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Who is shopping for a new truck or car?


markstanco

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Lotta bait and switch still going on with the "XXX off MSRP!!" offers....Many of those promos are accompanied by mandatory dealer add-ons (tints, floormats, trucoat, etc) that they mark up 15x and add-back $2k or so back onto their price.   Inflated "Dealer doc fee" is another one I encountered recently that ranged anywhere from $250-$1k depending on the outfit.  There's also a TON of "killer deals" on Autotrader for cars that don't actually exist (and/or already sold) that dealers just keep posted to try to drive people to call-in or visit their lot.

Bottom line, there's definitely deals to be had, but it's very difficult to "online shop" given how opaque (and purposefully misleading) the advertised prices are.  If you're a "time is money" guy prepare to be sorely disappointed, as you typically have to talk to a lot of morons and wade through wasted conversations (and outright lies) to finally achieve peak discount value.

What ultimately worked for me was physically calling the assholes and making them send me an itemized, no-shit quote sheet with everything listed.  I then told them they could win the business now by doing X, Y, or Z (to achieve my target price) which they typically would decline and/or send a new offer still short of my desired terms. 

I would then take that "best and final" and shopped it around to competing dealers to see who wanted to match/beat; with the expectation that nothing verbal would fly and they had to send me a signed quote sheet of their own to solidify those terms.

This was a little easier for me to do as a cash buyer since I was able to bypass a whole separate layer of wasted time with the whole "just tell me where you're trying to get on your monthlies" that they usually peddle to poor/over-extended people.  However, once final price was set I did offer to finance (and pay off balance ASAP) if they were willing to provide additional incentive, but they didn't have any lending promos available...but I think that varies quite a bit by manufacturer especially GM.

 

Edited by Muny_Tex
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49 minutes ago, immamac said:

Use autotrader. Set radius to unlimited. Factor in 850 for shipping. Find the best deal. 

I also don't think this is a realistic benchmark.  More like $2K for a timely, reputable service that is going to have the vehicle properly covered/secured at all stages of transport.  I think places like Carvana/CarMax advertises flat-fee somewhere in vicinity of $500-$750 only based on their scale and willingness to absorb some of the cost to generate higher markup on the sale side.

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1 minute ago, Muny_Tex said:

I also don't think this is a realistic benchmark.  More like $2K for a timely, reputable service that is going to have the vehicle properly covered/secured at all stages of transport.  I think places like Carvana/CarMax advertises flat-fee somewhere in vicinity of $500-$750 only based on their scale and willingness to absorb some of the cost to generate higher markup on the sale side.

I shipped my car from Minneapolis to Austin for 835 covered and insured. Arrived in perfect condition. It's pretty easy now with these brokers that'll just do it for you. 

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I bought a VW for my wife a month ago, used the CostCo pricing program, and they fucked up and gave me the dealer discount off the CostCo pricing.  They owned it, I wasn't gonna turn it down.

We did get the full court press for add-ons, etc. when paying, though.  They didn't bitch too much.  It was closing time and they wanted out of there.

Nicer car than I thought it would be.  Wife picked it, I'm smart enough not to argue something like that.  Still not very smart, but smart enough.

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Imma has the right idea for shipping.  If you go out of your region, use covered shipping.  I had a Buick Reatta shipped from Florida several years ago in an open transport.  To say the least, when it arrived it was filthy, very filthy.   Although, the cost wasn't bad at the time, I think I paid around 650.00.

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Use CarEdge.com and sign up for the month membership (should be like $10).  You'll be able to pull historical pricing for a car by searching for its VIN.  I started look this time last year and pulled the trigger between XMas and NY and got a killer, killer deal.  About $10-15K off MSRP and still got to take advantage of their dealer perks (1% APR + sprain in liner + $300 credit for dealer accessories).  Do your research and, if you can be patient, pull the trigger EOY and get a killer deal.

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On 9/17/2024 at 7:38 PM, Muny_Tex said:

Lotta bait and switch still going on with the "XXX off MSRP!!" offers....Many of those promos are accompanied by mandatory dealer add-ons (tints, floormats, trucoat, etc) that they mark up 15x and add-back $2k or so back onto their price.   Inflated "Dealer doc fee" is another one I encountered recently that ranged anywhere from $250-$1k depending on the outfit.  There's also a TON of "killer deals" on Autotrader for cars that don't actually exist (and/or already sold) that dealers just keep posted to try to drive people to call-in or visit their lot.

Bottom line, there's definitely deals to be had, but it's very difficult to "online shop" given how opaque (and purposefully misleading) the advertised prices are.  If you're a "time is money" guy prepare to be sorely disappointed, as you typically have to talk to a lot of morons and wade through wasted conversations (and outright lies) to finally achieve peak discount value.

What ultimately worked for me was physically calling the assholes and making them send me an itemized, no-shit quote sheet with everything listed.  I then told them they could win the business now by doing X, Y, or Z (to achieve my target price) which they typically would decline and/or send a new offer still short of my desired terms. 

I would then take that "best and final" and shopped it around to competing dealers to see who wanted to match/beat; with the expectation that nothing verbal would fly and they had to send me a signed quote sheet of their own to solidify those terms.

This was a little easier for me to do as a cash buyer since I was able to bypass a whole separate layer of wasted time with the whole "just tell me where you're trying to get on your monthlies" that they usually peddle to poor/over-extended people.  However, once final price was set I did offer to finance (and pay off balance ASAP) if they were willing to provide additional incentive, but they didn't have any lending promos available...but I think that varies quite a bit by manufacturer especially GM.

 

they put that trucoat on at the factory!

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