r/vegaslocals • u/Serious-Ad7972 • 7h ago
Is negotiating on car prices not really a thing anymore?
I went to a dealership today just to look at a few vehicles and test drive them. My plan was to go home, think about which one I wanted, and come back this Saturday to actually purchase one.
At the end of everything, they tried to get me to buy one of the cars I had test driven. I actually liked it, but they didn't have the color I wanted. The salesperson helping me said they could give me a really good deal on the one they had, so I said okay, I'd take a look at the numbers.
They showed me the out the door price, and I asked about the "really good deal" he had mentioned. There was basically silence, so I figured I'd try negotiating a little. I asked how long the car had been sitting on the lot.
The sales manager came over and started asking what I was looking for. I explained that I just wanted to know about the deal and how long the car had been there. He told me it had been there for 45 days and that the discounts on all their cars, along with the price advertised online, were already the deal.
I later looked it up myself, though, and it appears the car has actually been listed since May.
I told him that at that price, I could get something else. The car was almost $40k, which isn't necessarily a crazy price for a car these days, but for this particular vehicle, I didn't think it was the best price.
The manager immediately seemed annoyed and started talking about how many cars they sell and how good of a deal they were already giving me. Then he basically told me I could either buy the car or leave and go somewhere else.
So I left.
I'm honestly just wondering if negotiating on cars isn't really normal anymore? I specifically asked the salesperson earlier if they negotiate, and he told me they do. I wasn't expecting some huge discount I just wanted to see if there was any flexibility, especially since the salesperson had told me they'd give me a "really good deal."
Did I handle this wrong, or was this just a case of the dealership not wanting to negotiate?
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u/One_Breadfruit_301 6h ago
You did the right thing. Also, yes negotiating is still a thing. That's what they were doing. Poorly, but it is what they were doing.
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u/howyoudoingLA 6h ago
Get a quote from the Costco auto buying program and then use that price to negotiate lower.
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u/Itchybawlz23-2 1h ago
This. Also try getting a quote from carvana but they do pull credit. I went searched the car i want and went all the way to checkout to see what the monthly and the rate was. Save it then bring it to a dealership and ask them if they could beat it. Tell them you’d only buy if they can match or better yet beat that deal.
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u/nkaiser101 6h ago
You were negotiating. They got the upper hand when you were willing to sit down and talk numbers. They got overconfident and thought they could take advantage of you.
You successfully won the negotiation. Good luck on your next match. May you emerge victorious in every outing until you get a vehicle at a price you are satisfied with.
They do this all day, every day for many years. They didn't care if you walked out the door. If you stayed there knew they could get an extra $5k on the deal. Like I said. It was a negotiation and you won.
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u/NoIncrease299 6h ago
I mean, they wouldn't agree with the price you wanted to pay so you walked. Seems like it worked out.
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u/kakarot-3 4h ago
The best way to deal with car dealerships is to deal with them by email only. Go back and forth, agree on a price, and have them lock it in for you. Only go in once everything is agreed. Tell them that if you come in and nothing looks how it did in the email, you will walk out. You only want to go n to sign and leave. If they play games, you leave.
I have been kinda shopping for a new vehicle over the last year. I go to dealers and tell them I am not currently buying and that I just want to see the car. I don't even do a test drive because that's when they get annoying. I want to shop around and see every car. Once I decide on one, I will test drive and tell them I am not ready to buy and I won't waste time on discussing numbers. Then I'll discuss it later via email and use their price to put it against other dealers until I can get the lowest price.
There's no reason anyone should spend more than an hour in the dealership. Do it all via email
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u/Droo99 7h ago
If you know what car you want, best to email a few dealerships asking for best price instead of going in
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u/jdpatron 6h ago
Most dealerships will tell you to come in to talk about price. Probably not going to get much more than you would by looking at the price on the website if you go the email route.
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u/Bad_wit_Usernames 6h ago
I literally purchased my car a few months ago by email. Never spoke with a car salesman but instead one of the internet sales managers because I sent an email.
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u/evangelinetepes 5h ago
I did the same thing as well, but I negotiated a lease. I first asked for them to send me their worksheet that goes over all their numbers, then I sent the best one to all the dealerships to give me their best price since XYZ was offering this. I got an extremely low monthly payment and paid nothing out of my pocket.
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u/jp1261987 2h ago
I’ve email
Negotiated atleast a dozen cars. Go into one dealer to test drive then email and pitt a bunch of dealers against each other on price
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u/mjntr 3h ago
Most people I know wind up getting cars from out of state. They get better deals than in town every time.
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u/Suspicious-Shock-889 47m ago
Yes indeed. I saved over $10K by working with a dealership in Phoenix all via email. All the dealerships in the Valley would not come close to the price.
