Negotiating with Car Dealerships

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infinity ag
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5:43p, 5/24/25
Background: I am looking to buy a car in the next few weeks.
Goal: To get the car at the lowest possible total price.
Not a Goal: Lowest monthly payment or low APR
Flexibility: I can pay the entire amount on the spot, I can get my own financing, or I can use the dealership's financing.

What should I do? Can I use the financing as a negotiation point? Like if I say I will go with his financing, will I be able to use that to reduce the final price? Or will he not care? Does the financer give the dealer some cash-back that he may be willing to split with me?

Any other ideas welcome.
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1626
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In reply to infinity ag • 6:30p, 5/24/25
Get pre approved from credit union/bank. If they beat it go with them. Main thing is do research and don't go to a scummy dealer. Lots of good information on auto board.
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Spaceship
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7:11p, 5/24/25
AG
Go on one of the last couple days of the month. It does help. I bought in March on the 29th of the month and they negotiated down a lot.
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@NFLPlayerProps
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7:23p, 5/24/25
Agree on the total price of the car first. Don't entertain any conversation about monthly payment, not relevant.

Once you have agreed, then say you have a trade in. Negotiate how much that is worth.

Negotiate interest rate with finance. Better if you already have another approved loan in hand. Offering to pay cash actually works against you, they want the loan.
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Waiting on a Natty
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8:04p, 5/24/25
AG
And do not go to just one car dealership and try to get the best price. Go to at least 3. Take the best price you get back to the dealership you want to do business with and see if they really want your business, ie will they match or beat the other dealer's price.

Never mention how much the monthly might be. This tells the dealer that you are a newbie to the car buying world and they will take advantage of you. The dealer does make some money if you finance the car with them. I always tell them that will pay cash but if the interest rate is right I might finance some of the price. I then ask them if they make money if the car is financed with them.

With all that said, I have bought all my vehicles with the same family dealership for the last 25 years. I always start out pricing the vehicle elsewhere and they always beat the heck out of the other guys. So buying from the same dealership over the years helps.
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ChoppinDs40
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8:39p, 5/24/25
AG
You get incentives for financing through their lender.

Go with it. Then either pay off immediately or refinance with your credit union that has better rates.

I just did this and saved 3% going to my credit union.
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aggiesed8r
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In reply to Waiting on a Natty • 8:51p, 5/24/25
AG
This. Only objection is going to 3 dealers. Ask around who gives the best price. Haggling and negotiating is drug out intentionally to exhaust you the buyer. I can barely get through one dealership let alone 3. You'll save time and frustration over a few hundred bucks
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mosdefn14
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8:57p, 5/24/25
AG
Y'all got time to go to 3 dealers? Find the Costco or CarPro dealer in your area, submit a lead, tell them what you want, and go pick it up.
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Milwaukees Best Light
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8:59p, 5/24/25
AG
Don't go to Keating
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Waiting on a Natty
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In reply to aggiesed8r • 9:38p, 5/24/25
AG
I don't haggle. I tell them I'm ready to buy so give me your best deal. Then I'm tell them I'm going to shop around.

Fortunately I don't have to haggle because the people I have bought vehicles from for years always have the best deal.
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htxag09
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9:39p, 5/24/25
AG
You don't have to go to any dealerships. You can negotiate with 6 on the phone in a matter of what it would normally take you to drive to 1.
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Waiting on a Natty
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In reply to htxag09 • 9:41p, 5/24/25
AG
Yes I do most on the phone now. Just bought a model I have never had before so wanted to drive one so that mandated a personal trip to a dealership.
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htxag09
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In reply to Waiting on a Natty • 9:44p, 5/24/25
AG
Waiting on a Natty said:
Yes I do most on the phone now. Just bought a model I have never had before so wanted to drive one so that mandated a personal trip to a dealership.

Agree. But doesn't mean you have to buy. Test drive, learn about features to know what you want, then say you need to think about it and leave. But at that point not like you have to go to every other dealership to negotiate.
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aggiesed8r
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9:45p, 5/24/25
AG
If you aren't haggling, you aren't getting a lower price. They can always go lower, or they wouldn't sell the car. Internet/phone call deals are not a lower price. Until they see the whites of your eyes.
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htxag09
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In reply to aggiesed8r • 9:47p, 5/24/25
AG
aggiesed8r said:
If you aren't haggling, you aren't getting a lower price. They can always go lower, or they wouldn't sell the car. Internet/phone call deals are not a lower price. Until they see the whites of your eyes.

