We were in the market for a new SUV. We had decided on a Mercedes ML series and had begun shopping around locally. We stopped at Sears Import Autos and went inside. We met Endre. He seemed like a really nice guy at first. We knew exactly what we wanted: an ML350, 2009 or 2010, P2 Package.
He did have one on the lot... a 2010 with 49,000 miles on it. He quoted it at $40,900. First off, that's a LOT of miles for a 2 year old car. I said this right away. He went on and on about how well Mercedes held up and how good the warranty was. We were willing to at least take a look, and he let us test drive the car alone (that is always so much better than with a salesman). We liked that.
We got back and told him we'd have to do some quick research and that we'd call him in the morning. First off, we called the bank. They did a blue book and black book check against the VIN and said book value was $37,700. That's $3,200 less than what the dealer wanted. Good to know. We also had their car guy evaluate our trade-in. He said the trade was borderline between "Excellent" and "Good" condition because of a very small crack near the headlight. It was in the plastic bumper fascia and if a salesman wanted to be a stickler about it, he could probably get away with calling it "good" condition. The rest of the car was fantastic though. All dealer serviced. Low miles for it's age, leather, navigation. It was a nice trade. For "excellent" it was valued at $13,917 or at "good" it was valued at $13,314.
We also looked up the dealer webpage with the bank guy to get all the information for him to do his book value and on the dealer webpage the vehicle price was only $39,800. Endre was highballing us,or the price dropped overnight. Not a good sign.
After I got my facts, I took the trade-in car up to let Endre look at it the next day. He lowballed me at $12,500. I didn't say anything in response to his offer. I just told him I'd be in touch.
We went and looked at other dealers. Other dealers also had the car we wanted, and also with the P2 package... but the one at Sears was the only one with the aftermarket grill protector as well as the upgraded lighting. I called White Bear Mercedes to find out how much it would be for the addons. The grill protector film would be $380 to install, and the sill lighting would be $500. So if we bought from another dealer we'd immediately be in for $880 to match the one at Sears. So $38,580 was the most I'd pay for the one at Sears (book + addons)
We still wanted the one from Sears. It was just the nicest one out there. The high miles and obscenely high price they were asking had to be dealt with though. As well as the low trade value... basically they wanted to do $39,800 and $12,500. I was willing to do $38,500 and $13,300 - putting us $2,100 apart.
I phoned Endre up and laid it out straight. I didn't want to fool around with back and forth and a drawn out negotiation. We were ready to buy. I told him I what I would do. He declined. He came back with bringing the trade up to $13,000 (coming up $500) and offering to throw in a new set of floor mats (he kept saying this was a $200 value!!! several times) and a full tank of gas. I thought that was kind of insulting. Anyone buying a luxury car should be getting a full tank of gas anyway. And the floormats already in the vehicle were pristine so the upgrade between the existing mats and brand new ones was not even close to a $200 value.
I told him we'd prefer to take a few more days to go shopping for other cars. He said he was going on vacation but offered to hold the car until Wednesday (if I gave him my credit card number to hold a deposit) and he said he hoped something could still be worked out. I agreed to that. We were still $1,600 apart.
The better half went in a few days later. We had found another ML at a different dealer and we planned to buy that. She went in to give Sears one last shot. She worked with Tim, who she said was very nice and understanding. He wasn't able to make a deal though - so he went and got the manager to see what could be negotiated (and this is sort of my fault for letting her go on her own), but the manager tried to strong arm her into buying the car, saying he had gone out of his way to hold it for her and had turned down other sales offers (riiiiight). He basically was trying to make her obligated to buy the car. His strong arm tactics just made her mad though. She had been over and over the same spreadsheets we were using to make this decision many times. She knew the numbers.
So we walked away from Sears. Looking at CarGuru's, I see they still have that ML on their lot. For 89 days now. And they have dropped the price to $36,877 - WELL BELOW my offer. They could have made a bunch of money off me. Now they have it priced $1,623 below my even my offer. That's money they just left on the table.
Side note: We are very happy with the new ML350 we bought! (see my review of Poquet Auto for that story) read more