Buying a car is much easier, since the advent of the internet. We aren't at a disadvantage against the salesmen anymore.
Very true. I just bought momma a new car. The process was:
1. Drive the models that she thought she was interested in.
2. Let her decide what she likes.
3. Research options, invoice prices, hold back, etc. on the internet
4. Return to a dealer for a second in-person look at the options and to...
5. Drive her final choice a second time to confirm she really likes it.
6. Send the two dealers that we're working an email with the details of what we want and an offer which was invoice +$500. (There was $500 hold-back on this car so their profit would be $1,000 which I thought fair).
7. One countered at $1,350 higher, the other $1,900 higher.
8. I didn't move.
9. Before the end of the day the one that was initially closest to my offer accepted my original offer.
All was done by email. No salesman pressure at all when they're on the other end of a keyboard.
10 they dealer traded for the car, installed the options we wanted that it didn't have and we picked it up 3 days later.
Relatively painless.
The only hard sell I got was from their "financial adviser" on the day we picked up the car when he was trying to convince me to buy the extended warranty. But I had already pinged the peanut gallery here and done research elsewhere and just kept telling him "no...it doesn't matter how many times you repeat yourself...it'll still be no." So he finally quit repeating himself.
