Evlengr

This is where I take a picture of me and my brand new car in front of the dealer I purchased it from and send a copy to the sales manager at the offending dealer. yeah I know it's petty, but I can't stand sales people like the one you just described.

dsheikh573

I had the same problem with Westmont. Went there just Saturday. Asked Mitch if he'd do $1K over invoice on a 2013 A7. Same song as dance, "Low inventory, we can't give theses things away. You should fly to Germany if you want that kind of deal." I told him I know deals are being done at that price and even lower via my research on AudiWorld Forums. He scoffed as if everyone here is making sh*t up. He also said he wants to sell to the higest bidder. I laughed. "I have no intention of being the highest bidder on a mass produced item. I plan to be a middle-of-the-road bidder".

I got the deal done on Monday at McGrath for $1K over invoice. No haggles. After reading this post, I think I could have gotten it done $500 cheaper. Ooops. Next time. Next time.

Toecutter

I've found car negotiation to be a big waiting game. If I don't have any time pressure to buy then I don't have any pressure other than what I place on myself (I neeeeed it so bad I'm gonna pee my pants!). I've given my offer, the dealership has given their offer, then we parted ways and waited to see who cracked first. Usually they call back in about a week or two to counter.

Frankly I don't blame dealerships for wanting to get MSRP. Wouldn't YOU want someone else to pay you more money for whatever you're selling? There are plenty of people in this world with enough money that buying at MSRP or close to it is not a significant expense, so why not at least try to get that full price?

waffles

the problem is that cars are not in limited supply and they're not exactly flying off the shelf. dealerships make money by selling cars. therefore you want to sell as many cars as possible, as fast as possible. every second a car is sitting on the lot, you're not making money.

i actually gave my sales guy a little lecture because i simply asked for my 6% supplier discount and he was arguing with me over a $600 dealer fee, which he didn't want to drop below $200. I told him I wasn't paying any dealer fee, and either he could take my offer or leave it, yes or no, no more negotiating. He then said how about $100.

So I basically told him: Here you have a deal in front of you that makes you about $2k above invoice on the car (since it's about 300 above invoice, plus audi covers 3% of the supplier discount). You're making 2k above invoice, and you're going to risk losing the sale over haggling for $100? You need to figure out when to stop selling and when to start closing. You decide what an acceptable profit is to you, and then your job is not to squeeze every dollar you can, because that will just **** me off and make me go to another dealer. Your job is to make sure I buy from you, right now.

My price is 6% off, no dealer fees, no negotiating. You get 3% back from audi. You make 2k over invoice on the car. It's a fair deal, a better deal for you, in fact, than most people walking in with a truecar.com price. You can have someone come in, go for some test drives, bull**** around, and MAYBE order a car from you in the next day. That's assuming you're the salesman that gets the ead. So you can sell one car MAYBE for a few hundred more in the next day or two, or you can sell two cars in the next day and 30 seconds. Your choice, go ahead and talk to your manager, but if the answer's not yes, and if it's any other price besides what I asked for, I'm going to call other dealerships.

sakimano

It's simple.

Audi margins are a little over 8%
Dealers will, without much work, split the difference with you (so read 4% discount)
You are then eligible for other fleet/group/partner discounts on top of that, funded by Audi proper (i.e. I work for a company that was an Audi partner, so got an extra $500 off my last Audi purchase).

If someone says a B8 S4 will be sold at list or potentially a premium, tell him this isn't your first rodeo. If that's his offer, your offer will be MSRP - 4% - any specialty discounts. If he passes, tell him thank you, and dial another dealer

It's a B8 S4. With the elimination of the B8 A4 3.2, and with aggressively repricing the option structure on the S4, it is one notch (and only a few grand) above a B8 A4 2.0T, the number one volume car the company sells over here. Anyone who tells you the B8 S4 is a rare car worthy of MSRP or premium to MSRP pricing is a salesman who is hoping he will catch someone who is not very educated on the pricing dynamics on these cars.

p.s. why the heck is he talking about the $75,000 RS5?

sakimano

fixed that for you...

tenspeed

A salesman at a local Audi dealer is like that. He says that the forums are full of mis-information and he doesn't follow them. I would think if my job was to sell cars, I would be on the net making contacts and maybe correct a few misconceptions.

sakimano

lol I love guys like that. They hate when people are armed with information. It's true that there is lots of misinformation here, but there is misinformation everywhere, including the dealers as the OP has pointed out.

I would take what I know about the B8 S4 3.0T...a car I don't even own...and challenge any Audi dealership employee to a trivia battle on the car. I will kill them. I learned almost everything about the car on these forums. When I speak with sales folks and dealership staff one thing becomes very clear: we care FAR MORE interested in these cars than they are.

It's pretty rare to find someone who is sharp. Alex Fretes at Audi Mississauga seems to know EVERYTHING about these cars, and is the only exception I'd make to my trivia challenge. He would own me. He also happens to be very active on about 4 Audi forums.

Toecutter

I bet that most buyers are like that actually, since most people are not car enthusiasts. Considering how many cars are sold annually, the percentage of people who spend any significant amount of time researching their potential purchase must be pretty small. I bet a lot of people wait until their current car gets old, needs an expensive repair, and in an impromptu fashion decide that they would simply rather just buy a new car rather than pour a lot of money into fixing their old car.

"Mr. Jones? The estimate of your transmission repair is $2342.50."
"Hmmm… Let me get back to you on that."

"Honey, let's go to the dealership and look at new cars!"

Toecutter

Good job on the negotiation. If you are new to a dealership, there is no way they would know that you are a knowledgeable buyer until after the negotiation starts. When you first walk in the door, you could very well be someone who is ready and willing to pay MSRP. There's only one way to find out.

If you are a return customer then they may have learned that you are an educated buyer who does not pay MSRP, and they may drop their price more quickly than they would with a complete stranger.