How NOT to Negotiate a Car Deal. 5 things to NEVER do! 

I just recently went to purchase a 2023 Silverado. As an Oreilly employee I get a 10% discount on new GM vehicles. Once I mentioned that and asked them to input that into the system, they took off the 7k in discounts they were already advetising. With the 7k and my discount of 5k that took 12k off the 49K stickler price putting it at 37k. but once they removed their discounts it put it back to 44k and payments were out of the range I was looking for. So I walked. Got a call a few days later and they offered to include the discount. I now have a 2023 Silverado.

The dumbest part about this whole thing is that consumers are expected to be top tier negotiators to not get ripped off by dealerships. I hope they shut dealerships down and we move to direct to consumer.

I don’t negotiate at the grocery store because they don’t have hidden prices and bogus fees.

1 tip to rule them all: DO NOT BE AFRAID TO WALK if you're not happy or feeling pressured. once you leave the stealership the chances of you returning are almost zilch and they know it. The worst that happens is you've wasted your time.

You're right Mike, I don't negotiate at the grocery store (4:40). However, the grocery store has items clearly marked and everyone buying that loaf of bread or gallon of milk at that store pays the same exact price and the cashier doesn't then add on extra fees at the time of check out. If car buying was like buying any other product then it would truly be more enjoyable. Price, fees, and taxes need to be clearly marked and every customer who buys that model from that dealership pays the exact same price. The haggling is a pain in the butt and then once the price is negotiated, the up sell in finance and the added fees just make buying a car about as enjoyable as a colonoscopy. Heck, at least the colonoscopy I'm asleep during the procedure. Buying a car is closer to getting a colonoscopy without any lube while you're wide awake. Maybe even a little less enjoyable than the awake colonoscopy.

“You’ve got to know your true credit score, and all the places you’ll look are wrong.” Yet doesn’t tell you how to get your true FICO score. Priceless!

Hahahaha. My word. This video is perfect example of why people hate dealerships. Arrogant.

“Get financing and pay it off in 3 to 6 months if it gets you a better deal”. You can pay it off right away, never have to wait. Dealerships tell you that to avoid charge backs

Just tried to buy a Highlander new. Toyota dealers still marking vehicles up with “market adjustments”. I asked the sales guy if the dealership would consider selling at MSRP. I’m a returning customer. He basically insulted me and told me I don’t understand the market (despite degrees in business and economics). So I told him I was still looking at a Subaru Ascent with no markup (and actually a few $K under MSRP). He didn’t care but said he’d “talk to his manager and email me”. In front of him, I asked my wife if she wanted a Subaru and we left. 5 hours later I drove my new Subaru home and awaited his email, which I received today telling me there was no way they’d go under the market adjustment “because Toyotas are in such high demand.” I thanked him for pushing me into my new Subaru and told him it’s a disgrace Toyota would put customers who paid that markup into a position years later to be so upside down they may not afford their next ride without major sacrifice. Gullible people keep Toyota going, but they’ll run out of suckers one of these days. I will never return and that dealer has angered many customers by how they treat them. This was the last chance with me. Part of getting a car is making sure you get a fair deal. Farewell, Toyota.

I found a car I liked at a dealership that started "no haggle pricing." Truth be told, the car was well priced and one of those gems you couldn't pass up. One owner, very clean, pile of service records, driven to church on Sunday by a little old man. The car even had the badge on the grill saying it was his 7th car. Nevertheless, I tried to push the salesman to lower the price, but kept getting the "no haggle" policy. I decided to buy it. When I got to the F&I guy, I told him I have a policy of my own. Since there's no negotiations on the lot, there's no negotiations here. He told me the bank needs me to buy a warrenty to get the loan. I said, "well, Navy Federal didn't require one." His face dropped as I pulled out the check. I looked him in the eye and said, Navy Federal offers me 3.99%, can you beat that? He was offing me 8.9% with an 820 credit score. I walked out of the dealership with 20% down, financed throught Navy Federal and paid upfront taxes, title, registration, and doc fee. I'd never seen an F&I guy so pissed. He went from being my best friend to not even looking me in the eye as I signed the papers.

When negotiating price, I always negotiate the OUT THE DOOR price. I let them know my tax rate where I live and say this is the price I will pay to walk out with the vehicle. Takes 100% of their power to add fees or any other BS. If they ask about what payment I would be comfortable with, I say I am just worried about the final price. If they push, I let them know I understand how to use a calculator and don't disucss payment amounts. All that said, I prefer buying private party on used cars and not giving the dealer their markup. For new, if there is a super-high volume dealer for the brand you want, go with that. I found one when buying my truck and they were 4k less than the next best deal and I contacted a LOT of dealerships. The price they listed is the price you pay, they don't haggle. Had to fly out and drive almost 500 miles home, but I'm willing to burn a full Saturday to save 4k. I've also never seen a dealership so busy in my life and it was by far the most pleasant buying experience I've ever had at a dealer.

