first thing you do when you walk in the dealership for leaf.

[smkettner]

Dealer: Wait! Wait! Wait! I just found out we can take those off! Please come back in and sit down.

My answer.... how long will it take to repair the screw holes with new aluminum? SeeeYa

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Also being a tough negotiator works well when you are dealing with a commodity car, for example if you want to buy an Altima, they have a couple hundred on the lot and have to sell one to just about everyone who remotely expresses interest. If a vehicle is in tight supply and you walk away they don't care so much.

 

[braineo]

i don't even know the place my Leaf came from. Negotiated all via email and car was delivered to my home 150 miles from dealership. I signed all papers in my dining room.

i did get a call from the offering a free oil change...

 

[acegreatone]

I have always found it hard to get anyone to negotiate over the phone

Don't use the phone, use mail or email. Do not negotiate, you are asking for bids.

"This is exactly what I want. Please reply with your total price, including all taxes, all fees and any other changes."

No doubt they want to avoid being played against other dealers in a phone bidding war.

If they don't want to bid, they don't get the sale. Their choice. No negotiation, they bid or they don't bid.

I was a little unsure about driving 45 miles only to get jerked around and have the story change when I got there. The guy assured me that would not happen, and it didn't... we were in and out driving the new car home in well under an hour.

awesome thanks for the info. its opening my mind on getting what i want and not worrying about what the dealer says "is standard" or "mandatory"

This happened to me twice. The first conversation went something like this:

Dealer: ... and we need to add in this $300 fee.

Me: Really? That is not what your letter to me says right here.

Dealer: Yes, we must add the fee. Blah blah....

Me: (To wife) "The next dealer on the list was only $30 more, and they are on the way home. Let's go."

Dealer: Wait, the sales manager will be back in a few minutes, and maybe he can do something.

Me: Maybe he could if he was here. But he's not, and I'm not waiting. Too bad guy, you just lost a sale. Bye.

(The next dealer on the list cut the price $30 when the wife called on the cell on the way there, and was very very nice.)


The second conversation went like this:

Dealer: And the car has this $200 dealer installed plastic mud flap option...

Me: I don't want that option. Says so here on this email.

Dealer: Oh, but this option is really nice...

Me: I don't want that option.

Dealer: We can't take it off now.

Me: As the email says, any options beyond these are not to be included in the price. So honor your price.

Dealer: I can't do that.

Me: I'll go look at it. (Went outside, looked at bit of plastic attached with two screws, shook head, headed for our car asking the wife where the next dealer on the list was...)

Dealer: Wait! Wait! Wait! I just found out we can take those off! Please come back in and sit down.

 

[WetEV]

I've had an even harder time getting them to engage via email. But times may be a changin.

Try snail mail. Address to "Fleet Sales"

 

[acegreatone]

I've had an even harder time getting them to engage via email. But times may be a changin.

Try snail mail. Address to "Fleet Sales"

when i email a dealership? and what is that? the manager?

 

[WetEV]

when i email a dealership? and what is that? the manager?

Look at the web site of the dealerships. There is likely an email method for contacting them, or a form where you can send a message that they will reply to in email. Put in something like this:

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Request for quote

Red Nissan Leaf SL

No options

Delivery in 20 to 60 days.
Total payment, including all taxes and fees is _____________?

In a few days, follow up by replying to every dealer that answered and wasn't the low price with an email saying:

Price from another dealership is $xxx lower than yours.

Want to quote again?

And closing the deal with something like this:

So if I walk in with a bank check for $xx,xxx the car is mine? That's the full price? Nothing else?

If email addresses or other electronic contact methods don't work, get the US Mail addresses and try that way.

 

[Becky50]

I used the above mentioned email route and was pleased how well it worked for me last August. When I arrived at the dealership, I checked out my vehicle and was in and out in 2 hours. There still is all of that paperwork. No wheeling and dealing, a rather pleasant experience.
Becky

 

[acegreatone]

when i email a dealership? and what is that? the manager?

