[Hoosier Daddy]

I asked this before but it might have been lost in a sea of questions in that post.

I'm looking for purchasing options under most people's radar. Specifically ways to lower the cost BEYOND what an individual dealer can do for a typical buyer.

Here are some examples I dug up regarding Ford purchases, simply because my last purchase was a Ford.

If you owned Ford stock for x months, and you know the procedure you could get a pin to buy at employee/family price (a bit under invoice but with very low doc fee caps). And if you asked on the Ford web site for either a printed or emailed brochure, it might come with a $750 (non-gimmick) coupon for virtually any new Ford. The odds of getting one were low BUT if you just kept asking you would eventually get one. I was able to get the dealer enough below invoice to beat the Family price but the $750 coupon (and $2k rebates) sweetened it even more.

But this isn't MY end and GM may not be overbuilding ATSs and dealers may not be passing on some of the hold back..... so a friend/family price might be a good deal now.

I'm pretty sure options like these exist for other makers (GM?), I'm pretty sure I did similar things with GM purchases in the 80's if memory serves.

So come on, post them up.

Sure we all take whatever the dealer will allow but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do the same for the manufacturer. Ignorance is NOT bliss.

 

[turbo2.0]

I can assure you that other than rebates there is only about $1,600 over invoice on a MSRP, I have full GMS pricing and I got a total of $1,800 off sticker. The best advice I could give anyone is that if you really enjoy working with a specific sales person or even a dealer, don't try and buy things for their price or less or your you may not have the oppertunity to buy from them again. Just be fair!

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

I can assure you that other than rebates there is only about $1,600 over invoice on a MSRP, I have full GMS pricing and I got a total of $1,800 off sticker. The best advice I could give anyone is that if you really enjoy working with a specific sales person or even a dealer, don't try and buy things for their price or less or your you may not have the oppertunity to buy from them again. Just be fair!

Of course, but I'm asking about things that don't necessarily effect the dealer or sales person at all.

For example: I just found out GM has arrangements with some universities for staff (and families) to buy at GM supplier prices which I think are under invoice. My son is finishing a PhD and is also part time on the University staff. I haven't confirmed if his university has such an arrangement or not but that's the sort of thing I am talking about.

But loop holes are okay too. I was buying a Chrysler product in 2004 for cash and the dealer said there was another $1000 rebate if I financed thru whatever Chrysler's finance arm was called. I asked if there was a penalty for early pay off. They said no. So I financed it and payed it off the next day.

Cadillac has a $1000 rebate for buyers who own a '99+ Cadillac (or $1500 for buyers who lease another brand). Unless Cadillac's terms include how long you had to own the car, I would be amused, not repulsed if someone had a friend who owns a Cadillac add them to their title for one day. I had to put vehicles into a new trust and I think it was ~$12 each here.

You might be surprised how perceived corporate victims look at things like that in manageable numbers. Example: I've never been in the situation, BUT Microsoft intentionally manufactured Windows upgrades to allow them to be used when no version of Windows was previously installed. Yes, in the endless fine print, buyers agree to only use it to upgrade, BUT it would be trivial for MS to prevent it, and they confess to wanting it that way. In fact its possible they had to do extra work to make sure it could be used that way. Why? Because they thought they could sell upgrades to x number of people who would not pay for full price. This let them do it without incurring any ill will from people who paid full price if they found out.

For laws and commandments, I'm real big on intent as well as letter, but for contracts freely entered by both parties, I don't have much sympathy for anyone who's intent didn't match the words (s)he signed.

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Can some moderator move this thread to the appropriate forum? I shouldn't have posted it in any forum related to specific models.

 

[shudog]

I"ve bought a half dozen new GM cars in the last 15 yrs, 3 since the GM bankruptcy and it's a whole new ballgame now. The GM discount is nothing like what it used to be, the rebates aren't as big or as frequent. Certainly not on new models and hot sellers.

 

[huna]

This reminds me of that Extreme Couponing TV show...

 

[Pie R Squared]

If you want to see an example of GM dealer discounting look at this link over on Corvette Forum in the dealer For Sale section.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-...-your-door-call-wes-866-782-4389-x-427-a.html

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

I"ve bought a half dozen new GM cars in the last 15 yrs, 3 since the GM bankruptcy and it's a whole new ballgame now. The GM discount is nothing like what it used to be, the rebates aren't as big or as frequent. Certainly not on new models and hot sellers.

Good info. Thanks. Not having perpetual rebates is a plus in my book. They just mean the manufacturer mispriced the car and/or thinks someone might actually be attracted to the IDEA of saving money. I don't pay any attention to universal rebates. I own a Mustang. Ford has thousands of dollars of rebates from 1st day of a model year even for some hot sellers. They obviously think some are stupid enough to feel like they are getting a "deal".

The fact that GM is doing it less is a plus, because my concern is missing some obscured discount. The fewer of them there are the less likely to miss one. Its not even much about the money. Its more about the "game". Its human nature to want to win at whatever you do. I wouldn't throw an interception because I felt sorry for a losing team or fold a straight flush. Any big purchase is also a game where each side wants to have the better end of the transaction. I'm no grinder who'll spend hours dickering over a few hundred dollars, well maybe if I thought the sales rep would do the same (i.e is inviting such a competition), but typically not. But finding out later I missed a "secret" incentive because I didn't know would be like having thrown that interception that lost the big game. LoL.

I own a GMC Syclone. I approached a dealer about buying one before they were being shipped. Since GM wasn't even building enough for every dealer to get one, I wasn't surprised they wouldn't offer a good deal not knowing the real demand yet. They refused my offer of midway between MSRP and invoice, their offer was I think $10,000 OVER MSRP. The dealer (actually the sales manager) decided these were gold and talked the GM into letting him buy other dealer's allocations and corner the market in the Southwest. They had I think 5 early in the model year. They still didn't want to talk any deal. Eventually they realized these didn't sell like hotcakes, especially in the desert where the heat sapped quite a bit of the turbo power. Long story short we negotiated for months and never reached an agreement. Several times they called to say they would accept my offer of a month ago but I could see what was happening and felt the value had declined in that time period, so I told them that offer had expired and made them a new offer. At around the 10th or 11th month I saw they still had the 1st VIN they had received. I sent a letter to the GM asking if I could throw a birthday party for the "truck" when it turned 1. A few days later, I had it for many thousands under invoice. I don't recall exactly but I think it was in the $6-8k range (including rebates GMC had finally been forced to offer). I may be evil, but I think I enjoyed the game as much as the truck. I heard later the GM had fired the sales manager I had talked to in the beginning for doing dumb things like paying other dealers premiums to get allocations for cars that didn't sell.

What was most fascinating to me was that a business could be so far out of touch with what was in their best interest. They could have made a nice profit instead of losing significant money on the truck and saved almost a year of flooring costs just by accepting any of several prior offers.