Just left a dealership yesterday, one that ive bought cars from before. I watched your videos to brush up on this stuff. Contacted my banks. Rates are high and even higher as i buy older cars. But i had a rate going into the dealer. Worked the deal, let them try to beat that rate and wasnt even close. Then they completely lowballed my trade, exactly what i thought they would do. I decided it wasnt worth the hassle, and ill keep up my search for what im looking for. Long story short, thanks for doing the videos. Has saved me a couple times now from a lot of unnecessary costs.

Hello Mike. Looking at this video the first time. I am a 40 year automotive sales veteran and am just now finding all these videos. So far you are the best I have seen so far ! Keep on making sense.......

Make sure you don't have an early prepayment penalty!

I would add #8... try not to get emotional, and always be prepared to walk out. The first to get emotional during a negotiation usually loses.

Step 1: negotiate the dealer markup from $30K to $29,995.

I've always heard you work on a final price before you let them look at your trade in. Seeing your trade in before you negotiate price gives them an upper hand starting the negotiations

Facts! I’m a corvette guy but older corvette guys typically over estimate what there cars are worth.🙄 I totally agree with what you’re talking about.

I was offer $1000 on a trade, negotiated a good price on what I was buying. Then said no on the trade, I'll give you the $1000 instead. They said OK, we'll give you $2000 for the trade. I said no, so they offered $3000, to which I still said no. I sold it for $5000.

Very good tips. I used the research angle on my latest purchase of a 2012 VW Passat SEL TDI. With the research (CarFax, Quotes, like model pricing) to negotiate a great deal. We were able to meet in the middle and got a great deal.

I’m so glad I found your channel I knew quite a bit but I’ve learned even more watching some of your videos you have a way of explaining that connects

@Mike's Car🥇 I thank you very much for your excellent content on RU-vid. Because your publications help me a lot to understand the way I have to do things before I buy my first car. And thank you once again for your time.🚙🎖🏅🏆🤝

I don't know if it was the best play, but the last time I bought a car, it was used..... but only had 13k miles, so manufacture warranty was in place. I only negotiated on price, but lead the salesmen to believe I was interested in financing and the extended warranty/extra services by asking multiple questions about it and pretending to be very flexible on those topics. I figured they would likely try to give me a good price on the car, then screw me on the other aspects. When we finally agreed on price (one I was very happy with), I signed the paperwork and took their financing. When they brought up the warranty/services, I said that I changed my mind and wasn't interested in any of it. They had a 'deer in headlights' look on their face. I then went home, signed into the financing portal once I was able, and paid the vehicle off. Luckily, the car has been great.

Having access to Black Book data is a game changer for me. Now I can see what the dealers use to price their vehicles. Almost every dealer prices them at or above the highest 'Retail' value. Gotta give Mike's Car Store props. I sampled a couple of the vehicles in black book, and they're either at the mid-level retail or between mid-to-high. Very fair! It does seem that you're practicing what you're preaching. Definitely need dealers like you in the Dallas area!

In my experience, the most reliable way to get the best price on a car purchase is to consume oodles of the salesman’s and sales manager’s time. Spread it over a couple Saturdays. Get them to the point where they have emotionally spent the commissions. Then when they realize that they are at risk of losing the deal, they will move a bit on price so they can get something out of all the time they have spent on the deal.

I called a dealer in GA, I live in AL, and ask the dumb question "what is your best price" and he talked to his manager supposedly and came back to the phone and took 1K off the listed price. Me and a friend drove over to GA and bought the truck that Saturday. That was 10 years ago and I'm still driving that truck today.

I was trying to buy an ten year old car from a big dealer in my area. I don't remember the exact price, I think about $8,900. I low balled and offered $5000.00, it was high miles, close to 170,000 miles and one wheel was squeaking. Months later, an older salesman came down to $7900.00, and at that time he told me they actually took the car in on a trade and only gave the trader $3000.00 for it. i did not get the car.

I have made my best deals 75 to 100 miles away. Usually, I got holdback in the deal with the top of kkb for trade. No doc fee or add-ons in the deal were mentioned. This is up to 2 years ago when I got several thousand over what I paid for the 1 year old vehicle I traded in. I traded yearly as some of my friends and neighbors did. We are done trading yearly with the price increases we have decided to put the money used for trade will be put into certificates of deposits. This is one of the reasons GM has decided to shut the truck assembly plants down for a couple of weeks. Prices went up to the point that inventory was sitting 2, many days. Why didn't they just discount is beyond anyone. Yes, you are right. Do the homework. The days of buying new vehicles are about over. No one can afford them. Hopefully, no one has an accident and is forced into it or has a vehicle at the end of its life. You did make good points.

