What’s with all the car dealer add-ons?

Blueswede · 07-18-2021, 03:56 AM

I’ve been shopping for a Ram dually, found a nice one. Called the dealership only to discover that the listed price is not the real price. All of the add-ons added another 4K to the price. And I don’t have the option to refuse them. Just irritating that they do this, claiming that it just adds value, when in reality it just adds profit to them….

Northofu1 · 07-18-2021, 04:30 AM

Car and RV dealers constantly push the boundaries of looking for a legal but non-ethical way to screw the buyer. They confuse the would be buyer with double talk, non-essential options, warranties, rust proofing, and 24/7 roadside assistance schemes. During the purchase process they try to batter you with these hoping you will give in to one or two just to end the barrage.
They do this because people out there give in to it.
Personally, I am blunt and tell them to stop the BS, this is what I'm paying, not a penny more. I don't want anything extra. I will handle everything else after purchase myself.

The same goes with bundling options. Oh, you want the 10 way power front seats?
You have to switch to this package to get them, which usually include 3 options you don't care for.

They just want more! You can either buckle and give in to them or tell them (verbally or non-verbally) to get stuffed. I can tell I got a deal by the way the salesman treats me when I am in for service.

I don't care if he looks the other way as we walk by each other. Fait accompli
I don't want to be rude, just don't want to be a sucker.
Good luck out there.

**chuckster57** · 07-18-2021, 04:33 AM

My friend just bought a truck a couple months ago, said it’s a nightmare due to lack of inventory. There isn’t really any negotiating because if you don’t buy it the guy behind you will. I would be looking at used if there is any.

jasin1 · 07-18-2021, 05:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blueswede

I’ve been shopping for a Ram dually, found a nice one. Called the dealership only to discover that the listed price is not the real price. All of the add-ons added another 4K to the price. And I don’t have the option to refuse them. Just irritating that they do this, claiming that it just adds value, when in reality it just adds profit to them….

Ive been looking at Jeep’s and bronco sports with my daughter for the last couple months..the Broncos were selling above the sticker price…just because…
Some of the Jeep’s have been doing the old trick like you seem to have found..they tack on 3-4 thousand extra with paint protection and nitrogen filled tires or some other gimmick and they get you to negotiate and you end up paying sticker price and feel like you got a deal! Because you “saved” 3-4 thousand

The Chevy pickup I was going to buy last winter when they had employee pricing,the manager came back and said “nope” we don’t have to participate in employee pricing if we don’t want to and we can get sticker price for the truck …so I left

Best thing is to physically go to the dealer prepared to buy that day and see what you can negotiate.
They prob get 50 calls a day about that truck and they are weeding the people out who balk at the price increase…they are hoping to hook a big fish that will go along with whatever they say….if you show up at the dealer then they realize they already “have a fish in the boat” ..they may be more likely to deal

GilaElkHunter · 07-18-2021, 05:47 AM

Been thinking about a new 4 seater side x side. They are the same way, there is absolutely no inventory out there. (Dealers will let you put a deposit on one that might come in an few weeks). It used to be that you could barter the price down approx. 20% from MSRP, but these days they are getting MSRP +. And then they have so many add ons on top of that, that sxs that has a MSRP of $17500 winds up over $21000 before you get out the door. Used vehicles, campers and atv/utv prices have gone through the roof. It is a sellers market right now, I have thought about selling my 2 seat sxs now, but don't know when this market will turn around again if ever. Personally I am going to wait awhile and see what happens.

Blueswede · 07-18-2021, 10:17 AM

Fortunately my current tow vehicle is paid for. Maybe next year things will get back to sort of normal. In the meantime I'll continue to browse. Maybe there's a dealer that will be a bit more reasonable.

**flybouy** · 07-18-2021, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blueswede

Fortunately my current tow vehicle is paid for. Maybe next year things will get back to sort of normal. In the meantime I'll continue to browse. Maybe there's a dealer that will be a bit more reasonable.

This is your best option. I remember back when Honda first hit the shores it was the same deal, never as much as walked into their showroom. When our youngest daughter got her driver's license she fell in love with a Saturn "sports model". Everyone said they don't negotiate prices. The showroom even had a large sign stating that. 2 hrs later we left with the car she wanted for $1,500 less than the sticker. In this market I wouldn't think about buying.

