The only way I know to get a good deal is to walk into a dealership, know exactly which car & options you want & say you're paying cash & are willing to pay $100 over the manufacturer's invoice. They'll cut the nonsense and take the deal.

90% of the games begin when you finance the vehicle at the dealership. Don't want to put $2000 down? Let's just add another year to the term. Or how about we add $50 / month to the payment? I watched in shock as salesmen would come back with increasingly worse offers in terms of total cost and customers would leave happy thinking they were great negotiators.

Americans are shockingly bad at math.

> say you're paying cash & are willing to pay $100 over the manufacturer's invoice

It's good to research what the invoice price is, but this isn't their actual cost. Manufacturers offer incentives to dealerships based on all sorts of things, including hitting certain sales goals. These rebates aren't factored into the invoice price, so even buying at invoice isn't always an amazing deal. My understanding is that the rebates/incentives are bigger with some manufacturers than others, but I don't know the details.

Here's a decent article about how auto pricing has evolved beyond manufacturer's invoice due to the internet:

https://clark.com/cars/eye-opening-truth-about-dealer-invoic...

Thanks for sharing. It's been over a decade since I worked at a dealership & obviously haven't kept up with the industry very much.

That's true. You're probably still getting screwed, but quite a bit less than everyone else. If you don't want to get screwed at all, don't buy a new car from a dealership.

Ya, all this talk of how to get a good deal... There is no such thing at a new car dealership. Wait until the car has 20,000 miles on it. Get it for way, way less.

"are willing to pay $100 over the manufacturer's invoice. "

With the two new cars I have bought so far I paid substantially under invoice both times. Seems a made up number to me.

I also paid cash each time and they begged me to finance for three months so they would get more incentives from the manufacturer.

Go to the internet sales manager at the dealer. Last time I did it it was no-nonsense. They ask for my requirements, quote a price. I compare prices among a few dealers and went with the best. I go there and a car is ready for me to test drive. I had pre-negotiated a loan with my credit union so 30 minutes of paperwork and I'm out.

You can play the different sales managers off each other too. You have room to negotiate if you want to spend the time.

I emailed a bunch of dealers before my CU told me this service existed and got quotes, and they were competitive. It differed like, $500-1000 from what area dealers were offering and i was willing to take it.

So, some legwork with a throwaway email address, but still very sofa compatibile.

I emailed dealers and no one wanted to work over email. One even flat out wrote back saying they don’t send quotes over email because they know i will just shop around for a lower price.

I found the same thing. Everyone wanted you to come in so they could play their games. Still not that bad if you’re just making a cash on the barrel purchase but I did have to visit dealers.

I did that successfully in 2001 but in 2014 nobody would give me quotes over E-mail.