Car Negotiations

[dbe100408]

I know we've had posts on this before, but search isn't being my friend right now. How do you negotiate price? We have found a vehicle that we are interested in purchasing, but it is 3 hours away from us. I have zero desire to drive that far without already having hammered out the details. The price they are asking is acceptable, but a bit higher than we would like to pay. I can't find anything really to compare it to. Do you just shoot straight and say: "we are interested in the car at $XX,XXX. Can you work with that number?" I just have no idea how to even bring up price in email conversation.

[sacattack]

I just did this!

What I did was contact their online sales dept and got I explained that I lived far away and I wanted to settle on a price before I got there, because their advertised price was the best that I found. They quoted me a price which I was happy with. Then I read the reviews online and they all warned of them not following through, so I called again and asked for the price in writing which they wouldn't do, but a manager got on the phone and he promised me they would hold their word.

So I went and sure enough they held to their word, I bought the car and then went and picked it up a few days later with my husband.

[dbe100408]

Jun 14, 2017 8:00:44 GMT -5 sacattack said:

I just did this!

What I did was contact their online sales dept and got I explained that I lived far away and I wanted to settle on a price before I got there, because their advertised price was the best that I found. They quoted me a price which I was happy with. Then I read the reviews online and they all warned of them not following through, so I called again and asked for the price in writing which they wouldn't do, but a manager got on the phone and he promised me they would hold their word.

So I went and sure enough they held to their word, I bought the car and then went and picked it up a few days later with my husband.

Thanks! So, did you ask for a specific price, or did you ask their lowest price? Apparently I am the worst at this. I'm a pretty decent negotiator in person, but for some reason doing this over email is giving me all kinds of anxiety.

[sacattack]

Jun 14, 2017 8:07:31 GMT -5 dbe100408 said:

Jun 14, 2017 8:00:44 GMT -5 sacattack said:

I just did this!

What I did was contact their online sales dept and got I explained that I lived far away and I wanted to settle on a price before I got there, because their advertised price was the best that I found. They quoted me a price which I was happy with. Then I read the reviews online and they all warned of them not following through, so I called again and asked for the price in writing which they wouldn't do, but a manager got on the phone and he promised me they would hold their word.

So I went and sure enough they held to their word, I bought the car and then went and picked it up a few days later with my husband.

Thanks! So, did you ask for a specific price, or did you ask their lowest price? Apparently I am the worst at this. I'm a pretty decent negotiator in person, but for some reason doing this over email is giving me all kinds of anxiety.

I'm a wuss and a much better negotiator over email. I did my research and identified a price I was willing to pay. Then I emailed them and asked what was the best price they could give. They came back with a number and I pushed a little bit more, then finally they go to my number. 

I actually looked at several dealerships because, I really didn't car who I bought it from, I was more interested in saving money. So I suggest you do the same. All the dealerships I worked with have internet sales managers, so this isn't uncommon at all.

[vthokie]

Also, go on truecar.com and search prices there. It will give you an idea of what prices you can expect

[dbe100408]

Jun 14, 2017 16:36:27 GMT -5 vthokie said:

Also, go on truecar.com and search prices there. It will give you an idea of what prices you can expect

Thanks! It looks like truecar thinks it is a good deal. That's a great resource.

[dbe100408]

Thanks for all the help everyone! We ended up purchasing the car, and we got a deal for about $700 less than the TrueCar "great price".