You know, the thing to remember when making any large purchase, particularly those where the price is negotiable (cars, tractors, trucks, boats, etc) is that when you are dealing with a dealer, it will be a rare occassion when you "beat" the dealer (i.e. the dealer sells it to you at or below his cost). I have seen the advent of all of these great and wonderful internet things for automobiles, where one can allegedly find the dealers invoice price and find out about all of the various incentives that the manufacturer may be offering the dealer, so you as an individual can determine exactly what the dealer paid. Now I'm not saying that this isn't a valuable tool and I highly recommend it, but I often talk to folks that think that they really put it to the dealer, since they "knew" what the dealer paid for the merchandise.
I'll admit, I'm pretty big into those wacky conspiracy theories (like we never landed on the moon, the Titanic never sank, etc.) and I'm pretty sure that there are mini-conspiracies that go on between dealers and manufacturers, and the general buying public will never know the actual dealer costs - since, from what I gather with friends who are (shudder) car salesman, they claim they don't actually know what the dealer paid, they just know how low their selling price can be, and whatever they get above that adds to their commission.
Personally, I am not a haggler. I ask the dealer for their rock-bottom, low-ball absolute can't sell it any lower and keep the lights on, this is a deal for you and nobody else you're not gonna turn around and sell it somebody else are you, deal (whew). I adopted this policy after I spent six hours negotiating the price of an Isuzu Rodeo and swore I would not do that again. On the occasion of purchasing my tractors (a Belarus 420AN, a Yanmar F16D, a John Deere 2010 TLB and finally a Kioti DK 45), I used the one shot method and was pleased with all prices. I've never found a lower price for the Yanmar or Kioti than from the places where I purchased them, and the Belarus was older put it's price was in-line with other used Belarus tractor, and I got the JD real cheap as a project tractor, but it ended up serving out it's purpose as a trade for a loader for the Kioti. Of course, I could have gotten hosed by all the dealers involved, and on some other purchases (trucks, mostly) I had to walk away empty handed because their price was too high. Maybe I could have haggled them down and maybe I couldn't. Bottom line is.....well, I don't really know what the bottom line is. I've typed so long I forgot what I was talking about.
Oh well, congrats to Bob in Mn on his rebate from the dealer, and it's nice to see that Bob does give credit where it's due. By the way, Bob, I also vote for the lawn vac system.
Take it easy
Tim Gray
I'll admit, I'm pretty big into those wacky conspiracy theories (like we never landed on the moon, the Titanic never sank, etc.) and I'm pretty sure that there are mini-conspiracies that go on between dealers and manufacturers, and the general buying public will never know the actual dealer costs - since, from what I gather with friends who are (shudder) car salesman, they claim they don't actually know what the dealer paid, they just know how low their selling price can be, and whatever they get above that adds to their commission.
Personally, I am not a haggler. I ask the dealer for their rock-bottom, low-ball absolute can't sell it any lower and keep the lights on, this is a deal for you and nobody else you're not gonna turn around and sell it somebody else are you, deal (whew). I adopted this policy after I spent six hours negotiating the price of an Isuzu Rodeo and swore I would not do that again. On the occasion of purchasing my tractors (a Belarus 420AN, a Yanmar F16D, a John Deere 2010 TLB and finally a Kioti DK 45), I used the one shot method and was pleased with all prices. I've never found a lower price for the Yanmar or Kioti than from the places where I purchased them, and the Belarus was older put it's price was in-line with other used Belarus tractor, and I got the JD real cheap as a project tractor, but it ended up serving out it's purpose as a trade for a loader for the Kioti. Of course, I could have gotten hosed by all the dealers involved, and on some other purchases (trucks, mostly) I had to walk away empty handed because their price was too high. Maybe I could have haggled them down and maybe I couldn't. Bottom line is.....well, I don't really know what the bottom line is. I've typed so long I forgot what I was talking about.
Oh well, congrats to Bob in Mn on his rebate from the dealer, and it's nice to see that Bob does give credit where it's due. By the way, Bob, I also vote for the lawn vac system.
Take it easy
Tim Gray
