[quote=squat250]time is money though. are dealers making firm offers via email nowadays? can preliminary negotiations be done via email ?
costco?
truecar
carwoo?[/quote]
Yes.. Not only preliminary negotiations. I had the sales guy ended up sending me the out the door price prior to showing up in L.A…It’s not specifically one brand, and not specifically with dealers in L.A. I mean, if you’re really daring, there were a few dealers in arizona that was willing to deal with me…I’ve done this with a c320 in 2002, an MDX in 2004, an x5 in 2011 and the 550 in 2012. For me, there was a $1500 price difference on the c320 between L.A. and San Diego, there was a $1500 price difference on the MDX (might have been more, i forget), there was $2100 on the x5 and a $3700( or something like that) price difference on the 550 if I recall.
The big difference between S.D. and L.A. there are a lot more L.A. dealers, a lot more inventory.
They are willing to move the vehicles off the lot a lot faster for a lot less..In a lot of L.A. places, they’ll sell at or below invoice, because they want to get rid of the car as soon as it comes in so they can keep as much of their holdback allowances as possible. That’s why it’s sort of important to know how long the car has been sitting on the lot. If a car just came in, and if the brand has a bunch of holdback allowances from factory to dealer, the dealer would probably let the car go much quicker at a cheaper price.
I found out that in general San Diego dealers are just too fvcking arrogant. I’ve approached dealers with L.A. pricing, and they basically told me, go there to get it, because we know we can sell our cars to some San Diegans who don’t want to travel up here and back. By far the most expensive dealers that weren’t willing to budge were the ones in Carlesbad. The ones that came closer to budging was in Temecula, but they still were off compared to L.A.
Ironically, there’s a lot more wiggle room on BMW’s then on some popular Japanese cars, specifically the honda accord. That’s why I ask are you sure?
Looking at edmunds, truecar, costco auto program, the closest that these websites came to my own negotiated price was truecar…. I consistently still beat truecar….
BTW: I’m assuming you aren’t financing.. My comparison was for car purchases that were not financed…The pricing is also different if you’re planning on financing with the stealership.
