Paying cash is not always the best option. You are putting hard earned money into a depreciating item. Yes the old theory was if you paid cash you got a better deal. The reason was it would sometimes take the banks weeks to pay for a vehicle that was financed. So if you paid cash the dealer could turn his investments faster.Today we live in a wireless world what once took two weeks can be done in a flash. So the dealer really doesn't have to wait very long for his money. Now sometimes cash will get you a better deal but on an average the dealer wants you to finance so he can make more profit on it. I will cover this more in depth on the finance section.

    A. Someone will have to start the deal. Each dealership has it own rules on this one. Most of them want the customer to make the first move. If this is the case fine start real low I mean offer them about 75% of retail cost. Now most of them can't sell it for that but we want to make sure you don't leave any money on the table. Make sure you take in account the rebates as well when you make an offer. Example would be if the M.S.R.P is 20,000 dollars and the vehicle has a 2,000 rebate then offer them 13,000 for the vehicle. You can make this offer so it includes tax, license and fees. or not your choice. The taxes and licensing fees have to be paid but not so much as the doc fee I will cover that later.

B. Now depending on the type of salesperson you have he/she will write down your offer and take it to the sales tower or they will try to get you to raise up before they go to the sales tower. The later of the two is your better salesperson if he tries to make you go up on your first offer then he may be a skilled negotiator no fear thou just stay firm. Do not sign or initial your offer or give them any kind of good faith down payment ever. Just simply ask your sales person to get the offer approved by his manager. He should do it at this point. As he is leaving he may say something like " Ok this is a low offer but I'm on your side. Wish me luck ok".  You may want to laugh at this point because you will hear some of these phrases actually being used but hold it in Ok.

   C. The salesperson returns with a counter offer. Don't expect that they will take your first offer if they do then you left money on the table. This offer will more than likely be just a little bit below M.S.R.P or at M.S.R.P with only the rebates taken off. Some dealers will add tax,license and fees at this point too through you off a little bit. Work only with the price of the car, you should have some idea of what the taxes are going to cost in your head. If not tell your salesperson you want a complete break down of the pricing. remember this is your money so play on your terms they will come around.You must reject this offer even if you are willing to pay that amount. I can assure you they very rarely come back with the best offer. You may have to repeat this process a few times depending on the dealership and the salesperson.

  D. Do not repeat step C more then three times its not necessary to keep on playing there game. After he/she takes two or three trips to the sales tower just stop your salesperson and say. Why don't you just bring me a copy of the invoice and we can see what kind of deal we can make? Most of the domestic dealers will do this the import dealers are not so easy to get that job done unless you are very persistent type of person if so great. The automobile dealers are hurting right now and will do almost anything to make a deal with you. One of two things will happen he will bring it or the sales manager will bring it over himself this is called aT/O. Do not be intimidated by this it is very normal and he is just another salesperson. However he probably has the power to make the finial decision on the numbers so this is really a good thing. Now you don't have to wait for the sales person to go back and forth.

   E. On just about every domestic car I would never offer anything over invoice. Now if it is a real hot seller like convertible and there are not many around chances are they won't sell it for invoice. If it is a large ticket item you are buying like Ford Expedition I would more than likely offer below invoice these type of vehicle have rather large hold backs on them which I will talk about more later. There are places on the internet you can get a pretty good idea of what invoice is such as________________________.com. The more info you have before you buy the easier it will go and you will pay the least amount. the average mark up in a car or truck today is much lower than it used to be. I would guess on an average they only have about 7% mark up in them. The higher the M.S.R.P the higher the mark up, it is based on a percentage. Imports are a little higher than that. Most imports will have between 7 and 10% markup in them. The import dealers are less likely to show there invoice than domestic but if you are persistent enough they will show you.

  D. Once you have agreed on a price they will do up the paper work and get you into the finance office. See the financing page for more info on this.