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Chevy is offering $2000 "cash back" deal on certain vehicles. Common sense tells me that you buy a car and they send you a check for $2000 (and they take out the taxes).That seems to me to be too good to be true. If you buy within now and next week, you get that much of a discount? Or does the dealership raise the sticker price of the vehicle to make up for the "cash back"? I'm thinking there has to be a catch somewhere.
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I don't know exactly how 'cash-back' deals are accomplished but the contents of the window sticker are quite specific and I'd guess any attempt to alter them would be illegal.
They usually will just take that 2k off the price. If you negotiate a purchase price with the dealer, they usually factor that into the equation, ie, they keep the cash incentives.
Cash back is a rebate program or incentive program offered by the manufacturer to sell new vehicles. Typically the purchaser applies the money to the purchase so it ends up being a reduction of the purchase price. It can be accepted by the purchaser as an actual check.
It is not a dealer program, it is from the manufacturer. Often this is used to clear out models that have remaining inventory or is used as an incentive to get people to buy something that benefits the manufacturer. For example, Ford sells huge quantities of trucks every year. In order to meet federally mandated fuel efficiency standards for all vehicles sold in a year, they need to offset the number of trucks with enough smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles to hit the average fuel economy required. Failure to hit the number invokes huge penalties from the government. Ford would rather add an incentive to the efficient cars and sell them, hoping to gain back profit on service or future sales rather than pay the penalties to the government.
Ok so they wouldn't go down in price as much as they normally would? Let's say the sticker price is 20 K and then they offer this rebate. While under normally circumstances, they might go down to 18K, they would barely budge when negotiating a lower price since you are getting the "cash back (or else they wouldn't go down as much as they normally would)", does that sound right? Or is this a legit good deal because they want to get rid of the car? I am looking at 2014s which they do want to clear out to make room for 2015s.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lenny2412
Ok so they wouldn't go down in price as much as they normally would? Let's say the sticker price is 20 K and then they offer this rebate. While under normally circumstances, they might go down to 18K, they would barely budge when negotiating a lower price since you are getting the "cash back (or else they wouldn't go down as much as they normally would)", does that sound right? Or is this a legit good deal because they want to get rid of the car? I am looking at 2014s which they do want to clear out to make room for 2015s.
If the dealer would normally go down 2K they have northing to lose by doing so when the $2K comes from the manufacturer. For every unit they move there's a 'hold-back' $$$ amount that's credited to the dealer at the end of the year.
Ok so they wouldn't go down in price as much as they normally would? Let's say the sticker price is 20 K and then they offer this rebate. While under normally circumstances, they might go down to 18K, they would barely budge when negotiating a lower price since you are getting the "cash back (or else they wouldn't go down as much as they normally would)", does that sound right? Or is this a legit good deal because they want to get rid of the car? I am looking at 2014s which they do want to clear out to make room for 2015s.
Then I would target invoice - $2000 as the price I would buy at.
Ok so they wouldn't go down in price as much as they normally would? Let's say the sticker price is 20 K and then they offer this rebate. While under normally circumstances, they might go down to 18K, they would barely budge when negotiating a lower price since you are getting the "cash back (or else they wouldn't go down as much as they normally would)", does that sound right? Or is this a legit good deal because they want to get rid of the car? I am looking at 2014s which they do want to clear out to make room for 2015s.
Cash/Rebates would be applied on top of whatever your best deal is, as the incentives cost the dealer nothing. In a perfect world if you could get the car for $18K, you'd stack the rebate on top and pay $16K. Reality is that the dealer will probably be a bit reluctant to do that, depending entirely on the vehicle. If the unit will move on its own, there's no need to drop it that much as someone will walk in and just take the manufacturer's money off the list and be happy. If it's an unpopular vehicle, you never know what you may be able to swing.
Cash/Rebates would be applied on top of whatever your best deal is, as the incentives cost the dealer nothing. In a perfect world if you could get the car for $18K, you'd stack the rebate on top and pay $16K. Reality is that the dealer will probably be a bit reluctant to do that, depending entirely on the vehicle. If the unit will move on its own, there's no need to drop it that much as someone will walk in and just take the manufacturer's money off the list and be happy. If it's an unpopular vehicle, you never know what you may be able to swing.
That is what I am thinking would happen. They will sell it to others at sticker - rebate since it is a fairly popular model. I understand this is the best time of the year to buy new while they are clearing out the old model year so debating whether to jump on it now while the rebate was going on or wait until the end of next month (assuming there are any left by then). The original plan was to buy used somewhere down the line but if I could get a new car at a couple grand more than a used car with low miles then it might be worth buying new if this is really a good deal.
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