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Originally Posted by SoYank
The easiest purchase is where you first research the costs for the car and options you want. Start at invoice and add a couple hundred for dealer profit. Maybe split the invoice and MSRP for options. Line up financing separately. Then, go in and make your offer. All they should have to say is yes or no. Yes, they have a sale; no, then just get up and walk. Negotiate with your feet. You've already done what the saleperson should be doing.
If you're ordering the car then the amount you allot for dealer profit should be less since the car won't be taking up real-estate on the forecourt for any appreciable amount of time.
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I kind of like the US system ... but in the UK it works slightly differently ...
There are 3 stages to the whole mess:
1. Agree a trade in figure for your car. The 'bible' for this is the black book or glasses guide, but the stock response is that 'those are only guide figures not people offering to buy the car for that in cash'. The problem is also that the dealer won't share what book value is ... you need to do your own research. Plus there are several values .... good, average and poor condition, same for milage, then there is a 'buy' price and a 'sell' price for 'private sales' and 'dealerships'. In the end it's a black art and the dealers use this to their advantage.
2. Finance. This is where the dealers make a significant margin and BMW Financial Services like to keep the bulk of the business. I think they will beat the majority of offers, but you have to get someone else to lay down the target first or they will give you a naff deal. Like Snake I have found that they don't want to present the financials in a straightforward manner and they do rely on the 'boredom factor'. I also had to go through the pantomime where the salesman goes of to the business manager, who brings back and offer, then the business manager comes out, then the sales manager .. blah blah blah.
3. Purchase price. In the UK we don't get the 'cost over invoice system'. We just have the MRRP less any discount you can get. The available discount is going to be a function of how well you did in stages 1 and 2 (they get their profit one way or another - it's just 'how you cut the cake'). My starting point was to ask them to match the best discount I could get from an online broker. Obviously the stock response is - we can't match that because of overheads blah blah blah. In which case you can then haggle between that and the MRRP.