Re: Are Saturn dealers still not negotiating????

Negotiating works best on your trade in. I was surprised how much they gave me for some Mercury I had parked in my garage site unseen. It wouldn't run one morning after the umpteenth time Ford worked on it. Walked to the Saturn dealer and bought one. I told them what I wanted for the trade in on the Merc (site and condition unseen by them, asked for private party blue book even though it wouldn't run). Took all of eight hours haggling but they finally went for it! Had to threaten to walk across the street to the Chrysler dealer a couple of times. It took the Saturn dealership a tow truck to get rid of the Mercury after their mechanic couldn't get it to run either. So far, the Saturn has been the lowest maintenance cost vehicle I have ever owned.

B~

I don't worry about haggling, I worry about spending more money than I have to. Especially for a $20k-$25k purchase.

On my wife's car we certainly DID negotiate. It took place over the course of a week, it was grueling but in the ends we managed to wear them down to a deal that saved up quite a lot of money. However as others have stated most of the change was in the area of the trade in and what that would knock off the price of the car. We ended up getting 2500 off the price from incentives which seemed to materialize out of thin air as the week dragged on. At one point about halfway through we actually walked away from the deal they were offering and said thanks for your time but no thanks. Phone rang 5 minutes later, it was the new car manager and lo and behold here was another incentive! In the end we managed to reach a deal we were satisfied with, told them to have ALL the paperwork ready when we got there and the car better be perfect. The car WAS perfect, exactly what my wife had assembled on the website. All the paperwork was prepared and we drove off in her new car within 30 minutes. Saturn, despite what they say, DOES negotiate. They just don't call it that. When push comes to shove and they want to sell a car and you want to buy one then quite a lot can change. Don't go in on a Saturday. Choose a nice rainy wednesday, about 6 pm to take your test drive and be prepared to go back and forth with them for about a week. Buying a 2003 Saturn ION NOW will get you a good deal on a VERY nice car for a lot less than 20,000 bucks.

TS

This Message is: *TOTALLY APPROVED* BY ABSOLUTE AUTOCRATIC COMMAND OF O.C. & STIGGS WHILE DRUNK

"B. Peg" wrote in inimitable style:

You're probably right about that. I got my first taste of a Saturn as a

I'd still like to see hard numbers on the TCO (total cost of ownership) of the various make/model types though, distinguishing cars that have only private owners vs. cars that were probably part of some rental fleet line, as I assume my car once was.