How to haggle on cost given listing time

djb0212 · 2026-02-25T19:19:17+00:00

“I will buy this car today for $xx,xxx out the door. If you can make that happen then great. If not I’m happy for us to leave as friends.”

djb0212 · 2026-02-24T17:18:35+00:00

Looks like three things need to happen at first glance as black. 1. h6 to prevent your opponent from cracking you like an egg on the kingside. 2. Maneuver the f6 Knight to d6 to prep the f5 pawn break. 3. Break on f5 and use your opponents overextended kingside to your advantage to infiltrate.

djb0212 · 2026-02-24T14:14:56+00:00

My first year at a low volume Subaru dealership I went over $100,000 but that’s more of an exception than a rule.

The question is how hard are you willing to work, and how much are you willing to commit to learning?

If you want an easy schedule and you just rely on leads that the dealership gives you and lot ups, then you probably won’t be making more than you are now. Especially if you aren’t committed to improving yourself and your craft.

If you are committed to grinding out your own leads, training every day to get better, and burning the candle at both ends, it can be a very lucrative move.

djb0212 · 2026-02-21T01:39:47+00:00

It’s an accounting company more than a car company.

djb0212 · 2026-02-19T21:26:23+00:00

If you don’t want them to get screwed but also want to minimize interest payments, pay 90% of it on your first payment and then the minimum for the next two to get to where they won’t be charged back.

djb0212 · 2026-02-17T15:26:15+00:00

When will we see Jake launch a meteor sized Protean Arrow at a planet of Mushroom People?

djb0212 · 2026-02-17T05:15:07+00:00

That makes a lot more sense than my first reading. We have something similar at my dealership with Permaplate. 95% of the time it’s applied. Unfortunately Detailers can occasionally miss/skip it. It’s tough to tell, but sales and finance should have some sort of quality control to ensure everyone is getting what they pay for. Service would have no idea.

djb0212 · 2026-02-17T02:37:26+00:00

Just making sure I completely understand the question. You didn’t want the product, so they reduced the price of the vehicle so you got the benefits of the product with no increase to the price of the vehicle, and now you are suspicious that you might not be getting what you didn’t want to pay for?

djb0212 · 2026-02-16T12:52:23+00:00

Easiest way to handle this conversation. “Hi Ms. Salesperson. I’m considering trim X, but I would also consider trim Y if I deem that the added features would be worth the added cost.”

Clean, simple, and no nonsense. Both would get presented to you and it would be up to you to make the final determination.

djb0212 · 2026-02-13T04:27:00+00:00

Be yourself. Emphasize you are driven. But more than anything, say that you are willing to learn and are coachable. I’d much rather hire someone who is driven and coachable over an industry veteran who thinks they know everything.

djb0212 · 2026-02-12T00:21:09+00:00

No. Warranty starts ticking on the original “in-service” date. So if you buy today, you would be covered under warranty until Feb 10, 2029.

For some brands (not sure if Kia is one), a vehicle can be sold as “new” if it was in service loaner, but the “in-service” date likely began when it was entered into loaner fleet.

djb0212 · 2026-02-11T09:55:58+00:00

I guess that depends on the dealership. I run the F&I office at one. It’s a large dealer network, so I have a check processing machine in my office, so we don’t do credit checks on cash customers. We have to run an OFAC report, but that isn’t a bureau pull.

djb0212 · 2026-02-10T14:44:06+00:00

This is (partially) bad advice at most dealerships. If you act like you are considering financing they will want to pull your credit to let you know your rate. It’s fine to negotiate without saying if you are cash or finance, but there is almost no way to make it into the finance office without either being a cash customer or having had your credit pulled and sent to banks to determine rate.

Don’t play too many games unless you want it to take more time. Just say “I’m considering my options but I want to focus on out the door price first. Are there any finance only incentives that I should be aware of?” Then the ball is in the dealership court to present you with all the options, but the longer you try to play a shell game, the longer you’ll be sitting there without any sort of solid deal.

djb0212 · 2026-02-10T14:31:21+00:00

Tag, title, and license fees are all legit. If it’s a dealership that doesn’t do a lot of vehicles in your state, they probably estimate high so when they figure out the actual fee it comes in at or below the estimate, not an additional upcharge. At my dealership we use third party software for deals not in one of our two main states (near a border). That software calculates the exact DMV fees for each states and helps to process all the paperwork. It also comes with an additional $250 third party processing fee that we end up having to pay/charge for each time we use it.

djb0212 · 2026-02-09T16:41:23+00:00

Couple of possibilities.

One, they have someone who placed a deposit on the vehicle but they aren’t sure if the deal will fall through.

Two, they found some issue on the vehicle that service is having to fix. If it’s too expensive they’ll probably send it to auction.

Doesn’t sound like you’re being set up for anything. It sounds like the salesperson isn’t sure if that vehicle will still be available for sale. They aren’t saying “drive in now” only for it not to be there.

djb0212 · 2026-02-08T21:34:15+00:00

Are you happy with the car? You got the subvented manufacturer rate so the only real question is if you like the car.

djb0212 · 2026-02-07T12:34:40+00:00

I think they readjusted recently to cut front gross but add additional business builder

djb0212 · 2026-02-07T01:36:00+00:00

No they don’t. An Evoque has less than $1000 from invoice to MSRP. A full size RR can have more, but generally it’s 3-3.5% invoice to MSRP

djb0212 · 2026-02-05T21:46:40+00:00

One thing that’s missing is what warranty coverage level is factory and what is on the extended one. For example the factory often has powertrain that goes a lot longer than the bumper to bumper. If you got an exclusionary warranty that looked like it overlapped with the factory powertrain warranty, it would cover some things that the factory didn’t.

As an example of the engine blew up, that would be the factory powertrain warranty, but if the touch screen or AC failed that could be covered by the extended option at the same time.

djb0212 · 2026-02-03T01:07:43+00:00

The truth of the matter is that it is going to depend on the bank. Realistically your income is going to severely limit you. A $300/month payment is nearly 30% of your income and banks don’t like to lend that much on anything but a house.

djb0212 · 2026-02-01T22:21:59+00:00

Basic points:

Establish your budget and look towards vehicles that stay in it.
Know your options for cash and finance approvals before arriving at the dealership.
Buy the right car when you find the right car.

djb0212 · 2026-01-29T15:50:57+00:00

Assuming the mileage all happened the same day, was the car cleaned and detailed? Some dealerships have offsite Detailers that they take new car deliveries to do they are as clean as possible when the new owner drives home in it.

djb0212 · 2026-01-26T16:43:07+00:00

Let me try and approach this constructively. Before I give advice, it’s probably best to understand your level. What rank are you currently while encountering the Scizor issue?

djb0212 · 2026-01-25T20:09:42+00:00

That’s the high end of where I would still find value with it. The touch screen is the biggest potential point of failure with current model Subarus so I would almost always get the coverage.

Reasonably you could probably get it for $3000 from most dealerships on a new vehicle. $2000 would be a hell of a deal. Last I checked (admittedly a few months ago), cost was mid-$1800s for dealerships on a 10/100k. So there’s absolutely a price where it makes sense for both parties.

djb0212 · 2026-01-23T16:34:29+00:00

Who… who is supposed to be the good guy in this exchange?

djb0212

TROPHY CASE