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Negotiating a car for someone else

I

ichy

Diamond Member
Is there any reason a car dealer would refuse to deal with me if I was trying to negotiate a car deal for my parents?

Backstory here is that they've been living outside of the US for a number of years and will be moving back in the spring. They want a car ready to pick up once they get back, and neither of them really knows anything about buying cars. My mother also has a noticeable foreign accent (she's not originally from the US) which probably screams "sucker" to an unscrupulous salesman.

What they asked me to do was negotiate a purchase for them & put down a deposit, then they'd pick the car up the day or the day after they arrived. I can't imagine that a dealer would object if I was willing to cut them a deposit check to show I'm serious.
 
If they think they would get more monies from your folks I'm sure they will try to get them in there. The good old walk out the door never seems to fail.
 
Well when I put down a deposit I'll be sure to demand all the paperwork with included fees to make sure they don't pull a fast one.
 
Are they paying cash? If so, I don't you'd have a problem. However, if they are looking to finance, the salesman may not be as willing to deal unless they can do a credit check. And I don't think they can run a credit check without them being there.
 
Might just make more sense to get internet pricing and negotiate from there. Once you have the price, just bring your folks in and do the paperwork.
 
I did it for my elderly neighbor over a year ago. I dealt with the internet sales managers, got the best price, took her down and she signed the paperwork. She had already test-driven the car and decided on what she wanted, it was a very smooth experience overall. The only glitch was the finance manager had to sign off on the whole thing even though she paid cash, and he was with another customer for a good 45 minutes. Other than that, we would have been in and out in 1.5 hours or so, with most of the time being the final test drive and salesman showing her all the features.
 
SearchMaster: Thanks.

One thing I'm also going to do is get a quote from Costco's car buying service just to see if I can get a good offer through them. If I got an attractive price that way would the dealer honor it for my parents or would they need to get their own Costco membership?
 
ichy said:
SearchMaster: Thanks.

One thing I'm also going to do is get a quote from Costco's car buying service just to see if I can get a good offer through them. If I got an attractive price that way would the dealer honor it for my parents or would they need to get their own Costco membership?
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If $55 saves them $1000 on the purchase of a new car, does it really matter?

🙂
 
You can also try cars.overstock.com which uses Zag pricing. I will say that its prices seem much less attractive than they were 18-24 months ago.
 
Why tell anyone you are buying a car for someone else? Just go in, say you're paying cash, and u can get a crazy deal. You have all the power.
 
DVad3r said:
Why tell anyone you are buying a car for someone else? Just go in, say you're paying cash, and u can get a crazy deal. You have all the power.
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Although most people think "cash is king", car dealers would prefer you to use their financing to purchase a car (assuming you qualify for it). They make interest off you in addition to the cost of the car. Plus the salesperson gets a higher spiff/commission this way. Case in point, my dad recently bought a MB E350 and the dealer offered a lower price if he financed. The salesperson told him to take the financing offer, pay the first month (which allowed him to get his $$$), then on the second month pay the car off if he wanted, which he did. Was able to get a few thousand more knocked off the price and was only out maybe $100 for one month on the interest paid.
 
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master7045 said:
Although most people think "cash is king", car dealers would prefer you to use their financing to purchase a car (assuming you qualify for it). They make interest off you in addition to the cost of the car. Plus the salesperson gets a higher spiff/commission this way. Case in point, my dad recently bought a MB E350 and the dealer offered a lower price if he financed. The salesperson told him to take the financing offer, pay the first month (which allowed him to get his $$$), then on the second month pay the car off if he wanted, which he did. Was able to get a few thousand more knocked off the price and was only out maybe $100 for one month on the interest paid.
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Good point.
 
Take the costco route or go internet-only. Tell the internet sales managers what you want, get your price over phone/email, then go directly to that person and sign. Don't compromise.
 
JackBurton said:
the salesman may not be as willing to deal unless they can do a credit check. And I don't think they can run a credit check without them being there.
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Never discuss financing prior to agreeing on the price of the vehicle, so this doesn't matter, and if it does, walk.
 
I thought you have already claimed to have negotiated deals for several people and the salesmen are all buds with you for sending them so many clients????

If you are putting down a serious deposit, then they will more than likely deal. If you are putting down $500-1000, they probably won't be holding anything for you.
 
DVad3r said:
Why tell anyone you are buying a car for someone else? Just go in, say you're paying cash, and u can get a crazy deal. You have all the power.
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works good on cars on a private lot selling for less than $10k.

At a dealership, finance is one of their profit centers.

With today's rates the only people paying cash for cars are those that can't qualify for credit.
 
alkemyst said:
With today's rates the only people paying cash for cars are those that can't qualify for credit.
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Pretty much this, or if you're loaded enough not to care. Friend's mom bought him an 2011 A4, wired the cash straight from HK to his bank account. Just wrote a personal check for the car at the dealer, lol.
 
I have some student loans that I have stretched out to the absolute maximum time for repayment. Why? Because the interest rate is less than the inflation rate....
 
swinger222 said:
Take the costco route or go internet-only. Tell the internet sales managers what you want, get your price over phone/email, then go directly to that person and sign. Don't compromise.
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We did something similar. Have an AAA membership, so used their buying service. All pricing was really up-front. A good negotiator may have gotten a better price than we did, but pricing was literally zero hassle.

Ferzerp said:
I have some student loans that I have stretched out to the absolute maximum time for repayment. Why? Because the interest rate is less than the inflation rate....
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My wife's student and car loans are pretty much like that, at around 2.5% and 1.9%. Only loan we'd pay off faster is our mortgage, which is higher than the other two added together.
 
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