What REALLY grinds your gears?

[Daseal]

Originally Posted by mooby

Do your research. If it's new, you can probably pay cost for it, because from what I learned from selling cars at a reputable dealership is that more money is made depending on the amount of cars a salesman sells. I never hit any bonuses because I never sold 8 cars in 1 month (closest I came was 7 cars my first month). Some fees are negotiable, some aren't, like state tax. Processing fee might be lowered/dropped, same with delivery fee, etc. Also get multiple quotes from multiple dealerships.

Always get a paper quote from another dealer, then you can go to the dealer you want to buy from and use that to haggle them down. And if you can afford to wait go at the end of the month, that is when every salesman is desperate to get cars out of the door, to hit the bonuses for units sold. The way my pay was set up is 1500/mo, 750 base, 750 draw (i.e. pulled out of your bonuses if you got one). If you sold 8 cars, you got a $500 bonus plus 10% commission. Those bonuses/percentages went up the more cars you sold. I'm sure it was similar at other places because we were part of a chain of dealers owned by one guy. The one I worked at was a Mazda dealer but he also owned Hyundai/Nissan/Honda/Acura/etc. dealerships too. And like I said, profit wise very little money is made on new cars, because with manufacturer incentives if you can hit the bonuses you'll make more money.

Most big profits come on used cars, we would always put a several grand markup on a used car so that even if you haggled us down, there was still profit made on it. No use hitting the units bonus if you never made any profit on the cars you sold. And it never hurts to ask to see the invoice on a new car to see how much they paid for it. If you want any more help pm me, I know it can be a hassle but it might help in the long run. Also see if you can get some service incentives thrown in, we used to offer anything to help us sell a car. Free all-season mats? Done. First 3 oil changes free? Done. It might be different at a bigger dealership because we never sold as many cars as bigger stores out there, but there's lots of help out there if you need it.

Don't forget the most effective technique. Bring food. If you're negotiating spend 20 bucks for doughnuts and coffee for the folks you're negotiating with and you'll make that back plus quite a bit. Should You Eat While You Negotiate? - Lakshmi Balachandra - Harvard Business Review