Look at the web site of the dealerships. There is likely an email method for contacting them, or a form where you can send a message that they will reply to in email. Put in something like this:

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Request for quote

Red Nissan Leaf SL

No options

Delivery in 20 to 60 days.
Total payment, including all taxes and fees is _____________?

In a few days, follow up by replying to every dealer that answered and wasn't the low price with an email saying:

Price from another dealership is $xxx lower than yours.

Want to quote again?

And closing the deal with something like this:

So if I walk in with a bank check for $xx,xxx the car is mine? That's the full price? Nothing else?

If email addresses or other electronic contact methods don't work, get the US Mail addresses and try that way.

Ohh man the dealers in my area (nyc) do not like this.

 

[cwerdna]

Can you update your location info via User Control Panel (near top) > Profile (left side)? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.

I don't know how much research you've done on this but before even bothering what is your daily commute like? How many miles and how much highway vs. city? Will you be able to charge at your destination(s)?

I'm assuming you can charge at home.

 

[TurboFroggy]

Also being a tough negotiator works well when you are dealing with a commodity car, for example if you want to buy an Altima, they have a couple hundred on the lot and have to sell one to just about everyone who remotely expresses interest. If a vehicle is in tight supply and you walk away they don't care so much.

This was certainly true of the past, but not the present. Good search engines like http://www.cars.com can show a particular make/model/sub-model within a radius of your zip code. This makes it very easy to see all the inventory within x miles of you. You then can send your request for quotes to each dealer. The cars.com search also lets to sort by price however that is quite fungible. When sorting by price you have to be careful of dealers including any rebates like the $7500 tax rebate or any state rebates in the price.

Other sites like http://www.truecar.com show what others have paid for the same make/model in your area as well.

 

[acegreatone]

Can you update your location info via User Control Panel (near top) > Profile (left side)? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.

I don't know how much research you've done on this but before even bothering what is your daily commute like? How many miles and how much highway vs. city? Will you be able to charge at your destination(s)?

I'm assuming you can charge at home.

im going to update my info after i send this. i think i done my homework on this car and dealerships in the tri-state area. round trip for me is 56 miles. 50 miles highway- 6 city. i work for new york city department of sanitation. so i dont think it will happen. but a lot of supervisors have chevy volts in the garages with the charging stations. on a side question, can i connect the "trickle charger to a 50 ft extention cord? yes i can charge at home

 

[cwerdna]

^^^
Are you going to depend on 120 volt charging at home or will it be supplemented by workplace charging?

 

[acegreatone]

^^^
Are you going to depend on 120 volt charging at home or will it be supplemented by workplace charging?

120 at home, for the most part. unless i can run that extention cord

 

[cwerdna]

I'm thinking that at 120 volts, once you hit winter, the charging rate will be too slow to keep up w/your demands. Hopefully someone else can chime in on this.

 

[acegreatone]

I'm thinking that at 120 volts, once you hit winter, the charging rate will be too slow to keep up w/your demands. Hopefully someone else can chime in on this.

i plan on installing a charging station at my house. but when it snows we work 12 hr shits for weeks on end last year with hurricane sandy i work 12 hrs shifts for 40 days stright. well i guess i can have my wife take the leaf to work she works closer and only 8hr days. hmmm...

 

[acegreatone]

so im still looking in the ny area... but im not walking into dealerships anymore. im sending emails do dealers that have what im looking for in a leaf. and asking if they can ship to the city (long island). i know of a couple of dealers having sales for memorial day . one will give you a free flat screen tv with any nissan purchase.

 

[cgaydos]

Other sites like http://www.truecar.com show what others have paid for the same make/model in your area as well.

Edmund's TMV (True Market Value) is similar. When I sell used cars (no, I never trade-in ... that's kissing a minimum of $1-2k goodbye) I use TMV as my pricing *FLOOR* - I print out the TMV, copy it to my online adverts like Craigslist.org, and and say this is my firm price.

OTOH, when buying new I treat TMV as my *CEILING* price - that is supposed to be the average of what people are paying and I expect to be in the top 1/10 percentile of buyers, meaning I expect to do a lot better than TMV. I use TMV as one data input into what the market is doing.