When I went to the dealer to talk about ordering my truck, and we’d worked out the configuration, once I told him I had a friends and family code, he disappeared for a bit, then came back with a printout of the MSRP, and price with the friends and family discount. Part of the F&F discount is in the form of a rebate for some reason, but whatever.
While I was doing my research and such about options and dealing with car dealers, I came across several YouTube channels by car salesmen that are educational. One is “Your Auto Advocate” which is a retired career car salesman and sales manager and his kid, and sometimes joined by a woman who was a dealer finance officer, talking about all aspects of the new and used car market and sales negotiating. They talk about getting car invoices in some of their episodes. The retired guy is a bit cranky, but funny, reminds me of the old car talk NPR show, you may find the dynamic between the dad and his son entertaining, or you may find it irritating, but regardless there is a lot of good insight and tips about car buying in their channel. The other channel is “Chevy Dude” who is a new car salesman in Louisville and he too gives a lot of good information about car dealers and dealing in car purchases too.
My last new car buying experience in 2014 was a pain in the butt at a local CDJR store, they played every game in the book on me even though I had a TruCar agreed on price on the car already, the only reason I didn’t walk out was it was end of model year with a good rebate, I wanted a manual Dart and there were only a handful left in the entire area and this dealer had most of them between their 2 stores. So I sat there and held firm for 4 hours before finally getting the car at the agreed on TruCar price. It’s been a great car so it was worth the dealer grief I endured to buy it, but still it left me intimidated about ever buying another new car.
Around here at least, it seems like most employees at dealerships are Eastern European immigrant types, like gypsies. Guys who previously would be going door to door saying they had extra material from black topping a neighbors driveway and will make you a deal to do yours, then coat your driveway with used motor oil and run off with your money. Now they’ve moved on to the car sales business!
So ask around and try to get a referral to a decent salesman, you need to shop for a dealer and salesman. I ended up going to a salesman at a dealer an hour south of me, as he was recommended to me by a fellow Chicagoland Mopar Connection member, a guy who has been a salesman for decades dating back to Koller Dodge, easy to work with, no BS. Anybody interested in buying a new CDJR in northeastern Illinois let me know I’ll give you his contact.