What REALLY happens when a car salesperson goes to ‘talk to the manager’?

Bought a car from Ray when he was at Scottsdale Acura 2005, he is a straight shooter, no BS. Bill A

All customers want is to drive out with a car and not feel like they've been scammed.

In my experience, the only time a car deal goes smoothly, it’s when you are paying too much for the car.

This happened to me at a Nissan dealer. Was in the salesmans office. I wrote out an offer, what I wanted to pay for a certain car, stock number on the sheet, what I wanted for my used car, etc etc. He looked it over and said "I will go take this to the sales manager and see what he says". I was in the office with a buddy of mine, talking about the car, the salesman, the deal and what I thought my chances were. My girlfriend was wandering around the dealership looking for a car for herself and happened to walk by the door of the sales manager and could hear ME talking in the office of the salesman on the sales managers speaker phone. The salesman had connected his speaker to the other phone using the extension to extension. Sneaky. The GF came in and told me that she just heard me on someone's phone. That's when I said "We're leaving". We all got up and started to walk out. Got into my car we came in and drove off without saying a word to the salesman. Pretty scummy practice.

Everytime I go into a car dealership, I feel like I'm getting conned.

The first thing I think of when I hear "I have to go talk to the manager" is that the salesman just wants to go to the bathroom and stare at the ceiling for 20 minutes to test my patience.

The more videos I see here, the less I want to ever walk into a dealership

In the movie "Fargo" the salesman told the customer he has to 'run in by the sales manager.' He went in to the guy's office and asked him if he has tickets for the Big Game this weekend. Then he walked out and told the customer he can come down a hundred bucks and that "we've never done this before." I envision the sales manager talk scenario as being a variation of this.

The son is so sweet towards his father. I love watching this.

I have had salespeople tell me "I have to go talk to the manager". I replied "I'll go with you" If they say "no" then while they're gone I walk out..

Every time the salesperson goes to talk to the manager, I let them know, if my reasonable offer is not accepted, I would like to talk to the manager myself. If I was denied that opportunity, I will simply leave. Funny how I either was awarded my deal, or they called me back within a day, and gave me damn near, or the exact deal I wanted. To me, the name of the game is patience, calling their bluff and being reasonable. Remember, it’s just a car, there’s thousands for sale in your city.

The relationship between the son and father is precious. I love it.

The last time a dealership pulled that on me I said "that's an insulting offer, good bye" (it really was... many thousands below wholesale value of the trade in). They said "what would it take?". I said, "Good Bye", Then we left. Getting older is empowering I no longer care about hurting con artists feelings. Edit: Learned that after years - in ANY negotiation never be concerned/worried/fearful of WALKING AWAY.

The way I see it is if you start off at 35000 and end up at 25,000 you were initially trying to screw me out of $10,000.😡

Here is a tip: Bring a briefcase with lots of papers you printed out from all kinds of websites. And some bogus spreadsheets that look really busy. Spread them all out on the table and keep looking at them as you negotiate. When you start hitting a wall in your negotiations, start slowly organizing and collecting your papers and put them back in your briefcase. You will immediately see the look of panic in the face of your counterpart. You may also have to stand up while you are still talking. Trust me, it works like charm every time.

I negotiate deals for a living and even I HATE buying a car. Mostly because I ALWAYS feel like I'm being lied to when I'm in a dealership. I COMPLETELY appreciate the fact that you have to make a profit to stay in business. So do I. My last car retailed at $42,999. I ended up walking out of there buying it for $35,500. That right there tells me how badly I could have gotten taken to the cleaners.

Something that has served me well when actually buying a car is to find what I want, then ask "Give me the BEST price you can on this. If you need to talk to a manager first, do it now. But, no counter offers. ONE price and if it's better than the others I have, it's sold. If not, I leave". And stick to it ! - Here's the thing, if a salesman says "THIS is our very bet price", then when you thank them but start leaving, THEN they say they may can do a little better, then they lied the first time, period ! It was NOT their best price after all, but they said it was. F-that ! Go several places, get ONE best price, then buy the best, most honest price you get. If those are still not low enough, don't buy it ! Why people play this game with sales people is beyond me. Doing this puts YOU in control and free from games and lies.

Always Thought The Manager’s Office was a bunch of people just hanging around the water cooler. Thanks for confirming it.

He really hit home with me when he said it’s an “us against them” relationship. I have an inherent distrust of car salesmen and am on the defensive as soon as I get to the dealership. I’m fine with paying a fair price but I expect a fair price. The dealership has to make money, but not all on one sale.

I'm in Australia and watched heaps of your videos, did hours of research and had my first challenge at negotiation for a 2021 Honda HRV today. Listed price was $31888AU and almost out of registration. l wanted window tinting, paint and interior protection and was offered $2000 for my 2009 Honda Jazz as a trade-in. Final price was $32000. I questioned the cost because of depreciation. I was told it's a whole new ball game now because it's harder to get new cars, so used cars retain their value. Therefore no budging on price. So after long pauses l thanked the salesman for working so hard for me, but l wanted a price closer to $30000AU. I walked away feeling satisfied and empowered. Tomorrow is another day. 😊