched it. If they wouldn't have matched it, we would have bought the warranty from the other dealership.
Basically, we just talk and deal with them as little as possible. I probably said 2 dozen words to the last salesperson we bought a car from.
*Edited to add that we did trade in a car once that I forgot about. We just wanted it gone. Got a quote from Carmax which was very reasonable. The dealership matched it. But we didn't even tell them about the trade until after all else was done.
Must say I really enjoy responses from people who are convinced they've always been a super-savvy, horsetradin' fool when it come to car buying... and defend the rights of the dealers to "make a profit."
You're right, of course, no business deserves to turn a profit. As a business owner myself I should just give away my services. Thanks for that consumer enlightenment.
You're right, of course, no business deserves to turn a profit. As a business owner myself I should just give away my services. Thanks for that consumer enlightenment.
Somewhere along the same equivalency of claiming the produce and meats sold at Whole Foods are too expensive without any knowledge of the backstory of cost to produce, the methodology involved or how it got there. Clueless...
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