Fighting Chance’s “Fax Attack†Buying Method Works

As I prepared to buy our new Prius (Silver Pine Mica #3), I researched how to get the best price. Someone on one of the Prius forums referred to www.fightingchance.com and their “fax attack†method of getting competitive bids. It sounded logical, so I tried it out.

I called around and got the names and fax numbers for the sales manager or fleet manager from the 17 closest Toyota dealerships. I then sent them all a fax asking for a competitive price quote for a Prius with the color and package we wanted.

About 2/3 responded, most of them with prices $400-600 over invoice. Then I got a couple that were $200 below invoice. I kept playing them off of each other, and eventually got down to a $600 below invoice quote and a $400 below invoice quote. Since the $600 below invoice one was 2 hours away and not our favorite color, and the $400 one was 2 miles away with our favorite color, we went with it. But we could have gotten $600 below if we really wanted it.

The process did take some time – about 8 hours or so. But it saved us $800-$1000, so it was well worth it.

If you’re getting a new car of any kind, I’d highly recommend going to their website and learning about this process – it works! (And I didn’t have to sit in a back room getting haggled by a salesman and the unseen “managerâ€!)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ari @ Mar 28 2007, 10:34 AM) [snapback]413618[/snapback]</div>

Oops - it probably does sounds a bit too rah-rah, since I'm still gloating over my success at getting a good price. I do have a website, but it's a very different one: www.morninglightphoto.com, and it has some nice photos if you're interested. But I don't have any connection to FC - I'm a teacher by profession and I like to tell people about great ideas when I see them. Next time I'll just kind of casually mention it... (Besides, the FC site says the guy there has already sold 88,000 copies of his information packages, so I don't imagine he needs to spend much time shilling his product in these forums!)

BTW: if you want another great idea, get some Secondskin Spectrum and put it all over the spare tire area and in the wheelwells - it makes for a really quiet ride!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pkittie @ Mar 28 2007, 09:14 PM) [snapback]413959[/snapback]</div>

I checked out edmunds.com as part of my research, and from what I could tell they just get you a non-competitive price that's a reasonable amount above invoice.

I'm curious - has anyone reading this had an experience with edmunds.com where they got a nice price below invoice?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusenvy @ Mar 29 2007, 02:30 PM) [snapback]414472[/snapback]</div>

Thanks for the response - I tried the Costco route at first and got the same price as the initial high bids I got from the competitve process: $400 over invoice. I visited a dealership to test drive a car and asked about the Costco price and he said that it was just a "standard no-haggle price" but that it "usually wasn't the best price he could offer - it was just a starting point." I wasn't too impressed...

I added something to the "fax attack" method that some dealers seemed impressed by - I said that I would send a "public" email to everyone at the community college I teach at and remind people that the tax credits would go down again at the end of this week, and mention the name of the "winning" dealership as a way of getting them more business. I did that, and my department chair decided to shop for a Prius. She's still in the process of buying, but she started with the sales managers that gave me the two lowest bids, and both sales managers sent me email thanking me for the reference. They also said they would give her the same price I got (depending on car availability), which was a nice benefit for her. I'm not sure if my promised referral email was a deciding factor in the price I got, but it seeme to make an impression on them.

 

BTW - In case you're wondering what $400 under invoice meant in this case, our final out-the-door price for the HG package (Package #2) was $22,030 before $218 in DMV fees.

The dealer basically cut $400 out of the holdback and dealer finance reserve (approx. $665 total), so he made $225 off the deal plus whatever incentive money Toyota gives the dealership for meeting its sales goals. I used their 2.9% financing for about half the cost of the car, and I doubt the dealership got anything from that. So I think we did pretty well - there wasn't much room left to down in price. The high-volume guy in Portland who offered $600 below invoice was at the very bottom - he was just kicking the car out the door to get another sale racked up on the way toward a monthly sales goal, I'm guessing.

I just read on another thread that someone paid $23,714 for a Package #2 about a week ago. Ouch!

That's why I'm posting this information - so other people can avoid getting that kind of "deal."

 

I went back and checked the MSRP on our Prius #2 package - it was $24,234, so we saved $2204 off of MSRP. If I had to pay 5% over invoice that would have been $22,430 + $1121 = $23,551....yikes!

I think the terrain has changed - Toyota has caught up with production, so the cars aren't scarce anymore. New buyers need to catch up on their sense of what a good buy is. And if the 2008 model is a really new version, you'll be able to scoop up a 2007 at a great price.

Anyone know when 2008's arrive?