Should vehicles just have a set price?

[tripods68]

This reminds in 2007 when were about buy Nissan Xterra 07. The rebates was only $1250 rebate but they were willing to sell it to me $500 over invoice. Then last November the rebates went up to $3500 at selling at Invoice. But then again, we already changed our mind to stick on what we have.


Jim,
Honda do offers rebates on certain bigger items like the pilots, or Odyssey. They don't quickly move out from inventory especially in today's market. Civic and the Accord remain their top selling cars. Therefore, you will hardly find rebates in those models. But the notion that rebates reduced the value of a car isn't right to me nor would believe what a car salesman tells me. Honda and Toyota has always been on top when it comes to resale value market because of their reliability, quality, and consumer satisfaction over the years. It has nothing to do about rebates. Their reputation in the resale market what keeps up their value consistently more than most domestic and european made cars. But i do agree domestic cars like a cavalier losses about 50% of its value the moment you drive it away from the lot.

[cschin4]

Automakers have tried that in the past as a marketing tool but it didn't seem to catch on. Everybody likes to think they are getting a "deal". It panders to our ego. The truth is if you drove it off the lot, they made money. Which isn't a bad thing. But, nobody is getting a car for nothing like I sometimes hear people bragging.
I think that smaller priced items such as lettuce, etc, adding in the time factor of haggling over all those things would eat away any profit unlike haggling on larger items. But, there are many items you can haggle over from furniture, jewelry, real estate. And, you can go to yard sales, flea markets, ebay, or private sales and haggle away. It may uncomfortable but that is just part of life. My dad hated to haggle so he just shopped around and bought what he wanted without the haggling. And, he probably paid too much for some things but said he just didn't want to be bothered and he didn't care. So, you have to decide what it is worth to you. As for being "fair", I don't know what that means. If you haggle a price that you both agree upon that is just as "fair" as paying a set price.

[snafu]

Often several dealerships are owned by the same group of investors. This is particularly noticable if they share the same driveways. I've learned that most things sold by commission sales staff is open to a polite request for a discount or special service.

With the current economy business wants to sell and we wonder whether or not to buy. Perhaps it's a good idea to sharpen our neogitating or bargaining skills. Bargaining is common in many other countries. Maybe their system better meets consumers needs.