04ctd

well, my wife had worked at car dealers for ~7 years.
we have bought ~3 new cars from her dealerships.

i am pretty well versed

this was just a TIME crunch, and i needed a truck with AC ASAP.

and i did not have time to play with them, and arm wrestle.
i told both dealers "make me a deal, or I will just get my AC Fixed"

and they both chose to let me walk away.'

in truth, it cost me $500 to rent a ford explorer, and it was gonna cost me ~$2000 to trade my truck in due to ~94k miles.

so, it was up to them to do what you say you, lay it out, put the BEST number on it the FIRST time, and not take hours to put a deal together.

we bought one car from the wife's dealership, we were out in 45 minutes, and did not know how to cut the headlights off & on, and were not really sure what color it was. our car died in a snow storm near her work, and we just pulled in, and got a new car.

you are a long winded fellow. quite erudite, but talkative

but you have good points, and a savvy shopper should gain some good insights by reading your posts.

it seems like now, it's more like "arm wrestling" than "shopping" to buy a new car.

bet if you did a poll, it's on everyone's crap list.

that's why so many people get "buyers remorse"....they realize they got gank'ed by the dealer.

it's easier just to keep your old car, than to deal with the hassle.

ramtradxb

Gotta disagree with you 04CTD - I like the car buying "challenge" - altho I have to admit I've done it so many times (over 30 new vehicles in 35 years of driving) that I even do it for friends who like yourself, don't enjoy it. But I think a lot of how it is for you depends on how you view the process. I never take it personal, and if a dealer doesn't want to "play", I know either there's one out there that will, or I'm not being realistic. And since the market changes so much so often, "realistic" is usually the operative word...

Have you tried dealing completely over the internet? A lot of dealers now have someone who does that in their store - you can do all the negotiating over the internet via E-mails with an honest description of the vehicle to be traded and some good pics - I've gotten all aspects agreed upon in E-mails before ever talking to someone on the phone - and then the paperwork is ready when I go in and the process goes fast.

sheriffav8r

So, are the $2500 incentives going to remain after August 31st? I'm finally realizing that I need a new truck (even after spending my child's inheritance on fixing my other "diesel fed child.") I just need a truck that I can trust my wife to drive and not have to fix while I'm away at work. That spells "new truck" or at least that's how I'm rationalizing it.... One funny thing is that I'm not a really leather seat type of guy and my cloth seats still look great on my '01 SLT. After doing the math on the SLT and Laramie packages it appears that the leather seats only add about $100 more. When you add up all the junk you have to have to have some of the options I want the Laramie gets cheaper.... Now I just have to find that fifty thousand dollar bill I left under the sofa cushion awhile back....