glippert@trwrba.UUCP (George A. Lippert) (07/28/85)
~~~~~~
Several months ago, Mike Klein posted an article about buying a car while on
vacation abroad. He stressed that all serious car shoppers should read the
book:
"Don't Get Taken Every Time" (subtitled: "The Insider's Guide
to Buying Your Next Car")
by
Remar Sutton, Viking Press, 1982, 381 pages.
I would like to thank Mike publicly for his advice. This book is excellent
in it's writing style, comprehensive scope, and applicability, and is bound
to save it's readers many hundereds of dollars (as it has me). And it is
fun to read.klein@ucbvax.ARPA (Mike Klein) (08/06/85)
In article <1522@trwrba.UUCP> glippert@trwrba.UUCP (George A. Lippert) writes: >... all serious car shoppers should read the book: > > "Don't Get Taken Every Time" (subtitled: "The Insider's Guide > to Buying Your Next Car") > by > Remar Sutton, Viking Press, 1982, 381 pages. > >I would like to thank Mike publicly for his advice. Thank you very much, George, but I in turn am really only passing on advice I got from this net group a while back. I wish I could remember the person's name who originally recommended this book. It is worth many times its price. I finally got my chance to try out Sutton's advice about a week ago. My wife and I decided to buy a VW Jetta GLI. This is a car that, sadly, is apparently imported in very small quantities (dealers have said 20 per month into California), and the dealers take advantage of this as much as possible. For instance, the mfr's list price of the car we bought is about $12,600 and the dealer's sticker price was $16,100. Ridiculous. So some heavy negotiating was required. It was interesting to note that it was almost as if the salesmen were following a script that Sutton had written. So I knew what they were really doing and was not fazed by their various arguments. Eventually we were deadlocked: I was offering $12,000 even, they were offering $12,400, and neither side would budge. Finally, the salesmen (I had been working with two) came up with a deal where they put in $200 of their own money (they would get lots more than that in commission) if I would raise my offer to $12,300 which they felt the sales manager would accept. I finally did so and it was accepted. So I essentially paid $12,100. It was rough going, and I was exhausted, but I had earned approximately $1000 an hour (it took about 4 hours in two stores total). Sutton's book prepares you for all the tricks the salesmen pull and gives you the knowledge and confidence to convince them to deal with you honestly. With car models in more supply, I think you could do even better than this inside of half an hour. The thing to realize is that any salesman would rather have you buy the car than not, and will keep negotiating if there's the least chance that you will buy. -- -Mike Klein ...!ucbsim:klein@ucbvax.uucp klein%ucbsim@berkeley.arpa