[sa meredith]

I LOVE IT... I LOVE IT...I LOVE IT...
As stated previously, car business is great...every one is an expert. PLEASE!
I love the posts suggesting you lie to the dealership. That's just great. What fantastic advice! It's just a piece of crap salesman, right? Lie to him/her...who cares.
Park your trade around the corner...tell them you are not trading. So...lie. Great advice.
I can tell you as many stories as you would like to read, but will not bore people to death with them, about why you really should not do that...but I will give a couple quick examples.
1st of all...treat people the way you want to be treated. Do you want to be lied to? Yes or no?
Why does a dealer need to know?
Well, maybe you truly have a very desireable trade, and the dealer will be happy to give you an even better price on the new car to get the trade.
Or...how about this. You tell the dealership you have no trade...and that's good, because at the moment, they are struggling a bit, and really can't take big money trades. Your trade is worth 10/12K, and presently the dealership is used car heavy, and would prefer a clean sale. But the sales rep does not have to tell you that upfront, because you just told him/her you have no trade. Great...as far as the sales rep goes, that hurdle is cleared. So, both parties nagotiate...the sales rep in good faith...the lieing customer, not so much. After 3 hours of crunching numbers, and test driving 3 models, and choosing a color, and the sales rep educating you about the car's features...you try to undo your lie and say..."I have a trade". The sales rep should pop you one in the mouth for lieing and wasting his entire afternoon. Here's a clue folks...car sales poeple are not the reps of the 70's/ 80's. They are not the booze drinking, cocaine snorting, woman chasing fools of years ago. They are regular people who need to pay their mortgage, their children's tuition, their electric bill, their cable bill, their taxes...just like everyone else. And it's OK to lie and waste their time??? Are you fried?
If you lie, expect to be lied to. We reap what we sow in this world.
Edmonds...KBB...Consumer Reports...christ, do you read a manual before using the toilet?
Trust your own ability to negotiate, find a professional sales rep, and enter into a relationship with him in good faith.
In summer 2007, gas was hitting 4 bucks for the 1st time, and everyone in the country was in a panic. New SUV's or trucks could be bought for a song...6,7,8 K discounts easy to find. But used SUVs/ trucks..no market. No one wanted them. Wholesalers, dealers, customers...there was 0 market for them. We did not want them, and told everyone up front...no trades on SUV/Trucks.
Many dealerships had signs made so people knew.
Anyway...I had a smart ass come in on a Monday morning to buy a very expensixe F350, gas job. 10/12 MPG at best. Awful, and gas was $4 +. After grinding away for hours, and reaching a deal...my sales rep comes back to me, and says, "this guy just told me he has a 2004 he has to trade, and is upside down" (owes more than it is worth). So, not only does he have a trade I won't take, he owes more than it is worth...which is going to make a deal tough, even in good times. The guy was a real "know it all", and truth be told, a jerk.
I had the saleman just abandon him. Leave him sitting in the office. Just ignore him. After 45 minutes he came out, wondering what was happening. I told the customer I had to reprimand the salesman for mistreating a customer, and suspended him. I explained to the jerk, that he should have been told up front that we were not taking trades on trucks, and apologized for the salesman misleading him (of course, I knew full well that the salesman had told the customer this up front) and wasting the customer's time. And, of course, the guy sheepishly tells me that he was told this. So I asked why he lied. And he gives me the standard "oh come on, you guys do it all the time!"
And then, I simply suggested he go elswhere.
Don't lie people...never good idea. Want to know what your trade is actually worth? At the end of the negotiation, just ask! Say, "if I were to decide to keep my trade in and give it to a family member, could you please tell me what the figure would then be?" It's a fair question, and not a lie.
Let me end with this...you go to buy a new home. You decide to put an offer in. Are you not obligated to diclose to the seller/agent, that you can't close, until you sell the home you currently have? Of course you are. It's an important part of the equation.
If you are so concerned that a dealership will jumble up the numbers (yes, many will)...simply have the trade appraised, and just insist that as the negotiation moves along the new car price and the trade in price must be kept seperate on the work sheet. Insist on it. If they don't, get up and leave. But don't lie. Just wrong.