Posted on 04/03/2012 7:05:58 AM PDT by BO Stinkss
Reader Darrell was shopping recently for a new car and snapped a picture of the College Park Hyundai dealership in Maryland that's charging $1495 for dealer-installed door edge guards. "They were on every car on the lot," wrote Darrell. And at that price point, they better be filled with pearls and caviar drenched in panther blood.
Let's call and find out. When I called College Park Hyundai's General Sales Manager, Sudip Gutpa, he was guarded and asked what I was investigating. I noted that the markup on the door edge guards seemed pretty high. "What's your point?" he asked. I pointed out that you could get door guards for $8 on Amazon, and I asked what his rationale was for the pricing.
"In the state of Maryland, it's legal to have dealer markup due to vehicle demand," said Gupta. "I suggest you call up 300 other dealerships around the Beltway."
(Excerpt) Read more at jalopnik.com ...
I get this much car for this bottom line price, with or without trade in. Then once you decide on one or two models, canvas each dealer for that vehicle.
If you have a trade in, all you care about is the “DIFFERENCE” price. My car and how much cash? Don't get hung up on how much you are getting for your trade in. If they are charging you $4,000 for door edge guards, your trade in can be worth $4,000 more than at a dealer who isn't. FUZZY math. Forget payments and interest rates for now! Work that out later, maintaining the same “cash difference” price. Do not get switched to “payments”. REFUSE to get switched to payments until you know the bottom line “difference” price.
Never buy the heath and accident or life insurance on dealer provided financing. Never buy add on warranties, fabric or finish treatments.
Getting the best deal on a new car is a lot of WORK! You have to spend the time to compare makes, models, dealers, interest rates, terms, warranties, trade in value, delivery date, and more.
You have to determine your priorities. Is “COLOR” really that important? Status? Willing to wait for an ordered car so you can have it just the way you want it? (not so important these days as many cars come only with a few different packages of options).
Buy now, buy today, will usually get you the best, bottom line price, BUT you must have already done all of your research and preparations to be able to recognize and take advantage of it.
REMEMBER, the warranty is with the MANUFACTURER not the dealer. It doesn't matter (after adjustment period) that you bought it one place and take it somewhere else for warranty service.
You will have a better selection and lower prices in larger city suburbs. Spend the time to travel to nearby (100 miles, 2 hours or more) areas.
The personality of your salesman is not important, good or bad! You will likely never see them again.
I have purchased many new cars and have sold them for a living.
The Mini S uses run flat tires rated at 130mph, depending on brand, $200+ mounted and spun balanced is about the going rate. Ask me I’ve bought a few. The best price I could get after extensive shopping was about $700/4 on the car at Discount Tire.
What I don’t like about my Mini is the dealer’s hourly shop rates are high, factory parts are very high and about nobody else makes parts or works on them.
But like I said, at least they work for a living. How many times has Obama played golf in the past three years? I work with salesmen who's JOB it is to entertain customers and play golf.....and they WISH they got out on the links that often.
I beleive Mini is owned by BMW. That is SOP for BMW ... nothing on a BMW can be made to fit on any other car on the planet. That is why I will never own (another) BMW.
Excellent info for anyone not familiar with buying a vehicle to consider.
A few years ago, I was interested in the new camaro...wanted the the V8. Found a dealer with one and out of the box he wanted 10K over sticker, not negotiable. I said are you aware GM is in bankruptcy? He said he would have no problem selling the car at that price at which point we parted ways. Went to Hyundai, bought the just released Genesis 3.8 coupe at 1K under sticker, paid a 650 prep fee (hard to get that out) and got my car for under 30K verses the approximate 42K the jerk wanted. 10K over sticker for a mass produced car, unbelievable.
Our Chrysler dealer had, the last time I looked, “$1,400.00 ADM” on every vehicle sticker. Additional Dealer Markup.
At least they didn’t hide it.
Next step was to talk to the sales person. I told him that I was gong to buy that day, if the price was right. I told him to give me his best price and that he would only get one chance. If his price did not come in at or below what I was willing to pay, we would walk away, no hurt feelings.
However, if I was walking away and he came up with a second “lower” offer, then that meant he lied to me the first time, and I never do business with liars, and furthermore, I would let my friends know about this dishonesty.
As was mentioned in a previous post, let the dealer haggle with themselves. Had to go to 5 dealerships, spent about 10 minutes in 4 of them, (either refused to do business that way or made me a second offer). Bought the car from the 5th dealer when they offered me the car for $500 over invoice.
Great thread!
Nah, Ford is good, I love my Lincoln LS. Long live Ford. (And may Chevy return to what it once was)
LOL! My husband and I had this conflict when we first got married. If something was marked down, to him, it was a steal. It was not a caculation he had ever actually made, it was a sales slogan he had internalized. Anyhoo, that changed, thank goodness.
You story is not unuual. It’s common for hard to find cars to sell for much more than sticker.
It’s called supply and demand. And I don’t agree with you that the dealer was a jerk.
Years ago when the Chrysler PT Cruiser first came out, they were selling for 25 to 30 thousand bucks. Yes they were.
Ten years later - at the end of production, you could have bought that same car for $17,000.00
Anyway, back to your Camaro story. Everyone knows you don’t buy ANYTHING when it’s first released. Especially a car that is in limited supply. Just be patient and wait - the prices always fall.
No I am not.
PS: Dealer incentives are public knowledge, and I always offer to split it inhalf with the dealer.
Some shop is charging me $260 to replace a shifter cable on a durango. Im tempted to try to do it myself.
Mini is owned by BMW and we are looking to sell ours. I’m not commuting anymore and don’t need it. The Jeep Cherokee does much better on our gravel country road.
The salesman played the "let me pass you a piece of paper with the price written on it and have you write your price next to it." I wrote down my price. He acted shocked, and had to go talk to the sales manager. He came back with a price about 1/3 down between his and my price. No problem, I took his sheet of paper and wrote down my original offer minus $500 dollars.
This time he didn't act shocked. He was shocked. "Uh, you went down." Yup, I sure did. Come on back now with your next price and we will see what my next offer is.
We ended up at my original offer, and they threw in plates and title fees, too.
The Genesis I bought had just been released too, no mark up.
I know about the mark ups on hard to get vehicles but to me 10K over sticker on a 35K mass produced vehicle was out of the park...a few more grand and there were Corvettes aplenty available.
Anyway that was then, now I am considering moving up 3 model years on my current vehicle without much luck in dealing. Plan to wait as you suggest, perhaps by June the market will be different on the 2013s.
I am not sure what will happen because of the UAW thing the next time he is going to buy his next rig.
I know about the mark ups on hard to get vehicles but to me 10K over sticker on a 35K mass produced vehicle was out of the park....
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Yep. I agree. But people were paying it though.
As the old saying goes; there’s a sucker born every minute.
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