Price negotiation tactics

I stopped by my local dealer to look at and get some initial pricing on GTis in the Chicago area. The salesman quoted me $1500 under sticker for an SE - $28k+. He said that $28K price was pretty firm.

Over in the "Post your deal" thread, folk are quoting considerably lower prices out the door. Just wondering what types of tactics/arguments you used to get the price lower? If I can't get the price lower, what could i get the dealer to add-in at low cost to them?

Note: the car I want isn't on their lot, so they'd have to swap with another dealer.

Typically to get the lowest price you need to buy what's on the lot, take the dealer financing, and be eligible for whatever rebates are available. $1,500 below sticker is awful, but I am guess that is OTD pricing which would include taxes. If you want help give a full breakdown of the entire purchase.

There are 2 buckets, the car (you vs the dealer) and TTL (you vs. the gov't). The gov't doesn't negotiate, so those fees (TTL) are inconsequential when determining what a good price is for a car.

Thanks. To start, I should say I DETEST haggling over cars!

Bottomline is that with everything we discussed - trade-in of my old car, taxes and title, the out-the-door total was a price I could afford. But I hate just leaving a couple grand - or even a couple hundred $ lying there if possible.

I realized many of the folk quoting lower prices had loyalty credits. And - I guess it seems silly for me to favor my local dealer, but I kinda strongly prefer shopping locally when possible. But didn't know if I should contact all of the area dealers and see who can do the best. But I'll be bringing my car to my local dealer for service...

We were planning on paying cash, instead of financing.

-Trade in muddies things.
-Finance then pay off entirely when first bill arrives.
-Still need to see full breakdown to say yes it is good or not.
-No one likes negotiating a car. Good thing if you drive them for a long time you don't have to do it too often.

Yeah - trade-in REALLY muddles things. For one thing, one of my kids asked to buy my old car. But I don't think they wanted to (or could) pay as much as the trade-in that was offered. Also, the trade-in comes off the taxable sales price. So we could sign my car over to my kid, and trade-in their considerably less expensive ride...

And since the car wasn't on the lot and I wasn't buying today, I didn't see the sticker. Looking around, I'm seeing MSRPs around $33k.

Googling, there really aren't too many SEs w/ manual out there. Add in color preferences, and it is considerably harder to just find one on the lot.

Bowser said:

I realized many of the folk quoting lower prices had loyalty credits. And - I guess it seems silly for me to favor my local dealer, but I kinda strongly prefer shopping locally when possible. But didn't know if I should contact all of the area dealers and see who can do the best. But I'll be bringing my car to my local dealer for service.

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Not everyone who got lower price had any loyalty credits.

Dealers make more money in service compared to sales. So it really does not matter to them. In fact, I did not service both my cars in the dealership where i bought. Over time, I had developed a good relationship with my service adviser. My Audi dealer even swapped my wheel bearings under warranty, even though they could have rejected my claim.

Bowser said:

Yeah - trade-in REALLY muddles things.

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Bring in your trade in negotiation only after you negotiate your deal.

Frankly, a lot of it is location. I didn't qualify for a single rebate/promo, I just happen to live in VW of America's backyard. Can't swing a cat without hitting a VW dealer here. I didn't really "negotiate", just emailed dealers and said this is what I'll pay and had several bites within an hour. Next morning I signed and drove off.

vj123 said:

Bring in your trade in negotiation only after you negotiate your deal.

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Yup, that's what I always do (and it pisses them off)
BUT then I know where I'm starting at

I hate it when they roll it all together and it's not separated

I typically negotiate over email, I don't do anything over the phone. I tend to pick several dealers that have the same car, and once I get a price in email, I negotiate with another dealer to lower the price and the email serves as proof of the offered price. Once I am satisfied with the price, I negotiate my trade in value over email as well, and if the dealer is willing to make a deal, I only then go in, sign the paper work and leave with the car.

My family bought two cars last year. We ended up doing the same strategy with both.
Shopped around online and found the dealers in the area with the exact trim/color combos we wanted, from there used truecar to get quotes and went in with the lower quotes. We still had to haggle a bit when we got there, they through the "the system made an error, we never seen it do that before" ect ect BS but ultimately got very close to what we were quoted. It cut down on the haggle time to maybe 1-2 hours since we were starting with a low price printed on paper instead of starting from MSRP. I remember 15 years ago it taking like 4-6 hours with those ****ers and literally us staying there past closing time.

Ended up getting both from the same city, one mazda, one vw. There were a ton of options where we were but for whatever reason (low property taxes, low operating costs ect) both dealers that were offering the lowest price were in the same area.

Best advice is to know what you want (model, color etc). Know how much you want to pay. True Car helps. Make the offer online or by email and take that in with you. Above all be prepared to walk.
.
It took me 2 trips. The first dealer only agreed the price to get me in the dealership. As soon as I realized that I walked. The second place honored the deal

Spiny Norman said:

Best advice is to know what you want (model, color etc). Know how much you want to pay. True Car helps. Make the offer online or by email and take that in with you. Above all be prepared to walk.
.
It took me 2 trips. The first dealer only agreed the price to get me in the dealership. As soon as I realized that I walked. The second place honored the deal

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I just bought my wife Passat about 3 months ago. Made the deal and then they came with the paper work with some dealer prep fee. I told the salesmen that I was not going to pay for a dealer prep fee. Finance manager came to the booth and told me everyone pays for the dealer prep fee. I told him I'm not paying it. He then asked me, what do you want me to about it. I told him to eat it. He then said that he could not deduct it.. Maybe the sales manager or salesmen would pay for it. When the salesman came back and said he could not do anything for me I got up and walked out.......I Don't Play! All for $136.00

The best time to buy a car is when you don't need to buy a car.
I get my financing before I shop. Check in hand gives you more power.
No Trades
And research you product know what you are buying........The dealer either did not know or tried to tell me a SE with Sunroof and NAV that They had advertised as a SEL Premium. Thats why they were trying to add money to the deal because I told them that they wanted too much that car because of that fact.