Negotiating the Asking Price on a Vehicle

I did all of my negotiation for my new minivan over e-mail. I got some e-mailed quotes from local dealers through cars.com and edmunds.com.

My best results came through my bank. If you bank through USAA (military), they offer pre-negotiated car prices. The pre-negotiated rate for my Honda Odyssey was $100 below invoice. I contacted a few dealers and asked them if they could beat that price, and they did. So I ended up buying my car for about $260 below invoice. I hate negotiating, and I was prepared to pay up to $500 above invoice, so I was pretty happy with the outcome.

A friend of mine researched the car she wanted and then knew the price she wanted to pay. She went to the bank and got a cashier's check for that amount and took it to the dealership. She told the salesman which car she wanted and handed him the check. He refused to come down to her amount so she left her name and number and walked out. A couple days later (or it might have even been the next day) the salesman called her back and accepted her offer. She ended up with the car of her dreams at the price she wanted to pay without a back & forth negotiation!

.

Are you talking about a new or a used vehicle?

I've found an a new vehicle there's not a lot of room for negotiating off the sticker price, but you can still do some negotiation. I have found there is much more negotiation room for the trade in. You can also negiotate with the financing. I don't know about paying cash, because they make money by financing. The last vehicle I bought, they quoted me what I considered a high interest rate (2% higher than what I could get at my credit union). When they found out I wasn't going to use them, they called my husband and practically begged him to have me change my mind because they could give me such a great rate.

When purchasing a used vehicle, there's lots of room for negotiating.

We bought our car 13 months ago. We got it for a little more than $5,000 off of the asking price.

I have and it worked. The first thing you should do is research the value of the same year/make/model with all the same features you like and use that as your guide along with what you are willing to pay. you always start off lower than what you expect to pay and don't be swift to answer or counter during the negotiation. Best wishes!

You have cash. That's good.

Do you have a trade? If so make sure they are giving you RETAIL value for your trade, because that is what you're paying.retail:retail vs. wholesale: wholesale.

Just go with number in mind and LEAVE if they don't meet it. But be prepared to leave.

Look around. Check out KBB and other common sources for the vehicle you want.

Good luck!

You'd have to be crazy to pay the asking price. Definitely negotiate. Your starting point should be their purchase price (check around on the internet for this). Your ultimate goal should be $500ish above that price. (You may be able to get a better deal online, also, and not with a local dealer. We have gone through autobytel.com with good results in the past.) Be fully prepared to walk if they don't meet your desired price. Also, I don't allow them to go back and forth to the "manager's office in the back" - I have always told the salesman up front that he has one shot at going to talk to his manager, and if he doesn't come back with approval on the price I've asked for, then I'm going to leave. And then I do it.

Honestly, I'd just let them believe you might get financing through them, because a lot of times you can get a better purchase price that way. They make most of their money on the financing. Then when it comes time to sign on the dotted line, tell them you're paying cash. It will annoy them, but who cares. They were willing to screw you out of thousands of dollars, so they can't be mad when you return the favor. ;)

We did for our last vehicle purchase which was a one year old Honda Odyssey. I did a lot of research online (carsoup, blue book, etc.) before we came up with a price I thought it was worth based on other Odysseys of similar mileage- which was less than the sticker price. We (my husband and I) went in and said, we'll pay X and that includes tax, title license, etc. We were able to write a check out of our home 2nd line of credit so that helps if you can do that so you don't have to get on a payment plan. I think it's worth it to them to not have to go through the paperwork for financing.

My husband recently invested in some cars to sell. he does work with people on the price. Advice is if you know the kind of car you are looking for, go to the Kelly Blue Book website and on there you can get the blue book value for good, fair and excellent (no dents, like new) condition. then you will be armed with the right value. Of course, if buying, always make sure you check it out. if they will not let you have a mechanic check it (totally worth the $100 or so) then run don't walk. If from a dealer, they should also allow this. Do not trust the car fax reports. They are only accurate if a reputable repair shop did any repairs. We found this out this year. My husband did negotiate a price for a used SUV he bought. We ended up making repairs but with the price we negotiated and cost of repairs, still under what the blue book valued it at.

HI,
We negiotated on the asking price of the last vehicle that we purchased. We successfully got the price that we wanted too. It did help that we were dealing in cash, had all the specs on the vehicle, as far as what the fair market price was and the NADA. We also found some similar/identical vehicles in the area with a better price, this helped our leveraging power tremendously. Thankfully it all worked out.

I do my research...i find out what the Kelley Blue Book is on the car and check with consumer reports to see what they say about the car...

I tell them what I feel the car is worth - if they don't like it - they can lump it. I don't NEED the car... I WANT the car...so if they are willing to take my price, then great - if not - i walk away...

Updated

I do my research...i find out what the Kelley Blue Book is on the car and check with consumer reports to see what they say about the car...

I tell them what I feel the car is worth - if they don't like it - they can lump it. I don't NEED the car... I WANT the car...so if they are willing to take my price, then great - if not - i walk away...

I have never paid what they told me I should. I actually got our minivan for $5000 off "sticker price" and it was used. I got our car for $2000 off "sticker price" and had them give us an extra $2000 incentive. I would never pay full asking price for any vehicle.

I go thru an auto broker in my area. FREE to me and he finds what we are looking for and delivers the car to us! He does all the hard work. Good luck!