Car Buyers Are Still Waiting For The No-Haggle Revolution - Will It Ever Come?

One-price Car Selling Catches On read the headline in the San Francisco Examiner. The elimination of haggling with the sales manager and his sharp pencil was "a revenge fantasy come true for anyone who's ever suffered through a high-pressure sales pitch."

The article went on to report that a Chrysler Buick dealer in St. Petersburg, Fla. claimed that his sales had doubled since he fired his sales staff and began slapping a dollar amount on the window of every new car on his lot and told customers, "That's our price. Take it or leave it." The article went on to assert that "a growing number of dealerships across the U.S. have replaced haggling with fixed, non-negotiable prices
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MattDarringer - 5/14/2014 7:07:01 PM

-1 Boost

No haggle = price fixing by the manufacturer which is bad BAD for consumers. Lazy consumers think price fixing is value. Apple price fixes on all their products. If Apple products had competition at the retail level they would cost less. The same is true for cars. As a dealer it's a double edged sword.

Chark - 5/14/2014 9:21:20 PM

+1 Boost

Apple has zero interest in being the cheapest product in the market. They focus on building the best product in the market and protecting their brand image of quality and innovation. They take a majority of profits in almost every category they compete in. They reinvest those profits into developing the next big thing. Apple has lots of competitors, but none are nearly as successful.

With internet sites like TrueCar and others, it's easy to find out what a fair and reasonable price is to pay for a new vehicle. Why would I want to spend hours haggling with a salesman who wants to maximize how much he can take from me. The interests of the salesman and the customer are opposed. If the dealer knew he could sell more cars with less hassle and have happier customers, why wouldn't they implement this? Of course, there are always the poorly informed customers that don't do their research, so fleecing them is OK.

MattDarringer - 5/14/2014 10:58:41 PM

-1 Boost

@Chark...while I agree that I'd rather have a Mac than a WindBlows machine, Apple's price fixing is how they get away with the high prices. Ultimately NOT good for consumers. When a Mac is sold, the consumer does not win, Apple does. The same is true of price fixing at the dealer level. It's bad for consumers. It's not a free market economy anymore. Price gouging under price fixing would be more because the customer cannot bargain. Socialists love price fixing, but anyone with a brain for economics knows that price competition is best for consumers and forces manufacturers to work harder. Price fixing at the dealer level would make me a much richer man.