Advice on negotiating price (2017 A3)
 

I've been doing some research and according to TrueCar the car I want is selling for around 35-36K in my area.

I emailed the dealer and asked them to send me a proposal. They sent me this...

2017 A3 Sedan 2.0T quattro S tronic - $39,430
Exterior Ibis White
Interior Black
Options: Sport suspension, Stainless steel pedal caps, Audi Guard all-weather floor mats, Homelink - Black Headliner, USB Cables, Premium Plus package

This exact car is on their website for 37,850.

How should I reply to the dealer? (sorry if this question gets asked a lot. This will be my first new car purchase and I just want to get a good deal. I was sure this was the best place to ask).

Area: Oregon (no sales tax)

Find a handful of dealers that have the car you are looking for. Send them all e-mails and what you are willing to pay for the car. Negotiate with all of them to the lowest you can.

Then let the dealership you want to buy from know that you have an offer for X Car at Y price. They may ask to see this in writing, I try to not provide that -- a good honest dealer that wants your business won't force that. I let the dealer know that I'm always willing to travel to buy a car for the right price.

I got my 2017 S3 for 9% off MSRP in November. I would say if you aren't looking at 8-10% off, then don't buy it.

If the dealer flatlines and can't meet you at a price you want, add an accessory that you do. For me it was the resonator delete.

Maybe 6-8% off MSRP is more realistic...

Also, be careful using Truecar. Go to bugmenot[dot]com and use the generic login. Once you agree to one of the Truecar prices, they are pretty much obligated to sticking to that price, and Truecar gets a cut -- your name essentially becomes "referred" by truecar.

If you don't want to haggle, use them to find the price you want.

From my experience, true car is great for just going in and not having to deal with the haggling.

I think you can always beat the true car price by at least a thousand. I've manage to do this on a 2016 Jetta, 2015 Toyota corolla and 2016 Jeep Renegade. These are low margin vehicles, so for higher margin vehicles such as the Audis, I think you can definitely do it.

Unfortunately, my Audi A3 E-Tron, I wasn't able to get much other than just a few hundred below truecar pricing. Most likely because it was a hard to find Prestige model and I had my dealer in California trade with a dealer in Washington State.

So regarding how to get the best deal. I would search all the dealers that have the exact model car you're looking at. Check to see if the dealers have it on their lot or in transit.

After that, you'll need to do some driving or leg work. I would go to a few dealers and do a soft test buy. Meaning go in with serious signs of buying but not really planning to buy, don't provide any ssn info. Provide a fake name and a second phone number when they ask, something like a google voice number. Talk to them for a bit then walk away, they'll usually try to get you to stay by making a reasonable offer. But decline and walk away. This will be your starting price point.

Next, start calling all the dealers and give them a price offer that you're willing to buy, something below the lowest price you received while at the dealer but at the same time offer an unrealistic but achievable price. It's something you'll need to gauge. I tend to offer unrealistic numbers because I just want to see how far low not to go. You usually can tell if it's unrealistic by the way they respond.

So do this with as many dealers as you can, they usually say let me get back you and ask for your info, offer them your real info and wait for a call back. Once you get a call back with a reasonable offer, head to the dealer and start the process by giving them your ssn for credit check, and tell them to give you the terms. You can still negotiate, so keep doing it, but be truly prepared to walk away if they say no. It's a tough last hurtle but you can always get lower. If you do end up walking away, always remember, it's very easy to get the same deal, if you can't do better. And something to keep in mind, employees are getting 15% off a new sale vehicles. So there's definitely a lot of room for them to go lower.

MSRP, Invoice and market prices are all good indicators, but dealers get kick backs and incentives on certain time, day or month. So one dealer may be willing to offer something completely out of norm just to close a deal. It's all a matter of being patience, getting the right sales guy and getting them all to compete. Most cars that I've purchase usually take me 3 weeks to a month. It'll be worth it if you end up saving thousands.

2017 Buy
 

Mine is a 2017 Q3 Prestige bought in late Dec.

11% off msrp plus Audi makes 1st payment. Together 12.2 % below msrp.
Not the same as the car you are looking for,but a great deal. Probably some of the incentives that were in effect when I bought my car have expired. Hope this helps.

edmunds is a great place to see what others are paying and to get the current money factors, incentives and residuals etc etc.

Car buying
 

Agree Edmunds & Truecar are a good place to start. My deal--- dealer started @ these #'s for both my trade & new AUDI. After all was finalized,we came together @ $3,000 below his starting offer.
As I said these are good sites to get started but they leave a lot of your $$$ on the table.