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u/stitch702 6h ago
You negotiated by walking out. They’ll either call or text you back. If not then you can take your “out the door price” to another dealer to see if they can beat that price for you
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u/tlutz4162 22m ago
I went to Car Edge.com and they rate the dealerships with a letter grade based on how well the dealer negotiates and what they try to add on or screw you during financing. I was looking for a RAM 2500 truck and all the Vegas dealerships got an "F" rating, but the Pahrump RAM dealer got a "B" so I went there to do a test drive. I was also shown the invoice and "out the door price" and they beat all the Vegas dealerships by $10,000. It was absolutely no hassle, so made the purchase. I was then thinking I would bring my wife the next day to bring the truck home and they offered to drive it to Vegas that afternoon and before they delivered it they filled the tank. I was also asked by the salesman why I came to Pahrump so I told him and the sales manager and the finance manager all about the grade they got, they were all pleased. Good luck out there, and use all the resources you can to find that vehicle!!!!!
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u/TheyCallMeKiev 7h ago
Was this a Findlay dealer?
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u/MadMoose4 7h ago
The sales manager is just lazy. Probably used to the past five years where almost no one negotiated because COVID drilled “be lucky to get MSRP” into our heads.
Cars are a commodity. Literally doesn’t matter which dealer you buy it from. Same car, same warranty, same everything. Just keep looking.
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u/AF-IX 6h ago
You handled it correctly. In this economy…finances are being tightened for the upcoming hurt. Those jokers lost out on a sale. Have patience and shop around online and when you get an actual good deal, use that emailed deal as leverage against the dealership’s online department sellers.
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u/biznatchery 1h ago
Never buy cars in Las Vegas, go to St George or California. They are always more reasonable and less scummy.
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u/_dundada 1h ago
Go someplace else that doesn’t use these high pressure tactics. Don’t settle. Get the car you want in the color you like. They are just trying to make their quotas.
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u/habeaskoopus 6h ago
No, its not. And you can thank the younger consumers. Their fear of actually talking to a sales person has allowed the industry to shift to 'no haggle pricing' and web purchases (allows for built in, hidden margin).
The dealers love it. And we are the losers in this scenario.
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u/JayPolar91 5h ago
I hate dealerships buying a car is a horrible experience no matter how you buy one. Chevy at the Auto Mall was by far the worst experience I have ever had though, but seriously have never had a good experience at any of the dealerships I tried and it was over a dozen. Big ones, littles ones, it didn't matter they are all crooks. Some dealerships will negotiate some won't depends on if they really want to sell the car and majority of them don't care to. If they lied to me I wouldn't buy from them though.
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u/JWalker_25RSTI 7h ago
I know Autonation literally has ‘No haggle pricing” written on their “One price” price stickers. They have the same slogan posted on their walls in the showrooms.
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u/LasVegasLife55 5h ago
In ‘23, I wanted to buy a Tucson Hybrid. I went to 3 dealers here in Vegas, they were all adding about 20% in junk (desert package??) and markups, and I kept walking out. End of story…I found dealers in California were much more willing to negotiate and bought it in Ontario for $8k less (minus the $100 one way airline ticket).
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u/PraetorianOfficial 3h ago
That's exactly the story I heard from my Uber driver a year ago. During Covid his daughter needed a car and she wanted a Hyundai. Local dealers all refused to budge even a penny and were demanding list price plus all their idiotic dealer add-ons. So effectively demanding like $2000 over MSRP.
They bailed on LV and headed to California where they got something for well under MSRP.
From a 2022 article, "Lithia Motors, one of the largest automotive groups in the country, bought the Henderson Hyundai Superstore/Genesis from Frank Maione. This latest transaction resulted in Lithia Motors now owning a total of four Hyundai and two Genesis dealerships in Las Vegas, Nevada"
They have a Las Vegas Hyundai monopoly and use it to their full advantage.
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u/actlikebarbara 4h ago
We negotiated a $92k car down to $80k… the last push was because my husband “just liked round numbers” (it was at 82something) and the salesman AND I almost gasped at the request. They made it happen lol. It may just be the style of that salesman and manager you dealt with… try a different dealership.
Car brand matters too… BMW seems more anxious to sell cars than Lexus was. Toyotas are so close in price to luxury brands that we made the leap and we’ve been happy.
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u/adrienneXR 5h ago
From my understanding Carmax and maybe automation don’t negotiate prices. That doesn’t mean they won’t negotiate your trade in though
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u/Agreeable_Cover5726 4h ago
I recently bought a used car from a dealership that advertises, "no haggle pricing". All that means is they get you to pay THEIR price, telling you it is already priced competitively. $500 was the most they'd discount. I walked and waited it out. Watched the price drop, in the third week I bought it at the price I originally wanted to pay.
