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Comment by vl | Hacker News Reader

BTW, apart from fixed price online sales, there are fixed priced dealerships. They advertise price on the website and don't negotiate. You just show up and get car at this price. Very smooth.

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Unless you have a trade in as this is one area where they can still get you.

Do those fixed price dealers count their various add-ons (rust proofing, extended warranty...) in the fixed price or not. These add-ons are how most dealers make money (that and warranty work)

For trade-in compare price they offer to Carmax (including taxes and fees adjustment), if less, just sell to Carmax.

Whatever is on the sale sheet is included. You can order extra stuff, they will install it for you, but obviously it’s not included in the advertised price.

Sure, but "smart dealers" won't tell your trade in is worth, instead they give you final payment after your trade in, and they often won't tell you how long the loan term is for.

Uhhh....they don't add on unnecessary charges? Like a paint coating you didn't ask for?

I had one try to add $3k for invisible (UV) paint the police could use to prosecute the thieves if my car were dismantled. All the extra fees turned a $4500 car, listed at $8500 at that dealership, into $19500. The "fixed price" just meant they were completely and utterly unwilling to negotiate on that sort of insanity, so some dealership down the road got my business instead. $5k later, the same car has had no issues for 50k miles.

Honest question, when the customer knows you're trying to fleece them and is willing to pay a small premium to finish the deal and get on with their lives, why would a dealer double down on something so outrageous?

Because making a $15,000 profit 5% of the time and nothing 95% of the time is better than making a $500 profit every time.

Basically if scamming your customers works a nontrivial fraction of the time and the margin when you're not scamming is small, scamming is the incentivized behavior.

The whole idea is that there is a car and non-negotiable advertised price, you pay the price + taxes + registration + processing fee, which are all known in advance and get the car. That’s it. If you are talented negotiator and have time, you’ll get better price elsewhere, but I value my time and well-being more.

Obviously there could be bad dealership which would try to screw you, read some reviews and don’t go to such place.

You can do this at any dealership.

You'd like to think that, but no, there are plenty of dealers that will TELL you they're happy to negotiate everything by email/phone and then you just show up and get the car, but once you're there they want to change the deal and will still make you sit in a little office with someone that tries to add-on warranties, paint protection, prepaid services, etc.

You mentioned you liked dealers that don't negotiate. So I mentioned you can buy without negotiating at any dealership. The advertised price is pretty fair at 90% of dealerships.

Beyond that, their advertised specials are spectacular deals usually. Who spends money and attention advertising specials that don't even compete with the competition?

The problem is that you feel like a chump if you don’t negotiate. No one wants to feel like they didn’t get a deal especially on a used car. But the last time I bought one it was from a dealership that didn’t negotiate, a fact I discovered when I started negotiating. And then to see if it was true I started pushing pretty hard and they stood firm and the end result was great, I left very happy with my purchase.

Yes, you can, but during normal times at most dealerships (current market being atypical) it means that you left few hundred dollars at the table.

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