One price only. Everyone pays the same. Apparently Tesla has it at the current time. I absolutely hate the car dealers negotiation process. It takes too long involves stupid games and for me is the biggest impediment to buying a new car. Apparently there is some talk of no negotiation pricing when cars again become available.

I've purchased my last 2 vehicles on Ford's X-Plan. I really like that process. No trade, just give them my pin and they tell me the price. No negotiations. Heck for my pickup, they parked it at the airport locked the keys and paperwork in it, I flew in and drove home. It was awesome.

The other advantage for Tesla is that you lock in the price when you place your order online.

If you change your configuration, you get charged the price in effect at the time of the change.

The online price of my Tesla went up $15,000 during the 6 months between when I placed the order and when I took delivery. I was locked in to the lower price.

Carmax has that. The price listed is what you pay. The only fees they charge are what is required in your state. I.E title and tags, etc.

Tesla (and most everybody else) did a good job of copying the sales practices of Saturn.

quote:

Originally posted by ryan81986:

Carmax has that. The price listed is what you pay. The only fees they charge are what is required in your state. I.E title and tags, etc.

The local CarMax adds a "dealer processing fee," I believe it's $399.00. Most, but not all, new car dealers in this area do that. Some of them blatantly label it "Added Dealer Profit." There are a few dealers, Mullinax Ford comes to mind, that do not have these "dealer fees," but most do.

Keep the ideas coming. I am learning a lot.

As long as I can remember the Toyota dealer did not negotiate. They didn’t care cause they knew someone would buy it. Harley-Davidson dealer was the same.

Saturn used to do it.

I ordered a Dodge Charger between Christmas and New Year’s. Negotiated a below invoice percentage within 10 minutes (3% below for a Hellcat). Accepted and just picked the car up two days ago.

In and out in 30 minutes with no pressure to buy anything else.

Full story and pics in a later post.

I've done my dealing with internet managers over e-mail for a few cars. By the time I got to the dealer I just did paperwork.

This is kind of be careful what you wish for. As much as I hate the entire process the pandemic has shown dealers that they do not need to have 400cars on the lots to make record profits.

Now you go in order your car pay the price and wait. It is working so good that the entire industry wants to shift to that model because they are making more per sale than ever before.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/mone...49fb9bb632561c12ad0f

Generally a fixed price is a high price.

Do most states still have laws requiring new cars to be only purchased from dealerships? I hear you cannot purchase a new Tesla in Iowa for that specific reason.

This leads to the question whether dealerships provide competition between each other on new car prices. Would consumers be better off if they had the option to purchase directly from the manufacturer?

I'm afraid that the new normal will be dealers with low inventory and much higher prices indefinitely. The automakers have seen that people will pay thousands more than they did even a year ago. Things may change over time but I think that for the next several years many mid to lower income earners are going to be completely priced out of the new car market.
The car buying process may be simplified but the consumer is going to pay dearly for it.

“If you’re not walking away, you’re not negotiating.”

I don't know that it's up to the dealerships to maintain the business model. After the shortages are over, the automakers will want to ramp up production and the dealers can either stock the cars and trucks or lose the franchise. If they're going to go order and wait, they can cut the dealerships out all together and just order directly from the factory and deliver the cars to your house.

quote:

Originally posted by sigspecops:
I'm afraid that the new normal will be dealers with low inventory and much higher prices indefinitely.

Very well could be for a while but not forever.
It is a great model for the deal and profitability.
FWIW, I have zero problems with anyone making an honest profit.
...and controlling inventory and margins is all part of that.
Yes it can make for us tp pay more.
Good honest competition will tend to even things out and keep prices in check.
The problem is when the manufacturers produce too much and have too much inventory.
It puts pressure on the dealers to buy and everyone lowers prices to move the inventory.
Now days with interruptions in the supply chain it is easy to keep on but ultimately things usually can and do work themselves out.
It is a natural circle of economic life.
Business is business.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
“If you’re not walking away, you’re not negotiating.”

Exactly.
I once had a salesman running to stop me as I was driving off the lot. They have also called me minutes after leaving the dealership. Many dealerships will negotiate on most models. A 2007 and 2014 FJ Cruiser were the only exceptions.

The problem with that thinking is the automakers like keeping inventory high, and pushing the inventory on the dealers. Right now production is constrained, so they dealer are getting better margins, but on less volume. I don't know how much the manufacturers have raised prices, especially at the wholesale level. The makers will probably want to go back to their old production levels, once the supply chain issues get resolved. If that happens, dealers will have cars sitting on lots that will have to be moved.

quote:

Originally posted by sigspecops:
I'm afraid that the new normal will be dealers with low inventory and much higher prices indefinitely. The automakers have seen that people will pay thousands more than they did even a year ago. Things may change over time but I think that for the next several years many mid to lower income earners are going to be completely priced out of the new car market.
The car buying process may be simplified but the consumer is going to pay dearly for it.

Inventory is the biggest costs for just about any product, Finance 101. They have figured out that they can make more by selling less.

My wife has been driving a 1999 Toyota 4Runner since about 2004. She bought it with 25,000 miles on it and it has 218,000 and she wants a new one. Talk about a terrible time to shop for a new 4Runner. I've been putting her off for about 1 year, but the situation is not getting any better. We're about ready to go in and order one in the next few weeks. We don't mind the wait, but I'd really prefer to get another slightly used one.

Current pricing on 4Runners with ~30,000 ish miles is crazy, about $4k less than a brand new one. sigh.

I'm just hoping we can order one and only pay MSRP.