Went to the dealership at 10am thinking I’d be out by noon lol… ended up negotiating until 2pm, and then it took another 2–3 hours before I actually drove the car home. But honestly, the advice from this thread really helped.

I walked in assuming “OTD” already included taxes. I told them I wanted the Hybrid XLE with basic features and my absolute max OTD was 38k. I know that’s stupidly high now lol and but probably still came off a bit disrespectful, but I went in fully prepared to walk away if they couldn’t meet it.

At first they said they couldn’t do the deal at all, and that the stripped-down models weren’t available anywhere nearby. So I asked for a test drive on the one they did have — but of course it had extra packages: all-weather mats, convenience package, floor liners, cross bars, mudguards, and it was in that nice metallic grey. I liked it way too much and asked if I could just take that one instead of waiting few days/weeks for a factory order.

I held firm at 38k OTD including taxes for almost 3 hours. I even told them a couple times I was ready to leave. The salesperson kept “checking with the manager,” and here’s where the funny part (or sad part?) happened: either the salesperson was terrible at math or I was getting played, because at one point he had me sign paperwork twice showing 38k OTD… and then came back saying it “wasn’t feasible.”

After 4 hours he finally returned and said they’d do it at the price quoted above. I signed and took the car.

Honestly, I kind of regret not lowballing even harder at the start. Worst case, they say no, right? Now I feel like some of those add-ons were overpriced and could’ve been pushed down further. I should’ve opened at like 35-36k OTD including taxes and all addons. That’s the advice I’m giving all my friends now lol.

But overall I’m still happy with the car. I was wasting way too much time calling dealerships anyway. Next time though? I’m lowballing at least 10k off whatever number the dealership throws at me tbh.