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Comment by mehrdada | Hacker News Reader

I have only experienced the US version firsthand, but hearing from EU friends, it seems the EU prices are more-or-less set in stone and the haggling potential in the US can get you a better deal if you are savvy and patient (and then say no at every “value-add”).

Of course that comes at the cost of customer experience.

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The rule of thumb is that you can get a lot of stuff cheaper in the US, if you know what you're doing.

In Europe discounts are much lower, and prices are a lot more set in stone.

However, the key caveat here is that most people don't know what they're doing.

So in the US 80% of the population is robbed so that the 20% can take advantage.

In Europe everyone gets a worse deal, but it's never going to be super bad.

Pick your poison :-)

I was sitting at a table at a dealership in process of buying a car and overheard this at the table next to me:

"What's the best price you can give me?"

"Sir, we advertise our lowest prices up front so you don't have any pressure to haggle."

"You can do better than that price."

"... Let me see what I can do."

I believe he got a grand knocked off when it was all said and done.

There are 2 types of dealers in the US. Lowest price advertised volume dealers who will never give you the advertised prices because you’d have to be a Veteran/new College grad/AARP member and use their shitty financing just to qualify.

The other dealers focus a little more on the experience and will haggle a bit with you. They usually don’t use high pressure tactics but won’t give you the lowest price.

I called 15 dealerships asking about their best price out the door "RIGHT NOW" for specific VIN numbers they had on the lot and only had to yell at one salesperson. Once I got dollar figures, at each generation of the binary search I would call and ask if they could beat the lowest price of the prior generation. In the end I paid well under MSRP for that particular trim level and model.

I wish I had your patience, but I just don't. I find the entire process so insulting to my time and intelligence that I refuse to participate, especially after spending 6 hours -- 6! -- buying a specific EV in the Bay Area.

I also find the personalities of used car salesmen to be so grating that I'd rather do it all over email.

Like the other poster said you can deal completely online/over the phone with the dealers internet sales team. I called around for my wife’s car but they would only come down $500 so we went with the original dealer to avoid wasting time.

I did everything over the phone and REFUSED to come in until we had a firm price negotiated

> it seems the EU prices are more-or-less set in stone

Haggling is defiantly a thing in the UK you wouldn't buy a car for sticker price.

Prior to 2020 this was true; I think I got around 13% off my last new car. However since the pandemic shortages and with manufacturing delays, there is much less flexibility as the dealerships know the cars are going to sell either way. When I went to test drive a car recently I saw a couple getting a flat denial on any discount even after attempting to haggle.

Maybe they were actors employed by the store to discourage haggling among other customers by providing negative social proof

Those are next level psychological operations

COVID era supply was impacted and demand was high. US car dealers routinely sold cars way above MSRP too.

Car in the UK reminded me of this:

https://m.lingscars.com/

the mobile version isn't as good as the desktop one :)

https://www.lingscars.com/

Totes agree, I thought it was worth a look too, tho

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