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Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. No matter what you did they may have had something in mind to respond with that would have ruined the deal or experience. I don't pretend to be good at money matters or dealing on anything but I do have a few general observations. These are in part from watching my dad who worked at times as a professional labor negotiator buy cars (he was interesting to watch), in part from my personal experience, and in part from graduate level education in the social sciences.
First of course you need to have a pretty good idea what your target price is and what your prepared to pay. Without that your just adrift. This can be figured out in the process of negotations over time if necessary but the more you know the ealier the better. Of course this has to match up with what a dealer will sell at but that is up in the air at this point. Some deals are workable some aren't. Sounds like you had an idea what you were prepared to pay. Realistic or not I can't say and it doesn't matter at this point.
Next the way you project yourself and deflect/respond to sales tactics right from the start is critical. It also depends on the nature of the sales approach. Lets asssume a somewhat stereotypical traditional car dealer approach. Being a little elusive is good to a degree. It is OK to express a degree of interest but never enthusiasm. Being indifferent (or at least not showing your hand) at the right points is highly effective and important. But don't over do it. You want to convey your serious but flexible to a degree on time and have vehicle options in mind (or are looing at options) as well. Your situation will determine exactly how you handle it and all situations are different. If it is accurate the best situation to be in is one where you can suggest that your ready to buy when you find the right car and the right deal but there is no real urgency. Regardless you need to work with what you have the best possible.
No matter how strong or relax dealers come one they are often trying to push your buttons and are prepared to respond with counter arguements (often rather scripted) when needed and reinforcement for what is important to you. You do need to let them know to a point what your looking for and what is important to you but you don't want to show your motivations. You become a tempting target for attempts to push hot buttons and to approach with a rather canned script. You will undoubtedly have a better experience if you leave them a little confused about how to approach you and it becomes obvious that their tested charms fail to charm you. A few unexpected responses where the question really seems to have an obvious answer (b/c it is generally leading and is intended to invoke a specific answer) leaves people confused. This breaks the scipt down. Watch out for too much agreeablity and the little word yes. This is as much about protecting your psychological frame of skeptism as breaking their script. Finally keep in mind the opening script is much like pick up lines. Don't be too hard on the salesperson. Your goal is to deflect it and render it powerless in the course of a postive friendly exchange so you can get on with a genuine exchange on an equal footing.
Third, alway remember the deal doesn't have to be done today. Ideally be prepared and expect not to close the deal on day one of negotiations and take this into account with your offers. If you come to terms great. However, if you hit an impass after you have a good feel for where things are at but with significant room BEFORE you have crossed your price line step back, indicate you need to do some more research and think it over, express hope that a deal can be reached, say thanks, and walk. If they stop you and counter fine; take it if you like it otherwise your done for the day; just walk. In case you hadn't already made it clear you have just demonstrated they can't create a sense of urgency with you. Another tested charm has failed them. You have denied them certain home field advantage. But you have left on a postive note with an open door. Your in a strong position if this is how things have played out. If there is a deal to be worked it can be probably be reached and probably in a relatively agreeable fashion although it may take some time yet. If not it probably wasn't there in the first place.
At no point do you ever want to put yourself in a box and never put the dealer in a box. Unless perhaps it really is the end game and even then think twice. Your trying to work an agreeable deal; this isn't war and it isn't about the last dollar.
One place where I think you personally went wrong is that you allowed it to become an issue of the monthly payment and what you can afford. This tempted them to try exactly what pissed you off. It gave them an opening to try to deal with your expressed objection by countering with a different term that simply had a lower monthly payment and also to try to push your hot button by suggesting that this car isn't for you so look at this Altima we have at an inappropriate point when you were still negotiating price on a specific vehicle. I agree with you that at this point he probably wasn't trying to be helpful with another suggestion but was relly trying to psychologically manipulate you. I could be wrong but I really think he was playing another old school tested charm. But you gave handed him this.
Negotiations should always be about what your prepared to pay for **THIS** vehicle at **THIS** time. You might even reinforce this with a comment like "At that much for this car I'd consider paying a little more for a BMW". Nothing wrong with suggesting you don't want to spend a lot on a car but this is best conveyed as sense of value not one of affordabilty. Negotiate the price not the payment.
Gee how did this get so long? Bottom line is don't put yourself in a box or the dealer in a corner. Leave things open, stay skeptical, walking while leaving the door open can be both a strong negotiating tactic and really critical for you to reflect and evaluate all that has happened so you can reach a deal that is reasonable and leaves you feeling good about it.
posted by 69.129.18...
, Tue, 23 May 2006 17:03:50
, Tue, 23 May 2006 17:12:19
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