how much profit for a dealer is good deal?

what should a united states vw dealer be able to make when selling you a new $16k msrp golf.... $20k msrp jetta? $200? us 400? $600 us how much? how about a $30msrp passat? i want to know what you think is a fair profit for the dealer to make and your reasoning for your opinion...NOT what you paid......

regards

Reply to
euro930nospam
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snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net:

A number that I've heard pretty often is 3% over invoice (which you can get from Edmunds, Carpoint, or probably a number of other sources) as a fair sales price. Of course, a number of factors come into play, one of them being how popular the car that you're looking at is, and another being how well the dealership is doing selling cars. As a few data points, my dad and I both paid $500 over invoice for our Jettas 3 years ago ($19.1k for me; a little less for him), and my mom paid 2% over invoice for hers a little under 2 years ago.

Reply to
Dan Brown

On Mon, 01 Sep 2003 22:37:12 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net did take quill in hand and scribe thusly :

I've read VW dealers get 2-3% of MSRP as holdback from VW. So say a stock VW Jetta GLS Wagon is $ 21,645, initial profit before you even strike a deal is (@2%) $ 432.90. I saw this at

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I believe.

Cow

Reply to
CowPunk©

Dan Brown wrote: : snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net:

:> what should a united states vw dealer be able to make when selling you a :> new $16k msrp golf.... $20k msrp jetta? $200? us 400? $600 us how :> much?

Are you asking as a buyer, or as a hopeful VW franchise holder? :)

The obvious answer as a buyer is "as little as possible." As is mentioned elsewhere in this thread, the presence of holdback should pretty much ensure that no purchase you make from a dealer is going to cause them some sort of material harm that endangers their ability to conduct business on an ongoing basis. So set your price without guilt or concern. The worst anybody can say is "no."

: A number that I've heard pretty often is 3% over invoice (which you : can get from Edmunds, Carpoint, or probably a number of other sources) as a : fair sales price. Of course, a number of factors come into play, one of : them being how popular the car that you're looking at is, and another being : how well the dealership is doing selling cars. As a few data points, my : dad and I both paid $500 over invoice for our Jettas 3 years ago ($19.1k : for me; a little less for him), and my mom paid 2% over invoice for hers a : little under 2 years ago.

Even more important is what kind of customer and dealer incentives are going on. It's piss easy for a dealer to offer you "invoice price" if they know not only do they have the holdback coming back, but a $1000 gift from the manufacturer.

Look at the invoice price. Look at KBB and Edmunds and see what they claim is the "normal" price for the car. Check the customer and dealer incentives (cars.com is good for that.) Then come up with the amount you want to pay, that it's worth to you to take the car away and present that to the dealer, factoring in all those bennies in your favor, and stick to it. That strategy worked quite well to pick up a 2003 Passat. (Okay, I did budge $56 on their counteroffer because I had a strong feeling my wife wasn't going to appreciate me blowing the deal over $56 of her money. But at $100, I would have left it.)

While some salespeople love the art of the deal and will gladly give up some profit potential just for the thrill of going toe to toe with a prospect, in my experience some just want to close, register the sale and pocket the proceeds. If you come in there and tell them what you intend to give them, it saves them a lot of time and they can move on to selling the next guy.

Now, of course, there are the other details, like "don't let them charge you hundreds in documentation fees" and so forth that are important to know so that you don't end up giving them the extra profit they want on the fine print portion of the deal.

If you're dissatisfied with this answer and want something more "compassionate", put yourself in the dealership's position. Ask yourself how much of the salesperson's time you've taken up, and assign it some sort of hourly rate, and factor them in something for their time and energy to operate the showroom and so forth.

My guess is that you'll come up with a number you can live with.

Reply to
Jason Compton

Jim B.

Reply to
jimbehning

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