sly_karma
Crew Member
Discussion in the Boat Is Paid Off thread touched on buying cars and trucks, I'll put in my two cents here without derailing the boatnthread further.
I'm a home builder so I'm used to the tendering and bidding process: put together a set of specs, a closing date and send it off to qualified bidders. This approach works well with major consumer purchases too.
First you decide what vehicle you want, through a combination of reading, test drives, experience with rental vehicles or friends' vehicles.
Second, develop a precise set of specs. Go to the maker's website and use their Build Your Truck page (or whatever they happen to call it) to "build" the exact vehicle you want. Most makers have a dizzying array of options and often they're bundled up in packages to make it more confusing. Take your time here, you definitely don't want to do this in person at the dealership. Most build pages update the total cost every time you add or remove an option; use this feature to determine whether it's better to add, say, heated seats as a standalone item or add a bundle that includes ten other items of varying importance to you. Eventually you'll settle on the truck/car and options you want and you'll have a clear overall MSRP cost. Save the build sheet as a PDF file; this is your set of specs to send out to tender.
Step 3. Look on the website to see if you qualify for any rebates or discounts such as seniors, veterans, electric vehicle, gas guzzler trade in, etc.
Step 4. While still on the website, look up dealers near you. Hopefully there are at least three within a driving radius that is acceptable to you for initial service and possible followup or warranty work. Grab the email addresses of all the dealerships within this 'comfort zone'. Write an email something like this:
"I am going to buy a new xxxx this week, see the attached pdf for details. The vehicle you propose to sell me must be exactly as specified or your bid will be discarded. At this time I have not decided about cash purchase or financing, nor whether to trade a vehicle or not. I am assessing bids solely on the basis of overall purchase price. Please send your best overall price including all fees and taxes by 5 pm mm/dd/yyyy. A purchase decision will be made and all bidders notified by 5 pm mm/dd+1/yyyy. Sincerely yours, etc."
Getting close now. Attach the build sheet to the email and send them off to dealers. I usually set the bid closing time so that dealers have 3 full business days to respond. Generally it is best to time it for end of the month as salespeople and sales manager are all striving to meet monthly targets. They'll be less hungry the first week of the month. Even better if you can defer purchase to December, January or February when sales are slower.
Some dealers will have questions or clarifications needed, you can respond to those at your leisure because you only gave email address, not phone number. Now at bid deadline you have a set of prices based on the elusive apples to apples comparison because your specs were precise. If you have a bid or two with some ifs and alternate scenarios clouding the bottom line price, you can either call the dealership for clarification or simply toss it aside because they're trying to confuse the issue.
Now just pick the low price. If you have a preferred dealer (local area, past loyalty, good service shop) but they aren't quite low bid, email them and ask if they'll price match. Attach the low bid offer.
Make the decision, call the dealer to confirm details and ask for a work order to be written up and emailed to you. Once this comes through and you've verified that the goalposts haven't moved, accept the offer by return email and notify the other bidders. Arrange with the dealer for a date and time to sign papers and take delivery.
Now you can disclose your intentions regarding financing (theirs or yours), trade in, etc. The key is to get them pinned down on total price first.
I've bought four vehicles this way now, securing discounts along the way that I never would have had the nerve to ask for in person. The smallest discount worked out to 15% below MSRP, and the best was almost 25% off - a Chev work truck with a retail of 48,800 sold to me for 37,500. In most cases my test drive was either months before or at another dealership entirely, making the process very much at arm's length with no chance for good guy softness on my part to weaken my position. Typically the first time they meet me is when I come in to sign papers on the deal, so I'm virtually invulnerable to sales guy pressure. Decisions made on my own time, with the ability to research and check facts.
I should note this approach works best for vehicles that are widely available and from makes that have lots of dealers. You're not going to get far using this system for a car or truck that is in hot demand like say Tesla at the moment. Anyway if you're like me and the whole dealership sales office process makes your skin crawl, try putting it out to tender as I've described. It gives you a lot more control.
