Good Dealer, Bad Dealer
In an earlier post I promised names and excerpts from good dealers and bad. Here is where I make good on that.
The one who got the sale:
Bill Monhollan Jr. at Raggerty Subaru in Newtown Square, PA
Bill was the first dealer to give me a price below invoice and not only that, he detailed where it came from. He was also patient enough to deal with repeated emails over the course of the week even when it appeared the deal would not be completed. For this, and the great effort he put in at the 11th hour to get everything in order, Bill won the sale.
The Contenders
Mike Connolly and Deb Brewster at Planet Subaru in Hanover, MA
Deb and Mike offered the most transparency of any dealer I contacted. They were clear, they were aggressive with their pricing and calm, cool and collected in every other respect. Upon request, I was furnished with detailed out-the-door prices on all of the cars they had on the lot which met my request and every price was the lowest I had seen. No one touched them on pricing and they seemed like the nicest people. Unfortunately it became clear that the Eclipse was going to have to be sacrificed as a trade-in and I had doubts it would make it to Hanover in the same number of pieces it had left PA.
Ed Maguire at Matt Slap Subaru in Newark, DE
Like Bill, Ed was straight to the point. He gave his best price on the cars he had on the and made himself available for questions. He also explained where his prices came from and what limits were on those prices (rebate expirations, optional equipment, etc.). If Bill didn’t match Ed’s price and openness, Ed would have made the sale.
The Losers
It occurs to me that publicly defaming dealers who just don’t “get it” might open me up to some sort of legal trouble. So with that in mind, stick to the top 3 guys above and enjoy the following quotes when talking to other dealers:
Hi Rob,
The 2005 Legacy GT is a Limited, 5 Speed, with Leather, Moonroof, 6 CD
Changer, Auto Climate Control, and Spoiler. It has 46k miles on it. It
also qualifies for Subaru’s Certified Pre-Owned Program. It is a one owner
vehicle, traded to us on a new Cadillac. The listed price is $21,998, but
we can offer it to you for a Special Discounted price of $20,476!! (price
does not include tax, fees, or Certified Warranty).
Hi Rob,
Thank you for contacting ********** Subaru and for inquiring about the 2008
Subaru Legacy GT Limited sedan. My internet sale price on the vehicle
with a suggested retail price of $29,371 is $28,371.
___________________********,
Thank you for your response. I have already received a quote for $26k from another dealer.
Rob
__________________
Hi Rob,Thank you for your reply.
You got a quote on that car for $1400 under invoice!?!? Wow!!! Sorry, but I can’t match that offer.
If it doesn’t work out, let me know.
Hello Rob,
Unfortunately, all the GT models that I currently have in stock have the Automatic Transmission. If I were able to locate a Manual Transmission version, I would sell the car to you for $250 over dealers invoice less the $750 incentive. The typical MSRP on these vehicles would be around $29,500 with selling price around $27,300 after the rebate.
As a side note - in phone conversations and our 1 in-person visit to a dealer before purchasing, I was misquoted the invoice price and MSRP almost every time. Most of the dealers gave me the base invoice price of the car with an automatic transmission which is about a grand more than the manual. You may think that speaking face-to-face or even on the phone dealers would be less likely to try an pull something than via email, but I have found that it is quite the opposite.
On used cars, dealers were invariably ignorant of the current stock available outside of a 10-15 mile range and their pricing reflects this. The gentleman who quoted a discounted price of $20k for a 2005 with 40,000 miles on it would be shocked to learn that there were 3 others within an hours drive for 1-2 thousand dollars less and with significantly lower mileage.
In short, knowing your numbers and being able to verify and feed them back to the salesman is an invaluable tool.