You can haggle over the phone….

Some dealers will tell you they won't negotiate until you're at the dealer. I say thanks for their time. Most absolutely will over the phone. Especially towards the end of the month/quarter.

ETA: to me it's a balance of convenience and price. I really like the Tommie Vaughn contact and know I'm getting a good price from her so that's where I bought my last truck. I also know it's not the best price but the ease of it can make up for that. Unfortunately, recently had a situation where I needed something in stock and she didn't have it so haggled with other dealers. Could I have maybe saved a little more by going in person and negotiating harder? Probably. But by doing it over the phone with 6+ dealers I still got a pretty damn good deal. It was about $4k less than the Tommie Vaughn contact and $2k less than anyone else. Was talking to her and she said absolutely pull the trigger but make sure they don't do any add ons. They didn't and delivered the truck to my driveway.
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tejas_ayanem
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9:52p, 5/24/25
I've had good luck negotiating over email/text. I've left dealerships when they've tried to change terms or do some other BS.
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Waiting on a Natty
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In reply to aggiesed8r • 9:54p, 5/24/25
AG
Two months ago when I bought I called/texted back to the other 2 dealers, one of which had a "guarantee" to meet the lowest price, and gave them a chance to beat the best price I had. Neither came close.

I've been buying vehicles for almost 50 years. 90% of my vehicles I have bought from 2 dealers. The GM dealer is no longer owned by the same family and I quit driving GM cars decades ago anyway. Don't know why I still shop around since this one family owned dealership has had the lowest price for 25 years.
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kubiak03
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10:08p, 5/24/25
AG
ask whomever you are talking to the final, out the door price with a complete work sheet.

most dealers now seem to have a bunch of crap add on they do themselves.
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Rexter
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In reply to Milwaukees Best Light • 10:46p, 5/24/25
Milwaukees Best Light said:
Don't go to Keating



Whoa....go to a Keating dealership and waste as much of their time as possible, and then buy elsewhere.
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OldArmyCT
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4:49a, 5/25/25
AG
I took a 4 year old low mileage F-150 to a Sewell dealer looking to trade and pay cash for the residual. Got a 2 year lease with a final payment equal to my original residual for $0 monthly payments. If I still like the car I just write a check. If I don't I start over. That's like a 2 year test drive. But I love the car.
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htxag09
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In reply to OldArmyCT • 9:09a, 5/25/25
AG
There's a ton of variables that would factor into if this is a good deal or not. And that's exactly why car dealerships negotiate this way.
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Ag92NGranbury
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5:11p, 5/25/25
AG
1 - Go on the last day of the month
2 - Make sure it is raining
3 - Do multiple test drives
4 - Walk away from the dealer multiple times
5 - During finance, tell them that you want everything added, but can't afford it
6 - Once finance is done, tell that that you have a trade-in
7 - A day later, cancel all those additions
8 - Never take your car there to be serviced
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techno-ag
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In reply to Ag92NGranbury • 7:11p, 5/25/25
AG
Ag92NGranbury said:
1 - Go on the last day of the month
2 - Make sure it is raining
3 - Do multiple test drives
4 - Walk away from the dealer multiple times
5 - During finance, tell them that you want everything added, but can't afford it
6 - Once finance is done, tell that that you have a trade-in
7 - A day later, cancel all those additions
8 - Never take your car there to be serviced

Demand to pay at least half on your credit card because it pays back 3%. Be sure and let them know you're getting 3% back.
The left cannot kill the Spirit of Charlie Kirk.
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spud1910
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10:42p, 5/25/25
AG
Buy on your way to your vacation destination. The last time I bought a car, I knew what I wanted and had already checked prices at three dealers. They were all within a few hundred dollars of each other. My wife and I were driving to Destin from Texas on Dec. 29th and passed a dealership in Louisiana. I joked we should pull in and check. She said let's do it. The salesman came up and asked how he could help. I told him what I wanted, that I was on my way to my vacation destination so would not be taking much time and the way he could help was to start with the best deal he could give me because I didn't have time to waste. He told me they did have what I wanted and I could test drive. I told him I would look at it, but I was not going to test drive as I already had test driven; he just needed to get me the best deal they could offer. He came back with the best offer I had heard yet. I told him that it was not good enough. He said let him talk to manager. I said ok, but I had to leave. I was two hours into a 10 hour drive and was not hanging around much longer. He brought his manager back and they came off another $500. I got the car for $5000 less than any of the other three dealerships had offered. It was Dec. 29th and they still had quite a bit of inventory in that model.
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permabull
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3:32p, 5/26/25
AG
If you have a trade get the MMR value from someone on the auto board. That is the system that watches auctions values and it's the number your dealer will be using it so it's nice to be known beforehand.

