Car shopping in today’s world...
 

Thinking about upgrading wife’s war wagon. She’s got a 2011 Kia Forte hatchback with 32,000 miles on it. Runs fine and only had one problem with it (CEL) which was fixed for about $500, About a year ago. She wants the creature comforts of today’s cars, like LED’s, heated seats, remote start, etc...

Called the local Honda dealer. They have a 2023 HR-V AWD which would suit her needs (and mine) to a tee. MSRP of roughly $29,000.

So far so good...

Comes to financing now. $602 a month for 72 months with $4,000 down.

Me: uh, excuse me? What’s the interest rate?
Dealer: 5.9%
Me: ok, how do you come up with that number?
Dealer: $4,000 down on a $39,000 vehicle?
Me: $10,000 over sticker price?
Dealer: we’re not the worst ones out there.
Me: Stick it up your ***.
Dealer: sir, you don’t understand...
Me:say hello to Mr. dial tone. :click:

I’ll wait a couple of months, years when we go back to “negotiating” a price. This clowns should be run out of business by the manufacturer’s.

Next to a lawyer or politician, I can’t think of a lower life form than a car “dealer”.

:rant off:

Yeah they suck, just bought a used car a few weeks ago for our new Au Pair. Found a 2020 Hyundai Sonata for $15k, test drive it, had my wife drop me off so I could do the paperwork, final out the door price almost $20k. I was like how do you get that number? Come to find out they had a high dealer fee and a $2k refurbishment fee or some BS like that. Walked right out. I guess this is somewhat common at used dealerships, haven’t bought used in a while. Needless to say I bought a used Kia from a dealership with no BS fees. Ugh.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Worst part was they wanted more for a used one with 23,000 miles on it. :gtfo2:

My dealership sells everything at sticker price while other dealerships in the area are selling @ $5k over sticker. - Madison area

Inventories are starting to fill back up and the prices are starting to come down.

I hate having to go buy a car also. I can't stand it. When I bought my 2013 Nismo I did it all over the phone and had the car shipped to me. That was easy enough. LOL

My '99 Ram 1500, 08 Power Wagon and '13 Grand Cherokee TrailHawk. I used my employee discount. All 3 was special ordered. Bought my Nismo used. Dealer wanted $39,000. I offered $35,000, and they took it. My '22 Jeep Gladiator. I special ordered it too. I used my Tread Lightly membership on it. 1% under dealer invoice.

New Bronco's are ridiculous. Anywhere from $5K to $15K over dealer. :shakes head:

My opinion:

We're in a bit of a weird spot. On one hand, due to COVID, there still is a global supply/parts/labor issue. On the other hand, the feds are trying to fight inflation and raising rates beyond belief (three 75 bps raises YTD), with a few more increases expected by the end of the year. While the feds are trying to discourage spending to bring inflation under control (which is good for a still qualified buyer, as the dealership knows there will be less potential buyers and in theory should be more likely to work with a buyer to get their business), this still doesn't help with the supply/inventory side. At least in real estate, this contributes to the inflated home prices and values, and I would imagine this would be the same concept for the auto industry with elevated car pricing and values.

In regards to the 5.9% rate, was that the bank/lender talking or a car salesperson that gave you a random number? Especially in today's climate of a rate-rising environment, what you could do is go to your local bank and see if they have an option to do a soft-pull on your credit and see what you could qualify for in terms of loan amount and rate - that way, you have an idea of where you stand and not just relying on the F&I Manager of hopefully doing their job. Just keep in mind though that the F&I Manager may be able to offer a better rate through his lender network than what your bank/lender could offer (this is the reason for the soft-pull as you don't want your score potentially decreasing). Think of it this way: if you get pre-approved through your bank, you are a $29K customer vs the dealership being a $1 million+ customer to the bank, so who's more likely to get a better deal?

I come from mortgage lending, so things may be a bit different in auto lending. When it comes to rate, no bank/lender has a magical rate, and should be relatively the same across the board. For example, if you see 4 gas stations at an intersection, there is a good chance they may offer different pricing for gas, but by a few cents difference and not by a dollar - same principle with interest rates.

I will say that I think you do have some leverage to negotiate because you are going in with a trade-in and you have the potential to the dealership to be the starting domino effect of yielding multiple deals for them because of your trade-in.

You think the Broncos are overly marked up, you should see what they’re asking/getting for the new Z. Oh, wait.... :shakes head:

All good advice, but my issue wasn’t with the financing, it was with the $10,000 markup on a $29,000 vehicle. That’s a 35% markup!

One other forum I'm on. Guys have traded in their 2020 for a 2022 model. They got more on traded in for their 2020 than what they paid for it. Plus got a hell of a deal for the 2022. :eek: Unreal.

Haha, that’s just crazy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Gotcha. Yeah, in today's world, unfortunately, crazy mark-up's are the norm at least for now until sh!t starts to go back to the pre-COVID era.

I had a client that paid $85K over the appraised value of a home :shakes head:

I paid almost $100K over. :eek:

7% credit union loan for my kid. His Altima died. He bought a used 2004 2500 Silverado for $6500.00. dented, scratched, broken tail light, rusted rockers.
Market is efing crazy.

I’m working with a Mazda dealer who actually took $2,000 OFF the MSRP. He’s got tons of stock. I’ll wait for even more stock before we finalize a deal.