First off, I can now tell if someone's going to buy a car within the first ten seconds of talking to them. If the first question is any variation of "What's you're bottom line price", "What sort of incentives are available on x", or "I could buy this car cash today", you will not buy a car. People who are actually buying a car will have researched the incentives and will know what a good price is. People who actually pay cash never bring it up till the end of the sale. And no, the offer of "cash" doesn't get you a better deal, we had always intended to sell the vehicle for "money".
Second, most people are frustratingly bad at negotiating but think they're awesome. You can't buy a $35,000 car with $0 down for $300/month no matter how set on that price you are. When I ask what sort of payment you're looking for it's not cause I'm trying to rip you off, I just want to sell you a vehicle you can afford. It never fails, the person who won't give me any info but wants to look at a $53k tahoe is horrified when I come back with a $1k+ monthly payment. If you would have told me what you wanted to spend up front instead of trying to be sneaky, we wouldn't have wasted all this time.
Third, most car shoppers make the process MUCH harder than it needs to be. They lie about the payoff on their trade, they lie about their income on the credit app, they lie about pretty much everything. Giving false information doesn't change the "deal" at all, it just means we'll find out right at the end that we can't get you financed. Also, those of you that think you're getting a better deal by not telling me you have a trade till the deal is finalized are sorely mistaken. Now that I know you're buying the car I'm going to hold all I can on your trade value, usually to the point that I'll blow the deal over it just cause it pisses me off so much (especially if we stayed open late working with you and the used car manager who would have appraised your car went home because you didn't have a trade). Also, if it ends up that you're way upside down in that trade you didn't have earlier it does weird stuff to the loan and makes it much harder to sell to a bank, especially if we were shopping it to a bank that doesn't do that sort of thing.
Fourth, the new chevy line is much better than it used to be, but still sucks from an enthusiast prospective. The new camaro drives like a tank, and everything else might as well be made of jello.