Badbart56 · 07-18-2021, 03:50 PM

It's a dealers market these days. That said, there are starving salesmen and women everywhere. No inventory. Take what we have or the next guy will. No leverage for the buyer. Even in the Class 8 trucks, I had to wait almost a year to get this 2021 Peterbilt 579. I'm not sure what the excuse was for not having any inventory but I'm sure it was COVID related. Our company is hiring more teams but they can only hire them as fast as they can get more trucks so not only is there a driver shortage, now we all have to face the reality of a truck shortage AND rising fuel prices. Standby folks. The price of everything is going up!

K_N_L · 07-18-2021, 04:00 PM

It's a crazy market, last spring during the initial shutdown, I traded off my 11 year old Toyota for a newer Honda thinking that would need a commuter car by summer, ( 14 days ya' know! ). But then I never had to go back to the office so I sold that Honda last week for 2K more than the purchase price. I didnt need it as I only put 3k on it in 15 months, never changed the oil in it. Hope the market will return to a better place but hope isnt a business plan.

Northofu1 · 07-18-2021, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Badbart56

It's a dealers market these days. That said, there are starving salesmen and women everywhere. No inventory. Take what we have or the next guy will. No leverage for the buyer. Even in the Class 8 trucks, I had to wait almost a year to get this 2021 Peterbilt 579. I'm not sure what the excuse was for not having any inventory but I'm sure it was COVID related. Our company is hiring more teams but they can only hire them as fast as they can get more trucks so not only is there a driver shortage, now we all have to face the reality of a truck shortage AND rising fuel prices. Standby folks. The price of everything is going up!

It's a dealers market until no one is buying anything, then it becomes a buyers market. August is when the gmc Chevy new year's model comes out. It's normally a good time to buy "last year's" model. I don't think there will be much left for 2021 stock. I would just wait another year.

John&Genny · 07-20-2021, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuckster57

My friend just bought a truck a couple months ago, said it’s a nightmare due to lack of inventory. There isn’t really any negotiating because if you don’t buy it the guy behind you will. I would be looking at used if there is any.

I was thinking about buying a new F350 or Duramax this fall, but with the dealerships refusing to deal and the lack of stock, we may hold off another year. Many of the problems are due to the chip and supply chain shortages from the pandemic, so hopefully next year it will have a chance to recover a bit.

We will still be going out to see what's available, but not getting our hopes up either. My 2008 Duramax is still going strong

notanlines · 07-20-2021, 03:12 AM

Dan, maybe you could sell your house, Toronto prices being what they are, and THEN you could buy a new truck.

As a side note, our friends up in Wasaga Beach area just sold their rental property for $4,000 MORE than asking price, no agent. The young couple who bought the property are going to commute to Toronto. They said even with combined income they could afford nothing in Toronto. Crazy times!

**JRTJH** · 07-20-2021, 03:19 AM

Much of the real estate around here is selling within a couple weeks of being listed, sometimes the first day it's on the market, and nearly all buyers are making "first offers" of 15% (or more) of the list price to "assure a contract"... There's no such thing a seeing an ad in the newspaper and deciding to go take a look at it this weekend. If you want it, best be setting the alarm an hour earlier than normal and hope that's early enough.

I know of two houses around me that were sold for 25% more than list price, both within 3 days of being listed with a realtor.

CRAZY TIMES WE LIVE IN, eh ????

wiredgeorge · 07-20-2021, 06:28 AM

Remember the PT Cruiser? When they first came out, the missus saw the ad for these on the television. Decided she had to have one. None in San Antonio as they were new and selling like hot cakes. They had one up in New Braunfels so we drove up their to buy her dream car. Got there and I found out it was a Neon in drag. MSRP was a few thousand more than a Neon and they tacked on a few thousand top of that with a line typed on the window sticker which I can't remember the wording but essentially the car was selling like hot cakes and take it or leave it. I told the missus NO YOU AIN'T BUYING A NEON DRESSED UP (by the way that would be the last time I told her NO YOU AIN'T BUYING anything, learned my lesson!). Anyway, found she was disappointed as the thing was half as big as it appeared on TV. She drove a new green Neon home and it actually was a great car for about 75K miles then everything started to fall apart or fail. Sold it. I had never seen a dealer gouge so blatantly because the COULD. Now if the missus wants a new car, I say "what color"?

