what is a good price on a 2007 v8

[TrainTrac]

Of course they're always going to try to low-ball you on a trade-in. They want to make money on that end of the deal too. You're always better off selling a vehicle yourself rather than trading whenever possible.



With the domestic car companies, the holdback is generally around 3% of the MSRP on the sticker. You can use that in figuring out how much you want to pay for the car.

 

[TrainTrac]

Read the article "Confessions of a Car Salesman" at Edmunds.com. It'll open your eyes to how the process works, and give you a lot of useful knowledge when buying a car.

 

[Tim Binford]

$29,000 sticker dealers owners wife drove for 2000 miles got it for 24,000 even thought 5gs were worth a loss of 2000 miles,



Love the Bamachip installed on it.

Love the Truck

Tim

 

[Richard L]

whonoswho,

I agree. I have purchased a number of 'Demos' that have had up to 1500 miles on them. I got significant discounts and they included another 1500 miles to the warranty.



My 2003 Sport Trac was not a Demo vehicle, but they had to trade with a dealer in Ft. Worth to get the vehicle and drive it back. So it had about 156 miles on it when I got it, and they extexted the warranty by the same 156 miles.



As for Trade-ins, Dealer will rarely ever pay more than the wholesale price for a used vehicle. That's just the nature of the business. They may sell it for more if they keep it on their lot, but they often sell many trade-ins to other used car wholesalers.



Where I worked, probably 50%-60% of the trade-ins were sold to user0car wholesalers, and it's just based on the condition of the vehicle. I traded in my 1997 Gran Prix on my 2001 Sport Trac. The GP was in like mint condition with flawless paint and like new interior even with 42K miles on the odometer. The dealer told me that they would wholesale it because GM vehicles did not sell well at his dealership.



They did infact sell the vehicle to a wholesaler and I ran into the person who bought it from a used car dealer about 3 months later. They bought if for $1500 more than I got for it as a trade in. My dealer probably sold it to the wholesaler for $500-$1000 over what I got.



If a dealer offers you more for your trade-in than the wholesale price, you are getting screwed on the price of the new vehicle you are buying.



Another factor that most people don't know about is something called the "Load". That's the profit that the dealer must make per vehicle just to cover the cost of operating his dealership. That's the electricity, water, insurance, advertising, building maintenance, and other miscellaneous operating expenses. Most dealers will require anywhere from a couple of hundred to as much as $1000 per vehicle. Companies like Honda, Toyota, etc do not use a holdback system so they will have a heavier "Load" than the USA's big three dealerships. The Load is not considered profit.



Many people do not realize that the Dealers do not make much money on the sale of a New vehicle. The Salesman also do not make that much money unless they sell a lot of vehicles, then they get other incentives and bonuses.



Having worked as a salesman for a Ford dealer, salesman don't just sit back an rake in the money. You spend a lot of hours at the dealership, selling your but off only to find out that the person who wants to buy the vehicle, has poor credit and no money. You may have spent 3 or more hours working with that person to get the deal right for them, even though they knew they would never qualify for the loan. If I could have actually sold every vehicle that the customer agreed to buy and could afford, I would probably still be selling cars.



I agree that there is always room to negotiate, and some dealerships are in a position to negotiate a better deal than others, but the consumer has the right to negotiate for the best deal they can get and then buy or reject that dealers offer.



Gavin,

I disagree that all car dealers/salesman are crooks. Like everyother business, they can't stay in business unless they can make a profit.



...Rich

 

[Gavin Allan]

Oh, I don't think that all of them are crooks. It amazes me that they will rather lose a sale on someone like me with cash or financing already arranged, then to shoot me a price and do the deal. I know that profit must be made, but my experience is that can shop 10 dealers for a "very clean wholesale trade-in" to "invoice plus $500" on the new vehicle deal, and only one out of 10 will be interested in doing the deal, even when I have cash and am ready to go.



I laugh when I hear about car salespeople losing their jobs, or see all the high turnover. I figure they get what they deserve.



A hell of a lot more cars would be sold if they would get rid of commissioned salespeople and just price the cars with the lowest acceptable offer. Trade-ins could be a separate process, or even just do a wholesale trade for a new vehicle. Having a stupid and greedy commissioned salesperson who knows nothing about his products, or who even lies to the customer is not a great business model in my book.

 

[Richard L]

Gavin,

Like I said, some dealers are better positioned to deal while others are not. Much of that depends upon the amount of Load that dealership carries.



Salesman are paid on a commision based on the profit made on the vehicle, not mecessarily on a commission based on the sale price. Dealerships reduce the profit based on their per vehicle Load.



At the Ford dealership where I worked, salesman were lucky to make $150 max for a new car sale. The real money came from selling used cars where you could easily make $500-$700 for a used car sale. If you sold 10 vehicles per month, you got a bonus of $1200, 12 sales got you another $500, and it continued up from there. Needless to say, the majority of the salesman spend their time cruising the Used-Car lot and hang out around the service entrance.



At my dealership, if you sold more than 10 vehicles (new or used) for two consecutive months, they would pay your car payment up to $500 as long as your vehicle was a Ford, bought at their dealership, and it was less than 3 years old. On Saturdays the salesmanager would add and additional $100-$200 bonus if someone could sell the used vehicle that was on our lot the longest. They also gave out cash bonuses for the salesman who sold the first vehicle, or had the most vehicles, or the most sales $. The would mix it up every Saturday.



So in the end, the salesman's commission on a new vehicle sale makes the sale price almost insignificant, but just getting another sale, or the first sale is what leads to more money. Yes, salesman receive a commission, but that is not really where they make their money...Money is made by selling volume and getting the bonuses.



Salesman turnover occurs because when a dealership gets desparate he will ofer better commissions and bonuses to build up their sales staff. Salesman hear this through the grapevine and move to the other dealer. After that dealership builds up his sales force, they lower the commissions and bonuses back to what the other dealers are offering. Salesman will often jump to the new dealer if they can get in early on the up-swing. They make some extra money, and then look for the next dealer who is offering better commissions and bonuses.



The Salesman who sold me my 2003 Sport Trac has quit and returned to that same dealership at least 3 times that I am aware of. What is strange is they hired me when they let him go the first time. The lady who sold me my 2001 Sport Trac also left the dealer and returned 2 or 3 times. She was fired the first time even though she was salesman of the month for 5 of the previous 6 months. Then about a year later, they hired her back.



Sometimes the salemen don't get along with the salesmanager, or the owner. Some Salesmangers will make it harder on the new guy while they try to keep their top salesmen happy. They tend to steer known good customers to their top salesmen and steer the unqualified customers towards the new guys since they know they won't ruin a sale, and they need the practice. That's kind of the way it was for me as the new guy.



...Rich