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I’ve been doing tons of research to figure out what new car I want to buy. I ultimately plan to email several dealers and give them the details of the car I want and ask their price for that car. All my negotiation will be by e-mail so I get the best deal, and I don’t have the hassle of negotiating in person. Before I get to that point, I need to test drive my top few choices so I can pick my favorite. How do I do this considering there are countless dealership sales people outside just waiting to jump on consumers when they show up? Do I say I need to speak with someone inside and proceed to find the internet sales manager? I’m trying to figure out the best approach so I don’t waste a regular sales person’s time or mine because I don’t intend to deal with them. They annoy me anyway, and the one dealership I went to so far, I knew more about their cars than the sales guy! Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
BTW-I'm going to purchase a 2019 or 2020 car, not a pre-owned.
Last edited by LFJourney; 08-27-2019 at 11:05 AM..
I did pretty much same.
I go to a dealership and say - hey, I am shopping around. All I want is to sit in a .......
This normally ends in "would you like to take her out for a spin?". I am yet to see a sales guy who won't offer it. Especially if you show at some real slow time, when there's bunch of them standing talking trash do nothing anyway.
I’ve been doing tons of research to figure out what new car I want to buy. I ultimately plan to email several dealers and give them the details of the car I want and ask their price for that car. All my negotiation will be by e-mail so I get the best deal, and I don’t have the hassle of negotiating in person. Before I get to that point, I need to test drive my top few choices so I can pick my favorite. How do I do this considering there are countless dealership sales people outside just waiting to jump on consumers when they show up? Do I say I need to speak with someone inside and proceed to find the internet sales manager? I’m trying to figure out the best approach so I don’t waste a regular sales person’s time or mine because I don’t intend to deal with them. They annoy me anyway, and the one dealership I went to so far, I knew more about their cars than the sales guy! Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
Go ahead and E-mail them. In your E-mail ask about price and availability and if you can schedule a test drive.
Test drive ends. They inevitably ask you to come in and "look at numbers". Say no thanks and walk away. No matter what stage I'm really at I just say I'm test driving a bunch of vehicles before I make any decision. If you don't sound like someone who is buying today they often won't waste their time on a ride along unless they are dead slow, so go on a busy day.
Or bring enough family/friends to fill all the seats and they can't ride along.
I will confess to being an occasional joy rider as well, especially during a service appointment. Hmmm sit in a waiting room or drive the new sports car. Hard decision.
I’ve been doing tons of research to figure out what new car I want to buy. I ultimately plan to email several dealers and give them the details of the car I want and ask their price for that car. All my negotiation will be by e-mail so I get the best deal, and I don’t have the hassle of negotiating in person. Before I get to that point, I need to test drive my top few choices so I can pick my favorite. How do I do this considering there are countless dealership sales people outside just waiting to jump on consumers when they show up? Do I say I need to speak with someone inside and proceed to find the internet sales manager? I’m trying to figure out the best approach so I don’t waste a regular sales person’s time or mine because I don’t intend to deal with them. They annoy me anyway, and the one dealership I went to so far, I knew more about their cars than the sales guy! Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
For convenience sake, I went to dealers nearest to me. I picked out the car I wanted to test drive from their website and wrote down the stock number. I walked in the door and said "I want to test drive a car. Here's the stock number."
I told them during the test drive or when we returned that I just test driving several different cars to see what I liked. Not making any decisions today. Not one tried to get me to sit at their desk and talk numbers. They all let me walk out the door with no hassle.
If you're testing driving used cars, you might want to try someplace like CarMax where you can test drive several different vehicles at one place.
Step 1: Identify the cars you're interested in.
Step 2: Go to those makes' dealership webpages and see if they have the models you want in inventory. If any pop-ups with a "freebie for a test drive" offer appear, determine whether giving them your contact info is worth the $25 or $50 Target gift card.
Step 3: Drive to the dealership. If you really want to make sure, give them a call and ask if the vehicle is still available.
Step 4: Approach any salesperson. Tell them you're just beginning your search and aren't under any circumstances making a purchase today. Give them as little info as possible, so as not to get sucked into a distracting conversation.
Step 5: Drive the car.
Test drive ends. They inevitably ask you to come in and "look at numbers".
I've test driven maybe two hundred cars in my life. This happened to me exactly never. If you set up the whole experience with "I'm not buying today", most dealerships will no longer bother with the hackneyed "what can we do TODAY to put you in this car?" BS.
I did my research and then went to a local dealer that had a car I was interested in in stock. Test drove it, thanked him, took his card, gave my info, and walked. Dealt with him and another dealer via email for the deal. His manager had to get involved and I provided the $500 deposit to order the car to my spec, he beat the other dealer and I was happy with the outcome.
I also spent no more than 10 min in the business office when the car was ready for pickup, delivery was a weeknight after work and I told the guy up front I had no intention of extras and just needed the car. It went smooth but I for sure do not like going in and dealing with them on their turf.
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