Nov 18 2008
New Car Dealer Tricks of the Trade
Try to never pay more than $500 over what a new domestic car may cost a dealer and not over $1500 for an import. Negotiate up from the dead cost, which is what the dealer pays the car manufacturer after factoring in any rebates and incentives the dealer may get from the manufacturer. To discover the dead cost, you will have to determine the dealer invoice, price incentives, and holdbacks which are the dealers manufacturer rebates for selling cars.
Try and never pay for, or at least seek to try and reduce the cost of add-on fees and options like a dealer advertising fund fee which is what the dealer pays to participate in his automotive groups advertising association. Also look for the fee called the wholesale financial reserve. This is the fee the dealer pays the manufacturer each month until the car is sold off the lot. Another fee is for window etching. This is when the car dealer etches the vehicle identification number (VIN) on the cars windshield, but this can be done much cheaper by most any reputable garage mechanic.
Maybe even consider looking for a quota car which is the car a dealer needs to sell to make its quota for monthly sales in order to get a bonus offered by the manufacturer. In this case a dealer may sell a quota car at a loss or for no profit! It may be best to ask about a quota car around the middle to end of the month when sales quotas are more of a concern for the dealer. Dealership sales managers may be the only ones to ask concerning quota cars because sales people may not even be aware of quota levels at the dealership.
