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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Salesmen can be great, but dealerships almost universally suck, that's the lesson I've learned. So you need to leverage that to get a great salesman to help you overcome the crappiness of the dealerships.

Here's my strategy for new cars:

1. Do your own research about the brands and models you're most interested in, as much as you can read and glean from the internet beforehand.

2. Find online reviews of dealerships for the brand you are interested in that are reasonably close to you. Find the one that seems like its the best of the bad options, and then WITHIN that, look for reviews that mention a particular salesman being good.

3. Email that salesman personally. "I've heard you're amazing, I'm interested in a new VW BlahBlah, how's next Tuesday for a test drive?" When I've done this, I've gotten great white-glove service that helps the whole process go easier, generally with the salesman waiting outside for me as I drive up. No milling around until some shmuck approaches with "can I help you?"

4. Show up with some amount of homework. Research prices from different dealers, get the "TrueCar" price, see what incentives the brand is advertising. As well as a pre-approval with the lowest interest rate you can get. Yes, dealers are experts in obfuscating and jerking you around, but you will be better off if you've done *something* than the walk-in saps who've done *nothing.*

5. Yuk it up with the salesman. Make yourself his friend. Emphasize how bad you've had it with dealerships in the past and how you *really* need this to be a smooth experience. Act like a rich person who needs good service, not like someone who plans to hassle them right off the bat. They're people too and will help people they like.

6. When it comes to pricing, make him explain the pricing in detail. If the incentive you read about online isn't available, find out why not and see if there's anything they can do. If another dealer's price seems lower, show it to him and make him explain it to you and see how close they can come to matching it. You're not desperate to pinch pennies, but again, the persona you're putting on is a careful rich person who is obviously good with numbers and appropriately cautious with big purchases. Emphasize over and over again that you need the total, bottom line, all-in price -- the price to which not a cent will be added -- before you discuss financing or your trade-in. Negotiate as much as you like, but recognize that at a certain point, you're just nickel and diming. An extra $500 off isn't worth it if it's going to aggravate you and waste your day with threats to "walk out of here right now!" If you've followed these steps, you're already getting a better deal than most people.

7. Whatever you do, don't let them hear your monthly budget. Don't let them negotiate monthly numbers. Even if you plan to finance, tell them you think you're going to pay all-cash "unless there's a great interest rate, better than this one I have here from my bank."

8. When the salesman - now your friend - hands you off to the ghouls from management or financing, emphasize to the salesman that you don't want him to go far away and you're SO sold and SO ready to write a check, but you don't want a hard time from that point on. If management or financing gives you a hard time, say, "I'm sorry, I thought from my conversation with Tim that we were done negotiating and we had a final price with nothing additional. Can we get him back here? Otherwise I think I'll need to go."

It is their job to get you to pay more and they do it all day every day. They have the reps and the practice. You do it once every few years at most. You will not "beat" them. But you can at least make it easy on yourself without getting totally screwed.[/quote]
This is super helpful. Saving a copy of this on my phone for later.[/quote]

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