Buying cars and dealing with dealerships..

[speedy]

Just a personal suggestion. I've bought and have dealt with dealerships for the last 15 years and here are some lessons I've learned..
1. Any mass produced vehicle is not worth more than MSRP. (Manufac. Suggested, Retail, Price) The manufacturer has setup factories that will mass produce this vehicles and from the time of introduction to the public to saturation of the first set of orders, this usually occurs within 6 months to a year after the first intro model. In short, wait 6 mo then buy. If you've got money to burn and want to be the first in the neighborhood to have the first model, have at it. Don't be surprised to hear that your neighbor bought his car for half of what you paid for 6 months ago! Most invoice prices,(the actual amount the dealership bought the car for, from the manufacturer) can be found on the internet.
2. All cars off the assembly line are mostly prewired and set up with all the options. It is the dealers that install these options that mark up the price of each option. Dealerships thus order their cars stripped in order to assess additional cost to the consumers. True factory installed options are far less expensive than dealership installed options.
3. Sales people lie! Their bottom line is to move merchandise and make a commission. Not to do you a favor, nor give you a good deal.
4. The best time to buy a car is durring the end of the month or end of the quarter. This is the time the dealerships assess the effectiveness of each sales person. If you are unable to meet the quota, your often fired! The same goes for the dealerships. If they are uable to move these cars, this reflects back to the manufacturer and will affect any future allocations to the dealerships. Therefore, buy your next car from the "desperate" sales person. He is more apt to deal with you by reducing his commission, if not, totally omit his commission to bump up his sales numbers so that he could keep his job for another day and try and con the next buyer. The same goes with the dealerships. If their numbers are low, the dealerships begin to add incentives to sell and move the car. Also, durring this period, both sales person and dealerships are willing to deal with you and get you a fair price with the hopes of selling you the car for a meager profit, in the hopes that the next "victim" or nieve consumer they see, will pay the higher premium. Trust me, there are far more of them than the enlightened ones.
5. With a mass produced car, with several dealerships, have the dealerships compete for your money. It is your money after all! I always start by making phone calls and inquiries about a specific model. If the model is available at multiple dealerships, I them say " dealership A, has the model I want and is willing to sell me the car today for this amount, can you beat it?" Keep doing this until you get the lowest price posible. Deal with as many sales people as you want. Sales people always demand that you have some loyalty towards them, I say bull-sh*t ! Where is the loyalty when you sell the vehicle someone had put a deposit on, to the next highest bidder? More often than not, sales people offer different prices. They control their own commission.
4. Whenever possible, use a outside lender. Or at least get a loan approval from an outside source. Once you know that you are qualified for the loan, you could then approach the dealership and say, "well, I've been approved for so and so interest at bank X, can you do any better and if so, I'll finance the car with you"
Note: Just a personal opinion of a guy who has been duped by dealerships in the past and have learned his lesson. I now have dealerships and sales people lending me their new vehicles to test drive for a day up to a week at a time. They try their hardest to sell me their cars. I have never bought a mass produced car for my family and friends, for $50 over invoice, not MSRP.
Good luck! Anyone with added ideas please do so....

[mazdamazda]

bumping this up... a good read...

[ILuvDetailing]

Nice! Picked up some pointers here.

[slip-slick]

do these apply here in pinas market? i've never bought new cars here, but in the US you really can haggle for car prices, and the above points are really evident. but i think here in pinas, the prices are more or less fixed. it's a take it or leave it thing..

[Karding]

do these apply here in pinas market? i've never bought new cars here, but in the US you really can haggle for car prices, and the above points are really evident. but i think here in pinas, the prices are more or less fixed. it's a take it or leave it thing..

Dont worry kapatid, you are correct. ;)

[boybi]

yes, not all points are applicable here in the phils. all dealers have uniform pricing. but you can always ask for a discount or additional freebies. but if the car model you're buying is a hot item (Fortuner), then you're out of luck

[Karding]

Theres only one tip that I can think of when buying a car in the Phils.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

[speedy]

do these apply here in pinas market? i've never bought new cars here, but in the US you really can haggle for car prices, and the above points are really evident. but i think here in pinas, the prices are more or less fixed. it's a take it or leave it thing..

