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I've never owned a luxury car so I have no experience buying one. I've been told the ability to haggle on Lexus, Mercedes and BMW is impossible and you have to settle on whatever price they dealer provides because the demand is so high and supply is low. How true is that? And would anyone recommend any books or websites for one to read before going into a dealership and being taken advantage of? I plan on buying a car in the next 3 months.
In my experience, every dealer and every deal is negotiable.
A book that might give you some insight into how dealerships train their sales staffs for the car selling games and tactics: "The Car Buyers Art" by Darrell Parrrish published by Book Express. Certainly only one of many books on the topic, but it explains many of the various selling techniques in a way that unmasks the mystery of what happens when you, the buyer, enter the domain of the pro car sales world. There's really very little that's said and done at a car dealership that's accidental or without purpose, and you just have to know what the sales psychology is at work. With your understanding of the system, you are able to defuse the tactics and not make emotional decisions to your detriment.
The most important aspect of the car buying process is to keep your eye on the objective. Some dealerships will respect you as a buyer, many will not and will work you over just for the challenge of maximizing their profit on a deal. If you aren't prepared to deal with the games players, at least you'll know that's what they are doing and you can walk. There's more than one dealership for each of the marques you're looking at and you're only buying one car. Make the dealership want your business more than you want the car ... they cannot eat their inventory which costs them every day to have available on the lot. You can be one of their "low margin" deals for the month .... of course, you have to recognize that a dealership must make a profit on a deal in order to stay in business.
Keep in mind that many of the sales tactics used in the motor vehicle buying process are identical to how selling pro's "sell" a lot of other merchandise; for example, you have many of the same "questions that close a sale" when buying furniture, appliances, clothing, real estate, etc.
yes - you can still deal on them. As always - it'll still come down to the demand on the particular model.
With many European models, you can also opt for eurpopean delivery - this will get you additional discounts (you'll end up spending a portion of it on a trip to Europe, but hey - you get a trip to Europe). Volvo and BMW are the two most popular I believe in terms of the # of cars sold through European Delivery (Porsche is another, but you get no discounts).
If you know what make you're looking for, I'd suggest you do some research on forums that specialize on those makes. Bimmerfest has some good info on BMW's as well as a wiki on European Delivery of BMWs, others include edmund, roadfly.org... or just google for forums with the make/model you're interested in.
Those forums are usually segmented by the model as well as regions, and you'll always find people discussing the latest pricing info, as well as dealer/sales associate reviews.
I've never owned a luxury car so I have no experience buying one. I've been told the ability to haggle on Lexus, Mercedes and BMW is impossible and you have to settle on whatever price they dealer provides because the demand is so high and supply is low. How true is that? And would anyone recommend any books or websites for one to read before going into a dealership and being taken advantage of? I plan on buying a car in the next 3 months.
Haven't seen a dealer yet that would not negotiate. Ferrari, MB. BMW, Porsche, Audi, Lexus, Aston Martin...they will all negotiate their prices...but like mentioned above, the amt. is based on the availability and popularity (or rarity) of the particular model your looking at.
It doesn't matter what new car you buy. If you don't want to feel like you got a bad deal.. DON'T DEAL AT THE DEALERSHIP. You need to do all your homework before walking into the dealership. Your negotiation power is limited once you walk into the dealership. This is due to the emotion, pressure once you are there. Educatate yourself with knowledge about the car, features and pricing first. You will know that you have done your homework when you walk into the dealership and say to yourself, hey..this sales person doesn't know that much about the car that s/he is trying to sell to me.
With the Internet, the trip to the dealership is simply a place to test drive the car that you will be buying and do the paperwork. Don't go there to learn about the car. The person selling you the car won't be there when you go back in a few months.
Now as for negotiation at semi or luxury car dealership. You may experience that they are less reluctant to be all over you in trying to get you to buy the car. I know my experience with BMW and Lexus, they may give you the perception that "this is the price", take it or leave it. If you know what you want and what price you are willing to pay. You present them with an offer and go from there. If you walk in there and play their game, you will lose.
Now don't be mistaken when you walk in there giving them and offer and after lots of hesistation, they accept your offer and tell you how GREAT OF A DEAL YOU GOT and they they are losing money with this deal. They are not in a business to lose money. Your offer was one that they could still make enough profit and got a sale. If you didn't do your homework and offer too high, well that's because you didn't do your homework.
Have fun with your trip to the dealership. I have not purchased a new car for myself in 7 years but I always love helping friends/family buy new car.
Absolutely, they will all negotiate in my experience.
I'd suggest edmunds dot com in addition to the other sites listed. People on there exchange info regarding specific dealers and deals. A few years ago we bought a new Lexus in Austin for about $3500 off, yet the dealers in San Antonio and Houston absolutely would not come off more than about $1500 and $800 respectively.
When a friend in Houston bought one a year later I told her to come to Austin and she got $3,000 off when the Houston dealer would not budge for her.
Wow, I think this is most helpful and mature forum on citydata. Thank you so much everyone. I do have a few more questions if you have a second
1. Internet Sales Fleet - when I bought my Toyota, I bought it through an internet sales fleet division at a dealership. I guess dealerships have salesman that only handle internet sales and they don't stand around in the showroom greeting customers like traditional sales reps. I got a really good deal this way and there was much less pressure. Do luxury dealerships have this?
2. The Dealer Invoice - I've heard the dealer invoice isn't exactly what the dealership paid for a car. I've heard they pay less than that. So even if you get a car at invoice, the dealership still makes money. Is that true. And where do you start negotiations for these type of cars? Do you ask for invoice and does the dealership go up from there. I've heard one trick is that dealers deal from the top and not from invoice.
3. Financing - I've heard the best thing to do regarding financing is to arrange it in advance at a bank before walking into the dealership because they will use financing tricks to entice you to settle for their price.
Absolutely on the Internet sales. In fact, we have bought most of the Exotics that way. If they are a reputable dealer, they will gladly share all the paperwork with you even before you walk in the door. Dealers are always going to make their money...and isn't that what a business does? They have their hold-back $ if nothing else. The salesmen on the forum can give you more insight on that.
Again, absolutely have financing in your pocket. But let them give you their best shot first. Bring a calculator and don't let them rush you. Many times, they will give another $1500 or so off if you use their financing...sometimes, it's worth it, sometimes not.
If you haven't bought a car in awhile, you'll be amazed at all the little "add-ons" that they tack on....go through them all and question each and every one. They have more filing fees, prep fees etc than you can imagine. We can usually get them to drop the prep fees.
And remember, there is always another dealer....we have gone out of state more than once for the "right" deal.
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