So today I talked to the closest BMW dealer to me, and I wasn't satisfied at all. I used edmunds.com to configure a new 2008 Z4 3.0i to just how I want it - sport package, leather seats, xenon lights, heated seats, automatic top. That's all I really need, with the possible exception of satellite radio, but that option is dealer-installed so it wasn't on the edmunds site.
The total came to about 41K (USD) if I remember correctly, with an invoice in the high 38k range, and a "true market value" in the low 38k range. Invoice for the base car with no options would be about 33k with $5,000ish dollars worth or options. Sounds good? After making my own calculations, (invoice - dealer incentives plus 5% income for the dealer, which any dealer, I'm assuming, should be okay with) and I got a number, again, in the 38k range.
I clicked to get a quote from my closest dealer and in no more than 5 minutes I get a phone call from the dealership. Quite literally, the second sentence out of the sleazeball's mouth after introducing himself went along the lines of "The Z4's a nice car, but it's not cheap; I don't know how you got that price you're asking a quote for, but the car with options is worth at least in the mid $40,000's." Now, I know car salesmen really are liars and jackasses, but has anyone ever had a dealer with the audacity to try to con you out of ~$7,000 before even introducing yourself properly? I honestly didn't expect anything quite THIS bad from a BMW dealership. The price he was trying to give me was even higher than MSRP!
That said, do you guys think the 38k is a fair price for my desired car? I know it was pretty easy to haggle down a couple thousand bucks when I got my Honda Element, but then again the Element must be Honda's slowest selling car, and I don't know how far down BMW would be willing to go, since this is my first Bimmer.
The total came to about 41K (USD) if I remember correctly, with an invoice in the high 38k range, and a "true market value" in the low 38k range. Invoice for the base car with no options would be about 33k with $5,000ish dollars worth or options. Sounds good? After making my own calculations, (invoice - dealer incentives plus 5% income for the dealer, which any dealer, I'm assuming, should be okay with) and I got a number, again, in the 38k range.
I clicked to get a quote from my closest dealer and in no more than 5 minutes I get a phone call from the dealership. Quite literally, the second sentence out of the sleazeball's mouth after introducing himself went along the lines of "The Z4's a nice car, but it's not cheap; I don't know how you got that price you're asking a quote for, but the car with options is worth at least in the mid $40,000's." Now, I know car salesmen really are liars and jackasses, but has anyone ever had a dealer with the audacity to try to con you out of ~$7,000 before even introducing yourself properly? I honestly didn't expect anything quite THIS bad from a BMW dealership. The price he was trying to give me was even higher than MSRP!
That said, do you guys think the 38k is a fair price for my desired car? I know it was pretty easy to haggle down a couple thousand bucks when I got my Honda Element, but then again the Element must be Honda's slowest selling car, and I don't know how far down BMW would be willing to go, since this is my first Bimmer.
