The Videos Car Dealers Hate: Is It 'Haggling' Or 'Negotiating'? Reading the comments from dealers is amusing. I realize most of them probably do try to get a good deal for people. Unfortunately enough people have been ripped off, or feel they've been ripped off, by other dealers, and therefore lump every single one of them together as shady bastards out to steal every penny from you. Especially that F&I person. Sadly the videos have been removed already, though at least the one in the link here by a third party is up. While it's not an exact analogy (I think buying a tv would've worked better than groceries), it does get its point across; people hate the car shopping experience as a whole.
A good deal is paying $1500 less for your car than your neighbor and brother did for the same exact car. And if you buy the extended warranty, getting it for $500 less than the guy before you paid for his. And then you find out that both of them actually paid $2500 less than you did, because they bought it two weeks later, near the end of the month, and the dealer wanted to get rid of them to get new model years in. And unfortunately because of that scenario I just painted, people can't help but wonder "Did I get a good price for my car, or did the stealership rip me off?" Even in this day and age of internet information, sometimes you just can't help but feel that way, especially when you do find out another person paid $500 less than you did. Never mind that they live in another part of the country and got a better manufacturer rebate than you could where you live, you still feel ripped off.
No wonder the country lives on anti-depressants. Personally, I don't agonize over the +/- $500 when I buy a car, and instead put a lot of effort into buying a *reliable*, fuel economical car that will last 15 - 20 years with mostly DIY maintenance. That is where the big savings are.
it is funny how differently we all look at the buying process. i get prices from 3 dealers. the lowest one is the best i can do. so be it. i don't look back, and i don't ask anyone else what they paid. i don't even know anyone who bought the same car i did.
I buy two-year-old cars at auction. In Australia, you can buy a two-year-old car at auction for 40-60% of its new price, often with less than 30,000 miles / 50,000km. And after that, the depreciation slows dramatically. I bought my Prius when it was two years old for A$ 16,000, about 40% of its new price (A$ 40,000). That was four years ago. Since then, if I were to sell it privately, I'd probably get about 70-80% of what I paid for it. If I'd bought it from a dealer at the time, it would have cost me A$ 24,000. If I'd paid A$ 16,000 to a dealer for a Prius at the time would have been six years old. I did much the same with the car I bought for our nanny (a Holden Astra).* I'll do the same for my next car, which I'll get once the kids are not spilling quite so much food all over the place. Used-car salespeople say they're offering you a degree of security that you wouldn't get from an auction. It's true you don't get a warranty buying from auction, but those warranties are often not worth the paper they're written on (as my mother-in-law will testify - the dealer stalled on fixing her car under warranty, and then went bankrupt). But you get a car that's several years newer for the same price, so it's much less likely to go wrong (unless it's a Citroen). And I like an auction because I don't get hassled. I can find the cars I like, put together a shortlist, set my price ceilings, and see what happens. * The car is a Holden Astra, not the nanny. She's a person.