Unless both, lets say, toyota dealerships, are owned by the same person or company, your bargaining tactics will work. Remember, its "your" money! I really don't think, that the dealerships look at every individual sale. It's the bottom line and total sales that reflect their performance in the manufacturers eyes. Your success in buying a car and getting a good price is totally dependent on whether the dealerships are willing to deal with you or just wait for the next customer. They all have a time table. Cars sitting in the parking lot costs the dealerships money every day! Like us, they buy their cars on credit! The sooner you sell the car, the more money you make in terms of over-head costs. Such as, lighting the parking lots, washing them, cost of buildings, personel and finally, "interest". Everyone knows that the longer you keep a loan, the bigger the payout on interest! Its your call, whether you want to be the "sucker" that gives them what they want, which is the most money for the car, or "deal" and get the most out of your money! Trust me, they are making money! Just make sure that they are not making the most out of you!

[speedy]

here in pinas, the prices are more or less fixed. it's a take it or leave it thing..

Thats what they want you to believe! Fixed my a##! Its just like a dare. Funny thing is, they really do not have any leverage. They are the ones that "need" your money! Do you really "need" the car? Walk away and give them your number if they change their mind. Think, what is the worst that could happen if you did not agree with their price? You would walk away with your money in hand, and I guarantee you that in 6 months, you could return to the same dealership and get a deal if not better than what you had initially asked for. Once these guys know your serious, and the need to sell arises, they call you!

[Shadetree MKNX]

Speedyfix does give great advice, but Slip did make some valid points, too. There just aren't that many car dealers here in RP as there are in the US, where the buyer has more places to go to if he decides he isn't satisfied with how the negotiations are going. This is even more true if the car you are after is of the limited variety, that only 1 or 2 of the available dealerships are carrying it.

Add that to the possibility that the same 2 dealerships that are carrying the very model you're after is owned by the same company, and the sales managers are already talking about the moment you turn your back and head to the other store.

Bottomline is, there just isnt that much car sales competition here in RP, and as we've all been taught by our economics professors, competition tends to improve customer service. ;)

[cardo]

Sometimes bargaining tactics don't work in RP. Like when the Mazda 3 was the illest car to make it to the phils... Everyone wanted one. And there are only 3 dealers to this date. They did'nt give discounts, no freebies etc. Nothing! Same thing with the fortuner now.

But for the usual cars, you can haggle for discounts on the price(sometimes they give discounts for cash buyers), lower insurance costs and get some freebies(umbrellas, shirts, bags, tint, car accessories etc) - some give out DVD packages. Pero minsan, low quality yun mga freebies nila. Sometimes for those luxury cars and large SUV's like the Explorers and stuff...those costing millions of bucks, walang freebie. walang discount. It's hard to haggle because they know you have the money, why give you a discount? Its like you ever needed a discount.

[zechs]

thats what i did when we bought my bro's city recently. dont settle for anything less. we demanded that the rustproofing and the front windshield to be tinted for free, (coz initially they're going to let us pay for it..) and we got it for free. takes a little to medium convincing power to get that from your SA.

[empy]

Sometimes bargaining tactics don't work in RP. Like when the Mazda 3 was the illest car to make it to the phils... Everyone wanted one. And there are only 3 dealers to this date. They did'nt give discounts, no freebies etc. Nothing! Same thing with the fortuner now.

But for the usual cars, you can haggle for discounts on the price(sometimes they give discounts for cash buyers), lower insurance costs and get some freebies(umbrellas, shirts, bags, tint, car accessories etc) - some give out DVD packages. Pero minsan, low quality yun mga freebies nila. Sometimes for those luxury cars and large SUV's like the Explorers and stuff...those costing millions of bucks, walang freebie. walang discount. It's hard to haggle because they know you have the money, why give you a discount? Its like you ever needed a discount.

yep...if the car is so hot that they could walk to the other end of the dealership and find someone who'll pay more on the spot, then why would they bother haggling with you?

[slip-slick]

hot cars even have such long waiting lists, that you'll just get laughed at for bargaining. ironic nga dito sa pinas.. mga babae pwede tawaran, pero kotse hinde.. heheh joke lang, no offense meant to the ladies.

