Interesting times trying to buy a truck

[truckin88]

So first, dealers suck to deal with on the phone, they want to give you factory rebates and thats it. And second the games are getting more interested. In my area, these dealers are shuffling inventory between them, so you see a truck on one dealers site, that truck is at another dealer 15 miles away in another town, same VIN and all, has now happened to me multiple times. Then I find a 2017 express, but I notice the bed has no liner, but the tailgate has a factory spray liner....and the tailgate has a laramie badge.... on an express, correct exterior color...Lot accident? These are all brand new trucks. I am off from work tomorrow, will be going to a new Ram dealer, a GMC and a chevy dealer, see what they say.

 

[huntergreen]

Could try Warwick dodge, surely dodge and Franklin Sussex automall in Jersey.

 

[1500canoe]

Usually the second I mention what kind of price another dealer is quoting me (i.e. $500 under invoice minus rebates), they either miraculously come way way down on their price, or flat out tell me "we can't do that right now".

I had several dealers that were quoting me $4-5k over invoice pricing when I asked for their "best price". Most came around when I said "this isn't at all what I was asking for" and quoted some other dealer's pricing.

 

[ColdCase]

Its pretty common now days for dealers to swap trucks, especially if they are owned by the same group. Thats how I got mine locally, they didn't have anything on the lot I was interested in, and they were hungry for business, so they found one 50 miles away and swapped with the dealer. There seems to be an unwritten rule that if you talked to that dealer 50 miles away, they wouldn't be able to make the swap at the price they were quoting me.

They sometimes put the wrong parts on at the factory, but I think bed liners are sprayed on off site and after the truck is put together. That sounds like a truck damaged in transit.

 

[WilliamS]

Moving inventory around is common place. Id bet 30% of my current inventory was from other dealers trading out vehicles. If a dealer, part of my group or not needs a vehicle we trade something back from them.

As for trying to negotiate over the phone, I wish you the best of luck with that. Some dealers might play, but most wont waste time on it anymore. Its become like the internet, a lot of people like the safety of distance, but what does a dealer gain by telling you a "best price" they know you are googling in the background the next dealer to call with that number to beat. The only way to get a "deal" is to be in person like the old days. As a sales manager I will let a customer beat me up for every cent in the store, over the phone they get a price and if they ask for more the only follow up is when can you come in? Otherwise Im just helping another dealer.

As for trucks being built wrong, best Ive seen in my years was an Avalanche. Half the truck (driver side0 was all Avalanche badges, and the passenger side, door panels sill plates and all were Escalade.

For the truck having the wrong tailgate, Ill bet money it was stolen and they threw one on from a used truck instead of ordering a new one. Tailgate are crazy expensive.

 

[1500canoe]

As for trying to negotiate over the phone, I wish you the best of luck with that. Some dealers might play, but most wont waste time on it anymore.

I've found this to be mostly true. You'll get a price out of nearly everyone over the phone, but I'd say 20% are actually giving you their "best" price (or something close to it). The rest are quoting thousands over invoice, which is, I assume, their standard "here's a price over the phone" price.

It's still worth it to shop around via phone in my opinion (vs wasting a ton of time driving around). Between small talk and other BS, you can spend hours at each dealer.

If you can, talk to sales managers on the phone, not the bottom tier salesmen. Know what stock # and VIN you're interested in, be specific and to the point:

Hi, I'm looking to buy a ____ like stock # ____ immediately and I'm shopping around for the best pricing. Minus factory rebates etc. can you quote me your best price on the vehicle?​

You'll at least get a feel for how each dealer does business, and pricing. Then, you'll be armed with more info when you actually go to visit a dealer or two that gave you good quotes and seemed like low/no BS. Save the true negotiating for at the dealership.

I've done precisely this several times, and recently drove 1.5 hours to a new dealer just because they were the cheapest by far and had no problem giving me their rock-bottom, best price over the phone with no sales BS. I'm so happy with how I was treated I may literally drive there for service.

 

[truckin88]

Ok so went to 3 dealers in person today....car buying sucks hahaha....I have been to 3 local and even checked out GMC. I am trading in a 2012 Cadillac SRX no loan on it 13K+ in equity. The best deal I got so far was the 2018 Express blackout for 9K off sticker. I don't know if thats great. Trade in was the same across the board. The dealer had 2 2017's left but he preferred to show me the 18's said there was more factory money on them.

Also agree with the above, phone calls dont work....to bad I cant buy a car like amazon. I feel like I should see 10K maybe 11K off sticker on a 2018 express....thoughts?

 

[1500canoe]

I feel like I should see 10K maybe 11K off sticker on a 2018 express....thoughts?

I think that's maybe possible. 9k off sticker on an Express is pretty good in my opinion. You're looking right now at probably 5-7k in rebates/incentives on a 2018 depending on where you live and what conditional things you might qualify for (like military discount of $500, if you've gotten a postcard in the mail from FCA recently which is good for another $500, etc.)

Factor in the difference between invoice and MSRP before those rebates/incentives and you should be able to get to about 10k off MSRP, but 9k is not bad.

 

[mohemipar]

I can also attest to dealers moving inventory around. It is not a big thing. This is actually how I brought my current Charger. I was thinking of ordering one but they found one optioned how I wanted it a few miles down the road from Detroit and they did a dealer trade. The problem is a lot of times dealer inventory isn't updated on the website. So that can suck if you expect an exact vehicle you see online to be there.

