This may be what you have been doing already - searching the web, reading forums, watching Top Gear and Fifth Gear vids on youtube ... all good, but you still need the practical.

1.2.1. Tyre kicking

Start by going to a few dealerships and simply looking at the cars, check out the ones in stock and even the previous models (if they are there). As sales people come up to you, inform them that you are "just looking for now, as I'm trying to decide between a few models and how they compare with (insert competitor here e.g. Audi, BMW)" they will of-course launch into the spiel - you can choose to undertake one of two paths here - delay or unenthused participant.

The delay tactic is to politely excuse the salesperson by asking them to allow you to explore the vehicles first and then coming back to them - this places them in unfamiliar territory, where the customer is in control.

The unenthused participant is also a control taking exercise where you simply are not excited by anything. This will be harder for those hot-spots of yours (e.g. if that pop up 7" screen makes you want to giggle like a school girl, then you better be ready to pinch yourself and look unimpressed when it pops out!). The idea here is to again put the salesperson in unfamiliar territory - having to work hard to get you interested in the vehicle. If you did research that competitors vehicle, then throwing in "oh, that's different from the BMW because ..." or "but the AUDI offers xyz why doesn't this car?" statements reinforces the "undecided" buyer view.

No matter what - make no commitments here, not now - grab a card, tell them you'll do some more research on the web and then come back to them when you make up your mind. Don't talk about pricing either - at most ask for the MSRP card - otherwise ignore it.

Do this at a few dealers - there is two things you are trying to achieve here - the first is giving yourself an abstraction from a particular dealer and giving you multiple points of contact to initiate your sales cycle. The second is allowing you to actually evaluate each of the dealerships - how do they treat you? are they friendly? do they greet you at the door and offer you a coffee? these may become important later.

1.2.2. Test Drive and pre-negotiation

I prefer to come back for a test drive - but it could be accomplished as part of the step above.

Generally speaking, the salespeople at luxury car dealerships like to take the car out first, where they can talk about the "cool" stuff ... basically try and "rev you up" for your drive. They will then take you to a predestined "start of tour" location where they will swap over and then guide you through a pre-determined route back to the dealership.

I found two things - one these routes are usually very tame and do not let you experience the car as you would drive it daily. Two, I don't like pony trail rides, and following the course makes me feel like I'm on a ride. Keeping with my "keeping them in new territory" strategy, I inform the salesperson that I'd like to take it onto roads that mimic my daily drive and then precede to drive there and back to the dealership. This allows you to test the Sat Nav (if it has one) and gives you a good 30 minute drive rather than a pre-set ten minute ride. Make use of this time well, try finding slow and fast areas, rough and smooth, etc. When you come back - thank them for the ride. Here you have two options - feign disinterest or a "out of curiosity" approach.

In the first case, you want to give the impression that the car was good, but didn't quite grab you - you'll want time to think about it and come back. If you take this approach - organise a second test drive the following week and then go to the next step.

The "out of curiosity" approach is where you allow the salesman to sit you down and you begin asking hypothetical questions about the car and pricing. Have a look at the brochure and begin asking about the features ... "so, the sport button, what does that do exactly?" ... "hmnn, ok, and how much would that add to the price?" - basically continue down this track till you have all of your options listed. Ask what the "damage" is ... look a little shocked at the total price and say something like "oh, that's a tad more than I expected" - play this part by ear, but basically you want to give the impression that while you can afford a vehicle in this range, you are looking for value for money and the BMW is comparatively cheaper (i.e. you are now asking them to justify their price - again not a place salespeople want to be in). The salesperson is going to want to tie you down ... ask them for the best price if it comes up - but phrase it like, so what could we do if I was interested? Again, you don't want to make any commitments here - what you want is to lay the groundwork - go away for another "think".

There is an abundance of them in most countries - and usually a handful that provide their services for free or very close to free (like a $5 fee). Find them, engage them and provide them with your specs and ask for the best quote - mention that you have a non committal price of (whatever the "best" offer was) that you'd like to see beat.

If you have done everything above - you have mastered the most important skill - walking away. This is the one skill that will be your strongest ally from here on in. Why? Because salespeople will use all kinds of pressure and tactics to try and get a customer to 'buy it now.' The reason for this is that once you leave, the salesperson's chances of selling you a car plummet and they (and their managers) are under pressure to move cars off their lot. If they don't sell them, they don't get paid - or worse! (in some countries, Mercedes Benz Franchise license depend on them moving N stock per year!)

Keep those facts in mind and now you can be the one to apply pressure.

Having done the legwork above, you have demonstrated that you are willing to walk away, so when you go in and make your "I'm an informed customer who is ready to buy today, and this is the price that will get the job done. If you can do it, I'm an owner, if you can't I'm outta here." speech, they know you are serious and will do so. Don't get me wrong. I know you have better things to do than play games with a salesperson. However, shopping around or simply being patient while they drop their price may save you a percentile or two. That may be worth it to you.

