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Under the Table

Somebody posting a message at FatWallet.com offerred this advice when buying a new car. Basically, he says to bribe the salesman. I quote the poster now:

"Its a fact that the average car salesman only sells 8-10 cars per month. Its also a fact that a "flat", the money a salesman is going to make on a new car sales with no profit(invoice) is $50-$100. So do the math thats only $800-$1000 in commission per month. Thats why dealer are always hiring salesman. Its also why salesman are constantly getting fired. GET THE SALESMAN ON YOUR SIDE! Tell him up front he's not gonna make any money on you, this will be an invoice deal. Tell him you'll slip him a $100 after the deal if you get your price. So when he goes up to the "salesdesk", he's fighting for you."

END of quote.

Well, does his advice make sense? Should you give the salesperson $100 under the table? Will that actually help you get your price?

Also, what if you've already spoken with the sales *Manager* directly, and the manager already offerred you INVOICE pricing minus the current $500 rebate to bring the out-the-door price to

500 dollars under INVOICE. But even that price is still $600 OVER the out-the-door price of a dealer one-hundred miles away. How would slipping the salesman $100 help you in that situation? Should you slip the $100 to the sales *Manager*?

Finally, is it ethical to slip either the salesman or sales manager $100 dollars?

Reply to
Built_Well
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Geeze you haven't bought that Camry yet? Might as well wait for the '07's now.

Reply to
Wolfgang

Well, I would have bought by now, except my local dealer wants

18.8 while a dealer 100 miles away wants only 18.2. Originally, the locals wanted 19.0, so I was able to talk him down $200.

But I still keep thinking of that 18.2 only 100 miles away. I told the locals I'd buy from them if they give me 18,550, but they seem to be holding tough. Not even a call from those slick boys while every other dealership I've spoken with has called me at least

3 or 4 times.
Reply to
Built_Well

Hmm, Edmunds says the '07 Camrys won't be coming out until Spring. It's too long for me to wait. Will buy the '06.

Reply to
Built_Well

The car salesmen I know make 5-10x that, who can have a family on 9600 a year

Reply to
m Ransley

The $100 commission a car figure is bogus, unless the vehicle doesn't cost that much.

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Reply to
xblazinlv

How can it be a bad thing to try and save seom money. However, I think you've already spent the 200 bucks you're trying to save, avoiding paying it. How many hours have you spent dinkin' around about

200 bucks? Ethics is a personal decision.At least in the case you presented. This is not whether you're ethical, it's whether the salesman or whoever has any ethics to speak of. Somehow I think it's mostly a personal decision. Car sales and purchasing is not necessarily a science, nearly as much as an art form. If you have decided that you are totally inflexible, then that's where you'll be. If you gave yourself room to begin with, then you're not stuck saying "no" to a decent deal even though it's not perfect. I have a feeling that the poster that states that the salesmen sell only 8 or 10 cars a month is not a sales man himself. That sounds like a stsrting point for a high school grad or something to me. The math is not too well done as $800 a month is not even equal to minimum wage in any state. it's actually far less if you consider that car sales folks work way over 40 hours a week. Prollu gets into about 2 bucks an hour or less even. My 40 hour week calculation gives 'em just 4.61 an hour. Typically my time is worth far more than that. & I bet yours is too. 200 bucks divided by40 hours is 5.00 an hour. So far, I'm quite certain that you've used a fair portion of that up already.

Go ahead, buy the car. save some of that 200 bucks extra you're spending "contemplating".

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MUADIB®

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The Peacemaking Meeting scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.

Reply to
MUADIB

You know, a good sales guy can make a ton of cash. A local Chrysler salesman just bought a $700k house near me, and his wife is stay at home milf. He has a lot of toys, and I am sure it's not some inheritance. He said used car salesguys can actually make even more money. The ruthless nature of the business is the reason for high turnover. You have two types of salesguys, newbies and guys that have been there for years and years. The in-between is the filter.

Reply to
Dan J.S.

Thanks for describing the dealer trading process. Glad there's no mark-up passed onto the customer for the time involved in driving the cars between dealers.

Hmm, I just learned that the "Sky Blue Pearl" on the new '06 Camrys is not the same blue I saw and liked a lot on a used '03 Camry. The '03 blue is called "Catalina Blue." It's really nice, isn't it.

I can't say I like any of the '06 colors. I guess the one I dislike the least is the "Lunar Mist Metallic." Haven't seen the "Sky Blue" yet but people say it's maybe 5 shades lighter than Catalina Blue.

Reply to
Built_Well

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