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I tried to buy a new car and ended up not buying anything due to stubbornness of salesmen. I couldn’t care less about personal interaction with sleazy salesman

I tried to buy a new car and ended up not buying anything due to stubbornness of salesmen. I couldn’t care less about personal interaction with sleazy salesman and when buying new car I just need the right price, not the sales dance done in person and all this “let me talk to the manager” BS. When salesman quotes me MSRP on my answer on the best deal - this is conversation over. When they stop treating customers like idiots they’ll get more business and more sales.

ryanmccullagh 6y ago
I think your approach is off. If you're serious about buying, you should state your price, and ask if they accept. Not play hardball and ask them to come up with a number. I bought my last new car with price negotiated on the phone before even showing up at the dealer. The hardball approach never worked for me. It's best to just know your max OTD (Out the door with taxes and fees) price and offer that.
- Trias11 6y ago
  Agree with OTD approach. Helps to prevent fraud with "document" fees BS or whatever they'll use to sneak in extra $100's and $1000's.
McKayDavis 6y ago
If you have a Costco membership, I highly recommend you contact the Costco Auto program [1]. They pre-negotiate a discounted price with nearby dealer on your behalf. [1] https://www.costcoauto.com https://www.costcoauto.com
- pbourke 6y ago
  If you work for a large company, or one that is a supplier to automakers, I highly recommend researching whether your company is part of the make’s corporate discount program. The prices are often in the neighborhood of employee pricing, and often publicly-advertised incentives will stack with the corporate discount.
- Trias11 6y ago
  In the area when I live Costco auto doesn’t cover the cars I wanted. If it would - that typically is a great deal
- nrclark 6y ago
  I bought a Rav-4 in 2018. When I was price-shopping, I included Costco Auto in my search. They weren't the cheapest (although they were very low-hassle), but they were close to the best price I could get from a nearby dealer. In the end, I went round-robin with a few dealerships (taking one dealership's offer to another dealership and asking them to beat it), and wound up with a price around $1000 less than the Costco Auto price. I had to drive an hour to get the car, but that's no big deal in the long run. So my two cents is that Costco Auto maybe hits a sweet spot between "don't want to negotiate" and "good price". But if you enjoy the thrill of the hunt, you can probably do better than the Costco Auto prices.
wahern 6y ago
It's not uncommon for popular models to sell at MSRP or above. That's just supply & demand. The dance is extremely annoying, though. I've leased 4 cars since 2011: 3 Mercedes and 1 Honda CR-V. I wanted to lease another CR-V, but the dealership reneged on the price so we just went back to our trusty sales rep at the Mercedes dealership who always comes back with something reasonable in a matter of hours--not especially low, but no B.S. and no pressure tactics. The Mercedes is of course more expensive, but after splurging the first time it's hard to stop the cycle given the customer experience. I want to buy something to replace our 20-year-old Civic. Probably not a Mercedes, because of long-term costs, unless we buy over our current lease. But it's really no fun dealing with typical dealerships, and the good family cars (e.g. Telluride, CR-V, etc) are really popular and the dealerships know this. I recently learned that there's a boutique car shopping consulting industry where you pay a few hundred dollars for someone to provide advice on models (including family haulers, not just high-end sports cars), and then to solicit and secure offers on your preferred models. I might try that next time around.
- drchiu 6y ago
  I did this with a Honda minivan a few years back. Got one of these buying agents to negotiate and get the deal. Just went into the dealership and got the car. In and out within 15-20 mins to sign paper and pick up the keys. I can relate about the dance though. The popular Japanese imports last basically forever and the salespeople’s tactics aren’t great. I’ve said to myself more than a few times I’d get a Tesla so I could just get everything done in a web browser.
- akiselev 6y ago
  > I recently learned that there's a boutique car shopping consulting industry where you pay a few hundred dollars for someone to provide advice on models (including family haulers, not just high-end sports cars), and then to solicit and secure offers on your preferred models. I might try that next time around. I can't recommend these services enough. I've never actually paid them anything upfront to search for cars, but many of them are semi-retired car enthusiasts from finance or tech who can afford to get used dealership licenses and start their own business. They'll help anyone but their inventory is well curated and often priced for velocity rather than profit maximization. They'll hang onto $100k classic to get the right price but will happily take a client's low mileage 201x Toyota as a low risk trade-in to get them into a the right Mercedes they want and then flip the Toyota a week later for a few thousand under blue book just because they've got limited parking space.
discardable_dan 6y ago
The last time I bought a car, I got the direct number for a salesman. I texted him and told him which car I wanted (including inventory number, available thanks to their website), what number would get me in the door, and I would walk in the door and sign paperwork _at that number_. It worked surprisingly well, and cut a lot of the bullshit out.
tzs 6y ago
