Since this is the third Saturn I and my youngest daughter have
purchased, I was curious when some posters here said the dealerships
were discounting the sticker. Dealerships here have always stuck to that
even when I asked why I should buy from X dealership instead of Y if the
price is the same and since my daughter was moving the Atlanta after the
purchase. This is true but it takes service out as their claimed
differentiator. In any case, could never get anyone to budge on sticker.
But where I found them to "negotiate" was on the trade-in. Now before
going to the dealer, we checked Edmunds for the value of the trade-in.
Edmunds. It was a 2002 SL1 with 72,000 miles, both side mirrors broke,
the center console arm rest damaged, a burn hole in the passenger seat
from a previous dumb-ass boyfriend, and a slight dent in the hood caused
by something from the road. Edmunds says about $2,800 which is what one
dealer offered. The other dealer offered $3,800 which I knew was way
over what it was worth.
When pressing the first dealer, they came up to $3,000 but held there.
So we went to the dealer offering the $3,800 and did the deal. Really
what we were getting was $1,000 off sticker.
The interesting thing, and we did not know this until after purchasing
the Vue, was that these two Saturn dealerships were actually owned by
the same person. How we found that out was the better trade-in price
dealer did not have the vehicle we wanted so he had to find something
close to what we wanted. He called his sister dealership and they would
not give up the Vue since "they were working a deal with another
customer" - probably us and they probably knew we had now gone to the
other dealership. So he got a Vue from another area dealer. He told us
the other dealership (that we had been to) and theirs was owned by the
same person.
So my suggestion is to go around to every Saturn dealership in the area
(we went to all but one) and try to negotiate your deal. For a $100 or
$200 buck difference, I would tend to go with the closest dealer. But
for $800 to $1000, I will go to a distant dealer. As it turned out, the
closest dealer had the best price, but since the daughter is moving, no
big deal either way.
When we were writing up the deal at the other dealer (the higher priced
place that we walked out of) I did try dickering on the documentation
(more profit) fee. That's when they pulled out a brochure showing all
this stuff (federal and state regulations) that they supposedly have to
file forms for. I told her it was completely bogus and said the State of
Ohio allows that as the maximum charge on a "retail installment
contract." The give a great description of this on the state consumer
website.
I do have a question that I am going to also ask the State of Ohio. If
you are arranging your own financing, so in sense you are paying the
dealer cash, then can they even charge this fee? The state seems to
indicate that this can be charged as part of the cost for them to
arrange financing. But if they are not, thus the contract is not an
installment contract, is this fee really legal?
It's not a government fee, it's a junk fee. How much was it? Where I
live the doc fee is $35-50 and is easily take off if you press the
issue, though it's easier just to factor it into your offer by
subtracting it out.
Watch out for dealers that add junk fees like "closing fees" of $199
(a relative ran into this in South Carolina, and wen to another dealer
that didn't have this nonsense). Why don't they just call it
"additional dealer markup" since that's what its (because Saturn won't
let them because of the myth of MSRP). They even mention this fee on
their web site ("
http://www.saturnofflorence.com/"):
"This dealership charges a closing fee of $199.00, which is allowed by
SC Code Section 37-2-307. It is a charge that is permitted by law but
not required by law. The full cash price charged at any dealership
depends on many factors, including all products and services bought
wit <sic> the vehicle."
Geez, they can't even get their spelling on their web site right!
Ironically though, a colleague at work bought a Saturn at that dealer
and got a much better deal than at the one in a neighboring city,
because the dealer negotiated a price low enough to far offset the
junk fee (as in your case the dealer grossly inflated the value of the
trade-in to save the deal). My colleague paid $1000 less than the
Saturn dealer in the next city over wanted for the identical vehicle,
even including the junk fee. But many people actually believe the "no
haggling" story that the dealers tell them, and don't even try to
negotiate the price, let alone the junk fees.
