Steps to Buying a Car Made Fast and Easy!

By Grant Cardone, The New York Times Best Selling Author

It is no longer necessary to spend hours on the Internet shopping for a car or visiting a half a dozen dealerships to get a great deal. I am going to show you how to go to your local auto dealer and get a great deal without making it a long drawn out, painful process and I should know, I have been providing automotive sales training and automotive sales management training to auto dealers for 25 years. With the influence of the Internet, manufacturer’s input, and competition the old strategies of how to buy is outdated and actually makes buying your next vehicle more painful than necessary.

Auto dealers know there is no shortage of information available to you as a consumer, so they are now using documentation to replace long painful negotiations. Car dealers are replacing traditional automotive sales training with education. They are educating their sales and management teams on how they can create a positive customer buying experience. One key to creating that experience is by using transparent documentation to make the purchase process easy and fast.

Auto dealers aren’t any more interested in a long, drawn-out processes than the customer is. Because of this, it is no longer necessary to spend three weeks doing research, shopping half a dozen dealerships and countless hours in painful negotiations.

The New York Times Bestselling Author shows buyers the 6 steps that will guarantee a great deal without wasting time:

1) Approach the auto dealer as a buyer. Your best strategy when buying a car is to identify yourself as a buyer, not a shopper. Don’t be defensive; present yourself as an easy buyer to deal with. The customer that approaches a car dealer defensive and pushy tends to cause the dealership personnel to respond the same way.

2) Price is not your greatest concern. Let the sales person know that price is not your biggest concern, and the car is your main focus. This will be music to the sales person and make them butter in your hands. Let them know that you know price is easy once the vehicle is right. This will make the sales process quicker by reducing confrontation, and later will make getting your best terms even easier.

3) Determining the right car for you. Contrary to outdated strategies, the best way to determine the right vehicle is not online or on the phone but at the dealership. A trick to make sure you are on the right vehicle is to look at the vehicles just above and just below what you think you want. Any interest in either of the other two product choices means you are not yet on the perfect product for you.

4) Test-drive the vehicle. Driving the vehicle will actually save you time negotiating and makes the dealership feel like they have done their job and provides them with more confidence in giving you their best price.

5) Request a computer documented proposal. Ask the dealership to present their offer to you electronically. The most progressive, customer satisfaction-driven dealers today utilize technology to provide the buyer with computer-generated proposals. Full-disclosure proposals will include price, trade figures, purchase and lease payments, down payments and interest rates all at one time. Ask your dealer, “Do you use electronic proposals to document your offer?” Computer generated documentation avoids wasted time in the negotiations and unnecessary games. Car dealers know that time is important to the 21st century buyer and are using technology to improve the buying experience.

6) Determining a fair price? Franchised automotive dealers in the United States operate on about the same net margins as a grocery store–(2% net margin – after all expenses). Most transactions generate more money to state and local taxes than profits to the dealer. For instance, the taxes in California are 8.75, so if the dealer has a gross mark up (before expenses) of 6% on a 20,000 car, they will have a gross profit of $1,200 while the state will collect almost $1,800. Keep in mind the State of California isn’t even in the car business. Based on the taxes collected, use your own logic to make sense of what a fair price to offer the dealer is. Your dealer will love this logic and remove time and pain from the process.

It is outdated thinking that you have to shop five locations to get a good deal. The next time you are ready to roll in something new just follow my steps; let your dealer know you are there to buy, be sure you are on the right car, ask that they present their proposal electronically. Lastly, let them know you have been trained how to buy a car from The New York Times Best Selling Author Grant Cardone, and I guarantee you a great deal!