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No haggle, if genuine, means that there's less information asymmetry between buyer and seller. A buyer can look at a variety of places and see real prices, and

No haggle, if genuine, means that there's less information asymmetry between buyer and seller. A buyer can look at a variety of places and see real prices, and thus have a gauge of the market. If everything is a negotiation, you'd have to invest considerable time negotiating the 'true' values, or else estimating based on general market knowledge. In either case, the buyer has to work much harder to gather information about the market. A reduction in information asymmetry should work strongly in the buyer's favor relative to the old system.

hunter2_ 8y ago
It's true: with haggling, the buyer is at a disadvantage if they don't have the time to gather information. But isn't that like with supermarkets, where the buyer is at a disadvantage if they don't have the time to clip coupons? In both cases, the point is to let people who have more money but less time subsidize people who have more time but less money, so that everyone can obtain the goods even if they don't quite pay the average price required to keep the business afloat. I should think that if you're against one of these tactics (haggling), you should also be against the other (clipping coupons). Curious if that's the case.
- closeparen 8y ago
  Dealers really don't like to give you give you an offer good for more than a few minutes, let alone in writing. Coupon prices are published in a separate venue, but still published.
  - hunter2_ 8y ago
    Couponing for groceries is a pain in the ass, so enough people don't bother to do it, and that makes for a stable balance of people paying too much and people paying too little. With something as high value and infrequently purchased as a vehicle, finding a coupon in a separate venue is something almost everyone would do if they knew about it, and so it wouldn't achieve the necessary balance. Whatever the tactic is (haggling, couponing, who knows what they'll think of next) it has to be a sufficient pain in the ass for this concept (letting people with extra money and no extra time subsidize the opposite) to work. Not everyone agrees with this concept (stealing from the rich to give to the poor, welfare, however you want to think of it) but at the end of the day it makes for more people being able to purchase.
    - closeparen 8y ago
      Shopping for outside financing and declining the prepaid maintenance contract are also things everyone would do if they knew. They are well documented in any kind of “how to buy a car” article, yet most people don’t seem to know.

hunter2_ 8y ago

It's true: with haggling, the buyer is at a disadvantage if they don't have the time to gather information. But isn't that like with supermarkets, where the buyer is at a disadvantage if they don't have the time to clip coupons? In both cases, the point is to let people who have more money but less time subsidize people who have more time but less money, so that everyone can obtain the goods even if they don't quite pay the average price required to keep the business afloat. I should think that if you're against one of these tactics (haggling), you should also be against the other (clipping coupons). Curious if that's the case.

closeparen 8y ago
Dealers really don't like to give you give you an offer good for more than a few minutes, let alone in writing. Coupon prices are published in a separate venue, but still published.
- hunter2_ 8y ago
  Couponing for groceries is a pain in the ass, so enough people don't bother to do it, and that makes for a stable balance of people paying too much and people paying too little. With something as high value and infrequently purchased as a vehicle, finding a coupon in a separate venue is something almost everyone would do if they knew about it, and so it wouldn't achieve the necessary balance. Whatever the tactic is (haggling, couponing, who knows what they'll think of next) it has to be a sufficient pain in the ass for this concept (letting people with extra money and no extra time subsidize the opposite) to work. Not everyone agrees with this concept (stealing from the rich to give to the poor, welfare, however you want to think of it) but at the end of the day it makes for more people being able to purchase.
  - closeparen 8y ago
    Shopping for outside financing and declining the prepaid maintenance contract are also things everyone would do if they knew. They are well documented in any kind of “how to buy a car” article, yet most people don’t seem to know.