So, armed with your car brokerage research, (most of those companies would have provided a return within 48 hours and will give you a 48 hour window to decide on the offer) you can now take those quotes to those dealers you've just established contact with and start some hard negotiations - if they cannot match or better your deal, then you can still accept the offer from the brokerage ... thus allowing you to walk away. Sometimes - the act of walking is enough to make the salesperson chase you.

First and foremost, you need to know a few things prior to heading down this track

2.2.1. What $ or % value are you after?

Now, this is exactly what it is - not what discount are you after, but what value are you after? There's more than one way to skin a cat - in car dealerships, that amounts to a hundred different combinations.

Lets say you decided that while doing your comparison, a "as close to apples to apples" comparison with a BMW showed the Benz at $RRP 7000 higher. You then discover that the BMW offers a 1.5% discount; a free advanced driving course and 2 years of scheduled servicing as part of their EPP programme which adds a combined "add on" value of approx $RRP 3500. So, you want to see yourself get $RRP 10,000 worth of value from the MB dealer.

OK, so, how do you do that? Chances are asking for a 10,000 discount will end up in laughter in your face and a swift kick out the door - so, what do you have to offer? Start thinking creatively here:

• If you do a lot of miles, then there is potential for them to either discount the car or offer the services - for a person who completes 40,000KM (~25,000 miles) a year that's two services/year @ $500/piece?
• That could be the addition of a BT HFP kit ($400)
• An invitation to the MB track for a driving lesson ($600)

It doesn't matter where the value comes from, it's still value!

Set yourself a budget before you go. Write down this budget on a piece of paper and stick to it! No exceptions, no excuses. And don’t be suckered by some persuasive “nothing to pay until x” or other too-good-to-be-true financing deal that still has you paying more than you have budgeted for (remember to budget for how much you are willing to repay on a weekly/fortnightly basis and for how long).

This is also a good point to mention that if you are lucky enough to be able to actually pay in cash for a car - do not mention it till the deal is done! Believe it or not, most dealerships actually hate cash sales and will actually demotivate them to provide a discount.

Mind you if the bottom dollar is all you're after - then make it clear. So, what do they want? They want a sale! But they also want to meet their targets each month! Are you willing to wait an additional month? If so, then you can offer them the bonus - "give it to me at this price and you can let it slip from your September into your October allocation when sales are lower." There is always something!

2.2.2. Being aware of the tactics

The "Buy it TODAY!" - The salesperson knows their best chance to make the sale is when you are there. They will go to great lengths to give you the impression that you must buy today or else you will lose the car or the deal or some other thing - but if you were paying attention, you will have set everything up to turn this into a "sell it today" tactic instead.

Value / package discounts. - The good old "You see, the manufacturer already discounted the price so I don't have any room to negotiate." There is ALWAYS room to negotiate.

We do not discount - Bull*****. The amount of times I've heard the "Mercedes Benz does not discount" or "Mercedes Benz does prostitute their vehicles" line is ludicrous. While MB head office may spout out the line to every dealer, the reality is that every franchise out there is still competing for your $$$ and to remain in business ... and your purchase is also a potential gold field of services thereafter.

The "switch" closer. - aka the wallet-ego punch "Sir, maybe this car is just too expensive for you. Let's look at the A class over here." This relies on your pride, testosterone and ego to ignore everything you've read, to prove them wrong and buy immediately.

Authority Limits. - The standard "I'll have to go ask the sales manager." What he is in effect saying is "I don't have the authority to make a deal with you. I have to get permission from somebody else." They'll usually throw in the good cop/bad cop routine in for free at this stage as well "the sales manager is refusing to accept the offer". Two tactics here are good:

One - simply treat the salesperson as a messenger and play the broken record game, repeating your offer and telling the sales representative to go back and talk to his manager.

Alternatively, simply demand to talk directly to the sales manager, as its obvious that the sales representative cannot make the decision. Either way if you get the price you want, ask for the sales manager to confirm that he will stand by it. This will also avoid the next tactic.

Reneg Offer. - It's in the ethical grey area as the basic laws of commerce in most countries state that the vendor can refuse to sell an item -- the grey comes from the implied agreement to begin with. Expect that the salesperson never has the authority to make a binding offer — that only the sales manager can confirm a binding offer. Thus the authority limit game is not unethical because it is the dealership, and not the salesperson, that has the authority to make that final offer. It only becomes unethical when the sales manager himself, or the salesperson stating that he or she has now been given authority by the sales manager, makes an offer and then tries to renege on it. At that point it's a good time to head for the door. Usually they will come back and confirm the offer that they originally tried to reneg on.

