Car Shopping

Car Shopping > Introduction > End >

Purchasing a vehicle at a dealership involves from one to possibly three transactions that are all bundled together:

• The price of the car to be purchased.


• What the dealership is offering as a value of a vehicle to be traded, should there be a trade.


• Terms of any financing.

The above three bullets MUST† each be negotiated as individual items.
If you have ever taken a business or economics course you will have been introduced to the term "sunk costs".
Sunk costs are costs that cannot be recovered and should not be part of the decision making process.
However, the typical dealership will work under the assumption that the customer will be inappropriately invested in recovering the sunk cost of delivering him or herself to the dealership.
The salesmanager will bet that the customer will just agree to whatever the salesperson offers so the customer can get on with his or her day.
It is often a very good bet for the dealership.
I need you to be one of the exceptions.

† Combining bold with underline may seem as redundant as combining a belt with suspenders, but in this case I really MUST insist.