So I went to a local dealer to look at a recent 2001 S2000 trade in. It had around 38k miles and was silver/ red. The only issues I noticed were:

a cracked windshield
excessive clutch buzz
little more than normal seat wear
a terrible INJEN air intake

Most of the car was still very stock. I was told (and from looking at the carfax) that the previous owner (2nd owner btw) started a family and he needed to get a more family friendly vehicle. Regardless, I liked the vehicle and I was ready to play ball.

They had listed the price at $14,900 but clearly that would not do. When we sat down I was asked I was thinking on the price and I started with $10,000. Low I know, but I wanted to get a starting place before I worked closer to my price. The sales person said, "we have more than that into the car and we are going to need more than that. Let me go get my boss and maybe he can give you the bottom line". I agreed. I mean, why mess with anyone except the boss right?

So this giant guy come over. He is easily 6'3'' and weighing in at well over 300 pounds of fat. He shakes my hand and squeezes the piss out it and sits down. He asks me, "what did you offer before". I repeated my same offer of $10,000. He then said that they paid $13,200 for the trade in order to get the deal closed and he is willing to only make $500 bucks on this quick deal so he will let the car go for $13,700. He then looked at me and said, "what do you think?". I quickly responded with, "$10,500".

He, with no expression said, "have a nice day" and offered his hand. I shook his hand, stood up and walked away. I said to my friend as I walked out, "they must not want to sell any cars today".

So now, I want to know if I made the right moves or did I go to low initially? I was completely prepared to work my way up and I knew 10,500 was not going to stick. I was just looking for more of a back and force sales process.

Please offer your thoughts

 

Sounds like they did you a favor. I would keep looking, you can find one in better shape that wasn't abused

 

Thanks for the encouragement Mr. Francesco. I was just amazed with the sales tactics.

 

sales tactic or not, they are in it to make money. who knows how much they actually paid for the car, but they came down $1,200. you went up by $500... maybe they thought you weren't wanting to make a deal.

 

I am just very much against allowing a dealership to rip me off. I have been doing research for several months and I know the "general" idea of where the price should be. I just assumed that the dealer, anxiously trying to sell a car wouldn't just send me away without trying.

I have been in sales for nearly nine years and if a customer demands a better deal and doesn't walk away there still is hope and I would never use the "this is my final offer take it or leave it". When I wrote my initial post I was still rather heated about the whole ordeal. Now, not so much. I still can't help to think that a piece of crap sales person kept me from my S.

 

I agree with Cosworth above -- my guess is the sales guy figured he wasn't going to strike a deal with you based on your first two offers. You often hear people say that as a buyer, you need to walk away to get the best price. Seems like the sales guy beat you to that move and walked away first, forcing you to make the next move.

Not trying to be a d-bag, but why the attack on the "piece of crap" sales guy? Would he be a better sales person if he sold the car for less than he thought he could get from another buyer? Or sold it at a loss? He's just not as motivated as you thought.

This is really just the free market system at work. His goal is to sell for as much as possible. Yours is to buy for as little as possible. And you couldn't find any middle ground, so no deal. And the market will ultimately decide who was right (or less wrong).

 

go to carbuyingtips.com. i've just found the site today and have been reading through thier articles for the past 2 hours. its an eye-opening read. i now know how much i suck at negotiating for cars lol