halfpanel08

agreed.. find the car you want.. know the prices.. know what you can afford before talking to the stupid salesmen..

i was at the chevy dealer the other day just trying to look at trucks and i had a over annoying salesmen literally follow me around.. was all in my business. ask andrew (08blkSS) he was with me and the guy wouldnt leave us alone. i got pissed and left...

bobiroc

Articles like this make me glad I get the GSM employee pricing and all I have to do is walk in with my paperwork I get off the GM Employee page and say give me this car. No price haggling, usually get awesome GMAC financing rates, and a couple perks. For instance when I bought my HHR SS last spring I got the PAL Accessory for my iPod free and installed for free and the 72 MOnth extended warranty for like $300. I guess it also helps that my Father used to work in the car business when he as on disability from the police department and we know the Owner of the dealership.

VictorySpark08

Wish i got GSM. There so annoying and the Tricks get old. Make you not want to ever buy a car again by the time you get done dealing with them.

bobiroc

It does make buying a car easier in some ways. I have had dealers snub me though when I mention the Employee Pricing. I remember I was going to buy a TransAm back in 1998 and a Pontiac Dealer salesman told me he would check the availability on the car I wanted and never returned. When I went in to ask where he was they told me he left. The other salesman told me that car or any TransAms were not available. It pissed me off but I was only 22 at the time and I ended up not getting it because the insurance was outrageous. Ended up buying a 1998 Chevy S10 SS which was my second choice and I loved the truck. The chevy dealer I go to my father used to work at and was a manager of at one point so they know the family and never try to "screw" me on the sales floor. There are a couple guys in the service side that have tried but were never successful. I understand the need to make a profit but to try and tell a customer they need a service when they don't is not right. Thankful that I am a person that does my research before I buy anything and when I go in I usually know the facts. I also know exactly what I want before I walk into any store for the most part. It pays to be consumer wise.

Jeff®

Last 2 cars I bought were bought without ever going to the dealer first. My 93 Ranger I bought over the phone and never even saw it until I took delivery, although I had test driven others. The HHR I had a firm offer via email before I went to test drive.

hyperv6

This all is old news!

I for too long see people go into dealers and get raped.

If you don't know what you want, how much you should pay, what your options are on finance you have no reason to step in to the dealers door.

With all the new cars I have purchased I always went in knowing what the bottom line price I wanted was and what vehicle I wanted. If I did not get my price I walked away.

Today with the web available and all the info available anyone who over pays or gets ripped off have no excuses.

I bought 2 cars last July and August. The HHR SS I bought over the internet. It was a local dealer and I e mailed the saleman from work. Told him what I wanted. He gave me a price. I said no even though it was not a bad price. I gave him the price I wanted and said you get me this price I will buy today.

I got an reply 10 min later with you just bought a car.

Now that I had my price we had to have one brought in from another dealer. But that was no issue or any cost to me. I was only willing to give on one thing and it was color. I was ok with red or black. I got black.

I went in to sign the papers and I went with my own finacing set buy I was open if they could get a better rate from a local credit union the dealer works with. They did find a better deal that worked form me and they were a local creditable Credit Union that has been in our area for years.

Called one dealer before I e mailed this one and the salesman told me he could get me the SS but he would not even come close to my price and even said the dealer that was offering that price in Columbus could not do that. I almost went to that dealer with my paper work to let the guy know it could have been done.

Either way here are some other things to note.

Try to buy in the last few days of the month. Sales staffs need to makle numbers and dealers like to remove cars from the floor plan. So it is true the last few days they are willing to deal more.

Know what the dealer invoice is and remember the dealer gets kickbacks in what is called Dealer Hold Back. It is unadvertised money dealers get for makeing sales goals with GM and other programs only the dealer knows. If your paying dealer invoice you paid too much. If you paid $500 under invoice you paid too much. Invoice price is where you start and go down.

If you plan to buy GM get a GM Visa card and buy your gas on it weekly. Pay it off so not to pay any interest. After a short time you will get at the least $1,000 off the agreed price you are going to pay. Do not tell the dealer about the GM card money till you get your price. Once you agree on the price lay it on them and it is $1,000 off that price.

Note at times GM will offer even more off sometimes $2,000-3,000 off the price if they have special deals going.

My SS deal went from a sticker price of $26,350 to the agreed price of $22,750 Which was my goal price. Then I took my GM card off of that and got a new 08 SS [only missing the side airbags] for $21,750.

I went back two weeks later and bought the Malibu in the showroom for my mother. It was stickered at just over $26K with V6 and 18" wheeks and all. to a agreed price of $20,500. I then was able to take $1,000 off since I added my mother to the GM card to use the unused GM rebate money. So I saved $2,000 just by using the GM card and by paying it off each month it was a free $2,000.

The bottom line is read and learn what you want and what it is worth the information is free on the web. Second look into to special offers like the GM Visa card as take advantage of them. No reason to spend more just for not being informed.

One final note not all salesmen are alike. I have had some bad and some very good sales people to work with. If you get a Ba$tard get up and walk out. THere are too many dealers and too many other sales people to put up with that crap. I have walked out many times and was glad I did.

Use your head when you buy a car not your heart. If you buy it from the heart your going to get burned. THey build cars everyday and a good salesman can pick one up from another dealer any time.

pitbull76

All good advice. Go in knowing what the car you're buying is worth, what your trade is worth, and what you can get financed for. When I bought my SS, the asking price on the car was pretty good, but initially they really lowballed my trade. I know these cars have lousy resale, but was able to get $1K better than the initial offer. I also got about a 1.25% better finance rate than the dealer would give by going through my credit union. This is the first time that I couldn't just get the dealer to match the best rate I had already found, but no big deal.

bobiroc

Oh don't even get me started on trade-ins. The dealer offered $2600 for my S10 SS (Car Max offered $2200) but I ended up selling it for close to $6000. The dealer was kind of honest though and said they would buy it for $2600 but probably sell it for over $7,000 because it was an SS and it was in excellent condition for its age.

pitbull76

Yep, probably could have sold my old HHR for 2K more than I got in trade, but with the economy the way it is almost nothing is selling these days. I didn't want to be sitting around with it for awhile before it sold, and it was worth enough that any buyer would probably have to finance it which is a bit of a pain on a private sale. But, it's almost always the best method to sell it yourself if you have the time.

hyperv6

Do yourself a favore if your vehicle is in good condition and sell it out right.

A trade in no matter what the economy 90% of the time is a losing effort.

My vehicles are usally in pretty good condition and only once did I get a price to my advantage in a trade in.

My Sonoma ZQ8 I just sold had 100,000 miles and I got $5,000 from the first guy who looked at it on 4 hours after I put the for sale sign in it. HE later came back and bought the winter wheels for $500 more.

Right now even selling on the used car market on your own is not very good right now. The market is flooded with used cars and few buyers. Dealers want trade in's like they want Small Pox's.