How I Stuck to My Price & Won When Buying a Car
Several years ago I was in the market for a used car. I had a company car but quit my job for a new one, so I needed a car. The beauty of the company car was that I did not have a car note, so I was determined to keep this expense low with purchasing a car.
One day while driving by a used car lot, I spotted a fully loaded Nissan Sentra (sun roof, A/C, cruise control, power seats) with low millage and still under warranty. The sticker price on the car was $16,900. After a test drive, I offered $12,000 for the car and told the sales man I wouldn’t go one penny over. I picked $12,000 out of the sky without doing any research, but it sounded like a great price for the car. The sales man laughed at me and told me there was no way he could go that low. I reiterated that I wasn’t going 1 penny over $12,000.
As usual, the salesman went into the back room to speak to his manager. A few minutes later he came back and said, “Wow, my manager was able to drop the price to $15,900”. I said thank you for your time. He said, “Hold on, let’s talk about it”. I said “$12,000 is all I’m willing to spend.” He then went back to speak to his manager and came back out after a few minutes. He then said, “Ok, this is the best I can do and I can’t do any better than this. We’ll give it to you for $13,900”. Again, I was ready to walk out. He then went back and spoke to his boss again. He came back out and said, “Ok we’ll give it you for $12,000, but keep in mind we are making no money on the car”. He then showed me on his computer that the dealership purchased the car for about $12,100. I was amazed! I then wondered what the Blue Book value of the car was. So I told the sales man I had to run home and check something before I purchased the car. I ran home and checked the Blue Book value and the car was valued at about $15,500.
I thought to myself, “Wow I’m getting a great deal!” I immediately went back to the dealership and purchased the car. About a month later, while driving by the same used car dealership I saw that the lot was empty and they had closed. Then it hit me – they were going out of business and wanted to get rid of the cars. My timing was great.
I was extremely happy that I stuck to my price and ended up getting a car that ran well for years. I sold that same car about 5 years later by placing an ad on Yahoo for a sale price of $2,500. The very next day a gentleman purchased the car in cash for $2,500 without inspecting it or negotiating. He told me he was shipping the car to South America to sell it as a taxicab. I then thought to myself, “Damn, I should have asked for more money, maybe $2,500 was too low!”
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