First of all, I want to say that I am pleased to be able to write this article on some insider tips and tricks to use when buying a new (or used) car. This article will contain information that over the course of your lifetime, could very possibly save you tens of thousands of dollars! I’m not kidding here. Most people walk in to a car dealership and get punked. Not anymore.
Guess what happens when an ex-car salesman gets disgruntled? *wink*
In this article I will list 10 ways to save you money and beat the dealership every time you buy a car. Again, just from reading (and printing) this material and using the simple tips and strategies I recommend, I will even go as far as guaranteeing savings of hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on a single car purchase.
So if you’re wondering…yes, I’m a former car salesman puke. I ripped people off for a living. I didn’t do it very long for that reason alone. I couldn’t stand putting people in cars they couldn’t afford, just to get a little extra money on the commission check at the end of the month. It wasn’t worth it to me. Keep in mind, car salesman are there to earn a paycheck, I understand this. But most of them go to far, and will take advantage of you the moment they catch you off guard.
One of the first things a salesman is taught is how to take control of a conversation from the start. That explains why you can hardly ever get a word in when talking to one of these sales “machines”. As long as they control you and the conversation, then they also control your checkbook. One of the key things I will focus on is knowledge! Know what you want to buy before you walk in. This is very, very important. If you walk in to a dealership showroom and have no idea what you want, the joke is on you, because you’re going to get royally screwed, EVERY TIME. We used to love the unsuspecting, wondering shoppers because we would end up putting them in a “bonus car”. (Certain cars each month are listed as bonus cars, meaning the salesman gets a bonus if they sell it, often a very large bonus) Most often bonus cars are ones that have been on the lot forever, and are hard to sell. Anytime a salesman calls a car a “program car”, or “Managers demo”, it is usually a lie, but you the customer believe it every time! I used to laugh at the special terms they would coin for these hunks of junk that otherwise couldn’t be sold.
Okay let’s get to the good stuff. I will list each tactic/strategy and describe in detail if necessary.
1. Research, research, research. This is the most important step of the whole system. Without reasearch on the vehicle, you’re done. You will lose. You see, car salesmen are more scared these days because there are more internet savvy customers than ever before. Every piece of information on the vehicle you want is available on the internet. Even the invoice prices! PICK OUT THE VEHICLE YOU WANT, AND RESEARCH THE HELL OUT OF IT! This will work to your advantage in several ways during the sales process. Get every piece of relavent pricing information on the vehicle and print it out, stick it in a folder and be prepared to bring it with you to the dealership. When you walk in and show the salesman this, you will score points from the get-go, and you are already ahead of the game. The salesmans level of confidence will drop instantly (trust me, I know this feeling!). Find the invoice price on the vehicle at a website like Edmunds.com Bring this invoice with you to the dealership. This alone will save you a mountain of money! You already know the price, so this will cut down on the BS level of the salesmans pricing game.
2. Confidence. Walk inside that dealership showroom like you designed the car and own the dealership. These kind of people used to piss me off because I knew right away that I wasn’t going to “knock them in the ditch” moneywise. An educated buyer is the worst case scenario for salesmen. Bring some attitude to the table. This alone will also lower the salesmans confidence level right away, and combined with step #1, you are miles ahead of him. This goes from him selling you the car, to you selling him the deal. And this my friend, will put you on the right track to mega savings. Be sure you’ve done the research and know everything about the vehicle you’re going to buy…most likely you will know 10 times more than the salesman, and you’ll catch him/her stuttering to answer your questions.
3. Coupons. This is another good piece of paper to bring in to the dealership. Most of these car dealers always have some kind of promotion going on, and you can usually find out about it on their websites. Most of these dealer websites will have a coupon that you can print out and get a few hundred bucks off the price. Take this coupon in, as it could very well knock the price below invoice by a few hundred dollars. It might not save you thousands, but a couple hundred dollars is a car payment. Bring in every coupon you can find that is valid at the dealership you choose. You can often find free oil changes and car wash coupons on their website as well. Bring them all in and demand that you get credit for them.
4. Time of the month. This really should be #1 on the list. I can’t stress to you the importance of “timing” when it comes to purchasing a new vehicle. You see, everyone in the car business works on quotas. All the way from the brand level down to the salesman level. In order to take advantage of all of these levels, you need to time your purchase just right. The absolute best time of the month to buy your car is on the last, and I mean dead last day of the month. No matter what month it is, the last day of the month will be a very simple way to save crap tons of cash. Let me explain….most dealerships pay their sales force a percentage of what they make (over cost) on each car. Here’s the kicker…the commission percentage you get paid as a salesman rises significantly per number of cars you sell per month. For example, if you sell 5 cars = 18%, 10 cars = 24% 20 cars = 30%…etc. So as you can see, the salesmen stand to make much, much more when they hit these different levels, and you can take full advantage of this by strolling in to the dealership lot on the last day of the month, because the whole sales force (including the managers) will be scrambling to meet quotas, and will often suffer losses in profit on the car just to get that next sale. (Dealerships get kickbacks from the makers at the end of the quarter for each unit sold, so they make up for some of the losses with this, among other things) Now if you absolutley don’t have the option to shop on the last day of the month, then my second choice would be the beginning of the next month, as the salesmen want to boost their numbers early on, so they can get a head start on any contests or car specific incentives they are entitled to. What am I talking about? Read on…
5. Negotiate extras. Here is something that a lot of people don’t know. Each month, there are sales contests held to boost the sales of a particular line or model of vehicle. For instance, last year at this time, for each Nissan Quest minivan I sold, Nissan sent me a check for $250 as a “bonus perk”. So if a customer didn’t know what they wanted…guess what I put them in? Yes, a Nissan Quest…why not? That’s extra cash, and I was so, so greedy at the time. Not only will an actual maker hold these contests, but so will the dealership. In order to get everyone geared up and motivated, the Sales Manager will often announce that for each car sold that day, he will fill up the gas tank of the salesman, or give them a gift certificate to Best Buy (or something similar). Here is where you can save a little more money. Talk to your salesman, and tell him that the only way you will buy this vehicle is if he tells you what kind of bonus perk he is getting from it. When he tells you, then proceed to tell him that if he splits his kickback, you will buy the car (assuming you’re planning on buying the car anyway). I guarantee that if you make it sound like a dealmaker or dealbreaker, he will split all the bonuses he gets, if not give you the whole thing! I’ve done this with a few customers in the past, and even if it was an extra $50, it would often save the deal on my end. You’d be highly surprised at all the extras you can squeeze out of a salesman if you stress that it will make or break a deal. (Cargo nets, paint chip touch up, car washes, oil changes, keychains, money, gift cards, etc..)
