Letter from Dealer Wanting to Buy Back my Pathy

[hfrez]

My Pathfinder was the first time I had conducted a lot of research on buying a car and it really paid off. I agree, don't talk monthly payment... initially. I went in with a fair overall price that I knew I should pay for the car and, after doing a bit of yee-hawing with the salesman, I got the dealer to agree on that price (at this point I had already told him I didn't think I was going to trade in my current car, but that I was going to keep it as a commuting car). After that came the financing... I knew I had a great credit rating, and basically knew what the best offer in the area was for financing. Surprisingly, he came back lower than what I thought I could get... But I ended up haggling with him anyway and shaved another .2% off. When we agreed to that, he said he'd get the paperwork ready, at which time I told him, "ya know, on second thought, I think I will trade in my current car and put an additional 6k with it. Just to make things easy, I happen to have a printout right here stating the Blue Book value of my current car." That's when I knew I pissed him off, because all of a sudden you could see the fire in his eyes and he started stuttering. He just looked at me and said, "I'll be back with the paperwork." About 10 minutes later he came back, and starting the B.S. "line item breakdown" which had an additional $100 "documentation fee" that I saw he snuck in there. By now my monthly payments that he had calculated were within $2 of my wife's brand new Mariner, so I pushed him again and told him that there was no way my wife was going to let my payments on a used car be more than on her brand new vehicle (I left out the part that she got 0% financing)... He then asked me what her payments were and I KNEW I had him... he was defintiely ready to get me out of the dealership... I ended up telling him her payments were $23.xx less per month over 60 months. He then went back to his manager who proceeded to call the bank and keep me waiting for another 25 minutes... but came back with a monthly payment $27 less than the previous proposed payment (same # payments), effectively saving me another $1600. I ended up getting the car for a LOT less than what they had it marked at, with the number of payments I was looking for, got better than I expected financing, got exactly what I wanted for my trade, and had a fairly pissed off salesman... All in all, not a bad's day work!

GOD LOVES A SMART COMSUMER. Glad you got the dealer for a fair price. Those bums mostly sack the uneducated, ignorant and gullible for thousands and then laugh about it behind their backs. I love a mad, pissed off and angry salesman. Means I did my job right.

[NVSteve]

Actually, my vehicle was not on their lot either but the dealer has the option to contact other dealers for inventory. Mine was delivered the next day at no extra charge. All they did was send a guy with one of their vehicles across the state and picked up the one I wanted.

My problem is that if I am buying a new car, it had better damned well have everything I want on it: built entirely to my specs. When I bought the Pathfinder, I brought in a sheet that listed all the options, colors, etc. They tried searching locally, then within the western US, then nationally. Nobody had a Pathfinder that met my specs. When we bought the Xterra, it was more of a fluke that we ended up with one in their showroom. The girl loves the color & we were able to get it for thousands less than it was truly worth.

And I still say that if you want a new car, send out a number of emails to the local and semi-local dealerships. Tell them exactly what you want & exactly how much you will offer them. You still have to go in and spend the day doing paperwork, but it really cuts out a ton of the dealer/salesman bullshit that none of us want to go through...ever.

[DarbyGloss]

dude. just take it in, you'll get a free full car inspection

A full vehicle inspection will cost a lot. That is not a good idea.

[doctahjones]

99% of the time it's just a blanket letter trying to stir up business.

i used to work for a jeep/chrysler dealer and it is true about the manuf giving the dealer bonuses for selling new cars (doesn't apply to used). this is why some times a dealer will go under invoice, because if he sells x cars, he'll get a 1-20k bonus on the back end.

anyway, the 1% of the time that is isn't a bad deal is what we did. wife leased a volvo s40 for 5 years (!!). she did it on her own and all that, before we were married. well she got one of these letters and since i didn't like her non turbo s40 i emailed back and forth with the sales guy. we traded into another lease with a s60 t5 for $30 more a month, added 6mo to the end of her original lease term (she had 2.5yrs left, new lease was 3yr), and only required the 1st month payment down (which her next s40 payment was coming up in a week, so i call that a wash).

and, don't get me started on leases...ugh, can't wait until this term is over in 2 years....

[akley88]

i get those letters for cars i no longer have. i dont think the dealership will want my pathfinder back now.

[doctahjones]

hah, well....he might want it, but he wouldn't give you sh** for it. but then would turn around and try to sell it for $10k more than what he gave you for it. happened all the time with people trading their jeeps in at the stealership...

[PV_Pathfinder]

I was getting at least 2 a month for the better part of 18 months. I was so irritated that I called and emailed each dealership that sent them to me and asked to be removed from their mailing list. "Save a tree" goes a lot further than "back the @#$% off!".