Just wanted to post my recent experience. Started looking for a replacement Volt lease (my 2014 lease was ending) back in February. Visited multiple Southern California dealerships. A lot of pressure at that time to act now while the President's Day sales were in effect. You know the refrain -- "At the start of the month, the old incentives end and we never know what new incentives will be in place..." i.e. act now, the price may go up after the 1st.
Well, come March 1st, no real changes. Come April 1st, no real changes.
Interesting data points for me, and I was glad to see I didn't miss some incredible deal by not jumping at the first car I saw. I still got President's Day sale prices in April. It took the pressure off me of needing to buy, say, at the end of the month when they're supposedly trying to make their quotas etc. Prices got no better, or worse.
Second, I went to Rydell, Community, Keyes, Sierra, and several other SC dealerships. Went to the mat over similar cars -- literally spent five hours hammering out a deal at Rydell, but didn't take it because it was my first go-round and I thought I might do better. Had a handshake at Sierra for a similar car, wound up at almost exacty the same price point, but something came up, didn't buy the car. Basically every dealership had almost the exact same figures, and I had all sorts of complications to add in -- trade in, extra warranty, etc etc. Complex deal, nearly the same numbers from everyone.
Finally picked up my car at Keyes because they had a color I liked. But I would have done equally well at any of the dealerships, in my opinion. (Win started way high out of the box, didn't try to negotiate them down. Probably would have gotten them down to the same exact number.)
My takeaway from all this -- I spent WAY too much time haggling with multiple dealers if my only intention was to get the best price. They all gave me the same monthly payment within $10-20 (depending on exact car specs). My time wasn't wasted, however, as it let me become familiar with every flavor of the car and decide several times that this was the car for me.
End result -- I've got a great Volt (the current iteration is amazing) and I'm happy with the price.
So if you're in the market, I'd say don't expect great variation in price between dealerships (ie Rydell isn't necessarily the cheapest), and don't feel if you don't buy at the end of the month you're not getting the best deal you could (the sale prices keep coming).
Well, come March 1st, no real changes. Come April 1st, no real changes.
Interesting data points for me, and I was glad to see I didn't miss some incredible deal by not jumping at the first car I saw. I still got President's Day sale prices in April. It took the pressure off me of needing to buy, say, at the end of the month when they're supposedly trying to make their quotas etc. Prices got no better, or worse.
Second, I went to Rydell, Community, Keyes, Sierra, and several other SC dealerships. Went to the mat over similar cars -- literally spent five hours hammering out a deal at Rydell, but didn't take it because it was my first go-round and I thought I might do better. Had a handshake at Sierra for a similar car, wound up at almost exacty the same price point, but something came up, didn't buy the car. Basically every dealership had almost the exact same figures, and I had all sorts of complications to add in -- trade in, extra warranty, etc etc. Complex deal, nearly the same numbers from everyone.
Finally picked up my car at Keyes because they had a color I liked. But I would have done equally well at any of the dealerships, in my opinion. (Win started way high out of the box, didn't try to negotiate them down. Probably would have gotten them down to the same exact number.)
My takeaway from all this -- I spent WAY too much time haggling with multiple dealers if my only intention was to get the best price. They all gave me the same monthly payment within $10-20 (depending on exact car specs). My time wasn't wasted, however, as it let me become familiar with every flavor of the car and decide several times that this was the car for me.
End result -- I've got a great Volt (the current iteration is amazing) and I'm happy with the price.
So if you're in the market, I'd say don't expect great variation in price between dealerships (ie Rydell isn't necessarily the cheapest), and don't feel if you don't buy at the end of the month you're not getting the best deal you could (the sale prices keep coming).
