Just go in with a set price in your head. Dont stick to one dealer, make sure you plan to head to 2-3 different dealers that day. It took me 5 to find a good deal on my used 04. You'll know when the deal is right, as well as the dealership. Just let them roll out the numbers. Playing the 100-200 back and forth is a waste of time. When they ask you what u are looking for, say XXXX price. And if they arent willing to budge, move on. Concentrate on sales price, never worry about monthly payment or interest or ext. warranty. Remember they want your business, and if you walk away, they lose a sale. If you feel pressured or just hate the salesman, walk away.

 

I have been very successful with first faxing to the sales manage and follow up with an email to the sales manager/Internet manager.

Saves a lot of time and energy.

Of course here in the New York area there are many dealers. So by faxing/emailing I get out of the way the ones who will not match the price I am looking for.

Dealers floor plan cars. That is after 30 or 60 days, they must pay for a car. The longer they have the car the more interest on the loan for the cars they must pay.

Now some dealers will try to recoup this cost, others try to cut their losses.

But on the other hand, I have usually ordered my cars. In this case, the dealer gets paid, and they have float on my money until they must pay for the car, again in 30 or 60 days.

So I do not think one way is much better than another, especially with an MDX which usually is not on a dealer showroom for more than 30 days.

Also end of month seems to be better than the beginning of the month.

JeffK

 

So what about ordering the car vs taking one off the lot. Do I stand just as good of a chance at getting and equal deal? Or will the buyer always get a better deal buying off the lot?

 

You should be able to do about the same - at least I was able to.

JeffK

 

Just go in with a set price in your head. Dont stick to one dealer, make sure you plan to head to 2-3 different dealers that day. It took me 5 to find a good deal on my used 04. You'll know when the deal is right, as well as the dealership. Just let them roll out the numbers. Playing the 100-200 back and forth is a waste of time. When they ask you what u are looking for, say XXXX price. And if they arent willing to budge, move on. Concentrate on sales price, never worry about monthly payment or interest or ext. warranty. Remember they want your business, and if you walk away, they lose a sale. If you feel pressured or just hate the salesman, walk away.

I went in with a set monthly payment and I got a deal $5 more a month, which came out as $300 under invoice. Really, it is a numbers game. Go in with a reasonable set price like invoice depending on your location and leave if do not meet it.

 

the best thing you can do is play 2 or 3 dealers against each other, this allows you to get to the bottom line price.

Work one until you get their lowest, then go to the next, under cut that price by a few hundred and see what happens, then again to the next.

When they let you walk off the lot, you have hit the bottom. The dealer makes more money if they order a car for you, but the sale doesn't count until you take delivery (which will be weeks away) so they will pressure you to make the deal today on a car on the lot.

If you are going to finance, then make sure you know your credit rating and the rate you should get. Also, make a small chart with the amount, interest rate and per month cost, so you know what you should be paying.

my laptop battery is about to die, so that is all I can give you right now... good luck

 

I went in with a set monthly payment and I got a deal $5 more a month, which came out as $300 under invoice. Really, it is a numbers game. Go in with a reasonable set price like invoice depending on your location and leave if do not meet it.

300 under invoice is definitely a good deal.

 

the best thing you can do is play 2 or 3 dealers against each other, this allows you to get to the bottom line price.

Work one until you get their lowest, then go to the next, under cut that price by a few hundred and see what happens, then again to the next.

When they let you walk off the lot, you have hit the bottom. The dealer makes more money if they order a car for you, but the sale doesn't count until you take delivery (which will be weeks away) so they will pressure you to make the deal today on a car on the lot.

If you are going to finance, then make sure you know your credit rating and the rate you should get. Also, make a small chart with the amount, interest rate and per month cost, so you know what you should be paying.

my laptop battery is about to die, so that is all I can give you right now... good luck

Ok, now that I am on my other PC, I want to elaborate on something.

It is important to know what the monthly cost would be, but don't negotiate on it. A question that they will often ask is, how much do you want to pay per month. The reason they ask this is because they can back fill the agreement to get up to that amount.

I am going to attach a spreadsheet that I created for when I buy cars (if it lets me). I use this so I know what the monthly cost will be and I can concentrate on negotiating the big number, not the monthly amount. This is where the dealer will screw you, so be sure to negotiate the cost of the car.