> I couldn’t care less about personal interaction with sleazy salesman and when buying new car I just need the right price, not the sales dance done in person and all this “let me talk to the manager” BS. That "talk to the manager" BS worked out in my favor the last time I bought a car. I had been leasing a Honda CR-V, for stupid reasons [1], and when that lease was up wanted to buy a new CR-V. I found a dealer online about an hour or so away with a good price for online purchases. But I wanted to at least do a test drive of the new models first, to make sure Honda had not made any changes that would sour me on it. I went to a nearby dealer to do a test drive, intending to tell them I was just looking. If I liked it I'd then buy from the online dealer. After the drive, the salesman names a price. I told him that I knew that the dealer an hour away would sell it to me for $X, which was less than the price he offered, but if they could match that price I'd buy from them. He does the "I'll have to talk to my manager" thing. The thing is, this was a new salesman, and I think he was nervous. I don't think he actually listened to the price I named. He comes back, and announces a new price they will let me have it for...and that new price is quite a bit lower than $X. I'm not kidding...I told him what I was willing to pay for the car, and he came back with a lower counter-offer! I took it, and am still driving that car 14 years later. [1] I normally buy rather than lease, but leased a CR-V for two years to see if I liked that form factor. When that was up, I leased another one for two more years, followed by one for three years. It was only then that I remembered that I has stupidly forgotten that the plan was after the first lease was up to either buy a CR-V, or go back to small sedans.
m463 6y ago
Is the tesla model ok for you or not? I'm curious. You could look at it as no haggling (and no sleazy salesfolks), you could look at it as everybody pays MSRP or you could say everybody gets the same deal.
- Trias11 6y ago
  I was looking for good financing and Tesla doesn’t offer it. Well, it technically does but at high unacceptable interest rate
  - jdxcode 6y ago
    You can get financing from anywhere. Unless you wanted one of those 0% deals, in which case that’s why you weren’t offered less than MSRP
geon 6y ago
As an introvert, being “salesman-ed” a car sounds like hell.
- me_me_me 6y ago
  That's why you need to train to be bit more confrontational. 'I don't like how you treat me. This makes me uncomfortable. Drop this attitude or I will walk' If they don't, just walk. There is no point going through it feeling uncomfortable. The whole point of buying stuff is to be pampered and comfortable.
  - Trias11 6y ago
    Pro salesmen make it look very friendly, very subtle pushing of subtle psyche buttons. This doesn't work on me but whenever i ignore, walking out or confronting them - my wife typically trying to scold me for not being nice to nice saleman. Which means their technique works really well on gullible people.
    - me_me_me 6y ago
      > Which means their technique works really well on gullible people. Don;t tell that to your wife :D And yes, they use it because it works. But on me it has the opposite effect. The moment the salesman tries to help/advice me differently I get this creepy crawly feeling. And I am a big boy now, so they cut it off or i am walking. As introvert pleasing people so you can blend-in was my common go-to method. Any skillful salesman will walk all over you if you let them. I soon learnt salesmen are not your friends, so I don't treat them like you owe them something. I might have walk away from some good deals, but in my mind supporting an asshole by doing business with them only propagates that culture and behaviour. And I rather walk away then be part of it.
cactus2093 6y ago
I bought a car less than a year ago and actually had a surprisingly easy time. I don't if it's a Hyundai specific thing, but a most of the dealerships around me advertised "no hassle" pricing (I forget if that was the exact term). I knew the car and trim and color I wanted, I could see which dealerships had it in stock and requested a quote online from 5 different dealerships near me. Within less than an hour I got back a price quote from most of them, they were all kind of an expected amount below MSRP, but one was a full $1000 less than the next best price. I texted the salesperson, went in, test drove it, and left with the car an hour and a half later (the process of registering it and getting all the paperwork sorted out was still painfully slow and annoying, but at least I didn't have to go to the DMV I guess).
hansvm 6y ago
I do appreciate being able to test drive a bunch of different models -- last time I was in the market I discovered my intended purchase was unsuitable and found a car which my online research had overlooked. I would've (probably naively) paid a small premium to buy from the same place for that service, but man they threw the entire book of sleezy sales practices at me. At the end of the negotiations the best price they could do was an extra $8k in bogus fees on top of the already insanely overpriced sticker value. I walked, got a car a couple years older from a place across town for better than 4x cheaper, and have recommended everyone I know stay away from that dealer at all costs. I haven't regretted that decision a moment in the years I've had the car.

ryanmccullagh 6y ago

I think your approach is off. If you're serious about buying, you should state your price, and ask if they accept. Not play hardball and ask them to come up with a number. I bought my last new car with price negotiated on the phone before even showing up at the dealer. The hardball approach never worked for me. It's best to just know your max OTD (Out the door with taxes and fees) price and offer that.

