Dial Herco

I don’t know anyone who enjoys haggling with a dealer, and the inevitable mg-of-war between buyer and seller makes buying a 4×4 about as pleasant as having your guns scraped. But if you go armed with a firm strategy based on careful research, you can make the experience bearable.
A friend of mine likes to launch a preemptive strike when he enters a dealership. “When I walk in, I’m ready to buy,” he told me. “I know exactly what I want down to the last detail. I tell the dealer, ‘You’re not going to have the truck I need on the lot. I’m going to order it, and you’re going to turn a profit for very little worlc”
This approach works when buying a domestic truck. Import truck buyers have much less leeway because you can’t special-order from the factory.
A Montana trout fisherman confronts dealers this way: “First, I get the invoice price of the truck.These figures are usually available from libraries, banks, credit unions, or the Internet. Then I call a dealer (I never walk on the floor ff1 can help it), ask for the sales manager, and tell him I’ll buy the truck for “invoice plus $350, straight cash [outside financing], If the sales manager won’t go for it, I may have to offer invoice plus $500, but that’s as far as I go.That’s plenty of profit for a dealer, because he usually also gets incentive money from the factory. The whole process takes about 2 minutes 30 seconds, and there’s no skating around.”
The only way to make this system work for you is to do all your homework, know exactly what you want, and be persistent. Also, the “plus” figure will vary. It might be as low as $200 if the vehicle in question isn’t selling well, or much more if it’s in great demand. If the dealer has plenty of trucks on the lot, he’s usually more willing to bargain, but if he has control of his inventory, he’ll tell you to take a hike. You also need to make sure the invoice figures are current (last year’s won’t do) and cover all the options and special equipment you need.
Don’t use the process to lowball the dealer with a completely ridiculous offer. Doing so brands you an idiot. Remember, this guy sells trucks 6 days a week, 8 (or more) hours a day. You buy once every ten years. He is not going to sell you a truck at a loss. A fair offer tells him you are serious, and you are more likely to get the truck you want at a price you can bear.
If you live in an area with few dealers, or if you want a red-hot vehicle, you won’t be able to bargain as effectively. Even so, have the numbers at your fingertips. Walking into a showroom completely unprepared is a recipe for disaster.
If you can’t come to terms that you can live with, walk. Let the salesman know you’re willing to buy a different model from another dealer. That will often bring him back to the table with a more reasonable offer. (I must admit that sometimes this doesn’t work. I once had a salesman just turn away from me as I walked out the door. I later bought at a better dealership with a terrific service department, so in the end I made the right move.)
Once you strike a deal, don’t compare it to the deals engineered by the guys at work or at the gun club. Are you happy with the deal? That’s all that matters. Salesmen can cut a deal in many different ways, and unless you’re party to every aspect of the negotiations, you can’t really judge the merits of a particular sale.
How much truck can you afford? The general rule of thumb is the purchase price should not exceed half of your annual income. And though you need to be cost-conscious, don’t underbuy. In order for the truck to perform on target, you must order the needed special equipment. This is no place to scrimp, especially if your hunting and fishing takes you far from the beaten track.