Lowball Offers

Lowball Offers and Understanding Start-Stop Technology

In this episode of Women Buying Cars, host Meredith Reynolds from Reynolds Automotive discusses the strategy behind making lowball offers on used cars. She outlines the primary reasons for these offers, and emphasizes the importance of being informed about market prices to be taken seriously by dealers. Additionally, Meredith introduces the 'What Does This Button Do?' segment, explaining the start-stop technology and its benefits. Drawing from personal experiences, she advises against shopping outside one's budget to avoid poor financial decisions. The episode aims to empower listeners with knowledge for confident car buying decisions. It answers questions like, "Should I make a lowball offer on a car?"

00:00 Introduction and Host Welcome
00:43 Understanding Low Ball Offers
00:55 Reasons for Low Ball Offers
01:19 Making a Low Ball Offer to Save Money
01:50 Researching Car Prices
04:21 What Does This Button Do?
07:57 Back to Low Ball Offers
08:25 Shopping Within Your Budget
10:32 Personal Anecdote on Budgeting
14:32 Recap and Final Advice
15:34 Closing Remarks

Check out our inventory: www.reynoldsautomotivekc.com

www.youtube.com/@ReynoldsAutomotiveKC

www.facebook.com/ReynoldsAutomotiveKC

www.instagram.com/women_buying_cars

Email me: meredith@reynoldsautomotivekc.com

Transcript

Meredith 0:22

Welcome back to Women Buying Cars. I'm your host Meredith Reynolds, owner of Reynolds Automotive, a used car dealership in the Kansas City area. I would love to help you if you live in the region. If you could please subscribe to my show and give me a five star review, that really helps me grow the show. Today we're talking about making a low ball offer on a used car, meaning you offer a number that is significantly less than what the car is listed for. There's really three reasons people would give a low ball offer. One is that they're just looking to save as much money as possible and hey, don't we all want to? The second reason is that they don't know anything about the car market. Really don't know what this car is worth, and they're just throwing out a number. Okay. The third reason is. People are shopping outside of their budget. So first let's talk about just making a low ball offer because you wanna save money. You can afford a $15,000 car, but you sure would like to pay 12 for it. Hey, I can understand that I'm the same way. You're looking to save as much as you can. So why not just throw out a really low number? On one hand you have nothing to lose. All they can say is no. Or This starts the negotiation process. Right? Um, that is true. Another side of that though is that when you go to the dealership, you're going in educated, so you already know what other cars that are similar to this one. Meaning model, trim level, similar mileage, not just this Honda Accord and that Honda Accord. You know what those cars are listed for in your area, because that is gonna tell you what the car's truly worth. You can also use a website like Edmonds to give you an idea. I don't recommend Kelley Blue Book because it never seems to be accurate. But if you really wanna know what cars are going for in your town, you need to look and see what other cars are listed for, because that's the competition for the car dealership you're at, and that's who they're trying to price accordingly with, not whatever Kelley Blue Book says. So if you've done that and you know that the $15,000 price list. Is too high then by all means, bring your offer down. If you see though that it is comparable and this seems like a fair offer, then throwing out 10, 12,000 makes me think you're in one of those other two categories. You don't know anything about the car market. You don't know any better than to make a offer of 12, or you really can't afford this car. Even if you can, I'm gonna start thinking you're in those other two categories. The whole point of this podcast, is that I am empowering and educating you so that you know what you're doing and so that you come off as someone who's confident and competent. it kind of turns things between the salesperson and you or the manager and you. If it's a really busy Saturday, they may be looking out the window at the lot thinking, I really wish I were out there helping someone who's serious. Instead of spending the last 45 minutes with someone who has no intention of buying this $15,000 car. You don't want that because you want them focused on you and focused on the deal that you're trying to make and completing the deal and getting you out of there. You don't want them to start dismissing you or trying to pass you off or anything like that because they don't think you are a really serious buyer and they're trying to hurry up and get to someone who is. It is now time for a segment called, what does this Button do? Okay, I'm going to describe the button for you. It is a capital letter A, and it is surrounded by an arrow, meaning it's like a circle, but it's actually an arrow. Do you know what that button does? Many of you may not have this button on your car. It is a newer feature. This is the stop start technology. This is what causes a car to turn off when you are idling. When you stop at a stoplight and your engine turns off, but the accessory battery is still working, meaning Your radio is still on, your odometer and tachometer. All of that is still on, but the engine itself has turned off. Then when you take your foot off the brake or when you accelerate, it starts back up again and you take off. This is start, stop, technology. The whole point is to reduce gasoline usage and cut emissions. How can, just turning off for that one minute I'm at the stoplight really make that much of a difference. Well, you multiply that across all the cars that are in this world and you can start to see that it, does add up to a really big reduction. What you can expect from your own car here in the United States, if you are using this technology in the city Anywhere from a three to 10% miles per gallon improvement. So if you are in the city getting 20 miles per gallon, you could instead be getting 22 miles per gallon if you're utilizing the start stop technology. Multiply that across the entire lifespan of your vehicle, and that could make a big difference. One tip when using it is when you're at a stoplight and the person in front of you creeps up just a little, and then of course you want to creep up just a little. If you do that, it is gonna start the engine back up, and then once you apply the brake, it won't. Turn off the engine because you have to get up to driving speed and then use it, for it to turn off. So don't creep up. Many cars have this just built in. It's not an option. I know for sure that certain Cadillac years and models have this feature and you just have it there. It's not an option. But a lot of cars do have the button. So you have the option to turn it off. Why would you wanna turn it off? Well, some people just find it annoying. They don't like it. If that's you, then you have that option, capital A with a circle around it. Now, I have heard conflicting things about what the constant starting and