My Dealer conversation-

CKN

Joined
Oct 14, 2014
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Location
Utah
The dealer sales person contacted me today via text from information I left from some time ago-

Salesperson-Hey it's Joe from XXXXXXX KIA-I was wondering if you had any questions I can help you with?
ME-What's your lead time on new Sorentos?
Sales person -6-8 Months. But we have been getting them a bit sooner!
Salesperson- I can make a refundable deposit based on your test drive when it gets here!
ME- Are you adding any fees over the MSRP other than Doc Fees and governmental fees?
Salesperson- We are adding our XXXX Dealer Protection Package and GA Security to the vehicles other than that No!
ME- That's an issue for me. That's why I will wait.
Salesperson-Why is that?
ME- Because I don't want those items regardless of costs or benefits.
Salesperson-I understand that! But everybody is charging over MSRP we are not - we are adding a package that benefits you!
Would rather just pay over MSRP for nothing?
ME- That's the rub. I don't need a vehicle bad enough to pay over MSRP-either through additional markup or items I don't want. I can wait another 12 months for the market to open if I have too.
Salesperson-Gotcha! It's going to be 15 to 24 months before it gets back to like before! If anything changes please let me know! Have a great day Sir!
ME-Thanks.

Couple of things-this guy really liked exclamation points. And this particular dealer advertises quite heavily that they don't sell over MSRP. Yea-right!
 
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I'd rather they charge over MSRP and be transparent than selling me a bunch of useless garbage that has a value of zero and sometimes damages a brand new vehicle. I won't even entertain doing business with the dealers that force their trash accessories on you.
 
Before Covid, I would get borderline kicked out of dealerships due my incessant haggling. If any family members need a vehicle, they send me out to make a great deal.

I research how much people paid for their vehicles on model specific forums, get the lowest number and call a dozen dealers. No need to test drive since we already know what we want and test drove the vehicle before. Some dealers want to play and some don't care, I usually find 2 or 3 that I pit against until I get the lowest price.

No docs fees (not required in most states), no crappy made up packages, have the taxes rolled in, no aftermarket marked up anything. It takes some work but I usually save thousands of dollars. I love going in and screwing these snakes, sometimes I feel like I just want to go to a dealer haggle and not buy a car lol.

Of course those times are over, all plans out the window.
 
I'm not even sure the product gets put on the vehicle. Sometimes you get a gift box of okay detail products, but of course it's not worth $999.99 or whatever on an addendum.

Salespeople like exclamation points. We got a Tahoe, Suburban, and Silverado in today, and they were jumping over each other to take pictures of them and make videos. The service writer was trying to pull the Tahoe in with them jumping all over it and got out and said "alright alright it's yours" shaking her head. It's a circus every time we get trucks in.
 
What gets me is all these “protection packages” are INVISIBLE!
is anything really there?
My wife worked for an Oldsmobile dealer in the 1980s. Every car had a fee for polyglycoat finish protection. She said they never did anything to the cars but put a brochure in the car at delivery.
😡
 
And you wonder why people are attracted to the direct sales model...
Direct sales: this is how much you are going to pay us and this is what you will get, we won't budge, take it or leave it.
Traditional: we have this car and this is 18xxx with this package and that package, now let's start negotiating.

Either way will work for me, I know I'm disciplined at my pricing and I am usually a pretty predatory bargain hunter, and usually prey on desperate dealers from a couple hundred miles away and I can wait a few months at a time. So far I did pretty well on my purchases in the last decade, but at this moment you really are competing with other buyers, direct sales won't save you money here in general. The only way to win right now is to not buy, and DIY repair what you already have.
 
Our dealer added the blinking upper brake light feature for $400 for our 4R. The paperwork was a bit misleading as he said that should have been included in the MSRP price, but when we were getting the money squared away, it was presented as an add on. Made no sense to me? It was non negotiable too. I wonder how many other dealers do this.

He proceeded to tell me most dealers charge 2-3k for this feature. I stopped listening after that and said I wouldn’t have bought it regardless because it didn’t interest me.

Sadly, we weren’t prepared to walk over this little issue so we took it. Come to think of it, did we really pay MSRP though? Lol.
 
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The dealer sales person contacted me today via text from information I left from some time ago-

Salesperson-Hey it's Joe from XXXXXXX KIA-I was wondering if you had any questions I can help you with?
ME-What's your lead time on new Sorentos?
Sales person -6-8 Months. But we have been getting them a bit sooner!
Salesperson- I can make a refundable deposit based on your test drive when it gets here!
ME- Are you adding any fees over the MSRP other than Doc Fees and governmental fees?
Salesperson- We are adding our XXXX Dealer Protection Package and GA Security to the vehicles other than that No!
ME- That's an issue for me. That's why I will wait.
Salesperson-Why is that?
ME- Because I don't want those items regardless of costs or benefits.
Salesperson-I understand that! But everybody is charging over MSRP we are not - we are adding a package that benefits you!
Would rather just pay over MSRP for nothing?