I actually think it is a good idea to drop the trade in bomb after setting a price on the car because then the sales person will be more willing to fight for your trade value to keep the deal alive.

Edit: another good reason to drop the trade last second is so they don't take your keys away from you. If you tell them you are keeping your current car when they play the game where they leave you alone to sit you on ice you can just walk out. When they come running after you can just ask to deal with the manager since you obviously don't have any power.
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ATM9000
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In reply to spud1910 • 9:27a, 5/27/25
AG
spud1910 said:
Buy on your way to your vacation destination. The last time I bought a car, I knew what I wanted and had already checked prices at three dealers. They were all within a few hundred dollars of each other. My wife and I were driving to Destin from Texas on Dec. 29th and passed a dealership in Louisiana. I joked we should pull in and check. She said let's do it. The salesman came up and asked how he could help. I told him what I wanted, that I was on my way to my vacation destination so would not be taking much time and the way he could help was to start with the best deal he could give me because I didn't have time to waste. He told me they did have what I wanted and I could test drive. I told him I would look at it, but I was not going to test drive as I already had test driven; he just needed to get me the best deal they could offer. He came back with the best offer I had heard yet. I told him that it was not good enough. He said let him talk to manager. I said ok, but I had to leave. I was two hours into a 10 hour drive and was not hanging around much longer. He brought his manager back and they came off another $500. I got the car for $5000 less than any of the other three dealerships had offered. It was Dec. 29th and they still had quite a bit of inventory in that model.


Cool story. Struggling to see how making yourself drive 2 cars round trip nearly 10 hours and being on vacation gave you a negotiating advantage though.
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Tea Party
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In reply to ATM9000 • 1:13p, 5/27/25
ATM9000 said:
spud1910 said:
Buy on your way to your vacation destination. The last time I bought a car, I knew what I wanted and had already checked prices at three dealers. They were all within a few hundred dollars of each other. My wife and I were driving to Destin from Texas on Dec. 29th and passed a dealership in Louisiana. I joked we should pull in and check. She said let's do it. The salesman came up and asked how he could help. I told him what I wanted, that I was on my way to my vacation destination so would not be taking much time and the way he could help was to start with the best deal he could give me because I didn't have time to waste. He told me they did have what I wanted and I could test drive. I told him I would look at it, but I was not going to test drive as I already had test driven; he just needed to get me the best deal they could offer. He came back with the best offer I had heard yet. I told him that it was not good enough. He said let him talk to manager. I said ok, but I had to leave. I was two hours into a 10 hour drive and was not hanging around much longer. He brought his manager back and they came off another $500. I got the car for $5000 less than any of the other three dealerships had offered. It was Dec. 29th and they still had quite a bit of inventory in that model.


Cool story. Struggling to see how making yourself drive 2 cars round trip nearly 10 hours and being on vacation gave you a negotiating advantage though.
The most important detail in this negotiation is the date. End of year deals are always the easiest.
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ATM9000
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In reply to Tea Party • 1:30p, 5/27/25
AG
Tea Party said:
ATM9000 said:
spud1910 said:
Buy on your way to your vacation destination. The last time I bought a car, I knew what I wanted and had already checked prices at three dealers. They were all within a few hundred dollars of each other. My wife and I were driving to Destin from Texas on Dec. 29th and passed a dealership in Louisiana. I joked we should pull in and check. She said let's do it. The salesman came up and asked how he could help. I told him what I wanted, that I was on my way to my vacation destination so would not be taking much time and the way he could help was to start with the best deal he could give me because I didn't have time to waste. He told me they did have what I wanted and I could test drive. I told him I would look at it, but I was not going to test drive as I already had test driven; he just needed to get me the best deal they could offer. He came back with the best offer I had heard yet. I told him that it was not good enough. He said let him talk to manager. I said ok, but I had to leave. I was two hours into a 10 hour drive and was not hanging around much longer. He brought his manager back and they came off another $500. I got the car for $5000 less than any of the other three dealerships had offered. It was Dec. 29th and they still had quite a bit of inventory in that model.


