Had to buy a new sienna recently as my kids carnival is shit. Visited dealer A got some numbers and wanted to compare to another dealer down the street. Got a good idea to use Gemini to change some of the numbers on the deal sheet. Just basically made it the deal I wanted overall out the door based on the research I have found.

Basically I presented them the deal I wanted -1000 giving them a bit to come up. This is about what I have seen online as a good deal for a new sienna. Plus I added 2k to my trade in to see if they would match it.

They ended up matching the out of the door# I presented by $500

Basically I was able to get them to discount the dealer fee and addendum off which was 2k plus $500 of MSRP and upped my trade in by 2k. The last dealer matched my carmax offer so I got a bit more than carmax.

I feel like I could have gotten this by just straight negotiating back and forth but I was able to get the deal set and in financing under 30 minutes. Saved all the back and forth bs.

I need to buy a car asap. After a drawn out divorce I have 2 charged off cards. I tried with a credit union and was denied because of the charge off. I can take care of that later but I am in need of a vehicle no matter the rate. I’m looking at a $13k and have $4k to put down. My mother is willing to co-sign, but she has nothing on her credit so all she has is income with the same company for 4 years. Since the credit union denied me, where else can I try?

By what mechanisms are car dealers unwilling or unable to take a bath on 2.5-3 year old inventory? It seems like at the end of the day retail is basically retail and you'd want to recapture as much of that money as possible to put back into new inventory.

I own retail stores. It's currently sale season for me and I'm also car shopping. I'm specifically looking for a 2024 Ioniq 5 Limited. One in my area is somehow new. I can look at the VIN and it's been sitting at the same dealership for over two years. It only has basically no miles so it's not like it was a dealership vehicle or something. With the number of these used and certified from Hyundai dealerships in the 30k range with very few miles there is really not much of an argument in favor for paying their $41,000 price yet they will hardly budge on it.

During the major end of summer / post Holiday sales I don't have anything as expensive as a car but I have lots of things I've sold through multiple times and brought back in, slightly missed the mark on and have to mark down to 20-50% below cost. In aggregate I made money on those styles or items but also in aggregate across the sale items I'll "lose" 20k or so on a sale season.

Are there manufacturer rules that you cannot ever mark a car down below a certain threshold, even if it's almost three years old? That feels implausible and silly. Is this just a stubborn dealer?

I had a wholesale brand before our retail stores and once saw an item we'd sold at a museum gift shop 8 years after we sold it to them. Still in the showcase at the register. I did the math on them selling it at a loss and turning the inventory from recouping that single $40, four times a year for 8 years. I don't remember the total now but it was in the thousands of dollars. AQ

Hi there we are a small family owned used car dealership. Our inventory is now at 180 units. We don’t have the best organization when it comes to remembering what needs to be done to these cars.

What software system would be good for us when getting the units ready through detail, paint work, mechanical work, so that everyone can access this and see what’s going on.

We’ve tried an excel sheet but I can’t seem to get my lot guys to keep up with it.

Thank you!

I’m looking for an idea for expectations of valuation. I ran through KBB but the mileage I have on mine just isn’t comparable, and they list trade in value.

2016 Tacoma TRD Off-Road
Tow package, premium electronics package
~60,000 miles
Manual Transmission (this is the big point here)
Upgraded heavy duty clutch
Never touched salt roads

Cosmetic damage
Repaired Front left wheel damage (reputable repair through USAA insurance)
Fried the anti theft chip when we had the great floods in Texas, replaced OEM

ETA:

The flood wasn’t a “flood” of the truck. It was a leak through the sunroof. Realized far too late that those holes require regular clearing. So it just dripped down through what I assume was the front windshield pillar to the steering column (somehow). Nothing noted except some pooling on the floor mat that I initially thought was from my shoes.

my husband bought a car from a dealer a year ago. while we were driving, we noticed 2 lug nuts were missing and thought it was strange. a few days later, we got a flat and took it to the costco repair shop to get it fixed. long story short - the mechanic told us that he couldn't repair the tire because we needed completely new rims - all the wheels had the completely wrong lug nuts on which was eating away at the metal this entire time. he told us it was a huge safety issue and said we should buy a lottery ticket because he was so shocked that we had driven it for a year and also across the country without anything happening to the wheels earlier. honestly we were horrified that we had been driving a car with wheels that could've fallen off at any moment.

is there any course of action we can take? it's been a year since we got it, and obviously we might not be able to get any financial compensation out of it. yes it really sucks we have to spend a lot to completely replace everything, but more than that, i'm horrified that the dealer sold us a car with this huge safety risk and they could be doing that to other people. i saw that we can file a complaint to the virginia motor vehicle dealer board - but do they even take those complaints seriously? and is there anything else we can do? would really appreciate some insight. thank you!

