THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPENED! Car Dealer Claims We’re Putting to the Test

Things that never happened. Welcome back everybody. Today we're starting something brand new here on the Homework Guy show and I have a feeling this could be one of our best ideas and our favorite teaching method that we have ever used because Liz and I are going to start examining some of the things car buyers are told every single day at dealerships around the country. Things that sound good, things that sound official, things that salespeople have probably said a million times at dealerships all across the country. There's just one little problem. Well, they don't always hold up very well when you actually test them. Exactly. So we're calling this new series things that never happened. And before somebody gets all worked up in the comments, no, we're not literally saying that something we say here has never happened even once at any car dealership in the history of automobiles. We are saying the odds are very remote. This is about those dealership claims that car buyers hear all the time and are expected to accept as negotiating truth. And we're going to have a little fun with them, but more importantly, we're going to teach you what to do when you hear them. Here's a quick little run through. Okay, Kevin, I'm buying a car. I don't want to spend all day negotiating. So I'm just going to ask a salesman a simple question. What's your best price? No. What? I asked for his best price. That way we can skip all the negotiating and he can just tell me the lowest price they'll like. And he did. Yep. He said, Liz, I'm going to give you our absolute best price on the first try. Well, that's what he said. Wow. Ha ha ha. So before he even knows what you're willing to pay before you've made a counteroffer before you've threatened to leave before you've shopped his number against another dealer. And before he knows whether you would have paid another 500 bucks or maybe even another thousand dollars, he just voluntarily removed every dollar of negotiating room he had. Well, apparently he's a generous man, right? Liz, Kevin, things that never happen. Now let's get serious for a minute in upcoming shows. We're going to let you listen in on some actual phone calls we have with dealers deal. Before we get into that, let's examine this. Why? Best price is the wrong question to ask because there's an important negotiating lesson here. I don't ask a dealer. What's your best price? I don't ask, what's the lowest you'll take. And I don't ask what's the least you can sell this car for. Why? Because I'm asking the person on the other side of the negotiation to negotiate against themselves. Think about that. Let's say a dealer has a vehicle advertised for 35,000. Maybe they'd be perfectly happy selling it for 34 or five. Maybe they take 34 maybe under the right circumstances, they'd even take 33 five. I don't know that yet, but here I come and say, what's your best price? What incentive does that dealer have to say immediately? Well, Kevin, we're hoping you'd pay 35,000, but since you asked so nicely, let me remove every single dollar I possibly can. They don't know what I'll pay yet. Why would they give away any money they haven't even had to negotiate for? So when they say this is our best price, I treat it as information instead of a number. That's it. It's just information, not really a final number. Now we have something to work with. You don't need their best number. This is where I think a lot of car buyers get negotiating entirely wrong. They are trying to shortcut the negotiation as in Liz's example, by asking a simple question and they are guaranteed to get burned doing that. You don't need the dealer to tell you your bottom line. You need them to put a number on the table. You want a real number, don't you? To do that, you want them to show their cards. And when I'm shopping remotely, I especially want a clear itemized out the door number. What is the vehicle price? What are the dealer fees? What add ons are included? What is in the total? Now I can negotiate something. I can compare it. I can counter it. I can accept it. Or I can just walk away from it or hang up on them. But I don't need them to call it their best price because that label doesn't change the number. But to do all of this, I'm going to have to do some homework. But this really is our best price. Now, wait a minute. What if a salesman says, no, you don't understand. This really is the absolute lowest we can go. Then I have a decision to make. I don't have to argue with them. I don't have to say he's lying. I don't have to get angry. I can simply say my favorite negotiating comeback. Thank you, but I'll keep shopping. And then I continue shopping. This is what I do. And this is what our car coaches would do because here's something every car buyer needs to understand. You don't have to prove that a dealer can go lower. If their number doesn't work for you, don't buy the car. That's one of the most powerful positions you can have in negotiation. And then there's this one. Okay. But the salesman said he can't really give me his good price over the phone. Oh, he says come into the dealership and I'll get you the best deal. Ah, there it is. So they have a better price. Yes. And they know what it is, but only if you are sitting right in front of them. Apparently, and they could tell you that number right now. I would think so, but the price can't be forced to travel through a telephone. Maybe it's too big to fit through the phone line. Those are some pretty tiny holes. Sure. Or maybe their calculator only works inside the showroom. Well, that could be it, Liz. I know things that never happened. Why they want you to come in. Now, again, there are perfectly good dealers who will give you numbers remotely. And our coaches find those better dealers all the time. And there are legitimate reasons. A dealer may need additional information before they can calculate a complete transaction. But there's also an obvious advantage to getting you into the store on the phone. You can say, thank you. I'll keep shopping. Click, hang up. And then you just call the next dealer inside the dealership. You've driven there. You've invested time. Maybe your kids are with you. Maybe you've test driven the car. Maybe you've already started imagining it in your driveway. Maybe they've appraised your trade. Now you're invested in the process. That doesn't mean every dealer who asks you to come in is trying to manipulate you. But as a buyer, you should understand that getting you into the showroom can change the negotiating dynamic. And that's exactly why I like to get as much info as possible before I ever walked through that door. But we're not going to just talk about this. And this is where this series is going to get really interesting because Liz and I could sit here and tell you this all day, but why should you just take our word for it? We're going to make some phone calls. Yes. To real dealers, real dealers, real vehicles, real conversations. And when appropriate and legally permitted, we're going to record those conversations for educational purposes. So you can hear what actually happens. We're going to ask for real numbers. We're going to listen to how different dealers respond. We're going to hear what happens when somebody says you need to come in or that's as low as we can go. Or what payment are you trying to be at? Or if I could get my manager to do this today, would you buy? And then we're going to stop the recording, break down what happened and teach you how to respond. And we're going to be fair. But what happens if the dealer does everything right, Kevin? We're going to say, so that's important. This is not about calling dealers and trying to make every one of them look bad. If we call a salesperson and they're straightforward, they answer our questions. They provide the numbers. They don't play games and they treat the customer with respect. I want you to hear that too, because there are good salespeople. There are good sales managers and there are good dealerships and we'll find them. So we're not trying to catch them. No, we're trying to teach you. And the best way I know to teach car negotiation is to let you hear car negotiation actually happen. Here are some of the comments we're going to test. We gave you our best price. Come in for our best deal. My manager won't go lower. This deal is only good today. Someone else is coming to buy this car. We're losing money on this deal. Just tell me what monthly payment you want or the add on is already installed. The computer won't let me change the price. Oh, I've heard that so many times. And one of my favorites, the finance office is just paperwork. Oh boy. We're going to have some fun with that one. You got it. The bigger lesson, but here's what I really want this series to accomplish. I don't want you walking into a dealership thinking everybody is your enemy. That's not good negotiating either. I want you walking in prepared because when you understand the process, you don't have to be angry. You don't have to be intimidated. You don't have to outtalk the salesperson and you certainly don't have to know every single trick in the car business. You just need to know your numbers, know your process, control your timeline. We've done videos on that and be willing to walk away when the deal just doesn't make sense. That's what puts you in the driver's seat of a good deal. So let me make sure I've got this. If the salesman tells me the first number he gives me is his absolute best price and he couldn't possibly sell the car for one penny less. Right? And then after we negotiate for 10 minutes, he drops the price. Another $800. What do we call that? I think, you know, on three, one, two, three things that never happened in the next episode, we're going to pick up the phone and find out what actually happens. Welcome to the new series, everybody. This should be a lot of fun and I hope you're along for the ride.