Respect? Honesty? Give me a break. The post by swestbrook60 is all you need to know when negotiating with your local Harley dealer. Period.

 

I hate to bring up the name again, Dave Ramsey, but the best advice I every receive from his course is this: Statistically it is proven that once a potential buyer leaves the lot they will not be back. The dealer's know this. Much research has been done on their end as far as sales tactics and reading the buyer's signs. The buyer has done very minimal research if any on their end, let alone reading seller behaviors. The OP made a good point, know what you want and what you'll pay to leave with that bike/car the same day. If they don't accept, they know how to get in touch with you and what your terms are. With cars, they'll probably try harder to keep you on the lot to get a same-day sale. There are car dealers on every corner, not like HD dealers, but they both know who means business and if you leave to go to another dealer you'll most likely buy from the other dealer.

Great post, OP.

 

My tactic has nothing to do with honesty or any kind of a "relationship".

1. I do my research.
2. I go to the dealer lot after hours and look at the inventory.
3. I pick a vehicle or two and go back the next day for a test drive.
4. If like the vehicle I give the salesperson my phone number and ask him to call me with an OTD price, we go out for lunch.
5. When he calls I accept or reject.

I never spend more than 45 minutes at a car/bike dealership.

 

Laughable? I've seen people post many better deals than this. 4K off MSRP would cause the dealer to lose money? Really?

 

Just got a new car on the LAST day of June. Salesman told me up front that it was the last day of the month and he needed to sell a car.
I had done some research and had negative equity in the trade in. (09 Escape for an 11 Escape) The numbers he came back with was more than I wanted to give but the finance dept got a very good rate that put it in my price range. It ended up lower than what I was told by the saleman because they increased what they would give for my trade in.
After all was figured, I ended up with what I felt was a good deal. Basically got out of the negative equity with a better finance rate than I had before.
I had 6.25 and they got me 5.9.

When I got home I called the credit union and talked to them about the purchase I had made. They offered to refinance it at 4.1% and now I think I am really happy with my deal. One of these days I may finally get ahead of the negative equity that started because of my former bad credit.

That is the third car and I'm on the third Ultra also since I started rebuilding my credit. The rate when I started was 13% on the first bike, the third is at 6.5% First car was 13.75% and now at 4.1%

Now that my credit is getting right, maybe I can get one of those killer deals too.

 

I called all 6 local dealers and told them exactly what I wanted and I was going to buy it from the dealer with the best price... a few played games, the one that got my money was the lowest by $450 and they got the sale, and it was well below MSRP... Make them work for it!

 

similar deal worked in 2009 on a couple of street glides. Took a little shopping to find a dealer thoug. Phone calls aren't that hard to make. . Not sure why it couldn't work in 2011.

 

I have bought several new bikes and cars, I have always paid less than MSRP, usually thousands less.

 

Looks like someone has been getting ripped off lolololllolololo

 

I used this when I bought my FLHX in February.

http://cyclecost.com/harley.htm