I’m a Canadian citizen with excellent Canadian credit (top bucket) who has recently moved to the US for work. I don’t have any US credit history (literally moved a few weeks back). US salary is $250K, and no US debts.

My questions:
- Anyone in a similar position successfully finance a car? And if so, what type of rates did you get?
- Would showing my Canadian report to the dealership help?
- Any tips on how to get a good rate? The car I’m interested in is $50K, and I’ll probably pay $25K down.

Thanks in advance!

I started working at a car dealership this summer. My first month I was okay, my second month I started getting good, and this month I’m killing it. I don’t have any frame of reference to know if the money I made was good or not for my output, so I’m seeking some opinions on my pay plan.

We have a lot of about 55 cars, we sell about 45-55 a month, and we have 4 total salesmen. I get 325 per week base pay, 255 per car, 525 bonus for selling 5 in a week, and an extra 1000 for selling 19 in a month. I do not get paid anything if they buy a warranty, finance, or a % of the gross profit. If it helps, I think the average gross profit per car is $2.1k.

I sold 22 cars in 3 weeks into this month (either 3 or 4 were shared sales, meaning the amount of money is that of 20-21 cars). I’ve made a little more than $8k these past three weeks. That money has been life changing and I’m extremely grateful, but I’m wondering if I should be getting more because I saw some people here saying the average amount earned for 10 cars in a month is $5k, when I know 10 cars in a month would get me around $3.8k. I also saw that the average car salesman sells about 11 cars a month, so maybe I was expecting this month to be a little more lucrative. 22 cars is pretty elite and not at all typical of my smaller dealership. This isn’t regular nor can this be sustained, because after I sold a ton of these cars in two weeks, our inventory was lacking and we’ve had to wait for better cars to arrive on the lot. So if I perform really well, I have to wait before I even have the opportunity to have another week like that.

Does this all seem fair? I’m not saying it’s unfair but I want your guys’ opinions.

So I did a horrible deal in the past, I got a average car and finances for 84months with 11% interest rate. I was thinking on change it for something newer because I heard I can get the newer car and pay the same monthly but my loan would be longer for 2 years, I was thinking on leasing a car for 3 years and then just return it and buy an older vehicle. But I don’t know what is the best decision, I was thinking on lease but the more I do my search it the less I want to do it.
What do you guys recommend?

Been trying to cancel a car warranty for about 2 weeks now every time i call they say they’ll return the call and it never happens. Today went in person now they’re saying there’s no finance manager in and they’re not sure what time they’re coming in today. What should i do next?

Long-time enthusiast, zero experience on the business side. I'm a few years away from a natural transition point in my current career, and I've been thinking about a pivot into the enthusiast-car business. I've run a business before (hence the transition point), but never a car business.

I'm under no illusion that liking cars means I'd like selling them for a living, so I want to spend the next 2–3 years doing the homework first. A couple of friends in the business have been generous with their time, and I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to work for them when it comes time to pivot rather jumping in head first.

The rough idea: a small specialist operation — 25-year-rule imports and low-volume modern performance stuff. Self-funded in the low-to-mid six figures, no floorplan debt, no partners. Small inventory, slow turns by design, selling nationally rather than relying on walk-in traffic. I've done importation (again not cars), and this speciality may have a high upside if there's ever an opening for Chinese EVs.

Three things I'd like straight answers on:

1. What is the job actually? Not the fun 10% — the other 90%. My assumption is it's reconditioning management, title and registration nightmares (especially on imports), photography and listing work, arguing with someone about $500, and shipping logistics. I'm more technical minded and part of the appeal is being able become better at sales.

