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129 Cars

thisamericanlife.org

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Re: 129 Cars

#31

Post by functional_test »

dnissley wrote: post #26
fsckin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't sound like a negotiation.... if you had started at $9,000 and come up $500 at the end you might have gotten it.

But why? It's the same number in the end. Is my willingness to play this type of game worth $500 to the sales person?

It shows good faith. It shows your willingness to negotiate.

You can go through life upset that the world doesn't work the way it "should" - you can even refuse to participate like the original poster. But you will generally have a worse outcome, so is it worth it? Why not play along, just a little?

Same thing goes for: dressing up (why should it matter if I'm in a suit?), sending thank yous (why should it matter if I already said thank you?), and just about any other social grace.

Re: 129 Cars

#32

Post by natural219 »

ientropic wrote: post #30
natural219 wrote: post #29

This sounds awesome, but I cannot for the life of me understand why the Podcast feed for This American Life only contains one goddamn entry. Who uses this shit? What is the point of a podcast if I can't download it in my podcast software of choice on my home Wi-Fi network and listen to it at my leisure? Am I missing something with a typical podcast workflow? Because this makes zero sense.

They used to be downloadable, now you can pay to listen at your leisure... or pirate it..

I would love to pay them for their content, but they only have an iTunes option. iTunes? Seriously? What is this, 2002?

Re: 129 Cars

#33

Post by bane »

natural219 wrote: post #32
ientropic wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They used to be downloadable, now you can pay to listen at your leisure... or pirate it..

I would love to pay them for their content, but they only have an iTunes option. iTunes? Seriously? What is this, 2002?

Podcast Adict (Android) finds it just fine.

Re: 129 Cars

#34

Post by chrisbennet »

praptak wrote: post #12
patio11 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To substantiate that, if the only thing you got from the interview was the mindset for dealing with customers who are not ready to purchase ("Let's go over this: they are in a car dealership ..."), it is worth it. Next time I have a call with a purchasing officer for the County of Springfield (not actually my last call) I'm going to say "Remember, Patrick, nobody ever sent an email to the CEO of an appointment remind…

> "Let's go over this: they are in a car dealership..." Yet another reason why physically going to a dealership seriously weakens your negotiation position as a buyer. Mail, phone or fax multiple dealerships and do not enter one before getting a good offer.

Something I read in a book about buying cars once: If you go to the dealer, test drive the car, etc. (basically take up some of the salesman's time) you can negotiate a better deal than if you just walked in or called and said "This is my price, take it or leave it."

The reason this works is because the salesman has a "sunk cost" in dealing with you for the last half hour and is reluctant to let that time be wasted by refusing a sale.

Re: 129 Cars

#35

Post by rokhayakebe »

fsckin wrote: post #24
rokhayakebe wrote: post #22

This is me at a used car dealership Wednesday, the 1st. HIM: $13,999 ME: $9,500 HIM: Oh no no no no.(click click click - on his computer). Ok ok, this is what I can do for you $13,499. I take blah blah .... 5 minutes later ... HIM: Ok $10,000 and that is my final. ME: $9,500. In the end I didn't buy it. It's just amazing how we shaved $4000 off in less than 5 minutes. This industry needs to be regulated.

That doesn't sound like a negotiation.... if you had started at $9,000 and come up $500 at the end you might have gotten it.

I am the WORST negotiator one earth. I learned that a long time ago, hence I go in with what I have in mind and I do not budge.

Re: 129 Cars

#36

Post by peterjancelis »

1. Why did they start buying cars themselves well before the deadline on the last day?

2. Why didn't they push delivery of the 130th vehicle to the 1st of next month?

Re: 129 Cars

#37

Post by bane »

Car salesmen can be interesting people if you get them to drop their guard a bit and chat. A surprising number of them are simply transiting through car sales to make ends meet between their main career. In a rough economy, car sales is almost always a way to get a short-term job.

Of course the negotiation part is annoying and time-wasting. I suppose for every person that gets a good deal, 10 get a bad one and that's why it lasts. It's also one of the reasons why CarMax and Costco Auto are extremely popular even if the price you pay isn't necessarily the best possible you can negotiate. Buying a new car can literally take an entire day, and not dealing with the negotiation bullshit can save hours off of the purchase experience.

Also, negotiations don't end with the salesman, you can negotiate quite a bit during financing. You can usually get a lower rate if you buy all sorts of warranties and other cancelable agreements. Then go home and cancel those agreements immediately (it's not easy, they make it very hard to figure out how to do it). Over the lifetime of the car loan it can save you thousands of dollars in interest payments.

Re: 129 Cars

#38

Post by fleitz »

yitchelle wrote: post #23
johnthedebs wrote: post #4

I listened to this podcast the other day and it was one of the more compelling This American Life episodes I've listened to recently. I say that as a pretty big fan of TAL. They spend the episode interviewing car salespeople and managers at one particular dealership over the course of a week (IIRC), where the salespeople are trying to rack up a certain number of sales to qualify for a bonus payout that means the diff…

"The way the salespeople negotiate between two different parties – on one side with the customer, on the other side with their manager" This is what really struck at me. I was really surprise at how isolated a car sales guy is, even within the same dealership. It truly is every guy for themselves. Is this situation ripe for a disruption?

Honda already has by not over producing vehicles. IIRC Honda nets about $1K more per car than any domestic.

There's also no-haggle dealerships for people who like to get the same deal as everyone else.

Re: 129 Cars

#39

Post by bicknergseng »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #22

This is me at a used car dealership Wednesday, the 1st. HIM: $13,999 ME: $9,500 HIM: Oh no no no no.(click click click - on his computer). Ok ok, this is what I can do for you $13,499. I take blah blah .... 5 minutes later ... HIM: Ok $10,000 and that is my final. ME: $9,500. In the end I didn't buy it. It's just amazing how we shaved $4000 off in less than 5 minutes. This industry needs to be regulated.

> This industry needs to be regulated.

Ask Tesla how that's going for them.

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