ME- That's the rub. I don't need a vehicle bad enough to pay over MSRP-either through additional markup or items I don't want. I can wait another 12 months for the market to open if I have too.
Salesperson-Gotcha! It's going to be 15 to 24 months before it gets back to like before! If anything changes please let me know! Have a great day Sir!
ME-Thanks.

Couple of things-this guy really liked exclamation points. And this particular dealer advertises quite heavily that they don't sell over MSRP. Yea-right!

Just before Christmas last year my bride and I test drove a Mazda CX5 at the nearest to us Mazda dealer. There was no ADM sticker on the car but there was a bogus package add on supplement to the Moroney sticker with two items I had never heard of before totaling $3999.95. When I questioned the salesperson about it, she said the same thing your salesperson said. Her dealership wanted buyers to feel like they were getting something for the extra money they were charging. Extra worthless add ons or just hammering you with a $3999.95 ADM, the end result was the same. We parked the CX5 we were test driving, thanked her for her time, and left. I was not in the mood to deal with that nonsense.
 
What gets me is all these “protection packages” are INVISIBLE!
is anything really there?
And if they ARE visible, they're probably bad news. Anyone remember the black tar-like rustproofing stuff from Ziebart, etc?

Back in 2002, my dad bought a new car and paid extra for rustproofing. For some reason, they weren't able to apply it the day he bought the car, so he had to bring it back during the week. He picked it up later that evening, and everything under the hood and under the car was coated with a sticky, waxy brownish substance. It looked filthy and attracted all manner of dust and dirt. And the car still rusted anyway.
 
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Before Covid, I would get borderline kicked out of dealerships due my incessant haggling. If any family members need a vehicle, they send me out to make a great deal.

I research how much people paid for their vehicles on model specific forums, get the lowest number and call a dozen dealers. No need to test drive since we already know what we want and test drove the vehicle before. Some dealers want to play and some don't care, I usually find 2 or 3 that I pit against until I get the lowest price.

No docs fees (not required in most states), no crappy made up packages, have the taxes rolled in, no aftermarket marked up anything. It takes some work but I usually save thousands of dollars. I love going in and screwing these snakes, sometimes I feel like I just want to go to a dealer haggle and not buy a car lol.

Of course those times are over, all plans out the window.
My wife got kicked out of a Toyota dealership for her aggressive haggling and calling the sales manager a liar.
 
Just before Christmas last year my bride and I test drove a Mazda CX5 at the nearest to us Mazda dealer. There was no ADM sticker on the car but there was a bogus package add on supplement to the Moroney sticker with two items I had never heard of before totaling $3999.95. When I questioned the salesperson about it, she said the same thing your salesperson said. Her dealership wanted buyers to feel like they were getting something for the extra money they were charging. Extra worthless add ons or just hammering you with a $3999.95 ADM, the end result was the same. We parked the CX5 we were test driving, thanked her for her time, and left. I was not in the mood to deal with that nonsense.

Glad that you walked. Did the dealer call you back? Pre-covid I would get 5 calls a day from dealers (not my real #, to Google voice of course) begging to work with me.
My wife got kicked out of a Toyota dealership for her aggressive haggling and calling the sales manager a liar.

Kudos and excellent work!

I guess the best tactic is to say X is my price, including tax. I don't care if you include a load of bananas for $3999, roll it into my final number and make it work.
 
Glad that you walked. Did the dealer call you back? Pre-covid I would get 5 calls a day from dealers (not my real #, to Google voice of course) begging to work with me.


Kudos and excellent work!

I guess the best tactic is to say X is my price, including tax. I don't care if you include a load of bananas for $3999, roll it into my final number and make it work.
You can't do that in this market. There are 5 buyers for every new vehicle a dealer gets delivered these days. No hope in sight for the next 12 to 24 months.
 
You can't do that in this market. There are 5 buyers for every new vehicle a dealer gets delivered these days. No hope in sight for the next 12 to 24 months.
Agree 100%, I feel sorry for current car buyers.
 
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It depends on the car and price.
We are talking NEW CARS. If you feel that most new vehicles are worth over what the MSRP says-there are plenty of dealers who place an order for you. That's reality-don't know the last time you new car shopped.
 
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