NavyBlue2

It is now 2018.
So it comes down to either You wants the car more than the Dealer who wants to sell you that car.

So if you're in no hurry, then stick with the 62 offer.
If dealer hasn't sold the car by the end of the week or month, he'll def comes back to you with a lower price.

For used cars, I'd ignore whatever-color book or what the market says it's worth, just like houses & art, it's up to whatever the buyer wants to pay for it.

If the market for that car is 68, and the Dealer lists it at 66 (below "market" price), then there's something wrong since most will usually list it above & have room for negotiation / haggling down.

tail_lights

Wife and I had a similar incident at a Hyundai dealer (like they can be picky LOL). Sales manager claimed my numbers couldn't work and that if we wait no one would pay what they were offering on the Focus we were trading in Went to the next Hyundai dealer down the road (this was all in Houston BTW) and although it took a bit longer than I wanted we rode out of there in a brand new 2016 Accent that my wife was happy with and 'numbers' that I knew could be done (they gave us 1000 more for the Focus as well)

Walter Raulerson

Do dealers EVER lose ANY money on a car deal?

PobreWey

Good job standing your ground. Even though the money is insignificant.... some of us are petty like that

I'd base your decision on this. If the car was just sold for $65,000 ... would you be going crazy wishing you paid that instead of tried to save 1k or would you say oh well and shop around patiently?

gavinvr4

direct007

In the short run...Yes. In the big picture, no. If it's the end of the month and the dealer may get a six figure bonus if they sell x amount of cars and they are two cars short. It could make sense to lose thousands on those last two cars because of the back end bonus. Of course that could be like hitting the lottery for the buyer as the buyer would never know and this will apply to new cars, not used.

patentcad

When car sales or profitability get soft they can make such little profit on each car transaction that even WITH the manufacturers back end money (which virtually all car brands offer to franchised dealers) their sales operations aren't profitable overall - service and parts carry the business sometimes. That's not typical, but it happens. Just because you sell a car at 'dealer cost' but then there's say $400 on the back end - that may not be enough profit over say 130 cars sold that month to pay for the sales dept. salaries and expenses.

As for this preposterous notion that a party in a financial transaction is a 'liar' for not disclosing their true financial position - well I guess that makes EVERYBODY in such a negotiation, buyer and seller alike - a liar. Which is what some people here think - but that it only applies to the car dealer. Which is utterly ridiculous. By the way, while I was in the car biz for 10 years, that ended 26 years ago, so since then I've strictly been on the consumer side of the desk.

P.S. If you buy cars new off the lot you're going to get hammered on depreciation more than if you buy used- but buying a Corvette used at a realistic price is much harder than with other cars for a bunch of reasons, and I think #1 is we want what we want (equipment, color, etc.) and there are FAR fewer used Corvettes on the market than say Silverado pickup trucks (you know like 1/10 as many). And if you're going to buy a Corvette new, far better to wait until the car softens up 3+ years into a new generation - than to buy in the first year or two when it's waiting lists and MSRP only. I bought in 2017 and I figure that the same car in 2014 might have cost like $8K+ more.

Foosh

Well said in the last two posts above.

JALLEN4

I can tell you that dealers lose money on new cars far more often than one might think. For various reasons, there are cars that just don't sell and you do not have the option to send them back. Just on a pure dollar and cents accounting, the average dealer will lose often in the course of a year. If you factor in the actual selling costs of a transaction, that total number increases dramatically.

The other factor the non-participant does not factor in is the used car trade. There is not a guaranteed market even when the trade is acquired for wholesale. Often in the course of the year the trade simply doesn't sell on your lot and a considerable loss occurs when the car is wholesaled to another dealer or taken to auction.

All of this happens regardless of what incentives the factory offers. At the end of the day, most dealers will make a profit somewhere in the chain of potential profit centers. The average dealer has at least six profit centers and many have several more.

OntarioOrangeC3

I never stated my opinion as fact. That's all it is...my opinion, based on how things progressed. Just like other opinions expressed here. Could I be wrong? Yup. We'll never know unless the OP cared to tell us.

Good to know low balling is the norm. Thanks for the business lesson. How about being unreasonable/unrealistic (take your pick) when a good deal is staring at you in the face? You know, like offering $4000 under a price that's already fair. Is that the norm also & to be expected?

mammoth713

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$4k off of a $66k transaction is only 6% discount.... Why do so many people in this thread think dealers are entitled to their sticker price and nothing less.. wtf?

With any purchase ... The price is listed. You can offer whatever you want. They may come down in price, they may not. If no one buys their product, the market may force them to ultimately lower their price. Capitalism 101

It's not insulting offering a 6% discount on a purchase... And especially not one that is a low volume used sports car during off season...

You can go into home Depot and ask for a discount on a damaged piece of wood.. they might give you a break or say tough ****. Then it's up to you to buy it or not. That simple.

For the guy to get attacked for proposing purchasing their car for 6% is far from being a "low ball"

Sounds to me like sales manager is an entitled dick

LimeRay

OP, let it sit and see what they come back with. They know you are anxious and will use that against you.

Foosh

Because sometimes sticker is the final price or close. You don't negotiate on one of Kerbeck's, MacMulkin's, or Criswell's special sales prices, yet people pay those without question. If you do, they just tell you that's it, final price, and you won't get a call back.

thegame

Wait did I miss something, the car was 66k and he offered 62k? How is that a ridiculous offer?

Foosh

Because it is $6-7K below market value, defined by recent comparable sales prices on identically equipped cars, on a vehicle already listed at 40% below original MSRP. I shouldn't have used the term "ridiculous" and said "low-ball" instead.

At any rate, it was refused . . . moot point, move along now, nothing more to see here.

thegame

Vettes depreciate faster than they accelerate. Not exactly breaking news. None the less, I still say if the dealer is asking 66k offering 62k is far from lowballing. Unless he wrote 62k on a napkin, crumbled it and threw it in the sales guys face

Foosh

You clearly missed the point. Comparable sales numbers matter, and he didn't get the car for $62K . . . end of story.

thegame

I don't know about MacMulkin or Crisswell but I know with Kerbeck the cars are new. There is not much wiggle room on those new car deals. The car was used, there is room to negotiate on any used car. Dealer sounds like a bunch of turds.

thegame

No I totally get the point. Seems you just want to be argumentative and express the same lame point over and over. You don't work at a dealership do you? Agree to disagree, move along as you said.

thill444

The dealer felt the car was priced to sell at the listed price. And indeed it is. It is below market value. This isn't rocket science. Many used cars dealers to price their cars above market value and there is room to negotiate.

This simply is not one of those situations where the car was marked up high enough to negotiate right now.

Perhaps if it sits for awhile longer the dealer will drop the price, but it sure seems like they are at their bottomline.