Learn Me: Negotiating a dealer car purchase via Email

I am currently looking at a 2011 128i for sale at a dealer, the car has been sitting on their lot for about 6 months without much action. It has very low miles, only around 7500 and is still under BMW warranty. They first listed the car for 33,995 and now have dropped it to 29,995. I have decided to try and negotiate a deal over email since I have heard it allows the customer a bit more power.

Can anyone give me tips on email negotiating? I have never done it before and have never bought a car from a dealer so I am a bit green.

I would argue it's probably pretty much the same process of haggling, starting with "what's your best out of the door price" and haggle down from there, only without the annoying bits where they have the keys to your trade in (and you have to threaten to call the law to get them back) and the constant "Oh, I have to check this with my manager" while they let you sit there and let you stew.

In reply to Joshua: Tell them what you believe is a fair price, "all in" (figure out local tax considerations).

Tell them you are prepared to arrive with a check for that amount, not interested in shenanigans - just want to buy a car.

Ask if they are interested in making a deal. Give them a deadline to respond to your offer.

Go to one dealer and figure out exactly what you want. Negotiate normally for the best price and then go home to think. Email every dealer near you with the exact color and specs. When you get the response, most will be close to the same number. If something is better than the first, go back and see what they'll do. I think email is how they make most deals these days. I've done it twice and it went very well both times.

My friend was looking for a new Ecoboost F150. Pretty standard truck, Crew cab, short bed, 4x4, Blue, white, or silver in color, leather interior, power options, chrome wheels. All dealers should have one on their lot, right?

So he goes around to all the Ford dealer websites in the area, gets their "sales" email, and sends an email to all of them at once, explaining he already has financing and what he wants for options and to give him the best price they can. To top it off, he sent them all on the "to" line, so everyone got to see who else was bidding for his business.

He got a screaming deal.

As far as negotiating via email, I give all my customers one crack at negotiations. Either via Email or in person. If you agree on price in an email, thats the price. If you say "I would like to come look at it", then you negotiate in person. To negotiate a price in an email and then try to chisel more in person is bad form, unless the deal changed significantly once you visually inspected the item.

In reply to BoxheadTim:

Yeah, I broke a cement trash can over that trick once. Of course, it was after the salesman threatened to punch me in the face.

Hmmmm well negotiating over email certainly sounds safer than in person! The bad part for me is it's the only car like it in the area since it's used...

Just make sure you print out everything to take with you. The Jeep dealer I went to tried to screw me by "adjusting for the market" the advertised price after we made an appointment to do the test drive. Several hundred dollars higher than the Cars.com price I printed out and luckily had with me. They still managed to screw me out of a few hundred bucks in license fees because I was out of state and didn't know any better.

I hate car dealers.

I think that negotiating over email is easier for a new car when multiple dealers have the same (or similar) car. When negotiating used, I'd get a good handle of what the value of the car is through a variety of sources. I usually use Edmunds TMV as a solid guideline, and then verify that against KBB (which always seems high) and NADA. I also check the forums for that car, completed listings in eBay, and CL to make sure I'm in the right ballpark. I'd set an amount that you won't go over, and start negotiating. One key is that I always negotiate an out-the-door cost (minus tax, title, and registration - which are fixed costs). There's nothing worse than negotiating a cost and then having them tack on dealer documentation fees, advertising fees, etc.

One thing that's worked in my favor is having a lot of research and examples to back up my offer. I don't offer that up at the beginning, but when they begin to give me a hard time, having that information shows that I'm serious enough to have done the research, and I'm not going to pay an inflated price. Having the ability to walk away if they won't cooperate will pay dividends, as well. And remember that often the best negotiating technique is silence. A little hard to convey over email, but sometimes taking some time to respond to a sub-par offer makes them wonder if you're looking somewhere else, no longer interested, etc.

Even if you have your heart set on this car, have plenty of examples of similar cars that you like just as much in your back pocket to show that if they can't get things done, you're happy to move along.