Cool story. Struggling to see how making yourself drive 2 cars round trip nearly 10 hours and being on vacation gave you a negotiating advantage though.
The most important detail in this negotiation is the date. End of year deals are always the easiest.


Agreed. So probably some salesman in Louisiana is probably equally laughing about how he gave a few bucks off of his delivery price to some guy and the guy was so happy that he agreed to take it and drive his new car 18 hours round trip for it.
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one MEEN Ag
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1:57p, 5/27/25
AG
One tactic that I used on my last car purchase was I printed out the cars.com MSRP price chart for that exact car I was negotiating. They were taking off $800 a month pretty steadily over a 5ish months period. Using that feature you could clearly see which cars that were jacked up in price for long weekend sales and this car wasn't one of them.

They didn't want to budge on price. It was the big leader for the long weekend sale. I slid the paper over and said, You can come down X or I can come back in two months when this car is the price I want.

I will say that my wife was pregnant at the time and wanted to be a part of the negotiations. So the guy across the table knew there was already a bit of attachment. He saw that I wanted that car. But he also saw that my 2 and 4 year olds were running wild in the show room every time they stalled.

We came to agreement shortly there after.
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SF2004
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2:57p, 5/27/25
AG
1. Go at the EOM and hope the dealership hasn't met their manufacturer incentive.

Everything else on this thread is a waste of time and bullsheet. I always love how people think they really worked over a car dealer.

You guys wasting your time driving around or emailing or whatever are wasting your time.

EOM (or even better EOY) deals are all that matters and that is just luck/patience.

One thing everyone gets at the new car dealership is a great deal... JUST ASK THEM. When in reality we all just got bent over.
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htxag09
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In reply to SF2004 • 3:02p, 5/27/25
AG
SF2004 said:
1. Go at the EOM and hope the dealership hasn't met their manufacturer incentive.

Everything else on this thread is a waste of time and bullsheet. I always love how people think they really worked over a car dealer.

You guys wasting your time driving around or emailing or whatever are wasting your time.

EOM (or even better EOY) deals are all that matters and that is just luck/patience.

One thing everyone gets at the new car dealership is a great deal... JUST ASK THEM. When in reality we all just got bent over.

I agree. Only thing I'll disagree with is that emailing or calling dealers is a waste of time.

How are you supposed to find which dealer is in a push to meet their eom incentive if you aren't reaching out? A quick call makes it pretty easy to know if they are or aren't.
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Hanrahan
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8:09p, 5/27/25
AG
every car I've ever bought was negotiated before I ever even set eyes on the car or walked in the dealer. And dealers will play ball remotely/phone/email if you are trying to buy a car they want to move. My last car was for my wife and we negotiated $37,000 off sticker before we arrived to sign a few pages and leave within 30 mins of arriving. The downside of this approach is you have to be very patient until you find the right car and rightly motivated dealer to sell it. Its not a fast approach by any means...
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ATM9000
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In reply to Hanrahan • 8:23p, 5/27/25
AG
Hanrahan said:
every car I've ever bought was negotiated before I ever even set eyes on the car or walked in the dealer. And dealers will play ball remotely/phone/email if you are trying to buy a car they want to move. My last car was for my wife and we negotiated $37,000 off sticker before we arrived to sign a few pages and leave within 30 mins of arriving. The downside of this approach is you have to be very patient until you find the right car and rightly motivated dealer to sell it. Its not a fast approach by any means...

Classic internet rich brag.
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SF2004
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In reply to Hanrahan • 8:51p, 5/27/25
AG
Hanrahan said:
every car I've ever bought was negotiated before I ever even set eyes on the car or walked in the dealer. And dealers will play ball remotely/phone/email if you are trying to buy a car they want to move. My last car was for my wife and we negotiated $37,000 off sticker before we arrived to sign a few pages and leave within 30 mins of arriving. The downside of this approach is you have to be very patient until you find the right car and rightly motivated dealer to sell it. Its not a fast approach by any means...
$37,000 off sticker.

This isn't even a funny troll job, just ******ed.

Nothing ever didn't happen more than this.

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spud1910
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In reply to ATM9000 • 9:48p, 5/27/25
AG
Yeah, the vacation was coincidental other than telling him I was not going to spend time. End of month, end of year was the main point. And part of the deal is they had to keep it until I returned from my vacation so I didn't have to drive two cars far.
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