Teach Me "The Art Of The Deal".......

Sticker price (MSRP) was $71000.00 canadian. With trade and discounts I walked away for $33000.00 out the door. Traded my 2015 Outdoorsman.

Tray Burge said:

Also, if they offer you x amount in cash back or x amount in interest, you're going to pay the same either way, they've already done the math and it equals the same.

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This has historically been the case, but my last deal I had the option of $1000 cash or 4.99% for 5 years through Chrysler finance. I have an 833 credit score so I took the $1000 and got 2.55% through Chase bank.

The zero % or cash back deals are more of a dilemma. You need to answer questions like: Will you be keeping the vehicle through the term of the loan, and if not how long will you keep the car? If like me every 3 years you need to calculate savings on a 0% or 1% loan vs conventional loan through somebody else.

Around here, sales people can't make decisions. LOL! They like to play the "I need to check with my manager" game, and leave you sitting in their office for long periods of time.
Because of this, I absolutely hate buying at a dealership.

My solution to this, which has worked quite well, is as follows.
1: lots (weeks to months) of research prior to going to dealership. (This includes checking the inventory and picking the vehicle I want)
2: go to dealership for a test drive.
3: tell sales person that I am willing to pay "X" for the vehicle, and that I want "Y" for my trade(if I have a trade).
4: salesman says he has to check with his manager; to which I reply, "If he can do "X" and "Y" , then we have a deal, if not, I'll go elsewhere.

I usually have to walk away before they realize that I am serious, and one time I actually made it about a block down the street before they called and agreed to my terms.

The best was when I was buying my 99 ram 1500. The salesman came back with a counter offer that was still $1000 higher than I wanted to pay. When I got up to walk away, he asked me, "Are you going to let $1000 come between you and this truck?" I responded with "Are you going to let it come between you and a sale?" , and continued walking to my car. I was in the car, waiting on traffic to pull out of the lot, and he came running up and knocked on my window, and said they could come down another $1000.



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not sure what happened there, I was trying to edit my post above.

My dad always said, "They need to sale that vehicle more than you need to buy it. Never be afraid to walk out and look other places"

My granddad who owned a used car lot said give them a number lower than what you're willing to pay and sit on that number until they come down close to what you want to pay. Don't make any counter offers until they are close to the max you want to pay. Watched him work a miracle deal for a new (to him) truck, then called and made a deal for mine over the phone the same day.

Regarding the warranty contract, I didn't want one, but the finance guy put the fear of God in the wife talking about how expensive it is to repair diesel trucks. Ended up buying one for her peace of mind, and now 7 months later it will have paid for itself after 3 times in the shop. Will probably buy another one (this one expires soon) and keep it covered until I pay the truck off. Better to be making covered repairs while I'm making a payment than having to lay out for a full repair bill.

My suggestion would be to keep the trade as a completely separate transaction and negotiation process. Yeah, it goes toward the final price but if you had $5000 would it reduce the price paid? Over the course of a loan, yes, but it's a down payment, not a price reduction.

I would consider different trims at that price as well unless you need the simplicity of that model. You'll see the higher % off the Express and Big Horn in most cases.

I'm still not great at buying new vehicles, but I've bought three in my life. Great thread. My best lesson came from buying a dual cassette deck in the mid-80s. I drove across town during a snowstorm on a day they cancelled school in Milwaukee - I was 16. The electronics store was dead because of the storm. I really liked a floor model but just didn't have the cash. Who had credit cards??

I told the salesman that I wasn't going to pay $*** and walked out (I didn't have the cash). The manager ran after me and caught me as I walked out the door. He needed the sale, made it happen, and I still have that tape deck.

The two lessons that I learned that apply to buying a new vehicle:
1) Be prepared to walk out the door....and do it at a few dealerships to feel out how low they will go

2) Go when they need the sale most. I went during a bad snow storm. As other guys said, end of the year is good, end of the night... The finance guy and the sales guy want to get home too, so they may hold off on a few sales tricks.