This saved me a lot when the deal was done and we were going over the paper work, the monthly number was off by $25 a month, not a big amount, until you multiply that by 60... that is $1500 on what was a $30,000 car. so roughly 5%. The dealer tried to slip some BS in there, I may not have noticed it, but since I knew what the monthly amount should have been (with in a few bucks) it made me look things over, I ended up turning his monitor and found the amount in a Misc. field... f**king bastard should have named the field bend over and grab your ankles, cause that is what I made them do while I caused a huge ruckus in the middle of the show room...

but any way, It won't let me post the excel file, I will post a pdf of it and you can PM me your email address and I will email it to you. The numbers may be off by a few cents, but are pretty close. Close enough to know if you are getting screwed

 

Ok, now that I am on my other PC, I want to elaborate on something.

It is important to know what the monthly cost would be, but don't negotiate on it. A question that they will often ask is, how much do you want to pay per month. The reason they ask this is because they can back fill the agreement to get up to that amount.

I am going to attach a spreadsheet that I created for when I buy cars (if it lets me). I use this so I know what the monthly cost will be and I can concentrate on negotiating the big number, not the monthly amount. This is where the dealer will screw you, so be sure to negotiate the cost of the car.

This saved me a lot when the deal was done and we were going over the paper work, the monthly number was off by $25 a month, not a big amount, until you multiply that by 60... that is $1500 on what was a $30,000 car. so roughly 5%. The dealer tried to slip some BS in there, I may not have noticed it, but since I knew what the monthly amount should have been (with in a few bucks) it made me look things over, I ended up turning his monitor and found the amount in a Misc. field... f**king bastard should have named the field bend over and grab your ankles, cause that is what I made them do while I caused a huge ruckus in the middle of the show room...

but any way, It won't let me post the excel file, I will post a pdf of it and you can PM me your email address and I will email it to you. The numbers may be off by a few cents, but are pretty close. Close enough to know if you are getting screwed

You number are pretty accurate. I was with in less than $2.

 

I found E-mails to be the most time efficient and effective.
I've bought MDX and a Lexus (my wife) using the following method at invoice (or invoice + accesorries).

I've also found that either end of the month, quarter end, or their fiscal year end (that is their financial year end which is not necessarily calendar year end) to be the best time to buy.

Here are the steps:

1. Get E-mail addresses of all your local dealers (say within 150 miles radius or so). You can go to acura.com for your MDX. If you have concentrated amount of dealers, you can reduce the radius (or increase) so that you have enough dealers in the population (at least dozen).

2. Note on the E-mail that you're ready to buy within next few days (make sure this is true) and that you're requesting for best quote. Just give him the package and options you're looking for but mention that you'll take what's in their inventory, and that pricing is everything (I'll loop back on your color you want below).

3. You should get an E-mail back from the dealers with the price and what's in there inventory. Some dealer will say come on to the dealership to discuss in which case you politely decline that if they want to be considered, they need to quote you via E-mail.

4. You should get at least half dozen serious quotes from the dealer.

5. Next you reply back to the dealer that the best quote you received was $XX,XXX. Can you beat the price?

6. The dealer will match it, beat it, or throw some accessories or other incentives. (you can chose to repeat step #5 and #6 one more time if there are enough dealers with the car you want and the pricing is fairly close).

7. You then pick the one dealer with best price with the color, combination, and location (remember the comment on #2 above? You get to chose which car you want to buy at the best price).

8. Send in E-mail to the dealer you picked that the price is $XX,XXX + TTL but no other fees. Please confirm and you'll be there to purchase the MDX on MM/DD. You should get a response back fairly quickly.

9. You'll typically be in and out of the dealership in couple of hours once all of the above steps are taken via E-mail.

The above methods have worked very well for me.

Other things is:

1. Never give dealership the $$$ number first. You never know what dealership is willing to do so make sure you make them quote the $$$ first.

2. Never be specific on what you want like Color. They will jack up the price as the Silver you're looking for may be the only sold by one dealer in your state. You get to chose the inventory and color once dealership tells you as noted in the steps above.

