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Sure. That's why one of the first questions are what are you looking for a payment. Once they know that they will know what car to sell you. They sprays will have you in a certain price affordability bracket.
I usually just start talking about what I'm there for. I usually start asking about the car. I tell them not t worry about finances. If they press the issue I get in my truck and drive off.
I research the car I want, I go on test drives and I let them talk. I buy when I'm ready not when they want me to buy. And I don't trade in a vehicle.
Your method of buying a car sounds exactly like what I’m doing! I also already know what car I want, I’ve been test driving, and now I’m waiting until I’m ready to buy (which may be a few years, but I try to stay current). I also don’t plan on trading in. I think I’ll get more money if I sell it privately. Heck, if it still runs well, I may give it to my niece as a first car. If my brother lets me, lol. Although if it still runs well, I’m not sure why I’d get rid of it.
The 4 square is still in use today. It focuses mostly on an uneducated buyer or one that is in a difficult predicament. It is just another sales methodology. Essentially, they plug 4 numbers into 4 quandrants of the paper to identify your hot button. Monthly payment, Money down, Trade Value, and perhaps interest rate. It is all about what they can manipulate that triggers your hot buttons the least. If you are payment centric.. they will adjust that payment as part of the negotiations. If you are interest rate focused, that will be the button. If they can you to agree enough of the squares, then it is a sale. You may not know anything about the purchase price until you walk into finance. Congrats on paying 10% over MSRP for 84 months, but with a killer payment, extra money for your trade in and fantastic interest rate. They use it, because it still works on folks.
New cars are easy to buy using the internet for a great deal especially with today's technology. It gets even better if you have your own financing lined up and no trade.
A used car is shot in the dark. You don't know what they paid. You don't know what they have in pack. You don't know where it came from.
The 4 square is still in use today. It focuses mostly on an uneducated buyer or one that is in a difficult predicament. It is just another sales methodology. Essentially, they plug 4 numbers into 4 quandrants of the paper to identify your hot button. Monthly payment, Money down, Trade Value, and perhaps interest rate. It is all about what they can manipulate that triggers your hot buttons the least. If you are payment centric.. they will adjust that payment as part of the negotiations. If you are interest rate focused, that will be the button. If they can you to agree enough of the squares, then it is a sale. You may not know anything about the purchase price until you walk into finance. Congrats on paying 10% over MSRP for 84 months, but with a killer payment, extra money for your trade in and fantastic interest rate. They use it, because it still works on folks.
New cars are easy to buy using the internet for a great deal especially with today's technology. It gets even better if you have your own financing lined up and no trade.
A used car is shot in the dark. You don't know what they paid. You don't know what they have in pack. You don't know where it came from.
This and the bold portion.
Used cars I would treat the same regardless if it's a dealer or private sale. I inspect the hell out of it and buyer beware
From experience .. do NOT hesitate to head for the door if they are getting stupid with you . And do NOT give them your phone number . Tell them if you walk out it's OVER . Don't worry about offending anybody , they play this game every day .
The 4 square, the T close (they outline the +'s of buying, you outline the negatives), feel, felt found are all closing funnels.......trying to get you to sign the deal. When you hear, I know how you FEEL, and a lot of my clients felt that way but found that after buying the car they loved it......It hits you like a brick when you hear it and start laughing at the salesman!
Go test drive what you want, when it comes to buying then start emailing the dealer as it really levels the playing field. There is NO pressure on you, the pressure is totally on the dealerships trying to earn your business. Best one liner, "thank you for your price quote but another dealership was significantly cheaper so I will keep you in mind for next time".....be ready for a barrage of lower prices!
Get pre-approved at a Credit Union and that makes it much easier knowing what you APR will be.
When the dealer asks how much are you willing to pay per month, simply say, Ill determine that by the price of the car and that typically cuts out a $300 60 month payment being stretched to 72 or 84 months.
Only hassle will typically be a trade in, in which they will try to rape you, but after out threaten to leave they typically start giving you more for your trade, as long as you make sure they arent tacking it on to the price of the car.
The 4 square can really get you so lost in the negotiations. For instance, the first thing the sales person is going to do is try and get an emotional response out of you by focusing you on the car payment, and showing you this astronomically high payment each month for 36 months. For instance, they may come up with a figure of $700/month for 36 months. You have a budget of $300/month for car payments. You look at that number and freak out, so then the sales person becomes the comforter and says, "Let's see what we can do to get these numbers down for you!"
This is at the point where he might go to the manger or not, but the sales person will start asking how much have you planned to put down. Let's say you've planned $3,000 down, the sales person is going to ask for $5k. "If you can put a little more down, I think we can work the numbers a little easier in your favor." So you don't have anymore money, well, then they give you the impression that it's going to be difficult working the numbers, so they start asking about trades. So, we've went from the monthly payment to trades, because the thought is, you're not putting enough down to lower the monthly payment, so it's going to have to get lowered a bit more according to your trade in. So after a back and forth on the trade in value of the car, they might agree to top dollar, but all the while, still no monthly payment amount, length of loan, interest amount, nor discount in price of the car.
They then figure out that your car payment is going to be $500/month based on 36 months, $3k down payment, and $8k for a trade in. You still balk at that saying, "My budget is $300. I can't go over that each month!" If you haven't given them that dollar figure previously, they have it now, so now they go back to the "drawing board" AKA the sales manager office, they return and say, "Good news, here's what we can do! We can get you $300/month @ 3.7% interest for 60 months. Do we have a deal?" Well, you see that they have gotten you to $300/month, which makes you happy, but you may not be happy with the interest rate nor the 60 months. At this point, it might be take it or leave it, or they may be willing to reduce the life of the loan to 48 months at the somehow keep it at the same interest rate and monthly payment (How in the world do they do this), or they may knock a little bit off of the price of the car, but still selling it around MSRP or over.
All this long winded post to tell you that never once, was price negotiated. This is why they usually start with 4 square and similar deals. It's all a ploy to get your mind off of the price of the car. Is this dishonest? Well, the dealership is out to make money, and they don't put prices on the sticker just for the fun of it. If they can sell as close to that price as possible, that's a HUGE win for them. You walk out with your $300/month payment for 48 months, but you pay more in interest (because you never really negotiated interest or didn't get pre-approved elsewhere), and you probably pay more for the car as well.
Am I wrong in what I just said? I don't think so. I've been victim to this many times in my life because I never stopped to learn the proper way to negotiate or the steps I needed to take prior to even stepping foot on the dealership lot.
They literally draw four squares on a piece of paper when they do it. It is one method used to direct your focus towards payment and not price. But you needn't complicate things.
Focus on the price of the car. Focus on the interest rate. Focus on the value of your trade in (if you have one.)
That's really it. The foursquare is to redirect your focus away from PRICE and towards PAYMENT. If you agree to a $400/month payment then that gives them a goal while allowing them to charge you much more money by playing around with the payment rate and term.
The last two posts are spot on. If you're a payment buyer, you can get hoodwinked into paying more than you should. Even adding a month or two to the term, or adding $10 a month to the payment can mean big money for the dealer. $300 and $310 a month is pretty much the same payment, right? What's $10 after all? 39 months isn't really that much longer than 36 months, right? That service contract is only $20 a month, isn't that worth it?
This works especially well on folks who have bad credit or think that they cannot get a loan for a car. Suddenly they're pretty close to where they thought they wanted to be, and they have the keys sitting in front of them.
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