Trias11 6y ago
Agree with OTD approach. Helps to prevent fraud with "document" fees BS or whatever they'll use to sneak in extra $100's and $1000's.

McKayDavis 6y ago

If you have a Costco membership, I highly recommend you contact the Costco Auto program [1]. They pre-negotiate a discounted price with nearby dealer on your behalf. [1] https://www.costcoauto.com https://www.costcoauto.com

pbourke 6y ago
If you work for a large company, or one that is a supplier to automakers, I highly recommend researching whether your company is part of the make’s corporate discount program. The prices are often in the neighborhood of employee pricing, and often publicly-advertised incentives will stack with the corporate discount.
Trias11 6y ago
In the area when I live Costco auto doesn’t cover the cars I wanted. If it would - that typically is a great deal
nrclark 6y ago
I bought a Rav-4 in 2018. When I was price-shopping, I included Costco Auto in my search. They weren't the cheapest (although they were very low-hassle), but they were close to the best price I could get from a nearby dealer. In the end, I went round-robin with a few dealerships (taking one dealership's offer to another dealership and asking them to beat it), and wound up with a price around $1000 less than the Costco Auto price. I had to drive an hour to get the car, but that's no big deal in the long run. So my two cents is that Costco Auto maybe hits a sweet spot between "don't want to negotiate" and "good price". But if you enjoy the thrill of the hunt, you can probably do better than the Costco Auto prices.

wahern 6y ago

It's not uncommon for popular models to sell at MSRP or above. That's just supply & demand. The dance is extremely annoying, though. I've leased 4 cars since 2011: 3 Mercedes and 1 Honda CR-V. I wanted to lease another CR-V, but the dealership reneged on the price so we just went back to our trusty sales rep at the Mercedes dealership who always comes back with something reasonable in a matter of hours--not especially low, but no B.S. and no pressure tactics. The Mercedes is of course more expensive, but after splurging the first time it's hard to stop the cycle given the customer experience. I want to buy something to replace our 20-year-old Civic. Probably not a Mercedes, because of long-term costs, unless we buy over our current lease. But it's really no fun dealing with typical dealerships, and the good family cars (e.g. Telluride, CR-V, etc) are really popular and the dealerships know this. I recently learned that there's a boutique car shopping consulting industry where you pay a few hundred dollars for someone to provide advice on models (including family haulers, not just high-end sports cars), and then to solicit and secure offers on your preferred models. I might try that next time around.

drchiu 6y ago
I did this with a Honda minivan a few years back. Got one of these buying agents to negotiate and get the deal. Just went into the dealership and got the car. In and out within 15-20 mins to sign paper and pick up the keys. I can relate about the dance though. The popular Japanese imports last basically forever and the salespeople’s tactics aren’t great. I’ve said to myself more than a few times I’d get a Tesla so I could just get everything done in a web browser.
akiselev 6y ago
> I recently learned that there's a boutique car shopping consulting industry where you pay a few hundred dollars for someone to provide advice on models (including family haulers, not just high-end sports cars), and then to solicit and secure offers on your preferred models. I might try that next time around. I can't recommend these services enough. I've never actually paid them anything upfront to search for cars, but many of them are semi-retired car enthusiasts from finance or tech who can afford to get used dealership licenses and start their own business. They'll help anyone but their inventory is well curated and often priced for velocity rather than profit maximization. They'll hang onto $100k classic to get the right price but will happily take a client's low mileage 201x Toyota as a low risk trade-in to get them into a the right Mercedes they want and then flip the Toyota a week later for a few thousand under blue book just because they've got limited parking space.

discardable_dan 6y ago

The last time I bought a car, I got the direct number for a salesman. I texted him and told him which car I wanted (including inventory number, available thanks to their website), what number would get me in the door, and I would walk in the door and sign paperwork _at that number_. It worked surprisingly well, and cut a lot of the bullshit out.

