Rubicon Price Negotiation

You mean you didnt settle on a price before ordering??

I would be prepared to walk away from the deal, at least temporarily, since they deffinitly have you by the short ones and they know it.

I got mine for 2% under invoice. But that's because I'm a graduating student this year. You can get them around invoice for sure though. Course, you already paid $500 for the order... didn't you? That may take away some of your bargaining ability.

-Muuurgh

According to the dealer, we could make no progress on the finance side of a deal until we had a VIN number and we wouldn't get that until the thing was basically on the truck to south Texas, so we might as well wait until it got here . . . Sounded like a canard to me, but they call the shots, more or less, don't they.

They have been treating me well, I'll give them that, never asked me to put a cent down. So am I a VIP or am I off to slaughter tomorrow?

Sure, perhaps financing couldn't progress, but financing and price

*should* be two different things. That's a typical dealer ploy IMO... they tie financing into the price. I *always* have my financing set before walking into a dealership these days... been bit by that before. If the dealership can get me a better rate on my loan, then so be it, and I go their route. But that shouldn't have anything to do with the actual purchase price of the vehicle. Be careful of these guys IMO.

Dave

The loan rate is a big issue as well. Because of the internet and the ability to order from any dealership nationwide you should still be able to get rock bottom prices--if you can haggle. This is what I got: $2000 cash back + 2.99 % financing, 2% under invoice and lifetime $10 oil changes (I may not use the oil change deal, but it was a nice throw in). Haggle, haggle, haggle. The dealer will dislike you for it, but they want to sell you YOUR Jeep.

Price and print a quote from

That's a great place to start--they have really good prices and a good history (you can always threaten to order your Jeep from Bill. Go to your dealer and tell them that you are a member of a credit union and you can get 2.99 % financing (or go to your bank first and see what the best deal they can give you is), make sure you haggle with a couple other dealerships before you go to finalize your deal at the dealership you wish to buy a Jeep from, in fact until you get these prices, or a ball park figure near them, walk out. They should do everything they can in order to make you happy.

-Muuurgh

Smells like a big bull stinky to me.

It's not. I got the EP because I graduated this semester.

-Muuurgh

I'm just looking for some percentage off msrp to target; I could care less about couple of hundred bucks, just need to get into a favorable neighborhood.

A friend of mine just purchased a "40K" Suburban for 34K. That's 20% off. I posted to this group to try and get a sense of Jeep price norms. Some have told me that Jeep dealers do not wiggle far from Wrangler msrp because demand out-paces supply. Then again, the economy isn't exactly flying high, is it?

I am also in a very peculiar neck of the woods, politics wise, and it has to be in the dealer's interest to do business well with little 'ol me. I have genuine local influence.

I think my hand is pretty good, I just need a sense of the pricing parameter norms. Thanks to you all, this is getting fun!

God Bless America, ßill O|||||||O> mailto: snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

Jeffrey Wright did pass the time by typing:

Get them to toss in the service manual as incentive. Heck, it's $$ list but only $ to them. The other negotiation point if they don't want to come down off price is a fleet warranty. I got 3/36 bumper to bumper and the 7/70 powertrain as part of the negotiation on my ZJ.

Jeffrey:

You really shouldn't mix financing and price, and you shouldn't think about "discount from MSRP." Check with your local bank, or credit union BEFORE going to the dealer, so you know what the current finance rates really are.

Go to

or and price out your Rubicon with the EXACT options that you ordered. This will give you both the dealer invoice price and the retail price.

Negotiate from invoice, not from retail. A fair price for both you and the dealer is factory invoice price plus one to three or four hundred dollars. Then deduct any factory incentives or rebates off of that.

Even if the dealer sold you the vehicle for his invoice price, he still makes a profit in the form of a "holdback" that the factory pays the dealer which is about 3% (I think) of MSRP. That would be about $840 on a $28,000 vehicle.

Tom

snip

Ummmmm I think 3/36 7/70 is standard warranty. What did you 'negotiate'? :)

Dave

David C. Moller did pass the time by typing:

I got both. At the time it was either 1/12 b-b + 7/70 powertrain or the 3/36 b-b.

The best thing to do is to negotiate the price before ordering. In fact, I've never heard of it being done any other way. When it arrives, you negotiate financing, only. You are now at a disadvantage because they know you aren't going to be so apt to walk away since you've just waited two months for delivery. However, I would suggest to be prepared to order another one somewhere else if the deal isn't what you are expecting. You should be able to purchase around INVOICE price, slightly above or slightly below.

FYI, in the fall of '02, I ordered my Rubicon at $100 over, minus some incentives to make it below invoice. When the Jeep arrived at the dealer and I went in to take delivery, they tried to add some BS charges like prepaid oil changes and some other garbage, on the order of a couple of hundred dollars. They told me "all the vehicles sold come with that". I said, "fine, bye." About a week later, they called and told me to come get the Jeep at the previously negotiated price. It was still sitting under the awning and had no additional miles on it. They were hoping I'd change my mind, come back and pay the BS charges because I'd been waiting 3 mos. for delivery. I was fully prepared to order another one from another dealer and was probably just days away from doing just that.

Jeffrey Wright wrote:

I agree with Tom. I went to Edmunds & then used as a guide to list the options I wanted w/invoice & msrp on excel. I also printed the part from edmunds about the holdback & how they get a free vehicle after they sell a specified quantity. There was also an article that listed specific B.S. charges that may be on your copy of the invoice that you should not pay. RESEARCH - RESEARCH - RESEARCH - then go in with facts in hand. It makes a difference if they know you did your homework.

wow, the dealer here charges 70 quid ( $125 for an oil change).

I think the industry standard is 10% off invoice. Here's what I did. I took 10% off invoice then totaled all my extras and took 10% off those. Then I added their $610 destination charge and I had a price. Then I e-mailed about 25 of my closest dealers and had them fight it out over a two week period. They did just meet my price - they beat it. It's exacly what I wanted.

One day I'll take my CJ off my tag and add the Rubi.