Originally Posted by Danno
Originally Posted by WhyMe
i know its been tried in the past, but none have succeeded .
Why?
Porsche and Ferrari sell at msrp all day long.
But unless every dealership does it for "common" cars, no one can fo it for long. Consumers expect a huge discount. Caused by the car industry itself.
Saturn is one that tried it. They failed as their products were not competitive.
Saturn was actually selling well, but apparently GM was losing money on it. This Harvard Business Review piece sets out what they believe was the issue. It was an expensive proposition to get into, especially since they didn't share many parts with other GM vehicles. I know it changed a bit in the future, but it was never a great idea to begin with. The whole model where they insisted on set prices actually made them more expensive than comparable cars from Honda and Toyota.
https://hbr.org/2009/10/weep-not-for-saturn-the-brand
However, as many have stated nobody really needs to negotiate these days with all these internet services and others like AAA or Costco. But I remember a Honda dealer back in maybe 1999 that had a standard no-negotiation policy. They had a competitive price list for everything and posted it on their wall. If you really wanted one and didn't feel like negotiating, there were dealers at the time that would do it.
The strange thing is that I started looking at car dealer for a new car, and most sales don't seem to even be interested. Some dealers I saw employees just barely doing anything. I think they've gotten to the point where almost all their sales are via internet referrals and buying services like Costco. I mean - I bought my car 15 years ago through Edmunds.com. I did test drive my car at a dealer but had to think about it. In the meantime I just put in a request and got a great price. When I got to the dealer I figured I'd ask if they'd budge maybe $100 and I was told they only give their lowest price. But yeah - just put out what you want and nobody really needs to negotiate any more.