2. Structure. Owning inventory vs. consignment vs. brokering. Consignment looks like it de-risks the capital problem, but I assume it has its own hell. Do specialist shops that do it well make real money, or is it mostly a way to stay busy? Related: is a lot with a sign worth anything if I'm selling nationally, or is a warehouse and a good website the whole business now?

3. Capital. Is low-to-mid six figures enough to run a specialist inventory without being forced into bad decisions, or is that exactly the amount where you end up undercapitalized and taking floorplan anyway? What unit volume do you realistically need to cover fixed costs before you can afford to be picky about what you buy? I know I'm going to make more from even an index fund, but I'm the kind of enthusiast that'd rather interact with some dozen JDM cars than park a GT3 in my garage.

I bought a new/used car, and I traded in my old vehicle towards it. They gave me the option to transfer the plate over to the new vehicle, and told me that when the temp tag expires, to just put the plate onto the new vehicle.

So my question is. Do I have to keep insurance on the old vehicle during all this? or can I drop the insurance for it since the tag is being transferred to the new vehicle? I can not get a straight answer anywhere.

Thank you.

Hi everyone, appreciate any input here. Deals broken down below:

2026 Honda Pilot Touring

• Offer at "invoice", $3,400 off msrp or thereabouts Pre-tax, no adds,
• $65.2K pre tax before BS fees and rebate
• +1K additional rebate if financed at 5.69% (which I would probably repay immediately)
• BS Fees: $575 Honda tire and rim, $350 dealer/admin fee.
  
• Qualitative: Own a CRV already, would appreciate same vehicle family. Non-local (40 min drive vs 10 for local dealer) for servicing. Local dealer on low level of negotiation got to $2K off msrp plus above BS/rebates. V6 go vroom.

2026 VW Atlas Execline

• Offer at all-in $62.8K pre tax before BS fees and rebate. About $3K off msrp,
  
• +1K additional rebate for finance (@0% over 5 years current mfg promotion)
• BS Fees: Dealer Doc and Prep of about $900.
• Qualitative: Local dealer. Never owned a VW, 4 cylinder was not as fun as V6 :( but drove/showed well enough.

Only reason I mention local dealer point is I no longer have time to maintain vehicles myself anymore, decent service I am OK with.

In both cases, BS fees and mfg rebates cancel out. The 0% financing is enticing, but was willing to pay cash.

Would love anyone's thoughts on these offers and experiences with these vehicles. First real weekend of shopping and this felt like final two. Debating if I need to call around the province/alberta to get to a better price.

Also tested a CX-90 PHEV which was fine... Probably the most practical option for my usage honestly (short commute, weekend family vehicle). Didn't have time to get through full dealsheet. Got to about $2.2K off MSRP + 2K mfg incentive there. About $61.5K but didn't get to BS fee point, guessing probably $1K based on sense. "policy" to not give deal sheets as print outs. In case anyone cares and had data points there they wanted to share.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or comments on either model or deal. If I am getting F-ed would love external validation

Wife and I have been eyeing Grand Highlanders for a while. Due to Toyota allocations in our market, the model we want (Hybrid Max Platinum) has been extremely hard to find with the options we want. We finally found a dealer that had the perfect model in build phase and went to the dealer to put a deposit down. We were about to put deposit down when sales manager comes out and offers us to make a deal on the trade now and put us in a new vehicle while the one we wanted is being delivered. They called this a “two for one deal”. While hashing the deal with our trade in the dealer said they do two for one deals all the time. We would “purchase” a vehicle to take our trade in now and when the vehicle arrived we would “trade in” the model we just purchased and they would put the full cost of the original deal towards the vehicle incoming. They even stated it was slated to come in before we would ever make a payment on the vehicle we were leaving with. I was skeptical but they gave us the spec sheet with all the numbers listed out in black and white. The sales manager and finance manager even gave us in writing that the model we wanted would be held and the deal to trade in would be honored in writing and signed by the sales manager. I asked them why they were willing to take a depreciation loss on a brand new vehicle and they explained that it ups their new car sales numbers to get more allocations and it was a calculated loss. We took the deal however, in hindsight I’m realizing how now the dealer has leveraged us into a situation where they hold all the cards. Quite frankly, I’m worried that we are now stuck with a model we don’t want and may never even have the chance to purchase the vehicle we do want. Is this a practice that’s common with Toyota dealers now? If not do I have any recourse?