In 2018 I was in the market for the new redesigned 2019 Ram Laramie. One evening I emailed every Ram dealership within 200 miles and described exactly what I wanted and exactly what I was willing to pay. The next morning my inbox was blown up and a dealership 180 miles away agreed to my price. Two days later I showed up to the dealership preapproved with my credit union, took the truck for a quick spin and about an hour later I was driving home in my new truck. The two dealerships within 80 miles from my home didn't even try to compete for my business and wouldn't budge off their price which was about 6k more than what I paid the dealership 180 miles away.

Funny how time changed over 3 months, I looked at a BMW 5 series, Audi a6 and Volvo S90, all 3 dealers are constantly contacting me with lower prices. All 3 are at almost 10% off and 2 are offering special financing. Definitely a change in the car market, haven’t seen so many cars on the lot since pre Covid. Figured I’d give them a few more days to fight it out and go with the best deal, they all were nice cars and I’m not picky with the color.

I bought my 1st new car in 2017. After I test drove and knew the exact model and trim level I wanted, I pretty much did all of my negotiating over emails with dealers as far as 3 hours away. I ended up going to my closest dealer when they agreed to sell at an OTD price that matched a dealer in another state. The OTD price ended up at exactly their advertised sticker price.

Mike, thanks for the awesome tips I'm going to go back and re-watch the video and I'm going to stick to your script. This is a huge help thanks man

I found it interesting that once I became debt free and never buying anything on credit, I went from having a great credit score to not even having a credit score at all anymore. It totally disappeared. :)

That boxer is far and above the best part of this video

Been trying to buy a newer used car since Dec, no one will negotiate. All my emails responses have been to come in or pretty much f***k off. I'm done trying to buy a car from a dealership after getting screwed over on my last inquiry. Hoping the economy crashes and dealerships will burn.

It's also a good idea to have the FTC guidelines on hand and know what a dealer add on price prior to signing any contract..

My last 3 new cars were purchased out of state over a 100 miles away instead of my near dealership. I saved an average of $5K because our local Ford dealer is famous for holding to the sticker price with no negotiating.

Love the channel. Love the knowledge. Out the door price is key and I guess so is proximity.

Idk I went in with a payment in mind and worked entirely around that. The payment is directly tied to the price, so if they are lowering the payment they are also lowering the price. I got 2k off msrp which in turn lowered my payment.

I called/emailed 6 different Honda dealers and asked for their best OTD price for a 2023 Honda Accord Hybrid and told them I was looking at a dealer that is discounting MSRP by $750. I ended up getting $1581 off MSRP from a dealer that was the furthest away from me, so I told my local dealer that I was gonna walk unless they price matched. They initially would not go down any lower but I was polite and told them I'd call back. Got a callback later and they matched the offer. So that's what worked for me...

When I bought my new 22 suv I traded my truck in and I got 14k above carmax offered me and I went home with my new suv and 10k in my pocket the truck was a 21 ram limited longhorn with everything and lost only 4K from what I bought the truck for a year and a half ago. Very happy

Good information and it’s good to hear should buy from local Dealers. Thank you

No such thing as a stupid question. Car dealers are feeling the pain because of their previous bad practices!

Great video and to the point. Thank you for good, to the point information!! I’m still smiling…… I s that the best you can do. Lol.

Thanks again for the update.

there is only 1 thing to do....say no until they give you the car for what you wanna pay

Also if you work for an auto manufacturer and have an employee discount of any kind do not mention it until after you negotiate the price. Save that for the financing portion of the deal.

@mike, ive been watching you for a while and i need a specific question answered please. Does the advice youre giving about vehicle pricing at the dealerships and how to negotiate the price apply if the vehicle is not avail/not in-stock and has to be built and ordered from the manufacturer?

In my town they want to much for their vehicles. Thank you Mike

I once emailed every acura dealer within 200 miles of me. Telling them I'm not local and what is their best price on a base model MDX and one dealer about 100 miles away called and offered $3k under MSRP. Made an appointment to drive out day.... we showed up and our car sales man took that day off. Made us wait 2 hours final told us they weren't going to do the deal... MSRP only. Had to get in my car and start driving away and then they ran out and honored the 3k off MSRP

In July 2021, I needed to replace daughters wrecked 2019 Camaro with the same. Looked nationwide on CarGurus. Took the advertised prices, divided by the number of remaining miles till 100K and came up with a price per mile figure for each car. The lowest per mile price was .33. Then I made offers, based on the .33. My 2nd deal accepted my offer, $32,500 with 4,400 mi.

