@austinkleon > Never go to payment or trade-in first. Make sure to know what you’re buying before you go and by the details (sticker, cost etc.) online. Negotiate cost first, get firm on the price then negotiate trade-in, finally down-payment and monthly fees last. Always last… never, ever, ever give them a target monthly payment - the moment you do you’re done.
Oh, and watch for rounding when it comes to the payment & double check the math on the final invoice. I had a guy try to round a bi-weekly payment to the nearest $5 once… a couple of bucks doesn’t sound like a lot but on a 5 year finance it adds up to a lot more $.
Dealerships Rip You Off With The “Four-Square,” Here’s How To Beat It - The ConsumeristMy wife and I are shopping for a new car, and I’ve recently become fascinated with the “Four-Square,” a bullshit, quasi-invoice document that car salesmen use to manipulate you. From “Confessions of a Car Salesman”:
As the name implies, the sheet is divided into four sections. When you have a prospect “in the box” (in the sales cubicle) you pull out a 4-square and go to work.
The information about the customer is written along the top together with the make, model and serial number of the car they want to buy. Then the salesman writes the sticker price of the car in large numbers in the upper right square on the worksheet. Michael stressed that the price of the car should be written in large clear numbers to give it a feeling of authority. He added that we should always write “+ fees” next to the price of the car (This includes license fees and sales tax.).
“Good penmanship is essential,” he said. “This makes it harder for them to negotiate. “You’re saying, ‘Mr. Customer, if you want our beautiful new car, this is the price you’re going to have to pay.’”
The other boxes on the 4-square are for the price of the trade-in, the amount of the customer’s down payment, and the amount of the customer’s monthly payment.
“When you negotiate, this sheet should be covered with numbers,” Michael said. “It should be like a battleground. And I don’t want to see the price dropping five hundred dollars at a pop. Come down slowly, slowly. Here I’ll show you how.”
