Every time I visit a new car dealer I feel a need to take a shower, just to get the stink off of me.
The buyer might practice this 4--20 times in a lifetime. At the high end, that's only a month's experience for the salesperson.
Consider it a form of practice which might save many thousands of dollars in time.
Probably my least favorite consumer experience leans toward purchasing cars. Ironically I also LOVE cars. Hate buying them though
Beyond that, their advertised specials are spectacular deals usually. Who spends money and attention advertising specials that don't even compete with the competition?
Do those fixed price dealers count their various add-ons (rust proofing, extended warranty...) in the fixed price or not. These add-ons are how most dealers make money (that and warranty work)
Whatever is on the sale sheet is included. You can order extra stuff, they will install it for you, but obviously it’s not included in the advertised price.
Honest question, when the customer knows you're trying to fleece them and is willing to pay a small premium to finish the deal and get on with their lives, why would a dealer double down on something so outrageous?
Basically if scamming your customers works a nontrivial fraction of the time and the margin when you're not scamming is small, scamming is the incentivized behavior.
Obviously there could be bad dealership which would try to screw you, read some reviews and don’t go to such place.
Do your research, narrow it down to a small set of models and trim levels, know what the best deals available are, and set your numbers a bit lower. Ring several dealers and say "I'm looking for X.Y.Z at price $NNN, what can you do for me?". Some will not even respond, and do NOT get pulled into the "we can only talk when you are here" - cross those off the list. I found one that would come very close to what I needed, and did the whole deal via email, only actually physically meeting him when I actually went to trade-in and get the new vehicle.
And guess who got the next sale a year later when my wife's lease ran out? And who will get the next one?
On top of that, my experience at that dealer overall has been FAR better than many others. It's worth the long search and semi-log drive to find the right one.
WITHOUT anesthesia