What Should You Not Say to a Car Salesman?
Whenever you want to buy a car, the main people you have to talk to are the car salespeople. Whether the car you want to buy is a new car or a used car does not change the matter. In any car dealership, you need to talk to a car salesperson to learn about the deals, car prices, and features and to settle a purchase price. As a big part of car shopping depends on price negotiation, there are some things you should not say to s car salesman.
A car salesman is always alert about making a sale. In any situation, they are ready to make a good profit. The situation gets even more under the control of the salesman when they are selling a used car. Used car prices completely depend on the customer’s perception. So you need to drive a hard bargain in order to get a good deal. That includes keeping your secrets close to heart.
Car Salesmen Are the Experts
Car buying is one of the toughest decisions you are going to make in your life. A car can be very expensive that requires a lot of savings if you want to buy in cash. If you arrange for outside financing, then you have to deal with regular monthly payments and interest fees. So driving down the price of the car you choose to buy is very important. But it is the car salespeople’s job to resist your bargaining and push for a higher amount.
For any particular vehicle, the car dealer tries to get the wholesale cost, dealer cost, and vehicle preparation fees all included in the sale pricing with an addition of a healthy percentage of profit. Salespeople normally get a commission for each car they sell. Sometimes, the commission is distributed by the number of cars sold. But sometimes it depends on the amount sold. They are trained to cleverly read customers and find the weakness in their strategy.
What Not to Say to a Car Salesman
Any current or former car salesman would say that bargaining the price of a car is a skill. So to hone that skill, we need practice. And no one gets more practice than a car salesperson. They have to deal with potential customers all day, and they have to sell cars to make a living. To get the upper hand on the dealers, you need to know what to say to the salesman and what to hide.
Don’t Give Extra Information
A lot of us volunteer information when we go to dealerships to browse cars. This extra information, our body language, and attitude help the dealer read us and find out what we want. That way, they can manipulate our decisions. So, do not give them unnecessary information. Sometimes, a salesperson asks questions that have no need in the purchase of the car. Ignore those questions, as they are designed to help them understand what type of buyer you are.
Don’t Answer Finance Related Questions
If a dealer asked financing-based information about your current or previous car, do not give an answer. Your previous vehicle plan or down payment has no relation to the current car. Also, do not volunteer information such as how much you hope the monthly payment would be. If they ask to check your credit situation, do not give them a straight answer. Tell them to assume perfect credit union status.
Don’t Say That You Love a Specific Car
If you first ask for a specific car that you want to buy, you can seem desperate. And to show that you are desperate to buy a car means you have already lost the negotiation. If you show your preference for a specific model of vehicle, they will refuse to budge from the sticker price.
Don’t Ask for a Specific Color
If you look for a certain color from the get-go, they can make the car color seem expensive to you. Let’s say that you step into the shop and ask for a car in color red. They will try to design their pitch in a way that you will have to leave the store with a high priced, mediocre red car.
Don’t Look for a Specific Feature
Do not tell the salesman why you are buying a car. If you plan to take the car on a cross-country trip and the dealer somehow gets a whiff of it, then be sure to see that they will try to over advertise high durability vehicles to you. The same goes for asking for specific features. Then they will try to oversell a vehicle. It is best to do your research first about different models and take the car on a test drive to check it before buying.
Don’t Tell Them Your Trade-In Offer
If you plan to trade in your older car and buy a newer car from a dealership, it is better to not tell the salespeople about your trade-in benefits. They will definitely try to know the offer price and features, but if they get any idea about it, you will lose the edge in the negotiation process.
Don’t Say That It is Your First Car
Never let them see your inexperience. If you say that you have never been car shopping alone, then they will obviously try to rip you off. If you give off the vibe that you are an expert t buying and negotiating, you will for sure get a better deal. Also, never let them know if you are buying a car for any special reason. They will not step aside from exploiting the information to gain extra profit.
Monitor Your Manners
Selling cars is not easy. In the whole day, on average, if fifty people visit a dealership, just one person actually buys a car. Salesmen try to make a living from the cars they sell. So it is only natural for them to try to get as much money as possible. But as buyers, we also need to find the best price. That is why negotiations are so important in buying a car.
Keep in mind that it is only a business transaction; it is easier to attend the bargaining. The moment you make the deal personal, you become a flight risk. As a customer, you need to keep your calm and mind your manners when bargaining to lower the price. This is a strategy, like a game of chess. The party that has the most knowledge about the opponent will be the victor.
But it is wrong to expect too low of a price. Dealers need to make a profit too. So, negotiations need to be carried out amicably so that the buyer and seller can come to an understanding and meet in the middle. The final agreed price should be such a number that makes both parties happy to do business.
Keep the Conversation in Your Control
Understanding what the fair price is for a used car is difficult. So that is why you will see that car salesmen often try to push the potential customer to choose a used car rather than a new car. New cars have a factory invoice that must be revealed to the buyer and followed strictly when making the final pricing. But used car value depends on the consumer perception. Thus, to make a good deal with a car salesperson, it is important to keep the conversation in your control.
If you get into the clever maze of a dealer’s selling pitch, it is difficult to come out unaffected. The price of used cars can be as much as the dealer’s cost to triple the cost of the dealer. What you will be quoted depends on your confidence level, experience, and mannerisms. So the strategy is to keep the situation well in hand.
Conclusion
Car salesmen are a big part of the whole automobile market. Especially in the used car market, they are mandatory. Even though new cars can be sold as a fixed-price commodity, used cars will never be sold as fixed-price elements. New cars have a factory-based sticker price, which is not the case with used cars. So we need salespeople to state a counteroffer to buy a car. As negotiation is a huge aspect of buying vehicles, it is a very useful skill to possess.
But no matter how skilled a customer is, the car salesmen are professionals. That means that the main strategy for buying a car is to seem competent. If you know how to manage your conduct and how to control the conversation, you can show that you know what you are doing and you are not someone who is easily fooled when it comes to cars. To do that, you first need to do your research and gather the minimum idea about the possible price of the car you want to buy.
