Any pro tips how to do that? And how much % can you usually get off the price tag?
all depends on your negotiation skills and patience. Let me tell you my personal experience. I went to one of those online website where I register that I want a Honda CR-V. The dealers around my postal code start spamming me with models and prices. I picked the lowest 3 and asked them to give me the Kelly blue book's best value for that car price. They all did. So I went in to one of the shop and specifically asked a little bit lower than competition! Otherwise why would I buy from you right? They did and i wrote the price he told me on their piece of paper while negotiating with the dealership. After that I took that piece of paper and walked into another dealership on my list and asked them to beat that price. Repeat as needed. Eventually they will say they cannot match that price anymore, and the manager comes out to talk you into taking their offer. You just firmly shake the managers hand and walk out saying you are going to another competition who had better offer. That same day 3 hours after I walked out the dealership they told me if I go back and sign the deal today. They can give me another 200$ discount. That is exactly what I did and got the cheapest offer of all. Try to visit those dealership at the end of quarter, preferably around end of year too. Say September 20, or December 12 something like that. Where they are trying to beat some numbers for their report. They will be giving the best deals. Remember they don't make any money on car sales. They make their money on car services, and incentives from automaker when they can sell X cars in a given time period.
You must be a Patel for sure
Truecar is now controlled by the dealers and is quite far from the best price you can get (i.e. 4000 higher than my final price when I tried to negotiate my Prius). Get a quote and go email 30 dealerships successively looking for a good price, playing them off each other. Look up dealerships stairstep incentives and try to do the transaction at the end of the month. Refuse to go in on-site until you have a firm good offer you are willing to accept.
Depends on model and make. Some makes don’t negotiate much
Get the emails of all the internet sales managers of all the dealerships in the area and their bosses and then send a bulk email to all of them. Do not Bcc anyone. Let them see each other’s emails. Ask for quotes and say in your email that you are reaching out to all the dealerships as can be seen here and you would pay a visit only to that dealership who would give you the best deal and you would like to close the deal today itself. Anytime anyone responds with a quote either on phone or email, then just do a reply all mentioning that number asking if anyone can offer better. Keep iterating on this bidding till you reach the lowest number.
Did it work for you?
I just listened to a “this american life” podcast called 129 cars about a dealership trying to reach its sales goal to earn the manufacturer’s sales incentive. It was eye-opening learning how a dealership actually operates.
Find a car broker, pay them $3-500 and let them find the best deal for you. I just picked up a Q7 for invoice, 7% off MSRP, but I had to get from a dealer in SoCal. They wouldn't even think about that kind of price up here.
All of this is good advice, but be prepared for lots of bullshit along the way by salespeople that know what you’re doing and want to trick you. Don’t try to do this in person, do it over the phone first, but expect to hear all sorts of excuses why you need to come in person. That’s so they can string you along and waste your time to wear you down. And don’t trust the word of any car salesman.
Most of us do best negotiations with sales people and drop their guard when signing papers with finance folks, where they sell junk maintenance warranties or other over priced garbage.
I echo the other comments about getting prices from internet salesman and have the dealers fight for your business. Also, shopping at the end of a calendar quarter helps you, since sales is trying to meet their quarterly goals.
Check http://www.truecar.com It gives local prices for the car of your choice. You can use that information to negotiate. I did very successfully. If you can wait for another month, December end brings good deals.
December should be even better than Black Friday? Now they offer deals like 3k off and 0% apr, do you think something like that will still be available in mid/late December?