Originally Posted by Barbaris

I found that it is much easier to negotiate using % off MSRP and to compare offers from other dealers. Some of them include factory incentives or your personal incentives, some are not. Invoice price does not mean much these days - most dealers and brands have holdbacks from the manufacturer and different bonuses depending on how many cars they sell (normally tier-based system).

Trade-in should be also excluded from this and honestly, you will be better off selling your car to carmax or carvana.

Taxes and fees are going to be the same.

Web-sites like truecar and edmunds play these games as well now and to me, it feels like they are on a dealer side and just make lazy people feel better.

There is no excuse these days not to email 10-15 dealers around you and have them compete for your business. Do not even go to a dealership before you have a good offer via email or text, you will be wasting time. Dealers who do not answer via email or text - it is their problem, just move on and negotiate with dealers who use YOUR preferred way of communications.

Other people like to look at Out of the door price (OTD) but then it is much more difficult to compare offers from various dealers because of factors above.

In my case, I emailed ~14 dealers in Florida (all dealers have a contact us form on their sites). 5 of them told me they would never give a discount on special orders - ah, okay, bad for them. 1 dealer told me they would never discount any AMG models - ah, okay, bad for them. 5 ignored my email request or sent me an auto-rely to my very detailed message where I outline exactly what I wanted, my timeline, options and such (you have to let them feel you are serious).

Finally, 3 dealers answered my email straight to the point. Gave me % and I started to negotiate with them. Once I got the best offer from 100 miles from me, I sent emails again to our local dealers (we have 3) and asked them to beat. 2 said no and 1 said yes.

I felt I could do a bit better but in the end of day it is how you feel about the deal. Getting 11% off a special order car built for you, and the car has not released yet is a very good deal and I feel good about it

I used the same strategy when I got a car for myself and it worked pretty well too.

This was also part of the game for me to get the best offer

Hope it helps!

Originally Posted by Chrisk03

All of this +infinity... I would just add to make sure you get a good 30 minute plus test drive on the vehicle you are considering, preferably with yourself/sig other only, and are up front with the salesperson about how you go about purchasing a car. Good luck!

Originally Posted by Barbaris

thanks Chrisk, forgot to mention test drive Before you negotiate, make sure you know what you want down to options and colors. So you can focus on a deal. This was actually the hardest part for me and my wife Extended test drive is a must, let them know upfront that you want "extended test drive" not just driving around 2 blocks

Porsche dealer was the coolest - they just handed us the keys and said "have fun, come back any time today before we close!" This is the best test drive experience if you do not have a sales guy or "assistant" while you are test driving.

After test drive, they ask if you want to run numbers - just say no, because you still researching and need to test drive a few other cars.