Quote:
Originally Posted by mdm
I don't blame them. Haggling about price feels medieval.
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That's why I don't haggle. I negotiate. Haggling is just quarreling over price, whereas negotiating is a science and an art. The reason haggling is stressful is that it involves no clear goals. You're just arguing with no sense of when or whether you have received a good deal. Negotiating involves setting a goal, identifying a range of acceptable outcomes and then working toward them. You know when you've gotten what you wanted, and you also know when you should walk away. Haggling is emotional, whereas negotiating is cerebral.
Several years ago I was introduced to two great books on negotiating:
You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen - This book explains negotiation strategies and tactics. When you read it, you'll start to notice tactics explained in the books being used around you all the time in everyday interactions. Although it's not specific to buying cars, you'll recognize every single tactic car salesmen use. Once you realize what they're doing, many of the tactics lose a lot of their effectiveness, and you also learn how to prepare to neutralize the others.
Winning Through Intimidation by Robert Ringer - Contrary to the title, this book is actually about
avoiding being intimidated by other people. Here again, once you read the book, you'll notice people doing little stupid things to intimidate each other on a daily basis. There are a lot of subtle and not-so-subtle intimidation tactics used by car salesmen. As with the negotiation tactics, recognizing them for what they are can take away their power. In fact, sometimes recognizing that someone is trying to intimidate you actually shifts the power to you instead, because it can reveal things they don't want you to know.
I would strongly suggest both of those books to anybody about to buy a car. Knowing what's in them will take 99% of the stress out of the process and, for some people, will add a lot of fun to the whole experience.
When I bought my car, it wasn't stressful at all. I did my research on the supply in the area and went in knowing what I expected to pay. I didn't have a trade. I already had financing in place. So their regular schemes weren't available to them.
When I made it clear I wanted to buy a car (and after we had dispensed with the trade and financing nonsense), the salesman made an offer. I countered. Then we agreed. I was willing to pay more. I think I could have actually gotten it for less. But the final result was in my acceptable range with no drama or stress at all.
Or I could have gone across town and paid $1700 more for an FR-S, knowing full well I had been cheated but pretending that I got the "best price" because the dealership told me I did. To me, that would have been more stressful, always suspecting that I got screwed.