 

[zogg]

My son sells Chrysler vehicles and he does dealer trades all the time. Most dealers work together with each other on trades as it helps them sell more vehicles...it would be dumb not to do that. Sometimes they will tell you that if they have to trade a vehicle they won't be able to give you as good of a price....that's BS. They prefer to sell their own inventory to get it off the books....there is NO extra cost for trading vehicles, at least where my son works.

I bought a Ford Courier pickup many years ago....it was made by Mazda and sold through Ford dealers. My right front fender had a Mazda emblem on it, and everywhere else it said Ford. I guess the guy on the passenger's side of the truck didn't get the memo that they were switching from Mazda to Ford on the assembly line....hahahah

 

[truckin88]

The dealer is also telling me there is more money on 18's then 17's he has 2 17s on the lot.....

 

[kad]

You could try Healy Dodge/Jeep/RAM in Beacon. My family has bought a number of vehicles from them over the years. Avoid Dutchess Dodge in Poughkeepsie like the plague though...

-K

 

[FXCLM5]

There seems to be an unwritten rule that if you talked to that dealer 50 miles away, they wouldn't be able to make the swap at the price they were quoting me.

thats not true

so i found out a few years ago when i drove my neighbor to pickup his 2500 laramie ctd, he did a lot trade.

I did the same thing this year 2/2018 on a 17 ecodiesel, i had my local dealer do a lot trade for the truck i wanted that was over 120miles away.

You are not stuck with inventory on "their lot" i got the price i wanted through the lot trade, even the finance manager when i signed the paperwork was amazed at the discount I was getting for a new laramie

Of course i got the runaround with the sales guy - who kept saying he doesnt know if this was possible, and ultimately cameback and said his manager used to work there so they are doing this. But if I did it and my neighbor did it like 5+ years back, then any joe schmoe can do it too.

 

[Cmsharp]

Ok so went to 3 dealers in person today....car buying sucks hahaha....I have been to 3 local and even checked out GMC. I am trading in a 2012 Cadillac SRX no loan on it 13K+ in equity. The best deal I got so far was the 2018 Express blackout for 9K off sticker. I don't know if thats great. Trade in was the same across the board. The dealer had 2 2017's left but he preferred to show me the 18's said there was more factory money on them.

Also agree with the above, phone calls dont work....to bad I cant buy a car like amazon. I feel like I should see 10K maybe 11K off sticker on a 2018 express....thoughts?

In my area, you can get that truck for about 35k. Blackout, cc,4wd,hemi. List is about 46k, so 9k off is close to that.

 

[huntergreen]

Ok so went to 3 dealers in person today....car buying sucks hahaha....I have been to 3 local and even checked out GMC. I am trading in a 2012 Cadillac SRX no loan on it 13K+ in equity. The best deal I got so far was the 2018 Express blackout for 9K off sticker. I don't know if thats great. Trade in was the same across the board. The dealer had 2 2017's left but he preferred to show me the 18's said there was more factory money on them.

Also agree with the above, phone calls dont work....to bad I cant buy a car like amazon. I feel like I should see 10K maybe 11K off sticker on a 2018 express....thoughts?

20% off sticker plus rebates seems to be the going discount.

 

[truckin88]

what do you guys think about them saying less money on 17's?

 

[Rampant]

Ok so went to 3 dealers in person today....car buying sucks hahaha....I have been to 3 local and even checked out GMC. I am trading in a 2012 Cadillac SRX no loan on it 13K+ in equity. The best deal I got so far was the 2018 Express blackout for 9K off sticker. I don't know if thats great. Trade in was the same across the board. The dealer had 2 2017's left but he preferred to show me the 18's said there was more factory money on them.

Also agree with the above, phone calls dont work....to bad I cant buy a car like amazon. I feel like I should see 10K maybe 11K off sticker on a 2018 express....thoughts?

Been there, done it. Many times. No more. I bought my truck from Kernersville Ram in NC. Their prices and selection are great. It's the closest to buying on Amazon as you can get. You can dicker a little, but the prices are already about the best you're going to find. They really have their **** together. I had my own financing. Literally 2 phone calls and the truck was delivered to my driveway on a flat bed two days later. For free. They will deliver for free within 300 miles or buy you a plane ticket. Highly recommended.

 

[1500canoe]

20% off sticker plus rebates seems to be the going discount.

On a $50k truck, that's $10k off, and rebates are running $5-7k. So theoretically that's a $50k truck for $33-35k. The only place I've seen prices like that are the crazy "nobody qualifies for all of these rebates" prices on the dealer sites that are used to get people in the door.

20% is going to be far below dealer invoice. It's not impossible, but I wouldn't expect to do that well.

 

[huntergreen]

That's the deal I got on my 16. The 17s were coming in though. Seems to be a lot of folks getting this deal across the country from what I have read on the forums.

 

[1500canoe]

That's the deal I got on my 16. The 17s were coming in though. Seems to be a lot of folks getting this deal across the country from what I have read on the forums.

Yeah, I've seen it too on the forums. I think part of why I personally am not seeing this in my area quite so much is that the dealers are all smaller. I'm sure this summer the deals on '18s will only get better.