2 ms·

Slightly misleading, because there's only audio of him talking about it, but no audio of the actual conversation.

by pdknsk 14y ago

Silhouette 14y ago
He did get quite an impressive result, though, and there's some interesting (to me, at least) discussion of negotiating tactics that people who do this stuff for a living actually get taught.
- joshfraser 14y ago
  Without knowing the invoice value of the car or what he paid, there's no way to know if he got a good deal. There's a good chance he still overpaid for that car. I worked at a car dealership for a summer. There were plenty of times when a customer would start off with a reasonable offer but we'd still negotiate back and forth multiple times. We did this not just to increase our profits but also because we wanted people to walk away feeling like they'd won. If the sales guy had accepted his first offer right away the customer would have walked away feeling screwed (which is bad for repeat business and referrals). My job was to make everyone walk away feeling like they'd out-negotiated me. In reality, no car would leave the lot unless the dealership was making money. This doesn't discount the value of the technique, just remember car salesmen also negotiate for a living.
  - michaelt 14y ago
    They said he tried other dealerships and couldn't get such a good deal, so presumably there wasn't much left in it for the dealership.
  - tptacek 14y ago
    Worth noting here that "invoice" is a meaningless number too. "The dealers are provided with incentives by the manufacturers", which is another way of saying that the invoice prices are a fairy tale. Invoice is the new sticker. There's a pretty good EconTalk with Russ Roberts talking about the fine details with a dealership sales manager. You have to read between the lines (Roberts is not such a great interviewer that he gets a car salesman to torpedo their own best interests) but it's pretty illuminating. As in all things, it's mostly about the market. There are makes/models where sticker isn't even the real sticker; for instance, cars with waitlists are unlikely to get purchases under sticker. On the other hand, you can capture much of the dealer's incentive if you choose the right time of month to make an offer on a car the dealer would like to get off their lot.
jeffdavis 14y ago
That bothered me too. Any educational value this might have is in the subtle details, and they left all of those out: no audio/video, no numbers, and we don't know what both sides knew before the negotiation started. It's basically as educational as anyone at a cocktail party talking about the good deal they got on a car. Except in that case, you'd at least get the numbers.

Slightly misleading, because there's only audio of him talking about it, but no audio of the actual conversation.

by pdknsk 14y ago

Slightly misleading, because there's only audio of him talking about it, but no audio of the actual conversation.

He did get quite an impressive result, though, and there's some interesting (to me, at least) discussion of negotiating tactics that people who do this stuff for a living actually get taught.

joshfraser 14y ago
Without knowing the invoice value of the car or what he paid, there's no way to know if he got a good deal. There's a good chance he still overpaid for that car. I worked at a car dealership for a summer. There were plenty of times when a customer would start off with a reasonable offer but we'd still negotiate back and forth multiple times. We did this not just to increase our profits but also because we wanted people to walk away feeling like they'd won. If the sales guy had accepted his first offer right away the customer would have walked away feeling screwed (which is bad for repeat business and referrals). My job was to make everyone walk away feeling like they'd out-negotiated me. In reality, no car would leave the lot unless the dealership was making money. This doesn't discount the value of the technique, just remember car salesmen also negotiate for a living.
- michaelt 14y ago
  They said he tried other dealerships and couldn't get such a good deal, so presumably there wasn't much left in it for the dealership.
- tptacek 14y ago
  Worth noting here that "invoice" is a meaningless number too. "The dealers are provided with incentives by the manufacturers", which is another way of saying that the invoice prices are a fairy tale. Invoice is the new sticker. There's a pretty good EconTalk with Russ Roberts talking about the fine details with a dealership sales manager. You have to read between the lines (Roberts is not such a great interviewer that he gets a car salesman to torpedo their own best interests) but it's pretty illuminating. As in all things, it's mostly about the market. There are makes/models where sticker isn't even the real sticker; for instance, cars with waitlists are unlikely to get purchases under sticker. On the other hand, you can capture much of the dealer's incentive if you choose the right time of month to make an offer on a car the dealer would like to get off their lot.

jeffdavis 14y ago

That bothered me too. Any educational value this might have is in the subtle details, and they left all of those out: no audio/video, no numbers, and we don't know what both sides knew before the negotiation started. It's basically as educational as anyone at a cocktail party talking about the good deal they got on a car. Except in that case, you'd at least get the numbers.