My favorite car salesman uploaded another video yesss!

Here's the issue I'm having, 3x now I'm willing to pay the listed price on the same used vehicle and of course TTL. But when it came to financing, using my own financing the other went up 2k. Certification and other Dealers fees, another 3k. So what started as a good deal on a used vehicle, ends up at the price of a brand new one

Negotiate the actual Out The Door price. Doc fees, warranties, taxes, etc. will add up. Second. Be patient. If you rush, you’ll make mistakes. Make a checklist and follow it through the process.

Best time to buy is towards end of the year , need to hit quota on new cars and get manufacturer yearly bonuses and clear inventory. Great tip as far as do your due diligence online ,have at minimum 3 different options working at once & be willing to walk in an instance. Utilizing these rules, I never lose on car deals.

Just bought a new car in Florida for my daughter. Did it completely online from California. Had to contact a dozen dealers before I got a big discount off MSRP. But it only takes one.

Thanks for a great video. I learned a lot. Carry On Sir!

I have called a dealership and asked for a lower price and it worked. I told them if they can do the price I was asking on a new car I would buy it and today. It was the last day of the quarter, not sure if it mattered or not.

Thank you for your helpful information

Hm, interesting. At least last rule definitely will work ☺️ In my case as much I was closer to dealership there were more dealer market catch up 😅!!!

you're good! thanks for your content!!

Does this count as well when you are turning in your trade in for a lease to lease. Do you still do your research and treat it as a separate transaction .

good vid. my fav in a long time.👊

Exactly. I just went through this exact deal and went through all these steps. Even walked away twice

I went to a "No haggle" place and tried to get $500 off the final price because of a small (6 in) unrepairable dent on the body line of the car that had happened on the dealer's lot. They refused, so I showed them another vehicle I was looking at for $3000 more, but it was 2 years newer and had 15,000 fewer miles. They were so confident that I would be back. I walked out the door and paid a little more for the other car, but it was the better deal. I took great pleasure telling the 1st car salesman that their competitor that said he "won't give you your price" actually did.

I am not paying the market adjustment price.

Love your epi's.

You should do a segment on the various types of FICO scores. Your Auto FICO is not the same as your revolving credit FICO and is again different than your mortgage FICO. I think there are 8 levels but I am not sure.

Mike if your work has a preferred pricing with a dealer and you buy a car from said dealer do you have to pay a $150 to participate in the preferred price deal or your already in it because of where you work

We mostly custom order our vehicles, private sell owned vehicle, never finance. How do you negotiate effectively in this scenario?

Our dealership pays MSRP for our vehicles. We add accessories to make some money on our vehicles, but the dealership still needs to pay its staff, so we generally don’t discount any vehicles.

Don't like #3. I'm a cash buyer and I don't like the BS of playing games in a dealership trying to buy a car. I know what I'm willing to pay, usually 8%-10% off MSRP without add-ons and I just want to get in and out. I could care less about making friends. I'm friendly, but I'm not there looking to hang out. And I don't understand why they would want to waste their time either. Here's my OTD offer in cash and either it works for you or it doesn't. Just let me know and we can either make a deal or both move on to better things and not waste each other's time. I remember one time specifically at a Nissan dealer they stalled in the back, when I asked what the holdup was the salesman laughed and said they were trying to figure out what my angle was. No angle, do I write the check or head to the next dealer just say the word no hard feelings. I've always ended up getting what I was offering, but NEVER did they do so quickly. They still always find ways to drag it out unnecessarily.

Ty Mike!

With the new market pricing everything seems upside down. I use to negotiate down from MSRP. It seems now every dealer ship has outrageous market adjustments. I have noticed that just last month the truck I wanted was $15,000 market adjustment above MSRP, despite bargaining, and just this week is now $7,000 (with bargaining). So I hope by March it will be again at MSRP. The killer, is that manufacturers increased the MSRP by almost $1-$2,000 in 2023.

I haven't been able to find a good deal on Long Island and Tri state area...too many bs fees and markups...expanding my search area but will find a Great deal!

You're so wrong on #4. I bought my last 3 cars in 4 years at least 500 miles away. Local always try to screw me. This advice is coming a Used Car Dealer. Take it what it's worth.

You could sell ice to the Eskimos...or a Chevy. Good on ya mate!❤

So let me ask this, does it help when you’ve bought a vehicle from a dealer in the past? If so how do I work that?

