Are advertised specials a good deal?

anon564738

I see advertised specials on manufactures and dealer websites? Are these specials usually stripped of most profit to the dealership?

Mr_Shiftright

There's no simple answer here unless we looked at a specific ad. But sure, you ALWAYS need to read the fine print, which may include additional fees, or may say "only one at this price".

It's illegal to offer a car that doesn't exist (that's called "bait and switch") but it's perfectly legal to construct the ad with lots of fine print.

So you might see "Lease at $199 a month!"--but when you dig deeper, you'll see that there's up-front money, perhaps mileage limitations, perhaps model/trim limitations, + doc fee, acquisition fee + tax. Suddenly this lease is $349 a month.

But all specials are worth exploring. Sometimes there is factory support or dealer case on a deal. Sometimes you can negotiate selling price, interest rates, etc.

The trick to visiting any dealership for any deal is this: You cannot negotiate if you cannot get up and leave the minute you don't see the price you want. Once the dealer starts working you over, they can wear you down and maybe get you to buy a more expensive model with better equipment, or just raise your budget--"it's only another $50 a month--less than two dollars a day!" --that's true, but it's also another $1800 over 3 years on a lease and over $3000 on a purchase over 60 months.

Try to stay out of the mentality of "monthly payments"---your main focus should be on the out the door price you want to pay.