Quote Originally Posted by CareyH View Post
Doesn't matter if its a car, gun or house. Know what you are willing to pay, and if you can't get it for that.... WALK AWAY. That last part is the hardest for most people.
I had a front row seat to this play back in '05 when hurricane Wilma killed three vehicles owned by a friend of mine in Key West, FL. He's a salesman, a rather successful one at that, but not on the car business. At any rate, three of us drove up to Fort Lauderdale with the intent to buy three brand new cars in one afternoon.....not so much an "intent", as 'we're headed back to KW tonight with three new cars', one Benz and two Rovers, simply replacing those that died at the hands of saltwater (USAA wrote him a check for all three even before they were actually dead, the USAA people said that within a month the saltwater would kill the electronics in all of them so go buy new ones....sadly I'm not USAA eligible).

We started at the first dealership where my friend offered the pinstripe-suited salesman $X for the first car, take it or leave it, but $X is it, not a penny more. After much theatrics on the part of the salesman, they agree to it. 30 minutes later they had the final paperwork and it came to $XX,007.34. The dealership was adamant about the extra $7.34. My friend the salesman stood up, and calmly walked out - off to the next dealer, no arguing with the sales staff at the dealership. He had the time to kill, it was 1pm and we only needed to be back to KW in time for him to drive his kids to school the next morning.

The second dealership we went to received an abbreviated synopsis of what happened at the first dealership prior to being offered the same amount for the same vehicle. They came in at $XX,000.00, that car was bought and then two more were procured that afternoon in the same manner.

The first dealership was flabbergasted that someone would walk over $7. I quietly told them on the way out that my friend would have walked had it been $1. I hate the haggle of car buying (or anything else for that matter), some love it, my friend the salesman is completely without emotion when it comes to the process. I've hired him to buy boats for me in the past and have told him I'm flying him to CO the next time I need to buy a car. We'll have dinner, he can deal with the car salesman, and I won't have to dip my toe in that scene.

I grew up in Asia where haggling over price is not only the norm, it's expected. I despised it then, and can't stand it now.