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Flying for low price new from dealer? (especially VA/MD)

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adam1991

Banned
Location
USA
CB1111 said:
How did you contact the COSTCO program? I don't seem to find a contact.
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They followed up with a customer satisfaction email, and asked if I would like them to contact me. Yes, absolutely.

And the guy was very serious about his program, and very concerned about how this particular dealer was representing his program. They have strict rules about how the dealer is to present itself to the Costco member, and this dealership in question violated every one of them.


All these car buying programs are going down the tubes.
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I thought about going through the process again to see if they have changed dealers. I absolutely will go through it again the next time I'm in the market.


USAA used to give you a price and a list of dealers. Now they've teamed up with TrueCar and send you to a dealer for a price.

COSTCO is the same. They now give you the name of a salesman at a dealership and they give you a price.
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Costco didn't give me a price. Nor did they give me a name right up front. They simply said, "here's your dealer, they will be in touch". And sure enough, just a few minutes later I got a call from some woman at the dealer.

I had to go in and present my Costco card before they would give me "the price". Oh, the Costco site had all the rebates and incentives up front, as well as the invoice price. All that was left was the "final" price--which meant "here's how much under invoice you get, plus you get all rebates and incentives". So if you paid even a little attention at the Costco site, you could go in prepared and right away do the math and know if they're trying to screw you.

I sent an email to the dealership to get the cOSTCO price. I also sent another email to that email asking for their price without any special incentives (military, grad, partner etc.) and paying cash.

The non-COSTCO price was a bit lower. Subtract incentives and you're looking at a significant savings over the COSTCO price.
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Technically, they're not to give you the Costco price until you show your membership card. Regardless, it was also the case for me that the non-Costco dealer offered me a better price. Right up front, as a matter of fact, with zero haggling. He stuck to that price, because he knew it was a great price. I took a few weeks to validate that. He earned my business.
 
A

adam1991

Banned
Location
USA
CB1111 said:
How can you expect to buy a 2018 Honda Accord for $7,800 or a 2017 Volkswagen GTI for $5,320?

The prospective buyers should be prosecuted as well for trying to buy stolen property.
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They should also be taken off the voter rolls, and be ineligible for jury duty.
 
The Fed

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
This was back in the 90's:

Salespeople were taught that all buyers are liars, and it was the salesperson's job to separate as much money as possible from their buyer. They were also taught it was their duty to provide for themselves and their families, and to never feel bad when they "fleece" a customer. Years ago, one dealership had a bell. They got to ring it if they convinced a customer to pay MSRP.

I knew of a huge dealership that pitted the salespeople against each other. Every month, the lowest performing salesperson was invited to leave. And almost all dealerships paid "draw". Anyone in sales knows what I'm talking about. You were invited to leave if you owe the dealership too much.

I don't think things have changed much if at all.
 
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cb1111

cb1111

Newbie
Location
Virginia, USA
The Fed said:
This was back in the 90's:

Salespeople were taught that all buyers are liars, and it was the salesperson's job to separate as much money as possible from their buyer. They were also taught it was their duty to provide for themselves and their families, and to never feel bad when they "fleece" a customer. Years ago, one dealership had a bell. They got to ring it if they convinced a customer to pay MSRP.

I knew of a huge dealership that pitted the salespeople against each other. Every month, the lowest performing salesperson was invited to leave. And almost all dealerships paid "draw". Anyone in sales knows what I'm talking about. You were invited to leave if you owe the dealership too much.

I don't think things have changed much if at all.
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Little has changed.
 
Strange Mud

Strange Mud

Autocross Champion
Location
Small Town CT
Car(s)
Assorted
much has changed with the internet.....consumers are way more informed and it's easier to get prices from multiple dealers.


I did change easy to easier....
 
cb1111

cb1111

Newbie
Location
Virginia, USA
Strange Mud said:
much has changed with the internet.....consumers are way more informed and it's easier to get prices from multiple dealers.


I did change easy to easier....
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The mentality of car dealers has changed little and in some ways have gotten sneakier.

