Originally Posted by luigi524td' post='664935' date='Sep 8 2008, 08:43 PM

Because a deal financed by the dealer (bank or BMWFS) can mean additional incentives for the dealer, a offer of "cash" may actually be less attractive (to the dealer).

Originally Posted by Richard in NC' post='664916

Because a deal financed by the dealer (bank or BMWFS) can mean additional incentives for the dealer, a offer of "cash" may actually be less attractive (to the dealer).

Originally Posted by UUronL' post='665089' date='Sep 8 2008, 09:35 PM

Attempt to avoid trading in cars. It's just one more thing that can "muddy the waters" of a deal and give the dealer an opportunity to take a bigger bite.

Originally Posted by SiegeX' post='665190' date='Sep 9 2008, 02:15 AM

My personal feeling is that it sets the wrong tone. GM's have sales personnel for a reason, turning a GM into your own personal sales man is likely to annoy them from the get-go. Sure they'll do it because they don't want to miss a sale, but you just made your job alot tougher. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there isn't a time or place to talk to the GM, and I believe you would have a perfect case to ask to speak to the GM after the 2nd offer came back over what you wanted. I know it sucks having to twiddle your thumbs waiting for a response, but remember the more time they have invested in you the harder it is for them to let you walk away as there is some opportunity cost in devoting resources to you.



I'm glad you brought this up as its a very good point that a lot of people miss. One way you can further negotiate down your car by a few extra percent is to finance the deal even if you could pay it all off in cash. What you'll want to do in that case is to ask them how many payments you have to make until they get their kick back from the manufacturer; usually its about 3 months worth. Once you know the minimum amount of payments, let them know you will then pay off the remaining balance of the loan in full. Make sure that somewhere in writing is the clause that says there is no pre-payment penalty. Yes you will pay a bit in interest for the first three or so payments, but it will be peanuts compared to how much more you can knock off the price of the car due to the dealer kick back. If for some reason they aren't willing to do a no pre-payment penalty, then forget it.




If you start by negotiating the trade-in value first before anything else there is nothing to muddy. Also, not only will they not low ball you on the trade-in (since you haven't ground them down on the price of the new car yet) but you can often get a tad more than market value since they don't want the trade-in to be the reason you walked out.


Here is a real example of the new 5'er I bought 3 weeks ago. I saw one hell of a deal for a Monaco Blue '07 525i with 14,100 miles listed at $33,800 in pristine condition. Most people would take that price right there and feel like they got a great deal (and they would have), but not us! After I invested about an hour of the sales man's time, I told him I'm interested enough in the car to work the numbers but I first wanted to discuss the value of my trade-in. My trade-in was a Black '97 Mitsubishi Eclipse that was in below-average condition; dings, scratches, dents, manual with a non-working 1st gear. After their appraiser did a test drive they came back at $1,500 which was pretty much right on the money as edmunds listed it at $1,450. I immediately told them that offer wouldn't be acceptable as the BMW dealership a few miles away offered $2,000. Since they thought they were going to sell me the 5'er at the list price, they weren't going to let $500 get into the way, so they agreed on $2,000 for my trade-in. At that point the sales men said "OK, so do we have a deal on the BMW?" At which point I brought to his attention that $33,800 is my starting point. After two rounds of back and forth between me and the GM with my sales man as the messenger, we finally settled on $32,385. So all in all I squeezed out another ~$2,000 on the deal. Had I negotiated the 5'er first, I can guarantee you there is no way I would have gotten $2000 for my trade-in.