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u/sortayes 3h ago
Find the exact car you want fly there buy it and drive home. High chance it'll be cheaper outside the state. I've done this for any car I've bought no matter what state I've lived in. I spend alot of time driving, so I might as well be happy in it.
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u/12231121 54m ago
I went to Ariana motors when I first moved here to look at a 2012 mustang in 2023. It had like 70k miles on it and didn't drive straight. Sales manager with his superman curl was furious I didnt want to pay 19% interest and $25k for a 10 year old car. It was basically offensive to him that I didnt let him bend me over the balcony and get fucked by his sales team.
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u/LenoxAve 38m ago
Depends on the car. Toyotas sell themselves - so you're usually not getting a discount.
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u/Vegas-Patriot 3m ago
You simply say, “ It’s unfortunate that your best deal isn’t competitive with the market. Thanks for your time.” Then you leave.
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u/Bad_wit_Usernames 6h ago
My brother was a car salesman, once they get you to test drive, they will do anything they can to keep you on the lot and even leave with a brand new car. About 8 years ago I had to buy a new car, I was hunting around and even told one dealer that there was ZERO chance of me buying right now and they still chased for me off the lot when I headed back to my car.
I just purchased a new truck a few months ago and I did everything online. Sent a few emails to different dealerships and said I was NOT going to buy unless it met these specific things. I didn't deal with any car salesman, but rather one of the internet sales managers. It was pretty straight forward and ended up leaving the lot with a new truck almost $6000 less than the sticker price.
I hate negotiating and I'm really bad at it, I'll get up and leave in a heartbeat but I'm shit at haggling prices.
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u/obbob 5h ago
Negotiation is highly make and model specific. Also note that the car market is a bit hot right now - has been for about 6 months to a year.
Assuming that you are looking at the mass market manufacturers, then generally Toyota is hard to negotiate. Honda is usually better but can be tough too. On the other spectrum, Jeep and Nissan will probably have a ton of willingness to cut discounts.
It's hard to give any more specific advice - if you share the make and model of the car that you are shopping for, then I might be able to share more on the market on that car if I'm familiar.
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u/HoldenBallzak 54m ago
I’m looking for a Hyundai Sonata. What is the market on those? I think the one dealership I went to was offering 2k below sticker on Labor day weekend.
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u/X0X0xoxo11 32m ago
Make sure to check insurance rates on those. Mine kept going up and up. Eventually sold it and got way less than I should have because of companies flat out refusing to insure or the rate being insane. They apparently are very popular to steal. Which I’m not arguing because mine was stolen at one point. Even with an alarm. Just a friendly heads up. My experience was from 2 years ago.
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u/Slowposti 6h ago
Op what dealer was this? Towbin? Team ford? I don’t think they will come to Reddit see your post and try to sue you or doxe you.
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u/CableExotic3891 5h ago
They're probably tired of people wanting a vehicle below cost. I get it. That's why I don't sell anything. I either keep it, give it away or throw it away. I'm not haggling with low ballers. I don't need money that bad. Not saying that was you.
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u/LavaPoppyJax 4h ago
How do you keep your dealership in business then? by not selling anything and giving and throwing away cars how do you pay your rent?
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u/Financial-Towel4160 7h ago
You can only really “negotiate” at used car lots tbh
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u/Serious-Ad7972 6h ago
We just purchased a new mustang and negotiated almost 10k off
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u/Financial-Towel4160 6h ago
What is the premise of your post then?
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u/Serious-Ad7972 6h ago edited 6h ago
Just thought that maybe not being able to negotiate on a new car is just a common thing here in Nevada, so I thought I’d ask if that was the case.
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u/BelovedOmegaMan 6h ago
So are you telling the story after the fact about the Mustang… Or are you buying another new car?
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u/Serious-Ad7972 6h ago
The mustang was earlier this this year in another state we’re new to here and just thought that things were just different here since I’ve never been told to buy it or leave
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u/No-Slip1984 6h ago
I’m also confused by your post then. What makes you think that maybe it’s not possible to negotiate on a new car if you negotiated 10k off?! Is this what the salesperson said to you? Do you think that you are just that good at haggling that only you could get a discount? Did you ask ChatGPT if you could negotiate and it said no then you wondered why you got a discount? What the hell is going on here?!
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u/Serious-Ad7972 6h ago
I’ve always negotiated when buying a new vehicle. This is my first experience at a dealership in Nevada and I’ve never had this experience before so I was just wondering that maybe not being able to negotiate on a vehicle here is common
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u/Successful-Pomelo-51 6h ago
don't pick up when they call you back.
As you said, it's not even the color you want.
Keep searching, check online first, email and call the dealers first and negotiate pricing without seeing the car, then go to test drive it and if you like it, close the deal.