The four square remains, games in the finance office remain and the sleaziness is still there.

TrueCar (et-all) have given the consumer the impression that they have the correct information to get a great deal, but this is just more of the dealership shell game.

Quite frankly, before all of the customer incentives started in the 2000's, it was easier to buy a car because the only real games the dealer could play was with the trade. Today, they can play with the trade, incentives and the loan numbers.

Before dealers got into the financing game, nobody bought a car based on monthly payments and a three year loan was it. Today, the loan can exceed the lifespan of the car.

We've also got a bunch of stupid consumers out there that do really foolish things with their money and don't do proper research.

The dealerships have adapted to the internet far faster than the consumer believes. Selling cars is their game and they remain very good as getting as much money as possible from us.
 
D

David51

New member
Location
West Chester, PA
chilly said:
Looking for a 2018 bare bones S. I can get Partner Pricing, plus $2k worth of incentives (as of 8/7/18). That puts me at $23,750 without haggling, which is not my specialty. No dealers on Cargurus within 100 miles of me beat that price on the site at least.

If I expand my search to include a 350 mile fly out / drive back to Virginia or Maryland, there are a number of dealers listing same car for about $20k. That's a $3500 difference for a cheap one way plane ticket. Even if the shady doc type fees are a few hundred more than where I'm at.

Would you do it? Anyone done it - especially with one of those VA/MD dealers (ie. are they shady... Sheehy - Springfield, VA; King - Gathersburg, MD; Fairfax - Fairfax, VA)
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I saw an advertised price by a VA dealer that seemed quite low--when I inquired, they actually quoted me a slightly lower price than advertised, but were not including the freight. When I voiced my disappointment, they said they basically said that they had to do what was competitive in the DC market, but that they didn't include all the other discounts (college grad, first responder, etc) in their pricing but other dealers did.

They were still cheaper than other dealers I got quotes from, and are also the closest to me (they are 150 miles away) that actually has what I want. If all goes well I should be able to pick the car up Sunday..will report back how things go and if there were any surprises.
 
cb1111

cb1111

Newbie
Location
Virginia, USA
David51 said:
I saw an advertised price by a VA dealer that seemed quite low--when I inquired, they actually quoted me a slightly lower price than advertised, but were not including the freight. When I voiced my disappointment, they said they basically said that they had to do what was competitive in the DC market, but that they didn't include all the other discounts (college grad, first responder, etc) in their pricing but other dealers did.

They were still cheaper than other dealers I got quotes from, and are also the closest to me (they are 150 miles away) that actually has what I want. If all goes well I should be able to pick the car up Sunday..will report back how things go and if there were any surprises.
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Sounds like Lindsay. VA dealers also have a $699 processing fee that also isn't in their advertised price.


Which brings me to another point I should have mentioned in my post above - that over the years, the dealers have replaced their smaller margins with far higher processing fees. They can sell a car below invoice, with no incentives from the manufacturer (except holdback, sales number spiffs and salesperson payments) and still make a minimum of $1000 per car.

How? Very simple.

The salesperson gets roughly $50 from the manufacturer for each car sold. They get another $50 for each perfect survey.

The dealer gets anywhere between $25 and $100 per car sold based on their sales goals.

The sales manager gets a $$ amount for each sale.

There is between 2 and 3% holdback that gets paid after the car is sold, so $600'ish per. "average" car sold.

The dealership gets $699 for processing. Add it up and it is a pretty decent profit.

The above numbers vary by manufacturer (some don't have holdback for example) and the actual numbers are closely guarded secrets known only to dealership management and accounting.
 
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applesauce2

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
WV
If you really want to blow the mind of a salesperson from one of these dealers, simply ask them how much of the astronomical “savings” is a dealer discount and NOT cash or incentives from VW. I’ve yet to get a straight answer from one of them.
 
Chogokin

Chogokin

Autocross Champion
Location
So Cal
Car(s)
GTI Sport | Audi A3
^^Lol...wondering the same thing. I've read about people getting 8k off MSRP from VA dealers.
 
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