[ILuvDetailing]

Thats why you have to wait a couple of months to a year before buying, usually addon accessories (like in the case of the X-trail rear fog lamps and clear side markers) becomes standard. Also salesman feed on this frenzy to get more commissions, just look at the Fortuner.

[109]

Hmmm........end of the month or end of quarter.......cge next tym try ko.

[Trojan]

try buying your car at the end of the year! dealerships will do anything at this time of the year when kailangan nila ng benta at lahat sila naghahabulan for the no. 1 spot aka "dealer of the year". i know kasi i used to work for one. hehehe
when an ahente says na wala discount, wala freebies o "i still have to work things out with the boss"... man, thats pure bs. why? because they can decide on what your asking from them right there and then.

ako, i got my civic dec 2001, rehistro is 2002.
eto yung mga nakuha kong freebies:

free comprehensive insurance, registration, full 3m tint, leatherette abgm seatcovers, 3m floormats, wrap around kit, muffler tip, rustproofing and a 20k discount kasi my sibling works for multi national company (just show them the id).

hehehe gulatan lang talaga. bring them quotations from other dealerships. actually kahit kwento kwento lang, tell them the other dealer gave you this and that (kulang na lang libre yung oto, hehe). dont give a deposit right there and then. patagalin mo, pabitinin mo sila. i assure you, sila ang hahabol sayo and promise you heaven.

finacing? dont get it from them. transact directly with the bank. sobrang laki ng masave mo sa interest. pareho lang ang bilis ng approval.

insurance? bring them a quotation. believe me, kaya nila pantayan yan.

accessories? dont get it from them. go to banawe o araneta. magugulat ka sa masave mo.

hope this helps!

[speedy]

try buying your car at the end of the year! delearships will do anything at this time of the year when kailangan nila ng benta at lahat sila naghahabulan for the no. 1 spot aka "dealer of the year". i know kasi i used to worked for one. hehehe
when an ahente says na wala discount, wala freebies o i still have to work things out with my boss... man, thats pure bs. why? because they can decide on what your asking from them right there and then.


hehehe gulatan lang talaga. bring them quotations from other dealerships. actually kahit kwento kwento lang, tell them the other dealer gave you this and that (kulang na lang libre yung oto, hehe). dont give a deposit right there and then. patagalin mo, pabitinin mo sila. i assure you, sila ang hahabol sayo and promise you heaven.

finacing? dont get it from them. transact directly with the bank. sobrang laki ng masave mo sa interest. pareho lang ang bilis ng approval.

insurance? bring them a quotation. believe me, kaya nila pantayan yan.

accesories? dont get it from them. go to banawe o araneta. magugulat ka sa masave mo.

hope this helps!

Okay, for those who are doubters, how about this from a guy that used to sell them. Now if you still want to be fooled, have at it. Your money, your loss. Patience is a virtue, and you'll get a lot more out of your money if you do so. And btw, the richest people get things free! They are among the most "kurapot" or stingyest people ever! How do you think they became rich? Just ask a friend who has a chinese friend.

[speedy]

thats what i did when we bought my bro's city recently. dont settle for anything less. we demanded that the rustproofing and the front windshield to be tinted for free, (coz initially they're going to let us pay for it..) and we got it for free. takes a little to medium convincing power to get that from your SA.

Rustproofing? Thats another ploy! Rustproofing of cars occurs durring the building process, at least the effective rust proofing. You know where it actually occurs, on metal. Rust is a result of oxidation! How many bare metals do you see on a car? Even the underpinnings of the car has a coat! Once that layer is damaged, via scratch or dent or an accident, then the barrier for moisture and oxygen is broken. Which results in rust! Rust proofing at the dealerships is another bull-sh#t, added cost. The parts that are sprayed are negligable. If your new car did for rust within 3 years, your factory warranty covers them, if there are no obvious breaks in the paint job caused by incidents that occured after it was built.

[speedy]

Thats why you have to wait a couple of months to a year before buying, usually addon accessories (like in the case of the X-trail rear fog lamps and clear side markers) becomes standard. Also salesman feed on this frenzy to get more commissions, just look at the Fortuner.

I think he's got it!