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Nice try.
When making your offer, all you can do is use those bogus Edmunds numbers. I say they're bogus because they come from GM (they HAVE to), and why would GM be honest about what it really costs them to build their cars? What they WANT is for you to THINK you're getting a great deal. But the reality is those numbers HAVE to be padded and even if you nail a deal at invoice, the dealerships are STILL laughing all the way to the bank!
So go to Edmunds and build your car and calculate the invoice price including destination charge. It'll probably be around $1300 below MSRP. Make an offer BELOW this number (a few hundred bucks) and work UP to it. THEN deduct the $1000 Loyalty rebate from that (plus any other discounts you might have like GM 'dollars'). If you qualify for multiple discounts, say the USAA rebate (if it's still on), call GM first to find out which rebates can be used together. You don't want to be caught flat-footed at the dealership with a salesman giving you bad information (always in their favor, by the way).
As for the dealer you're dealing with ... try another salesman. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater just yet. And if you're a woman, I'd bring a man in with you. Just a guess, but I think women making deals by themselves end up with bad deals. You have to be nice with these people (a woman's strongpoint), but you can't let them run the show. And don't be afraid to walk out if you feel you're being pressured. The car you want is probably sitting at multiple dealerships. Get a price from all of 'em. It doesn't matter where you buy the vehicle, you can get it serviced at any dealership.
OH - forgot to mention .... make sure you ask UP FRONT what the dealership's stupid "doc fee" or "admin fee" is. This is a scam that dealerships started about 20 years ago. It's a way to tell you the vehicle costs $X, but then write you up for $X + fee. It's very common for these fees to be as much as $300 - $500 !!! And it's all legal. All the dealership has to do is charge everybody the same fee. But if you KNOW about it and factor it into the offer so you know what the ACTUAL cost of the vehicle is, it's no problem. If you can buy a $20,000 for $15,000, the "fee" can be $14,999 as long as the vehicle only costs $1.
I'll let y'all know how it works out.
Also, I lived in New England until the age of 29. Winter road salt causing cars to rust up there is a thing of the past. I would say it's been a non-issue for at least 20 years now. And keeping a car for 7 years is nothing. Even at 20,000 miles per year, that's only 140,000 total miles. Any car today can do that with little or no trouble if it is maintained correctly (and honestly) ... the latter being the difficult one ...
Of course, I *could* take the upgrade for $1000 more, or wait for a new one to be built and delivered...
You can try cars.com, too, but it's not as good as autotrader because you can't search by specific price range. You get a LOT more junk in your search list. Also, keep in mind that the autotrader (or cars.com) searches won't show ALL the vehicles in your search radius, just those listed by dealers on these sites. I don't know what the participation level is with dealers on these sites, but I would bet it's pretty high. More exposure probably means more sales.
What exactly are you looking for? Are you looking for a unit that simply isn't built? For example, I REALLY wanted a "stripped" V6 with only Cargo Management added. No such animal. No dealer will ever have one. And I don't think you could even order it! If you want the V6, you're going to get the Pioneer stereo and 18" machined wheels reamed down your throat, whether you want these options or not. You can add the Cargo Management package onto this, but you can't take away the other two options.
I'm guessing you want the 4-cylinder engine. That's what everybody wants because the fuel economy is (supposedly) good. There's PLENTY of 4-cylinder Equinoxes out there (2011's). If you're looking for a V6, well, that's another story. I betcha the ratio of "4"s to "6"s on dealer lots is something like 100:1 !!
Just re-read your post. You say the dealer can't find one "for our price". Sounds like they're playing games with you. The car is probably out there, but they just won't transfer it and sell it to you at your price.