3. Always negotiate purchase price in total for the car only. Not monthly, not trade-in, not financing.

Good luck.

 

I found E-mails to be the most time efficient and effective.
I've bought MDX and a Lexus (my wife) using the following method at invoice (or invoice + accesorries).

I've also found that either end of the month, quarter end, or their fiscal year end (that is their financial year end which is not necessarily calendar year end) to be the best time to buy.

Here are the steps:

1. Get E-mail addresses of all your local dealers (say within 150 miles radius or so). You can go to acura.com for your MDX. If you have concentrated amount of dealers, you can reduce the radius (or increase) so that you have enough dealers in the population (at least dozen).

2. Note on the E-mail that you're ready to buy within next few days (make sure this is true) and that you're requesting for best quote. Just give him the package and options you're looking for but mention that you'll take what's in their inventory, and that pricing is everything (I'll loop back on your color you want below).

3. You should get an E-mail back from the dealers with the price and what's in there inventory. Some dealer will say come on to the dealership to discuss in which case you politely decline that if they want to be considered, they need to quote you via E-mail.

4. You should get at least half dozen serious quotes from the dealer.

5. Next you reply back to the dealer that the best quote you received was $XX,XXX. Can you beat the price?

6. The dealer will match it, beat it, or throw some accessories or other incentives. (you can chose to repeat step #5 and #6 one more time if there are enough dealers with the car you want and the pricing is fairly close).

7. You then pick the one dealer with best price with the color, combination, and location (remember the comment on #2 above? You get to chose which car you want to buy at the best price).

8. Send in E-mail to the dealer you picked that the price is $XX,XXX + TTL but no other fees. Please confirm and you'll be there to purchase the MDX on MM/DD. You should get a response back fairly quickly.

9. You'll typically be in and out of the dealership in couple of hours once all of the above steps are taken via E-mail.

The above methods have worked very well for me.

Other things is:

1. Never give dealership the $$$ number first. You never know what dealership is willing to do so make sure you make them quote the $$$ first.

2. Never be specific on what you want like Color. They will jack up the price as the Silver you're looking for may be the only sold by one dealer in your state. You get to chose the inventory and color once dealership tells you as noted in the steps above.

3. Always negotiate purchase price in total for the car only. Not monthly, not trade-in, not financing.

Good luck.

What he said.

You never know which dealer needs to move a unit at any cost. By playing one off the other, you smoke out the one who needs that sale. I got my 05 at $300 under invoice that way--the dealer was renovating the showroom and hurting for sales, needed to make his monthly numbers. With sales way down now, you may find dealers willing to go below invoice.

 

I just purchased a 2008 Acura TL via the dealer internet sales online. All dealers had their inventory online and I knew the color combo and options I wanted. I sent an e-mail to each online and stated I was accepting quotes for the specific vehicle as I planned to purchase it within the week. All 5 dealers sent a quote by the next morning. I then sent a message individually to each dealer stating they came in last, 3rd, etc. (without stating the low quote $ amount). Three of the 5 dealers sent another quote which was substantially lower than the 1st they gave me. I selected the dealer I desired based on price and location. This took a total of 2 days to purchase the vehicle online. The internet salesman will generally give better deals than walking into a dealer. They knew I was getting bids from other dealers and if they want your business, they will give you a price accordingly. There was zero hassle in this method and I did not negotiate any price with any dealer. It took a total of 2 e-mails per dealer to finalize the quotes.

 

When I purchased my X in 2004, I emailed 8 dealers with the exact car I wanted, down to the accessories. Three replied they couldn't price over the internet. Then there were five. Of the five, the dealer closest to my house came in with the lowest bid, amazingly. Deal done. The deal was entirely cash, and the email was quite specific as to the exact specs. I also mentioned a couple of times that the lowest price got the deal, no haggling back and forth accepted.

I landed the car at $420 over invoice, $1000 deposit. Everything was accomplished via email. The first time I set foot in the dealership was to pick up the car. They even took a personal check for the balance! It was the perfect buying experience. Car was delivered in perfect shape, and not even a hint of any 'ups' in the price.

I guess you could call it "competition". Works everytime.

I've often wondered if the 3 dealers that refused a price quote have ever caught on to the power of the internet. Sucks to be them.