[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by kaisen

There isn't a yes or no. Best deal? What the heck does that mean?
I've lost $2500 selling a new car before, is that the best deal? Or is losing $200 okay? Or $200 profit on a fast-selling hard-to-get-model? Or??? There is no 'best'.
Let's put it this way: the BEST price you'll get from ME is my FIRST price. It's your decision whether to take my deal or go shopping. I won't feel bad if you buy from someone else. Most won't. That's good enough for me. I won't match someone else's price either. Let them determine their own price structure. The market will determine whether they've calculated their value-add correctly.
By sticking to my guns on price, people know there's no funny business. Ever. They can make good decisons without second-guessing whether a better deal (from me) could be had.
Someone will always sell something for less. Always.
See OP's dealer #2.... all they had to do was undercut the other dealer. I once worked for an ultra-competitive high-volume Nissan dealer. We were either #1 or #2 in the region every month. I could quote a new Nissan at a $200 net profit and the other dealer (let's call them #2) would take our price and quote a $100 net loss.... ONLY if the customer's zipcode was near us. They would bite their nose to spite their face, figuring they'd 'pay' to steal a customer, or force us to lose money on a deal where the customer was likely going to buy from us anyway. As the General Sales Manager, I stopped the practice of matching price and guess what..... we were still #1 as many months out of the year, but we were more profitable so we could offer better services to retain customers.
Don't like my business model? Like McLovin said, it's a free country. Just don't b!tch when things go sideways.

+1
Why do people think that because a salesman wants to negotiate the price that it makes him a crook? Being an honest car salesman is not defined as giving the car away at no profit. As stated above, a hot selling model or few cars on the lot command higher profit.

As far as holdback is concerned, what a JOKE. Back in the 80's, the dealer rarely saw any of the holdback. All the brochures, promotional signs in the showroom, TV ads... are paid for from the holdback. Many times the dealership was required to buy all kinds of things they didn't need or want. We were forced to "purchase" things like thousands of brochures on a certain model car that we only got an allotment of 1 or 2 a year. We were always throwing out stuff at the end of the year. The manufacturer always figured out a way that the dealer lost almost all the holdback.