Search AutoTrader, I found mine and my dad's trucks on there for ~11k off sticker price. We had to drive 3-4 hours to get them, but no big deal there...just look, wait, look, wait, and look some more until you're getting $10+ off sticker price. If your sticker is over $40k you should easily be able to find a dealership giving you $10k off.

its been said before but always negotiate a the final price for the truck, never what your payments can be. dealers can hide so much from you in the "payment" method. another thing ive noticed they do up here in canada is tell you the "difference" of the truck with your trade in already subtracted without ever giving you an actual number on either.

i always ask to write everything down and work the numbers back to the actual price for the truck

they do that in alberta?? but here in Winnipeg they showed me the price of my purchase plus what I owed on my trade in plus bank fees . I got 23% off msrp including incentives on a factory order.

TerraNewf said:

Sticker price (MSRP) was $71000.00 canadian. With trade and discounts I walked away for $33000.00 out the door. Traded my 2015 Outdoorsman.

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wow they gave you $38000 for your trade that's not bad at all I got $37000 for my2014 laramie in trade

If you've already done the math, working the difference is the same as negotiating a price. My car salesman granddad walked in and told them what he wanted as the difference between the truck and his trade-in and told them to write it up however they like.

spencer1122 said:

its been said before but always negotiate a the final price for the truck, never what your payments can be. dealers can hide so much from you in the "payment" method. another thing ive noticed they do up here in canada is tell you the "difference" of the truck with your trade in already subtracted without ever giving you an actual number on either.

i always ask to write everything down and work the numbers back to the actual price for the truck

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Yeah when I bought my ram they pulled that crap and tried to hide the price of the truck. Eventually he understood that I wanted to come to terms on price first, and then trade, and then financing options.


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barr0208 said:

wow they gave you $38000 for your trade that's not bad at all I got $37000 for my2014 laramie in trade

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Actually I got a$5000.00 discount and $32000.00 for my trade.

I typically dont even test drive a vehicle before I work a deal..I have a pretty good idea based on my research on the vehicle. Then I give a number, also based on my research.. If they can match my number.. THEN I drive the vehicle and continue onto purchase (or not). Sorry, but im not going to waste 30 minutes to an hour of my time driving around just so they can tell me my perception of what the deal should be is wrong.. My time is too valuable for that.
The Clincher being dont ever act like you NEED that vehicle..no matter how Badly you want it. Your attitude to the salesman when buying a 50K truck should be that of someone buying a 15 yr old family sedan..No Excitement, No emotion.
This works for me anyway..

Looking through these posts and the one thing that looks like is the most difficult of all is to just walk away from the negotiation table all together.

I have trouble with this because once you see something you want, natural instinct is to go buy it. While negotiating for my ram (now charger), I always had that feeling of " I need to get it now before someone else gets it".

When my fiance was shopping for her suv, that stress was off( off of me of course, but tough on her) and I helped her negotiate a better deal because I knew the number she had to be at, while she struggles with all of the "numbers" they threw at her, while focusing on how nice the suv was.

So at the end of the day, for me, you need that 3rd party "voice" to come with you, to tell you that you have a good deal, and not to worry about walking away from any deal.



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I usually drive an old crappy car when shopping, something the dealer wouldn't want and I'd probably pay extra for them to get rid of. Somehow trade in never comes up

arod412 said:

Looking through these posts and the one thing that looks like is the most difficult of all is to just walk away from the negotiation table all together.

I have trouble with this because once you see something you want, natural instinct is to go buy it. While negotiating for my ram (now charger), I always had that feeling of " I need to get it now before someone else gets it".

When my fiance was shopping for her suv, that stress was off( off of me of course, but tough on her) and I helped her negotiate a better deal because I knew the number she had to be at, while she struggles with all of the "numbers" they threw at her, while focusing on how nice the suv was.

So at the end of the day, for me, you need that 3rd party "voice" to come with you, to tell you that you have a good deal, and not to worry about walking away from any deal.



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i grinded back and fourth with a dealer for 2 days before ultimately walking away. i agree, it actually was pretty hard because at that point you know the guy and have been working with him trying to come to terms on a price.

long story short, i wrote my number on a piece of paper and put my visa on top (for a downpayment, i was about to leave for work) and told the guy i was talking with to bring it to whoever he needed to to get me that price. buddy comes back and said they couldnt do it so i walked, and actually, i signed for the same truck with another dealer the next day.

EDIT: what really sucked is that this guy not much older than me (mid 20's) worked for those 2 days and ended up making 0$. he told me they were strictly commission based

MSRP was 48, paid 38 OTD with taxes. Incentives were good and had employee discount.