re: How much lower can you talk down the dealership from the internet price?

There's no way to tell until you get out there and make them compete with each other. Wife and I just bought an Expedition and we're picking it up on Friday afternoon. We went to one dealership here in Austin, got them to printout their best price so "we could go home and talk about it". I've found that unless you have a print out of another dealer's price, most salesman will take your "but deal X offered me Y price" with a grain of salt.

Next step was calling and/or e-mailing virtually every Ford dealership from Austin to Houston and having them compete back and forth until there was only one left standing.

For reference: The MSRP on her car is 62k and we're paying 49k drive-out.

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we're paying 49k drive-out.

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In the market for a new truck. Internet prices for some of these trucks are already 9-11k off MSRP. Can you go in and haggle some more off or is the internet price the rock bottom?

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Over the weekend, we bought a slightly used (about 8500 miles) 2019 Pathfinder. We were able to negotiate it down about $1,000 from the internet price.

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Anybody noticing the internet price, followed by the "conditional final price"? I've seen a bunch of dealers lately with the conditional final price being a bunch of mark downs for FFA, Realtors, Military, etc.

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Must be looking at Dodge/Ram/Chrysler products.

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I've seen a bunch of dealers lately with the conditional final price being a bunch of mark downs for FFA, Realtors, Military, etc. I'm none of those, but I want the truck at that price.

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When I was young and stupid, I wanted a new car. I had not yet graduated college, but had some decent income and qualified for the loan. I was looking at a Lancer and they had a $750 discount for recent college grads. They would not give me the discount because i was still 6 months away from graduating.

I told them I was getting the discount or I wasn't buying the car, they could call the discount whatever they needed to call it. They gave it to me.

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Friend did that and worked well lol

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I met a guy on flights from Cleveland > Dallas > Lake Charles with nothing but the clothes on his back who came down to buy his truck and drive back to Ohio.

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P.S. I've read the Will Cover method and will use it

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You don’t have to go through that whole song and dance, and if you know what vehicle you want you don’t have to set foot in a dealership until you are picking up your vehicle - shop online.

1) Go to a site like cargurus and search for the vehicle you want in a 500 mile radius (or nationwide if you are willing to fly)

2) Find the best half dozen or so advertised deal

3) email each dealer with your best price and play them against each other - prices will drop quickly

4) Drive if you have a trade -in or fly if not and pick up your vehicle.

I bought my wife a small SUV in Pensacola yesterday, and that was the 6th car I’ve bought online in the past several years. Even on that cheap vehicle (Hyundai Tucson) I got $5,800 off sticker (18% off) and beat the two best local deals by over $1,400 (the two locals were within $60 of each other and straight up said they couldn’t come anywhere near my price). On a higher priced vehicle like my first Vette, I beat the local dealers by around $6,000 by buying in Atlanta. Bought my other Vette in April in Knoxville.Rarely can local dealers compete. 4 of those 6 deals also involved trade-ins, and I got my trade price online as well with just photos. The one time I’ve flown, a ticket to Dallas cost me $90 and the salesman picked me up at the airport.

People make car buying far more complicated than it needs to be with all this “Will Cover” crap. It’s 2019. We live in the internet age, folks.

ETA: For the Tucson I actually did have to go to a local dealer because my wife had to test drive and make sure she wanted that vehicle. But I already had 3 great prices in Florida, so the actual “negotiating” at the dealership took all of 10 minutes to find out they couldn’t beat that price. Car buying comes down to two questions repeated to multiple dealers - “What’s your best price?” and “Can you beat this price?”

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Explain this please. Every dealer I’ve tried to email lately has refused to do any talking online, they either insist we talk on the phone or I come in

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Rarely have I had a dealer refuse to deal through email. We even just called/texted a dealer only 40 minutes away, and when we told them we’re not coming in without a deal in place, they relented and gave me their best price (knowing what price they had to beat). One of the Florida dealers started out with “get your best price and I’ll beat it,” and this is the email I replied with:

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I'm getting prices from around 6 different dealers and buying in the next 48 hrs. , so I really don't have time to play "beat this price" from dealer to dealer. I'm just gathering each dealer's best and final initial offer and taking the best deal. No offense, but you either have a "best price" or don't. Thanks for your time

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Of course I was lying, because playing the dealers against each other is exactly what I was doing.

Here was their response:

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I am not about playing games, I was simply trying to save you some time. We have been talking about the Tucson Night model and the pricing is below for you as requested. This includes all taxes, tags and fees assuming a new tag and Louisiana taxes and all the incentives that I can use on your behalf. Pricing is good under close of business on 31st July and I am also using an additional $500 assuming you will finance with Hyundai. If you choose not to do that then price will go up by that $500. It also includes the extra value of our dealer installed options which include tint, paint protection and pinstripe. I can tell you from experience that most dealerships have dealer installed options and our protection package is lower than the vast majority of Hyundai dealers at $1546 to save you money! Let me know if you want to move forward at this price.

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The price she gave me was actually the best deal I got by $900, but they were 655 miles away and Pensacola was only $900 more and 500 miles closer. I wasn’t in the mood to fly to Bradenton, and I didn’t have a trade-in so I would have had to drive there and then my wife and I both drive back. But that simple email exchange was all it took to get $6,700 off and beat both local dealers by $2,300 on a vehicle that stickered for a bit over $30K.

If you search a large radius, there will be dealers with advertised prices far below local dealers, but it usually includes rebates you don’t qualify for, so for the most part you are getting their “real” price, but they always drop a bit from their when they know what price they have to beat.