Are you being served? - Basically a way to make you anxious and nervous. The salesperson leaves you behind to check something or talk to their manager, leaving you waiting for a long time.

The counter to this is to be prepared - bring a book, a PSP, some work to do, ask to borrow the salesperson's phone and make some phone calls - hell, even drop into the lotus position and meditate! It doesn't matter what you do, you're simply counteracting the tactic by showing that you are totally relaxed and unconcerned. Alternatively, you might want to start the process only an hour before closing since that puts pressure on them, not you. A much more aggressive approach I've heard of is to bring a stopwatch or an alarm clock, set it to go off in a hour, and tell the salesperson that they have an hour to close this deal or you're leaving.

Change the Negotiator. - This is a variant of the authority tactic discussed above except that in this case, the salesperson now goes off to hide and the sales manager comes in to try to close the deal, in the process rejecting some or all of the concessions that the salesperson has made. This is a hardball tactic designed to throw you off. As before, ignore it and continue as before, in reality, this is the same person you were dealing with all along.

The "deposit offer" - Some salespeople claim that you give them a cheque or Credit Card imprint to show your "good faith." This is ludicrous! There is only one response - get up and head for the door. Their policy usually changes fast.

The Lowball / Bait and Switch - While this is clearly unethical, quite a few dealerships (yes even MB dealerships) use it. The idea is to quote you an unusually low price over the phone to get you into the dealership and then move to a higher price. The way this is always justified is that when you get to the dealership :

• the offer was for an ex-demo vehicle with all the specs you wanted (but doesn't!)
• the salesperson says that the sales manager wouldn't accept it,
• the salesperson "discovered" that he left out a thousand dollar option package and really it's a thousand dollars more than he quoted.

If you know your pricing from the section above, you should be able to spot the lowball when the salesperson offers it. The response is to review the options one by one to make sure they're all included. If that doesn't flush out the lowball, then tell the salesperson that you want the offer approved in advance by the sales manager before you leave the house and that if the sales manager won't do it you're not coming. That will also flush out the lowball.

The "Lap Dog" Tactic - When you leave a dealership and say you're looking around for other prices, the dealer tells you to come back once the "best price" has been obtained. The dealer will then either match the price, or try to increase it slightly by taking advantage of the fact that you may be sick and tired of shopping and are just itching to buy the car.

This trick is very common and works very well for most dealers. It relies mainly on getting the customer to feel obliged. Again, being prepared should eliminate this tactic especially by using the same tactics as the waiting tactic (i.e. push back). I found a "I'll only come back if you have an offer" line is sufficient to make them play.

High Balling - The reverse of the low balling tactic where they offer an excessive price for your trade in. Some people are attracted by this as they think they are getting one over on the dealer. You can turn this around though ... remember we talked about your value? Here is where you can use it to sling back - "mmm, very generous, tell you what, how about you give me $10,000 rather than $15,000 for the trade in and drop that C Klasse by $5,000 instead?" You can always sell the trade in separately if you know you can make that $$ elsewhere.

Bouncing the trade in - Especially common alongside the high ball - sales person will contact you before the new car is delivered and say there's an issue with the trade in. They will ask you to bring it back to the yard for an inspection and claim to have found it's really only worth $500 less than what they have offered for it. If you fall for it, the sales person gets another $500 in his pocket. So, when the offer is made, ensure that the trade in prices is locked into the offer.

Sucking Back - The last of the trade-in based tactics, this is when the dealer offers you less than market value for your trade in. The idea is to suck back some of the discounts by getting a profit from the trade in. Know the value of your trade in up front, and simply decline at this stage to sell it yourself.

The "bad luck hand grenade" - Some salespeople will pursue a potential customer until they buy. If you end up buying from a different dealer, when the sales person that missed out on the deal rings you and gets the bad news, they decide to make you feel as bad as they do for missing out on a sale. So, when you When you tell him you bought elsewhere (at a very good price of $38,000) he says: "I sure hope you didn't pay more than $35,000 for it!". There's three ways to deal with this:

1. Avoid the confrontation, simply do not give your number or accidentally mess up the last digit of the number you give them
2. Ask them if they are serious? If they say, "sure" then say, "fine - I'll come right down, even losing my $500 deposit, that's still a good deal - can you have your sales manager confirm that he will stand by it?"
3. Go into the dealership right away, and ask the receptionist to have the sales person and the sales manager meet you - then in front of the sales person, thank the sales manager for empowering his staff to make such deals and you're ready to sign the paperwork. This last one allows you to make a scene (if you're that way inclined) and ensure a good price to quieten you down. Worst case scenario, you've thrown the hand grenade back in a very public way.

I'm sure there's more, but that's enough for now ...