5 Ways To Piss Off a Car Dealership... and get a better deal!

This article is going to help you get a better deal when shopping for a car... It is not intended to be malicious towards a salesman or the dealership. Being someone who sold cars for an extended period of time, I do have some level of repect for what salemen do... However, it is a game of chess between buyer and seller. It is your job as a customer to do what it takes to get the best deal you possibly can and the dealer's job to make the most money they can. Sometimes, the best way to take down your opponent is to get underneath their skin.

With that being said, here are 5 different "techniques" you can use to gain and keep the upper hand when it comes to buying or leasing a car from a dealership.

1. Give them as little info as you possibly can

Most people will go into a dealership and start giving their sob story to try and win over a salesmen's heart, hoping that they will find it in them to actually care about the fact that you are "trading in your deceased father's car." The salesman does not care. He might pretend he cares. But he doesn't. Give them as little info as possible... Reason being is a good salesmen will know how to use what you say against you and trick you emotionally into buying the car. The less you say, the better.

2. Lie and Play Dumb.

They are going to do it to you. You might as well play the game. I don't mean to do it with intent to hurt anyone... I mean make up a story. An example might be... If you are a 35 year old man driving a Ford Mustang and your wife wants you to trade it in for something safer for the kids. Do your research on the car you want and find the best price you possibly can. (Edmunds is a great resource for this.) When going to the dealership, leave out the fact that you know what the best price is on the new car you want and only talk about how much you want for your trade in. Play dumb and let him give you a high price on the car and a high value for your trade in. Once you have the trade in value, then you can bust out the fact that you know what you can pay for the new car. Then all the numbers come together and you get the best deal you can.

There are a ton of different ways of manipulating your scenario into one that a salesman will percieve totally opposite of what is really happening. This will cause him to play into the wrong emotionally strings of yours and keep you from making a stupid decision. He won't be selling to you and your story... He'll be selling to the story you made up about yourself.

3. Shop Around

This goes for not only the new car you're buying... but the value of your trade in. And your interest rate. And any extras that you can get worked into the deal. This requires beating the hell out of your phone and really putting in some leg work. But the deal you will get out of it is worth the investment. Ideally, you'll want to choose 3 or 4 different dealerships. Start off by emailing them. Be very specific on what you are looking for and they won't have the opportunity to play games. The internet has made the car business very competitive and backs the dealership into the corner.

Once you get a price from all of them, it's time to get on the phone. Call the one with the highest price and give them the other dealership who came back with the lowest price. See why there is such a difference and see if you can get them to match the lowest price. If they can match that, call the dealership with the 3rd highest original price and see if they can match the new offer from the originally highest dealership. If they are willing to come down, call the dealership with the second highest original price and see if they can come down to meet the new price of the 3rd dealership.

You can continue cycling through in this pattern until you reach a point where the dealership starts telling you to "get lost!" That's when you know you've reach rock bottom price. Once you find the dealership that is willing to cooperate, have the salesman email you back with the exact details of the transaction. This way, you'll have everything in writing. Salesmen will tell you whatever you want to hear over the phone just to get you into the dealership. Having it in writing from him will give you much more credibility when he goes back to his manager.

4. Show No Emotion

There is nothing that pisses off a salesman more than someone who shows little to no interest in his product. Emotion is a huge part of selling. If you can get someone to fall madly in love with that you are selling them, the value of that product increases, meaning you will naturally pay for it. Don't let this happen. If you make a logical decision, it's probably going to be a smarter one.

5. Remember, You Can Always Walk Away.

Salesmen are pretty good at making a customer feel like they are getting "the deal of a lifetime." But keep in mind that it is just a car. There will always be more deals that are even better than that one. As long as you keep it in your control to be able to walk away, you can pretty much guarantee yourself a good deal.

These are some of the techniques that we use when helping our customer buy cars. By applying some of these techniques yourself to the purchase of your next car, you can be sure you'll have the upper hand at the dealership.