24 Santa Fe Calligraphy Negotiation
Need some unbiased opinions. I don’t know if I’m being stupid and/or greedy, or justified. First time buying a car this expensive
TLDR: Should I hold out for dealership to agree to negotiations, or just take the deal since the car is already pretty hard to
I decided to go test drive the Santa Fe hybrid. Just like everyone else on this thread, I absolutely fell in love. But the 26 Calligraphy I drove at the dealership was out of my price range unfortunately.
After a couple weeks of searching, I finally found a 24 Hybrid Santa Fe Calligraphy in black (ideal exterior color), really low miles, and a clean title. It was also the cheapest that I’ve found in the country.
After doing a little research on the car, I found in Carfax that it’s been sitting at that dealer for 4 months. Prior to that, they bought it from a Lexus dealer that sold it at auction after getting it on a trade in. The price has been fluctuating like crazy. They’ve changed the price 9 times. It fell almost 4k from original asking, now it’s jumped back up to 1.5k under original asking .
I texted the dealer and tell them I’m interested and ready to move on the car. I’m open to financing or paying cash, whatever gets me the best deal (I’m paying cash) and if we can agree on numbers I’m ready to send a deposit and come up today (dealership is in the next state over).
They sent me an offer which was their current price + 399 doc fee. Since the car has been sitting for so long and the price has fluctuated so much, they’d probably be willing to negotiate a bit.
I open with 1.8k under what they currently have it listed for (shooters gonna shoot. I know it was a bit of a lowball, but it was only 400 hundred under the price they listed it a couple weeks ago) and they said that they do “market based pricing” and they won’t budge on price.
So I the next day I counter and say I can do 1.2k under current asking (200 above the lowest price they had it listed at) and I’ll drive up today. Or I’ll do 700 under asking if shipping is included. They counter and say they can only do $150 off the car and won’t budge.
I told them no worries and let me know if anything changes on their end.
Honestly I feel pretty dumb, it’s the exterior color I wanted (interior wasn’t ideal but it wasn’t the all black so I’m fine with it) and it was already pretty cheap. But then saying they’ll take the $150 off was kind of annoying, I would’ve rather they held firm at their original price. It felt like a “here, damn. Now make the deal” sort of offer rather than a good faith negotiation. The salesperson said they’d give me a call tomorrow afternoon (hopefully with better numbers)
I guess im just looking for group insight as to what the best next step would be. I’m okay holding out for them to come back with a better offer. I’m also okay just walking away entirely and looking for another car (preferably a CPO which this wasn’t). And as much as I wouldn’t enjoy it, I would also be ok putting my ego to the side and accepting the current offer if $150 off. What would you guys do?
Context: My friend is going out of town for 3 months and I’m dog/plant/house sitting. He said I can use his car as much as I need, specifically as a replacement for my car in case I can’t make a deal. So I’m not really in a rush to get something when my lease ends. I’d still have some time