Hey ! whats the deal with trading even your car with another used car at a dealership? is it an easy thing to do? whats the procedurre? thanks!

I appreciate this information. My concern is that customers have to develop a working relationship with a salesperson that usually could not care less. The customer is not always right but most (not all) dealerships will fleece people at every turn. Having a salesperson in a quazi-fiduciary capacity speak with the sales manager is junk. A licensed realtor or attorney would be liable for a similar practice.

Rule #1: Don’t buy a car you can’t pay cash for.

I was about to be sold a car, but the finance guy informed me a piece of trim had been replaced. I looked at the trim and could tell it was body shop work. I walked disgusted, several days later the salesman called me several times. I came back in and looked at another vehicle with options I didn't want (sunroof), LX to LXT at the same price was out of the dealership with a new car in the color I wanted but had not said.

Awesome video!

Hey Mike. I see you have a used car dealership, but are you able to get new Chevys for someone on the west coast?

I called Dealership that was 3&1/2 hrs away . Negotiated the out the door price over the phone . 1st thing I did was ask for manager , then Negotiated price , he made price offer which I rejected & said I need to be at this price out the door . He accepted & I bought the vehicle .

My son recently purchased a 2023 Traverse, the sticker was $46945, with their dealer mark down for being a Car Dealer of the year the past 5 years (Estero Bay Chevrolet) and the Manufacturers $1000 dollars off the price was 43319. Here is where it got funky. While in the finance office, and working out the documents to purchase the vehicle, we were told someone else had purchased the vehicle. How does that happen? To the dealers credit, they did allow my son to pick out another Traverse RS which was a bit more expensive and they matched price. What is everyone's thoughts on the add ons? Do they add value to the car? Resist all paint and interior coatings, extended warranty and so on or are you just better to go off market for that stuff?

Hi I am new to Canada it will be great ful if u can advise outlander phev or Buick envista is good so that I can start working on that

Great info Mike. I just left a dealership that had a LoJack fee of $1000 for first year. Is this BS and considered a theft protection add-on that can be and should be removed?

Does these negotiation strategies work at Lexus too?

Where I am the banks don't even give you a car loan - they are integrated into the dealers and the rates will be the same across the board. It is a pain in the ass in negotiating.

ACTUALLY MIKE the marriage proposal thing DID work for me I was eating lunch at my job when a girl came and sat at my table I said you want to get married Saturday? She said yes we have been married 40 years

Know your local market. In my area, all the dealerships in my county are 25% higher and much less willing to work a deal, versus if I go an hour west to Pensacola, they have lower prices and much more willing to work on a deal (except Hill Kelly Dodge, they are scam artists, no idea how they are still in business).

I’m pricing a 2023C8 convertible and I see one price for the convertible is 72,000 and then the dealer is saying that it’s 83450 and that and that’s the way convertibles usually were I know won the 2023 it’s quite an operation on the C8 but it’s a lot and it’s a big difference in price. Tell me what you think please I always watch your RU-vid and I always wish you the best. Very good a regular guy.

Why pay off the dealer financing in 3-6 months instead of as soon as the payment book comes in? Is that because the dealership doesn’t get their kickback from the lender 🤔

Do all dealers run your credit, even if paying cash?

I learned few things when I purchased my car 4 weeks ago. Perfect Fico credit score is 900, not 850. If you credit is over 810, it makes little difference for financing. I was planning to have a cash offer but the finance guy convinced me to take a loan. He knocked off 600 bucks from the sticker price. Here is how it works. I pay 0 down at the dealership. The dealership get me a bank loan. I pay off the loan in 90 days and go back to the dealership when he pays me the amount of interest I paid to bank. Apparently the dealer gets a bigger kickback from the bank, I am sure more than the 600 discount I got from the purchase. According to the guy they do this kind deal all the time

When buying new, I've found the most effective way to do it is to bid it out over 5 states asking for TTLF, using my own email, NEVER their own site. Amazing how fast that price craters. I spec it exactly at the trim level described by the mfg, and won't take fees and crap like that.

Thank you. I'm so broken. I always had 720+ score and purchased vehicles without a problem until my career tanked and fell behind. Now im at 580 score and struggling to get approvals.

Question: On the reason, they should lower the price on a new car? If you have good credit, you're pre approved. That's when you can ask for a lower price. Please explain. Thank you!! ( new car msrp)

Buying out of town is how I get 5-7000 off my cars each time. There’s one Lexus, one BMW, one Mercedes dealership in a 200 mile radius. They don’t discount their prices even in bad markets. If I drive to Los Angeles or Bay Area I can get the car at MSRP as the out the door price