How To Buy A New Chevrolet Truck?

[daugen]

Is the dealer margin the same on a 2500 as a 1500? If so, every truck you buy say between 50-60K ought to have 7-10K discount. That's what they sell for everywhere at model year end. To me all trucks are ten grand overpriced right out of the box. It's where the car companies make all their money and it's been that way for awhile. The profit on a Suburban is just silly. My last two Rams were discounted 11K and 9K under msrp btw and the 11k was a loaded diesel dually.

I only got two grand off my Outback which was their Touring model. And I had to persevere to get that...

 

[ning]

The last two vehicles I bought for myself, I ordered at a dealership.
In '96 I ordered a Chevrolet Impala SS, and got it at MSRP (at the time they couldn't be found below +3k; check used prices and they're still going for what I paid then!).

Also in '96 I ordered a Ford F350. My local dealership at the time had similar trucks on the lot, but they all had "additional dealer markup +$7k" on the sticker and they were very serious... I called a couple fleet managers in a nearby large city area to which I regularly traveled, and told the local guy to match the price as I had no problem buying next time I was in "the valley". They screamed and acted like I was trying to strangle them - and while I'm not a millenial, I seriously hope I was part of the nail in their coffin as they were a terrible dealership, but they did match the very low price I got ($30.5k for a F350 SRW 4x4 PSD Lariat - MSRP a bit over 35k at the time) and probably managed to make at least a few hundred dollars by effectively brokering the buy between me and FoMoCo.

TL;DR - If you have possibly a couple or few months of patience, consider ordering precisely what you want from the factory. The dealer has no standing to demand markup in such a transaction and you should be able to find someone reasonably close who will cut a good deal.

 

[tcreeley]

In 2003 we bought our current truck. I looked on line- did a search - checking available rebates, sales, etc.. The dealership contacted me and said he had two. I drove up,chose one of them and bought it.
My previous truck I found an online auto club where you checked off what you wanted and the club ordered it and had it delivered to a local dealer.
Back in the 1980's I bought a Nissan Sentra through Amway after joining.

Today - I'd do build your own, look what is available with the same specs. If I choose a dealer or enter my zipcode- the local dealer will get back to you - email or phone. Same day or next. My daughter in law works in a dealership and says they have a guy who handles all of the online inquiries.
I find the days of the hard sales are past- with the instant credit checks they are not interested in selling something that won't get credit approval - and they will switch to used if that is what it takes to get a sale.

Then if money is not an object- you might just walk out with a gold plated mint of a vehicle!

 

[two_bit_score]

CAD, you need to get to know a fleet manager in a bigger dealership. Really, the only sensible way to buy a truck.

 

[CADplans]

Have you tried Shelor?

My 1999 came from Shelor,,,

Mine was one of the first eight that came to the Roanoke area.
Berglund ordered theirs with 3.73 gears,, Shelor ordered 4.10 gears.

Oh, yea, there were two GMC's,,, I tried to get one of those,,
but, they were gone when I got back.

I wanted white,, my wife wanted black,,,Hmmmmmmmmm :laughing:

 

[daugen]

I wanted white,, my wife wanted black,,,Hmmmmmmmmm :laughing:

but something tells me you were the one who did that beautiful wax job...

 

[CADplans]

but something tells me you were the one who did that beautiful wax job...

At 19 years old,, that truck still looks like that after only washing,, :thumbsup:

The truck was never waxed, and was not inside at night more than 200 times.

The only vehicles that I have waxed since the mid 1990's are two of my tractors,,,
and that was to remove the 35 year old oxide layer,,,

 

[Garandman]

RollingsFarms: One thing about cars.com, cargurus.com, etc. is they all show the discount promotions currently available to anyone but there are additional discounts for specific people, e.g. school teachers, students, Costco members, etc. Only the dealership will tell you about those. Still, not a bad place to start for base pricing info.

Edmunds.com has all those. You have to enter in your zip as there can be regional differences. And it can take a while at the beginning of each quarter for them to be reposted.

Incentives and Rebates

Seems like pretty much all have the 4.10 so he should be all set. And pickup sales are down slightly compared to last year.

 

[WilliamBos]

Lowest prices in USA...

St Louis Area Buick & GMC Dealer | Laura Buick GMC

 

[daugen]

Lowest prices in USA...

St Louis Area Buick & GMC Dealer | Laura Buick GMC

very interesting site. Good if you don't have a trade, since their used truck prices are lower than average too, which means
low trade values. Can't have it both ways...

They must get some extra comp back from GM for moving so many units.
Of course this is like me calling up Messicks and getting the lowest possible price on the deal (which they gave me) because they
know they won't see the unit again, shipped far away. So you make your grand or two and do it lots and lots of times.

I do wonder if new car prep and make ready is skimped on when you get some super low price.

I've been a car guy and motorhead since my teens. I almost always know way more than the salesman, probably like most of you. The salesman is just a distraction and noise in most cases.
So I tell the F&I guy I'm a retired insurance and finance guy and I understand all he is selling/offering/peddling and that I can save him a lot of time up front because I want absolutely none of it. Said nicely, it saves a lot of time. Dealers hate it, F&I guy can often make more money for the house than anyone else. Like running an
expensive gauntlet to get out of their clutches, so I really understand why it's attractive to avoid all of that.

I must add though that my buying experience last year with local Subaru dealer was utterly different. Nice honest people and great service.
But that's not a Chevrolet truck, and GM dealers are, from my experience, seriously old school and full of sharks and inexperienced just hires.