litesoarer

There is ALWAYS haggling over something.


Price, Incentives, Interest rate, perks, extended warranties, etc.

joshthorsc

I've bought a used Corvette from Carmax before and only cause I felt I was getting a good deal. The only time whenever I haggle is usually because have a trade in and I get low balled. Carmax offered me a good deal on my trade and purchase so I bought the car. Haggling can be a headache and a very tedious process. However, if I think the car is overpriced I won't buy and wait until they have rebates or offer me a good deal.

I also think Carmax is doing well is because of their huge inventory and not everyone is in the market for a brand new car. If a brand new Corolla had a non-negotiable $22k price tag, I simply walk away and go to a different dealership. Consumers are getting more educated about car sales nowadays so dealerships have to think of a different way to make more money. I'm curious as to see where this will head down the road.

JosersRX

I always like to negotiate the price I pay for my cars... I'm totally ok spending an hour or two "haggling" if it means getting the car below invoice! That equates to thousands of dollars savings... HELLO!
Leave this concept to CarMax and for those that like to over pay on their cars.

coolsaber

I would say the opposite. With many dealers seeing their trump card flying away due to truecaresque sites, the business models needs to change to better equip themselves. One way is to see whats better strategies are out there to return power to the business and away from the customer. In addition whatever time and money they get has to be "optimized", as 4 hours to a customer on a weekend might not mean much to the customer, but the for the business 4 hours with a decreased profit margin is lost revenue.

litesoarer

People will go where the best price is. It's the spirit of competition. And if all dealers charge the same then this can be considered price fixing.

gengar

That's not right - a minimum price restriction set by a producer of goods is not considered price fixing.

litesoarer

By the producer, not by the franchisee.

gengar

Yep. And we're talking about the producer.

Also, be aware that at the federal level, judicial precedent allows franchisors to set minimum price levels for franchisees. State law can presumably allow exceptions.

situman

If enough customers walk out, they will have to eventually lower the prices or drop this no haggling non sense. It didnt work for Saturn, it didnt work for Scion and probably won't work for Lexus. Then again the high end clientele usually dont haggle anyways, if that's the kind of customer Lexus is going for. It will weed out the poor folks like me that will haggle over $5 on a lease payment.

SW17LS

I think you're wrong about high end clientele not wanting to haggle. The desire to get a good price and good value doesn't disappear when a customer has high worth, if anything there's an ego at work there that is a more powerful driving factor than need.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Yes i've seen the ego need to haggle even by people with major bucks. However, usually they end up claiming they got a 'good deal' even when they didn't. The salesperson no doubt stroked their ego skilfully to make the rich customer think they got the upper hand.

situman

My boss says he just calls in to the BMW dealer telling them exactly what he wants then just shows up to do the paperwork. So he claims. So perhaps those are the kind of people they want.

SW17LS

Those people definitely exist, but they are not representative of everybody in that class. I'm not in the auto business, but I help people buy an expensive item every day and clients on the upper end expect a much more favorable negotiation than clients on the lower end.

mmarshall

The reverse of that, though, is often a problem as well. Some customers are never satisfied, no matter what kind of deal they get. You could give them the vehicle at $1000 or $2000 below invoice (if you can actually determine true invoice in the first place, which is often difficult or impossible)...or even give them the vehicle at half-price, and some people would still complain and b***h that they got shafted, that someday else could have done better, or gotten a better deal, than they did. I've shopped with prospective car-buyers like that before (fortunately, not with a whole lot of them), and they can be a PITA ....worse, in some ways, than the classic stereotype deceptive salesperson.

SW17LS

For sure, its a two way street with car buyers and car salespeople.