6. Know your credit score. Another important aspect of the sale is to know your financial situation through and through before you start having them pull numbers. Spend the $20 bucks the day before and find out your credit score. This way, you know what to expect finance wise. A lot of dealerships will try to screw you on finance rates, and they do this because they assume you don’t know your credit worthiness. Study your credit report, and find out what you qualify for. Knowing this will save you money in the long run, as well as help you guage how much money you will need to put down. Don’t walk in and expect them to tell you your credit info, as they have very tricky ways of telling you anything that involves your finances. They will turn it around on you right away, and make you feel vulnerable. With a credit report in hand, you can prevent this from happening. Trust me on this one.
7. Test drive. When a salesman has been on the job for a while, they think they can judge customers and “feel them out”. Because of this, they won’t always offer or go on the test drive with you. Here is a crucial step that will put you in control. Demand a test drive, and demand that they ride with you! If you have to go this far, then your salesman sucks, as most good salesmen will offer to go on the test drive every time. Anyhow, once you are on the test drive, start hammering them with questions. Be relentless, don’t give them a chance to take control. Then ask for an extended test drive. Once you do this, they will be tired and ready to get back to the dealership. At this point, combined with the above steps, you are in total control, and you will basically tell them what price you want to buy the vehicle at. You are almost a winner!
8. The deal. Now of course, if you followed this guide at all then you wouldn’t be at the dealership unless you are ready to buy. Obviously, don’t let the salesman know this. Appear to be ready to buy, but don’t lay the money on the table just yet. You see, the salesman has a two part job here. When you sit down at his desk and start to talk numbers the salesman will be thinking about a few things. Not only does he have to sell you on the price, he also has to sell his Sales Manager on the price! This is 100% true. Remember the last time you bought a new car, and the salesman went back and forth 10 times to the sales desk? This was most likely because his sales manager was giving him a hard time on the price he is trying to sell the car at.
Here is where it all comes together. Pull out your folder with the invoice price on the vehicle, and any other competing dealerships prices, coupons, and anything else relavent to the sale and slap it down on the desk. Tell the salesman that you are willing to pay x amount of dollars for the vehicle, and that if he has to make more than two trips back and forth to the sales manager, that you will part as friends and you’ll head down the street to the next dealership. If you followed the guide and went to the dealership on the last day of the month, I guarantee they will nearly give the car away to you. All they care about at this point is getting the sale. They know you’re serious, and they know you’ll walk if they jack around for too long. Make sure you tell them that you’re not there to play games, you’re there to buy a car, case closed.
9. Finance office. If you got this far, the congratulations on the deal! You probably saved yourself several thousand dollars (cough, cough, thanks to me) and you are ready to sign the papers. This is a quick reminder that in the finance office, where the loan papers are signed, is where they will usually try to hit you with extended and dealer warranties. Be very careful with these, as you could easily find your car payment of $300/month skyrocket another 20-50 dollars. Read the fine print VERY carefully, and make them explain each warranty package to you in FULL detail. See, this is the last place in the dealership that they can screw you. If you make it out of here, then you are golden, and you’ve won the day! Remember, get details, and have any agreements well documented and signed off on by a manager. This will be important for any issues that may arise in the future.
10. After the deal. Again, congratulations on your new vehicle! You successfully turned the tables on them, and are about to roll out in a shiny, new car. You made it out of the finance office with your ass still attached, and you are ready to get the hell out of dodge! (No pun intended) Before you leave, here are a few things you need to do.
A. Ask for a tour of the service department, and shake hands with one of the service managers. He might remember you when it’s time for a tune-up, and this can only be helpful.
B. Make sure the tank is full. Most salesman will take care of this because a gas ticket is issued for each new car if it needs gas. Some salesman steal these from the customer if they can, and will use them for personal use. Make sure your tank is full, or that you get a gas card/voucher.
C. Make sure there are no scratches/dents on the car before you leave the lot. If you don’t discover them for a few days and you try to bring it back and demand they get fixed, they don’t have to because you can’t prove that it didn’t happen on a parking lot or the street somewhere. Do a thorough inspection of the body AND the interior before you leave. This is very important.
D. Make sure you have any agreements that the salesman made with you ON PAPER. This might include the free window tinting that you got (yes you can request that!) or maybe even new tires or wheels. This will also include any agreements you made in step 5. A simple printed, dated and signed document will hold up well in court if it ever comes to that.
There you have it! You can now go out and successfully save a serious amount of money on that new car or truck you’ve been drooling over. Again, as a former salesman, I am telling you everything you need to know to do this. If I were still in the industry, I would get fired for telling people information like this. But I don’t care. I couldn’t stand seeing people get taken advantage of several times a day. I’m a good person, and so are most other people. You buying the car alone will keep them in business, why not save some money and get some “extras” in the process?
Now go make that deal! (Just don’t tell them who sent ya!)
