181–190 of 272 posts
Based on all other comments I have an unpopular opinion: I think this is fine. If 10 people want to buy 1 car, how do you choose which person gets it? You raise the price until there's only 1 person. How else would you do it?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is literally the process of purchasing a vehicle in 2022. I needed a car (My old one had broken down after 9 years of service) Advertised price was 24,500. I walked out totaling 30,000 after all the bullshit and that was with a 4000 downpayment. I left an honest review on Google Reviews about how misleading and unhappy I was with that dealer in particulars process but I loved the car so I just sucked it up. When…
When I negotiated to buy my most recent car online back in 2016, the term to use was 'final out the door cost'. I reached out to maybe 7 or 8 dealers, had a couple that refused to provide a total itemized cost, and then got back 5 quotes that varied quite a bit (like $7500 on a $30k car). Did one round of negotiation which ended up lowering the lowest price another thousand bucks or so and went with that dealership.
When I bought a truck in 2019, there was only one in my state that had the features that I wanted (I did not tell the dealer this). I tracked down the fleet/internet sales manager's email and emailed him asking what the Out-the-door price without incentives was on that VIN, then when it came time to do paperwork, I told them to apply incentive codes XXXXXX and YYYYYY. They tried to add on a dealer package for $1500 (I laughed when they explained it to me: nitrogen-filled tires, VIN etching on the windows, tint on the rear windows, and security lug nuts, I said we're breathing 70% nitrogen right now, and you can buy a VIN etching set online for $10), so I kept saying "no" until they asked if I could do $150 which was their cost, and I said yes to finish the deal.
I told the salesperson that I understand they have to make a profit, and I have no issue with that, that they probably made $1500 to $2000 after the manufacturer volume incentive, and he said they only made $800 off of me.
Based on all other comments I have an unpopular opinion: I think this is fine. If 10 people want to buy 1 car, how do you choose which person gets it? You raise the price until there's only 1 person. How else would you do it?
This works fine for unfinanced products, but when financing enters the picture, it becomes a "who is the most willing to take on debt" contest. People who can't think ahead win these, the prices are driven up for everyone else, and nobody has a good time in the long term.
The pattern seems to be: if you create value, you get optimized away. If you buy, screw things up to create scarcity, and flip, you make bank.
I've contributed a few dealerships around Illinois. Wife is looking for a Chevy Bolt after her car was scraped in an accident (the other person's fault). Every dealership other than a single local one is charging between $5K and $10K "market adjustment". I'm sure many of these are just charging the markup no matter what. But I have a theory many charge this if you're from out of town and won't be paying them later fo…
> But I have a theory many charge this if you're from out of town and won't be paying them later for maintenance services. How do they know you're from out of town when they give you the quote? Do they refuse to quote without a valid and verified address? After all, can't you just give them a local address when asking for the quote?
When dealer's first question is how much am I willing to spend monthly rather than talk about final price of the vehicle he can just F off and I won't be returning there. They even try to convince you the total price is irrelevant, only monthly payment is what matters
Once I had the final price on the car, and it was very comfortable to me, they STILL tried to get me to sign a 'contract' using the four-square numbers. Just monthly payment amounts, no length or other information.
They literally wouldn't move forward until I signed it. Like, wouldn't let me see the manager to finish the deal. The price was so good on this one, though, that I didn't want to just walk out.
So I took a black sharpie and crossed everything out, wrote the total price, and signed it at the bottom.
It wasn't a legal document. It was literally just a sheet with their handwriting on it saying "monthly price agreement". Nothing finance related, no legal jargon anywhere.
Ridiculous. Just absolutely ridiculous, and for what purpose?
Based on all other comments I have an unpopular opinion: I think this is fine. If 10 people want to buy 1 car, how do you choose which person gets it? You raise the price until there's only 1 person. How else would you do it?
The concern is not that. Yes increase price if demand is high and supply is low. However, they play those games where they advertise one price but actually have tons of mandated fees when you show up to purchase. So it makes shopping around very hard, you can’t compare between 2 dealerships as even calling them won’t give you that info. It’s predatory and anti consumer.
I had a similar experience booking a hotel room recently. Despite advertising a rate of $x, when I'd click through to complete the booking, towards the end of the process every single one would tack on a mandatory "service fee" of somewhere between $40-80. It seems to me to be a way to keep their room rates artificially lower to stay competitive on the price comparison websites.
(Maybe this has been a thing for a while - I haven't booked a hotel in years)
Bought my latest vehicle just before COVID lockdown (i.e., before I had a clue that my commuting days were over) and, thus, also well before Supply Chain Meltdown. Have rued that purchase ever since on the theory of "Geez, it turned out that I really didn't need this vehicle so badly"; but, after seeing these developments and remembering that I was able to get the price down a few thousand from MSRP, I'm thinking I m…
We have gotten calls from the dealer offering us up to 10k over what we originally paid for the car since then, even with the mileage we've put on.
Absolutely amazing, the world we live in.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hypothetically, if I were your competitor and you adopted this policy, what would stop me stationing an employee with purchasing power at your door and just being the first one to buy every car as it comes into your lot, taking it home and then marking it up to the actual market rate?
why should I care? Hypothetically that would make me rich in a very short time span and I could afford to buy and resell more expensive cars or buy at volume and make better deals. You would be basically financing my business, at zero interest rate, while I also make a profit on the money you give me. You do realize that profit is "the excess of returns over expenditure"? it's not given that you are making more money…
That said, I was expecting to be countered on the inherent riskiness of my position, as I'd forgotten that it is indeed mutually beneficial but for that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This works fine for unfinanced products, but when financing enters the picture, it becomes a "who is the most willing to take on debt" contest. People who can't think ahead win these, the prices are driven up for everyone else, and nobody has a good time in the long term.
Yep. Even worse: the housing market. The pattern seems to be: if you create value, you get optimized away. If you buy, screw things up to create scarcity, and flip, you make bank.