I recently spent most of my saturday at a car dealer as the lease on my current car is almost up. This was my first lease so I wanted to see what my options were as far as buying out the car or leasing a new one. So, my goals were to test drive the new model and then see if they could match the price of my current lease.
Test driving the new model was fun and easy. I actually looked at two different versions, one that was comparable to mine and one that had more features (I’m sure that made the salesman happy). But then came the inevitable, “let’s sit and see what we can make happen”, the least enjoyable part of car buying.
The salesman came back with the paperwork and showed me how much it would be. Now, I got a really good deal on my current lease, it’s a popular SUV and it took some shopping around to get the deal. But i got the deal at this dealership so I was hoping they would be helpful again. For perspective, I currently pay $189 a month. The offer that the salesman brought over was $420 a month with $5k down. I just laughed and said that’s crazy, as that’s more than double what I pay. He then gave me the typical car salesman’s line of “let me see what I can do”.
Now comes in the finance guy. He gives me a copy of my current lease, the $189 a month. He can’t believe that’s what I pay and asked how I got that. I say I was able to get a good deal here. He then proceeds to give me a new offer, $339 a month, almost $100 difference. Like come on! For sitting there an extra five minutes it’s gone down $100 dollars. They then try saying that the new car has features that mine doesn’t like heated seats and power tailgate. The funny thing is, my car does have those things. I assured them, the only thing it doesn’t have is the heated steering wheel. They don’t believe me.
Now it’s just getting annoying. The finance guy brings up the deal I got last time and tries breaking down why this is a good deal. He quotes the interest rate, which sure can play a factor, but then he quotes a very wrong MSRP for the car. I know it’s wrong, and on a later phone call the salesman quotes the correct price which is a few thousand more. So now he’s just lying and throwing math around trying to convince me to take his offer. After what feels like a lifetime, he comes back with $229. Let me remind you, the initial offer WAS $420!! We are now down almost $200!
At this point I was tired and hungry so I started to try to exit. They continue to push and say just take the car home and see how it feels. But no, I was done. The price came down almost $200, but it took at least an hour and a half of my time to get there, and i’m sure they could have gotten to my last lease price.
That’s the thing, they came down a lot but what if I didn’t keep pushing back? I get it’s business, but how many people are taking the car at that first offer? It’s like a furniture store, you always see 50,60,70% off sales, but no one has ever seen it at its listed price. The prices they give are fake and there’s no way to know if you are being screwed. Why doesn’t a car company focus on selling quantity by selling at the minimum price of the car. I’m sure the few suckers, or the few fortunate enough to not have to talk the price down, make these car companies a lot of money, but I truly believe if you undercut them and actually give good deals you would beat them. But I know, that’s just a pipe dream.