Find the car yourself, make the offer directly to the dealership that has the car, then go pick it up. Don't let them talk you into something more expensive that you don't really want. The car you want is very likely out there sitting on MULTIPLE dealer lots (in various colors). You just need to find ONE of them. But make offers on ALL OF THEM because some dealers are really tight-fisted (smaller dealers with 100-150 new cars) and others are less so (larger dealers with 200+ new cars). Also, keep in mind that if you ORDER one, you'll only get whatever incentives are ON at the time the vehicle arrives at the dealership, so that's tricky. I think it takes AT LEAST 6 weeks to build an Equinox right now, so chances are the current incentives will expire before the car arrives. You're better off finding vehicle on a dealer lot when you KNOW what the incentives are. The current incentives expire next on February 28th. The bonus right now is if you own or lease a '99 or newer GM vehicle, you can get an extra $1000 Loyalty rebate. So between the dealer's discount and the Loyalty rebate, that's around $2300 off MSRP for a 1LT (a lousy deal by my standards, but if you want an Equinox, that's the best you're gonna do right now).
Go to the GM site, put in your ZIP code and find all the dealers within 50 miles (or more if the list is scant). Then click on the dealer website button for each one and save the link in the address bar to a Word file. This will be your quick hyperlink list to search the individual dealer websites. I hope you have a high-speed internet connection because dial-up will bog down so bad you'll get discouraged and quit.
Good Luck!
AWD LS MSRP = $25,240 Invoice less holdback = $23,280
AWD 1LT MSRP = $26,405 Invoice less holdback = $24,352
AWD 2LT MSRP = $28,465 Invoice less holdback = $26,247
AWD LTZ MSRP = $30,815 Invoice less holdback = $28,410
I don't have data for the FWD version, but the percentages will be about the same (8% with no discount on the destination fee).
The markup on options is 12%.
Plenty of vehicles available in Ohio region.
Hope this helps.
Joe
Thanks
I would rate our overall experience a 6 out of 10, however, not due to our dealer or salesman, whom we both liked and would recommend again, but due to the industry practice known as "not giving a sh*t about what the customer wants, aka - usual practice."
We had wanted on one the Espresso Brown LTZ's, but of the dozen or so that were sitting on other dealers lots within our region, our dealer, looking to trade, was told all of them were "already sold" or "demo's." Our salesman admitted to me afterward that had I called as an off the street customer, I no doubt could have driven home in probably any one of those vehicles that day. The reason I didn't is because I wanted to remain loyal to the dealer, whom I felt was treating me fairly.
Perhaps it's not a "Chevy" issue, or maybe it's "the way it's always been done," but that's not an excuse. In the end, we the consumers didn't get what we really wanted because we remained loyal to our local dealer, and we didn't want to wait 6 or 8 weeks while the exact vehicle we wanted got built. Not sure why we should have to, especially if there's 12 copies lying around unsold at other dealers in the region.
We settled on the 2LT because my wife was getting tired of the process of seeing cars advertised for sale on dealer websites and cars.com, then having our dealer try to trade, and being told "sorry" it's not really for sale. Sloppy internet inventory management at best, downright lies at worst.
Chevy obviously has no control over the dealer to compel them to "play nice in the sandbox," with other dealers, and that's frustrating. Look, it's one thing if a dealer is sitting one a new ZR1, but come on, an Equinox? Can't they put a clause in the dealer contract that says, any vehicle with an MSRP under $50k you have to trade?
Oh, well, I think in the end we'll be happy, just as long as we can wring 26 or 28 MPG's out of it!
Model: 2011 Equinox LT1 FWD 4 cyl
Extra Options: Sunroof & Drivers Convenience package
Paid: $24,686 plus tax, title, processing
With Premium Black Granite Paint
$25,197 plus tax, +578 for title, registration and tire fee.
Financed through TD bank.
I am deciding on buying a 2011 Checy Equinox.LTZ 4 cyl 2 WD with no added features over the base LTZ. The vehicle has 2500 Miles on it. Best drive out price including tax license and registration offered was 28500$. Do you think this is a fair price to go ahead with the purchase?
Good Luck