Went car shopping today...

[stephen wilson]

Just a thought, when you spoke to the dealer, how serious were you about buying THAT DAY? Did you make an agressive offer and he turned you down? I only ask because I've had much the same response as you did, but I wasn't ready to buy, and just trying to test the waters. It's probably not hard for them to "read" a prospective buyer, and determine if they're serious or not.
Steve

[ekam]

Originally Posted by stephen wilson

Just a thought, when you spoke to the dealer, how serious were you about buying THAT DAY? Did you make an agressive offer and he turned you down? I only ask because I've had much the same response as you did, but I wasn't ready to buy, and just trying to test the waters. It's probably not hard for them to "read" a prospective buyer, and determine if they're serious or not.
Steve

Car salesmen are like strippers - they may not be the brightest people in the room, but they can smell you from 10 miles away whether or not you have money to spend that day/night.

Plus, guess how many people drive to the dealer thinking "Oh, the market is so bad these days, I wonder how much they'll give me for my car and give me 50% off sticker price for this vehicle..."

This is just the beginning of a downhill rollercoaster ride... anybody start taking chinese lessons yet?

[Topless]

Car dealers just don't want trades right now. They only want your cash cause they don't have any.

[JackG]

Originally Posted by Topless

Car dealers just don't want trades right now. They only want your cash cause they don't have any.

Yup, that neatly sums it up. I knew the new car market was bad, I just didn't know the used market was taking such a beating as well.

If I walked in ready to write a check, I could have gotten a good deal. But then I'd have too many cars.

[JackG]

Originally Posted by stephen wilson

Just a thought, when you spoke to the dealer, how serious were you about buying THAT DAY? Did you make an agressive offer and he turned you down? I only ask because I've had much the same response as you did, but I wasn't ready to buy, and just trying to test the waters. It's probably not hard for them to "read" a prospective buyer, and determine if they're serious or not.
Steve

They knew that I was willing to buy that day. The salesman was a friend of a friend, and was very straight with me. He pointed out that they would not be keeping the Boxster, and he said he would tell me how much they would get from the phone call they were making to their wholesaler. Once the offer came back so low, we were simply too far apart to keep going.

On another stop at the Audi dealer, I got a much better offer. Only problem was, I didn't like the A4 I was interested in, not enough power (turbo 4) and the back seat is almost useless. They also had an S4 (340 hp 6 speed) that I went to look at, but it was a smoker's car and and the dash was partially apart looking like they were chasing an electrical gremlin. No thanks.