Car Negotiations

Time to get a new car again so I took Sam with me to the Acura dealer yesterday. Surprisingly, one of the only dealers open on Sunday's. On the ride over I explained to Sam how I wanted him to help me negotiate a good price for the vehicle. We had gone to the auto show last week and sat in a bunch of different cars so Sam was well aware of the different vehicles we were considering. I asked Sam to wait a little while into the conversation with the sales guys to bring up the fact that he really likes the Volvo XC60. I explained to him the pressure that comment would put on the sales guy to give us a good deal and Sam agreed.

So we got to the dealership and found a sales guy that I had purchased two Acura's from before and really like. We went outside and jumped into a MDX and took it for a quick spin. About midway through the ride, Sam piped up from the backseat and says, "You know, this is a nice car but I really like that Volvo" Al, kind of looked at me and I kind of shrugged my shoulders and said, "well Volvo is nice and your Mom likes the Volvo too, but we need to agree on a car" Sam comes back with, "yeah, but the Volvo is pretty sweet"

Al and I talked about the Volvo compared to the MDX and then he went back to take a look at the numbers. The numbers he came back with were really competitive, more so than my research indicated. We talked some more and I explained that I was close to making a decision and we walked outside again where Sam says, "that Volvo is sweet, we should get that" Al looked at me again and asked what a couple questions, then said, you know I could probably take another thousand off the MDX.

Now to be fair, I did price out a Volvo and I did like it but I tend to the like the MDX more. We also had a couple of other vehicles in mind. That said, Sam played his role perfectly. I'm going to do this every time I get a new car. Nothing like the kid putting pressure on Dad to get something different that what the dealer is selling . I'm also willing to rent the boys out to anyone who wants help negotiating new car deals.