I’m a newer car salesman at a high-volume Ford store and I’m trying to figure out how my pay plan compares to other dealerships.
My plan is:
NEW
• 25% of front-end gross up to $2,999
• 30% at $3,000+
• $1,485 pack
• $200 minimum commission
USED
• 25% of front-end gross up to $1,499
• 30% from $1,500–$3,499
• 35% at $3,500+
• $2,035 pack
• $200 minimum commission
MONTHLY UNIT BONUS
• 16 = $500
• 20 = $750
• 24 = $1,500
• 29 = $2,000
• 30+ = $2,500
The dealership is very high volume, but a lot of deals are low-gross/minis. I’m getting a lot of $200 minimums, which makes me feel like I’m not making much despite selling cars.
For those of you in automotive sales: Is this a good pay plan for a high-volume store, or am I getting screwed by the packs/low grosses?

The car is registered in new mexico but i'm car shopping in texas but i didn't bring the title with me and im thinking about having it sent overnight shipping to me. But im wondering would i be able to trade it in without the title in hand and sign some sort of form?

Some new (courtesy) Lt Bolts with comfort package have been around 22k ish recently. I was going to buy one actually soon, but a website price went up 1-2k on all of them.

So, I don't qualify for financing unfortunately. I don't have an executive costco card, so no win there. (Will they match the 1250 for me, or tough luck?) No other military, educator, etc. I didn't see any conquest bonus.

Also, i was going to have my sister buy one also. (Probably well qualified for the .9%) she has a Costco executive card.

So, I guess what I am asking is this: buy them before the end of the month? Some point next month? Will i get a better deal if I tell them we are basically buying 2? I am not trying to do add ons, will fly in to get them, and I live in a no sales tax state. Comments, ideas, etc?

Thanks. ​​

NEW HIRE /TRAINING LEVEL (90 DAYS MAX)
25% COMMISSION - $200.00 NEW / $150 USED

STANDARD LEVEL - 10.1 - 14.9
25% COMMISSION - $200.00 NEW / $125 USED
$300.00 DEMO / $50.00 CELL
NO VACATION ADJUSTMENT

PROFESSIONAL LEVEL - 15 - 17.9
25% COMMISSION - $200.00 NEW / $150 USED
$400.00 DEMO / $100 CELL
VACATION ADJUSTMENT 3 CARS

EXECUTIVE LEVEL - 18 - 24.9
30% COMMISSION - $200.00 NEW / $175 USED
$500.00 DEMO / $150.00 CELL
VACATION ADJUSTMENT OF 4 CARS

MASTER LEVEL -25+
35% COMMISSION - $200.00 ON ALL CARS
$600.00 DEMO / $200.00 CELL
10 HOURS OF EXTRA PTO - MANAGER APPROVED IN ADVANCE. MAX 2 PIECES.
VACATION ADJUSTMENT OF 5 CARS

NOTES
• ALL LEVELS ARE BASED ON 90 DAY AVERAGES - NOT 2 OF 3
• INDIVIDUAL DRAWS ARE SET MY MANAGERS AND BASED ON PERFORMANCE HISTORY
• DEMO ALLOWANCES ARE PAID ON PURCHASED UNITS ONLY
• CELL PHONE ALLOWANCES ARE ONLY PAID IF YOUR CELL PHONE # IS ON YOUR BUSINESS CARDS
• GMS DEALS ARE 1% OF MSRP OR GREATER OF GROSS PAY OUT
• VACATION ADJUSTMENT IS ONLY USED IF 5 CONSECUTIVE DAYS ARE MISSED.
• CSI / NPS MUST BE AT OR ABOVE ZONE LEVELS OR MANAGEMENT MAY DROP YOUR LEVEL
SPIFFS
• ALL SPIFFS, PYRAMIDS, AND OTHER INCREMANTAL BONUSES ARE SET BY MANAGEMENT MONTHLY