**sourdough** · 07-20-2021, 07:35 AM

All things I guess are "blowing up" pricewise.

In the mountain valley where we owned our vacation home a friend built a very nice 3 level log home across from us (over 1/2 mile). HE built it (with the help of a log home builder fellow) for less than 100k. Sold it for 275k maybe 3 years back. It is on the market today for 699k per my neighbor and good friends (I haven't looked into it). They expect it won't be there for more than a couple of days because everything going up for sale up there is selling in a couple of days - now that is crazy.

rjrelander · 07-20-2021, 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sourdough

All things I guess are "blowing up" pricewise.

In the mountain valley where we owned our vacation home a friend built a very nice 3 level log home across from us (over 1/2 mile). HE built it (with the help of a log home builder fellow) for less than 100k. Sold it for 275k maybe 3 years back. It is on the market today for 699k per my neighbor and good friends (I haven't looked into it). They expect it won't be there for more than a couple of days because everything going up for sale up there is selling in a couple of days - now that is crazy.

What makes me nervous about all this (your log home example above and all the vehicle examples in this thread) is that we're heading into another bubble. Eventually this stuff is going to end up going back to the banks when prices make a correction and people start to realize that they can't afford to be making all these payments.

jasin1 · 07-20-2021, 08:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sourdough

All things I guess are "blowing up" pricewise.

In the mountain valley where we owned our vacation home a friend built a very nice 3 level log home across from us (over 1/2 mile). HE built it (with the help of a log home builder fellow) for less than 100k. Sold it for 275k maybe 3 years back. It is on the market today for 699k per my neighbor and good friends (I haven't looked into it). They expect it won't be there for more than a couple of days because everything going up for sale up there is selling in a couple of days - now that is crazy.

We had two houses sell…one two doors to the left $800000 and one five doors to the right..$800000……that one I heard they made a separate deal for all the furniture as well…both within last year..both families bought for a summer home ….neither went through a realitor. Both word of mouth. And they won’t rent it out …there also seems to be a higher percentage of people with extra money to spend or they decided to just forgo the saving for retirement and decided to spend it all now
A lot of new boats on the river and much bigger then you would see 20 years ago…not uncommon for boats in the 35’ range to be $500000 or more
And some of the 40 footers are pushing a million dollars

Certainly reminds me of the roaring 20’s with the Rockefeller’s and Vanderbilt’s being replaced by the Elon musks and Jeff Bezos of the world

wiredgeorge · 07-20-2021, 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasin1

We had two houses sell…one two doors to the left $800000 and one five doors to the right..$800000……that one I heard they made a separate deal for all the furniture as well…both within last year..both families bought for a vacation home …there also seems to be a higher percentage of people with extra money to spend or they decided to just forgo the saving for retirement and decided to spend it all now
A lot of new boats on the river and much bigger then you would see 20 years ago…not uncommon for boats in the 35’ range to be $500000 or more
And some of the 40 footers are pushing a million dollars

Certainly reminds me of the roaring 20’s with the Rockefeller’s and Vanderbilt’s being replaced by the Elon musks and Jeff Bezos of the world

Bezos ain't of the world much longer; saw on the news he is off to outer space; a good place for a rich guy!

jasin1 · 07-20-2021, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wiredgeorge

Bezos ain't of the world much longer; saw on the news he is off to outer space; a good place for a rich guy!

Lol yeah the last place I would go if I was the richest person in the world is a first generation prototype space craft… I guess they didn’t get where they are in life without a lot of risk taking though

Camping family · 07-20-2021, 10:26 AM

Don’t look for things to change much i was just in contact with our local Ford dealer after I seen they were finally getting some trucks in. I was told it’s best to special order what you want. As most of the trucks coming in have already been spoken for. Was also told some had to be change as for options in order to get them in. So it looks like if I want to upgrade to a new f350 super duty from my f250 super duty I will have to order one and wait till around November/December time frame to receive it.

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