La Nouvelle Voiture Misanthropique

After much negotiation, the Misanthrope has purchased a brand new Misanthropemobile. (Representative photo above; Options may vary.)

Anybody who has gone through the process of dealing with car salesmen will agree that it leaves one with an overwhelming desire to scrub oneself down with Janitor-in-a-Drum. As Tony predicted, every ludicrous salesman tactic in the book was employed, including the "I have to ask my manager" trick.

I suppose these ploys must work on somebody, but I can't imagine who hasn't heard of them by now.

Some favorites include:

1) Presenting the car with an outrageously high list price and then immediately crossing that out and offering a "discount." Uh, okay, but when I've already used the Mercedes website to build a car and get a lower price quote, the salesman looks kind of stupid when he tries to convince me that this is a deal.
2) Pretending that he would "throw in" the GPS navigation system for "just" $xxx. I happened to know that this involved nothing more than shoving a DVD into the system and downloading the software. Also, he was quoting me a price that was, once again, higher than the price on the Mercedes website for the option.
3) Telling me "nobody gets that option" when the option I was asking about was not available on a car in stock. I'm not buying a car for anybody else. If I want it, I want it.

Anyway, I managed to bring the deal in for a pretty big chunk of change below invoice price (according to Kelley Blue Book figures) because it was late November and I bought a 2005 model that they were holding in inventory. I cannot say enough about doing research on the Kelley Blue Book site before negotiating. The information is amazing. Not only does it list what retailers are asking for on a particular model with options, it tells you at what prices consumers are getting deals done. More importantly, it tells you what the manufacturer is charging the dealer (the "invoice price.) That gives you an idea of how low you can really get with pricing.

What got me a good deal in the end was pretty simple. I kept leaving the dealership and then negotiating over the phone to get me to come back. Finally, I put a price on the table that was outrageously below reasonable. The dealer met me halfway and we were done.

Now, where is the Janitor-in-a-Drum when I need it?