I'm a home builder so I'm used to the tendering and bidding process: put together a set of specs, a closing date and send it off to qualified bidders. This approach works well with major consumer purchases too.
First you decide what vehicle you want, through a combination of reading, test drives, experience with rental vehicles or friends' vehicles.
Second, develop a precise set of specs. Go to the maker's website and use their Build Your Truck page (or whatever they happen to call it) to "build" the exact vehicle you want. Most makers have a dizzying array of options and often they're bundled up in packages to make it more confusing. Take your time here, you definitely don't want to do this in person at the dealership. Most build pages update the total cost every time you add or remove an option; use this feature to determine whether it's better to add, say, heated seats as a standalone item or add a bundle that includes ten other items of varying importance to you. Eventually you'll settle on the truck/car and options you want and you'll have a clear overall MSRP cost. Save the build sheet as a PDF file; this is your set of specs to send out to tender.
Step 3. Look on the website to see if you qualify for any rebates or discounts such as seniors, veterans, electric vehicle, gas guzzler trade in, etc.
Step 4. While still on the website, look up dealers near you. Hopefully there are at least three within a driving radius that is acceptable to you for initial service and possible followup or warranty work. Grab the email addresses of all the dealerships within this 'comfort zone'. Write an email something like this:
"I am going to buy a new xxxx this week, see the attached pdf for details. The vehicle you propose to sell me must be exactly as specified or your bid will be discarded. At this time I have not decided about cash purchase or financing, nor whether to trade a vehicle or not. I am assessing bids solely on the basis of overall purchase price. Please send your best overall price including all fees and taxes by 5 pm mm/dd/yyyy. A purchase decision will be made and all bidders notified by 5 pm mm/dd+1/yyyy. Sincerely yours, etc."
Getting close now. Attach the build sheet to the email and send them off to dealers. I usually set the bid closing time so that dealers have 3 full business days to respond. Generally it is best to time it for end of the month as salespeople and sales manager are all striving to meet monthly targets. They'll be less hungry the first week of the month. Even better if you can defer purchase to December, January or February when sales are slower.
Some dealers will have questions or clarifications needed, you can respond to those at your leisure because you only gave email address, not phone number. Now at bid deadline you have a set of prices based on the elusive apples to apples comparison because your specs were precise. If you have a bid or two with some ifs and alternate scenarios clouding the bottom line price, you can either call the dealership for clarification or simply toss it aside because they're trying to confuse the issue.
Now just pick the low price. If you have a preferred dealer (local area, past loyalty, good service shop) but they aren't quite low bid, email them and ask if they'll price match. Attach the low bid offer.
Make the decision, call the dealer to confirm details and ask for a work order to be written up and emailed to you. Once this comes through and you've verified that the goalposts haven't moved, accept the offer by return email and notify the other bidders. Arrange with the dealer for a date and time to sign papers and take delivery.
Now you can disclose your intentions regarding financing (theirs or yours), trade in, etc. The key is to get them pinned down on total price first.
I've bought four vehicles this way now, securing discounts along the way that I never would have had the nerve to ask for in person. The smallest discount worked out to 15% below MSRP, and the best was almost 25% off - a Chev work truck with a retail of 48,800 sold to me for 37,500. In most cases my test drive was either months before or at another dealership entirely, making the process very much at arm's length with no chance for good guy softness on my part to weaken my position. Typically the first time they meet me is when I come in to sign papers on the deal, so I'm virtually invulnerable to sales guy pressure. Decisions made on my own time, with the ability to research and check facts.
I should note this approach works best for vehicles that are widely available and from makes that have lots of dealers. You're not going to get far using this system for a car or truck that is in hot demand like say Tesla at the moment. Anyway if you're like me and the whole dealership sales office process makes your skin crawl, try putting it out to tender as I've described. It gives you a lot more control.