stopping does to your car. From what I read online from experts, they say it does nothing Engine, the starter, all the components are made with the start, stop technology in mind. And so they're not made exactly the same as a vehicle that doesn't have it. However, I have heard from people who are actually mechanics that they see more starters going out on those vehicles than other vehicles. So. Who are you gonna believe? I don't know. The mechanics know what they're talking about, but of course this is just anecdotal. Maybe they're just noticing it more because they have a hunch that it's a problem. So keep that in mind. Alright, now let's get back to talking about low ball offers. Finally People come in with low ball offers because they just can't afford the price. They're shopping for a $15,000 car, but they actually can afford 12 and that's it. And they think that they can get the dealer to come down $3,000 on the car. When you do that, you're setting yourself up for disappointment and failure. I always very strongly suggest you do not shop for cars above your budget in the hopes of getting it down to your budget, because you also have to pay sales, tax, licensing fees, all the other things that go along with buying a car. So you really need to be shopping below your budget so that you can factor in the tax and licensing fees. Where we are in Merriam, the sales tax is nine point a half percent, so on that $15,000 car, nearly $1,500 in taxes. You are setting yourself up for disappointment because they are not going to be able to take off thousands of dollars and still make a profit on their car. We wish we could, we wish we had extra thousands of dollars in markup that we could just toss aside and, and still be profitable. But that is definitely not how it works. At least not in the Kansas City used car market where there is a lot of competition. So you're going to see a car you can't afford. You're gonna fall in love with it. You're gonna be dreaming about driving. And then you're going to walk away without it because in the end, the dealer's not going to be taking off thousands of dollars so that you can drive away in this car. That's a huge disappointment. another possibility if you are shopping outside your budget is that you do end up with the car, but you really shouldn't. You get talked into extending the loan to six years and paying more in interest than you are for the price of the car, and then you are locked into something. You do not have any business being in. So you can easily get over in over your head if you go in looking at cars that are too expensive for you. Something similar to this happened to me recently. I am a member of the Northeast Johnson County Chamber of Commerce, and we had a networking event for women where we met at a formal dress shop, formal gown shop, and some of us Chamber women modeled dresses from that shop for the other ladies because we're having a gala coming up soon, and this is a good opportunity for people to shop. So I volunteered to do the fashion show during my fitting. I tried on many beautiful gowns. And there was one in particular that I absolutely loved. It was a standout dress. it was flattering on me. The price was $350. Now I am not a $350 dress kind of gal. That is not in my budget. I wouldn't go hungry if I spent $350 on a dress, but there are many, many other things I would rather spend that money on than a gown that I will wear one night to one event and then have no other fancy events to wear to again until the next gala when I feel the need to get a new dress. However, I was considering that dress because I was with a salesperson who was telling me how good it looked on me and how special it was, and I was convincing myself, yeah, I do need a special dress because I am speaking at the gala. I'm the co-chair, and so I am gonna be up in front of everyone and I should have a really special dress. Maybe I should buy this $350 dress. I was talking myself into something because I was looking at gowns that were already out of my price range. Now, I was doing it because of this fashion show, but that's the whole point. If I had been shopping on my own, I never would've even tried on the $350 dress because I would've known it was pointless, and I was there getting emotionally drawn into this dress. Fortunately, logic came upon me and I have since found a dress for significantly less money that I think is fabulous. But this is what happens to people when they come and look at things outside their price range. It's easy to start convincing yourself that you can afford it when you really shouldn't. There's nothing wrong with negotiating the price of a car, but Starting with a low ball offer means that you're potentially going to be dismissed. The salesperson is potentially going to look at you differently and think, oh, this person has no intention of buying this car. They can't afford it. The other thing that can happen, if you think about the psychology of this, you make a low ball offer, they maybe scoff at it or politely tell you that there's no way they could get even close to that. And some people are going to feel the need to save face or even try to maybe think that they can call the dealer's bluff. When there may not even be a bluff, you know, like, well, that's it. I'm only going to pay 12,000. I can't pay anymore. And then the dealer has to say, I'm sorry, I can't even get close to that number. And then the customer, may feel the need because they said, I will not pay anymore. They may feel the need to save face and walk away, even though they really like that car, but they don't want to. Concede and so they'll walk away and start all over again somewhere else. We don't want that to happen. We want to sell you a car. You want to buy a car? Let's find a common middle ground. Okay, so to recap. When you walk into a car dealership, you wanna be taken seriously. You wanna come off as educated, you wanna come off as competent, and offering a price that is several thousand dollars below the list price doesn't make you look like any of those things. It can make the salesperson suddenly feel like you're not a serious buyer and they need to move on to someone who is. Do your research before you get there. Know what similar vehicles are going for in your city or town. Stick to that range. and if you can't afford a car, by all means, don't test drive it. Don't look at it, don't tempt yourself to make a very poor decision that will get you in over your head. Or waste your time on something that's never going to happen. Shop in your price range even a little below it because you have to factor in the money you're gonna spend on taxes and licensing. If you know someone who needs to hear this message because they're constantly trying to buy things they can't afford, send them this episode. Send it to anyone you know who needs to be empowered when they walk in a car dealership. If you're in Kansas City, come see me at Reynolds Automotive. Please give my podcast a five star rating. And if you have anything to say, I would love to hear it. There is a place to text me at the top of the show notes. Thank you so much for listening and happy driving.