tzs 6y ago

> I couldn’t care less about personal interaction with sleazy salesman and when buying new car I just need the right price, not the sales dance done in person and all this “let me talk to the manager” BS. That "talk to the manager" BS worked out in my favor the last time I bought a car. I had been leasing a Honda CR-V, for stupid reasons [1], and when that lease was up wanted to buy a new CR-V. I found a dealer online about an hour or so away with a good price for online purchases. But I wanted to at least do a test drive of the new models first, to make sure Honda had not made any changes that would sour me on it. I went to a nearby dealer to do a test drive, intending to tell them I was just looking. If I liked it I'd then buy from the online dealer. After the drive, the salesman names a price. I told him that I knew that the dealer an hour away would sell it to me for $X, which was less than the price he offered, but if they could match that price I'd buy from them. He does the "I'll have to talk to my manager" thing. The thing is, this was a new salesman, and I think he was nervous. I don't think he actually listened to the price I named. He comes back, and announces a new price they will let me have it for...and that new price is quite a bit lower than $X. I'm not kidding...I told him what I was willing to pay for the car, and he came back with a lower counter-offer! I took it, and am still driving that car 14 years later. [1] I normally buy rather than lease, but leased a CR-V for two years to see if I liked that form factor. When that was up, I leased another one for two more years, followed by one for three years. It was only then that I remembered that I has stupidly forgotten that the plan was after the first lease was up to either buy a CR-V, or go back to small sedans.

m463 6y ago

Is the tesla model ok for you or not? I'm curious. You could look at it as no haggling (and no sleazy salesfolks), you could look at it as everybody pays MSRP or you could say everybody gets the same deal.

Trias11 6y ago
I was looking for good financing and Tesla doesn’t offer it. Well, it technically does but at high unacceptable interest rate
- jdxcode 6y ago
  You can get financing from anywhere. Unless you wanted one of those 0% deals, in which case that’s why you weren’t offered less than MSRP

geon 6y ago

As an introvert, being “salesman-ed” a car sounds like hell.

me_me_me 6y ago
That's why you need to train to be bit more confrontational. 'I don't like how you treat me. This makes me uncomfortable. Drop this attitude or I will walk' If they don't, just walk. There is no point going through it feeling uncomfortable. The whole point of buying stuff is to be pampered and comfortable.
- Trias11 6y ago
  Pro salesmen make it look very friendly, very subtle pushing of subtle psyche buttons. This doesn't work on me but whenever i ignore, walking out or confronting them - my wife typically trying to scold me for not being nice to nice saleman. Which means their technique works really well on gullible people.
  - me_me_me 6y ago
    > Which means their technique works really well on gullible people. Don;t tell that to your wife :D And yes, they use it because it works. But on me it has the opposite effect. The moment the salesman tries to help/advice me differently I get this creepy crawly feeling. And I am a big boy now, so they cut it off or i am walking. As introvert pleasing people so you can blend-in was my common go-to method. Any skillful salesman will walk all over you if you let them. I soon learnt salesmen are not your friends, so I don't treat them like you owe them something. I might have walk away from some good deals, but in my mind supporting an asshole by doing business with them only propagates that culture and behaviour. And I rather walk away then be part of it.

cactus2093 6y ago

I bought a car less than a year ago and actually had a surprisingly easy time. I don't if it's a Hyundai specific thing, but a most of the dealerships around me advertised "no hassle" pricing (I forget if that was the exact term). I knew the car and trim and color I wanted, I could see which dealerships had it in stock and requested a quote online from 5 different dealerships near me. Within less than an hour I got back a price quote from most of them, they were all kind of an expected amount below MSRP, but one was a full $1000 less than the next best price. I texted the salesperson, went in, test drove it, and left with the car an hour and a half later (the process of registering it and getting all the paperwork sorted out was still painfully slow and annoying, but at least I didn't have to go to the DMV I guess).

hansvm 6y ago

I do appreciate being able to test drive a bunch of different models -- last time I was in the market I discovered my intended purchase was unsuitable and found a car which my online research had overlooked. I would've (probably naively) paid a small premium to buy from the same place for that service, but man they threw the entire book of sleezy sales practices at me. At the end of the negotiations the best price they could do was an extra $8k in bogus fees on top of the already insanely overpriced sticker value. I walked, got a car a couple years older from a place across town for better than 4x cheaper, and have recommended everyone I know stay away from that dealer at all costs. I haven't regretted that decision a moment in the years I've had the car.