Parents were looking to purchase an E320. We went to a local dealer in Santa Monica to test drive it. Found a car with the color and options they wanted. The friendly salesman gave us an offer that I was not satisfied with. We told him that we would think about it. I went home and got online at carsdirect.com to see what they could do. While I'm online, the salesman from the local dealer gave me a call and left a message with a final offer. (I realized later that they were really motivated to sell since it was the last day of their monthly selling period.)

The next day, I call carsdirect.com to get a quote on an 05 model. Well their quote comes in several thousands of dollars above what the local salesman had quote me on my answering machine. I tell the carsdirect.com rep that their price is way high and she asks for some information regarding where I got this low offer. Well to make a long story short, she ends up calling the local dealer and has the internet sales representative match the price. However I would have to buy the car right now and only from the carsdirect.com rep along with the the internet sales rep. Carsdirect.com lady even asked me not to get in contact with the local friendly salesman that helped me yesterday because she said that he had no authority to offer a price that low. I told carsdirect.com that I would call her back to let her know my decision.

So after I hang up, I sat back and thought about what just happened. Did the carsdirect.com rep just try to steal a car sale from the local salesman? In my opinion, I believe so. I understand that they are just trying to make some money. But I believe that hard work should be rewarded. Since the local salesman had taken the time to show us around, take a test drive and generally treat us nice, I believe that he should be rewarded. To end the story, we went down to the dealer and purchased the car from him that evening.

I was disappointed that a rep from carsdirect.com would try to take this sale from the local salesman I was working with. If the offer price was the same, the money is going to reward the person who worked hard for it. This does not mean that carsdirect.com are evil people. I understand they have to earn a living also. If I went to them first and got a great offer, I most likely would have purchased from them. However I let them know that I had an offer from the local dealer. Simply matching it would not be enough. Carsdirect.com is a great site to purchase cars if one wants to avoid the sometimes ugly business of price negotiations. I would recommend carsdirect.com as a great starting point of purchasing research. However in this particular case, they were unable to earn my business.

 

congrats on the new car! did you get it for the same price per what the salesman was offering? i think she did all she could do, since the salesman might of not offered the same deal the day after, she did her job in getting you the best price available. GL with the new car!

 

So what was the price the dealer offered (with what options)? I just checked the 2005 E320 on carsdirect.com for your approximate zip code and you're right, that price is no bargan at all.

 

Hi,

carsdirect.com isn't a dealership. It doesn't sell car. It give you the best bargin deal for type of car you are looking for. Sometimes it give you a great deal, but sometimes not.

Basically cardirect.com makes money off ads and giving you a low bargin deal which most of people here like to know.

While back ago, carsdirect.com were giving such a low price on E320. Now, it only give you approx. $500 discount off MSRP. BS~~~

Make your shopping easy. How about $1000 back of invoice? You can get the invoice on cardirect.com and take another $1k off, and that is the price you pay. Good?

 

I would have given the sale to the salesperson too if he went through that effort.

Carsdirect is great. It works best for non-luxury brands in my experience. I'll call this dealer out since I've had two shady experiences with them (and with two different owners too). Power Toyota in Cerritos, CA. Shady dealership. They couldn't touch the carsdirect price. Salesguy didn't believe the quote my family showed him. Wanted us to log on to carsdirect.com at the computer at the dealership. Guess what, the carsdirect website mysteriously couldn't load on their computer. So, they wouldn't accept the print out we showed them. Obviously, no sale for them.

But, when we bought both the BMW and Mercedes, we originally used carsdirect as the maximum price we'd pay. House of Imports matched the price before we could even bring it up and then the sales guy started throwing in extras. Carsdirect doesn't do that. For the BMW, AAA (the roadside service people) had a better price under their fleet pricing. The dealer actually went a little lower than that fleet price too.

 

Bravo.....

 

It's has just a few options. Premium and Appearance package. Also has the Active Ventilated Seats. Their offer was just under $54k. To the salesman's credit, he made the purchasing experience very pleasant and enjoyable.

 

A 2005 E320 with those options:

$59,880 - MSRP
$56,340 - Invoice

And you say he offered you this 2005 for less than $54,000?

Doesn't seem right.

 

Well they were really motivated to move cars that day. I'm not sure how much money they made on our particular sale but it probably wasn't very much. But regardless, the car is a work of art. The engineering, detail and thought that went into it is evident. As the salesman said, Enjoy your new car.

 

Well, I know you guys on the west coast are able to get better deals, but this is ridiculous! Even with the consideration of a 3% holdback fee, the cost to the dealer would still be $54,650. So, unless there are one or more hidden mfr incentives, the dealer would have lost on that deal. So, the question is, Why would a salesman willingly propose a losing deal?

 

I guess you have to ask F1Fan what is the MSRP price. We often heard something incomplete. F1Fan, please just tell us the MSRP price and the price you got it for (before tax and license). I think this is what you guys like to know.

 

F1Fan already stated the model and options. Anybody can then find the MSRP (And invoice price).

Either F1Fan is wrong about the model year or options (or it's a hoax altogether). Otherwise, his stated deal is just not plausible.

 

I had hoped to provide insight into my car buying experience that may be beneficial to other readers using both a local dealer and carsdirect.com. With that said, the MSRP came out to 59,060. That includes all the options I had listed earlier. I noticed the day after the purchase that carsdirect.com lists the same specs as 59,880 as BabyJocko had mentioned previously. I'm not sure where or how there is a difference of 820 between the MSRP at carsdirect.com and a sticker price on the window of the car but obviously it was enough of a difference to purchase the car.

Let's try to keep this professional fellas. There is no need to accuse people of being wrong or starting a hoax.

 

I'm not making accusations (well, maybe I am indirectly). I'm just not so gullible to believe everything I read on message boards. Even with consideration of the $820 MSRP difference, that deal still sounds too good to be true. If you truly got that model for the price you stated, then good for you! I'm sure you won't care whether or not I believe it.

OTOH, you may be someone trying to promote this Santa Monica dealer on this message board with this story of an incredible proposal and deal. You never know. That's why I prefer to use my own head to analyze and rationalize instead of repeating what I've read on a message board.

Just think, if all of us were to do that, propaganda could not survive.