Salesmen haven't changed in 40 years.

If the tray is standard equipment, it is worth what the dealer wants to pay for it.
You can't value it at a spare parts price, remember the dealer has to buy it & keep it in stock until he can find a buyer for it.

Visiting different dealers "face to face" trying to get a better price is a waste of your time IMHO. What I have found best is go to one dealer, work out EXACTLY what you want (model, engine, auto/man, tray, country suspension?, any options, required deleivery date etc...). From there, fax every dealer around with your EXACT requirments and get their best price. No need for you, or the salesman, to waste their time.

I always allow the dealer I visted a few extra $$$ to take into aco bleep the time I spent with them. I appreciate someone as to pay for the salesmans time and am prepared to do that, if they also offer the vehicle at a reasonable price.

Trying to get aggresive with any saleman rarely works. They do this job every day and are far more experienced in giving attitude :) Be polite and simply be prepared to walk away - you are the one with the money in the pocket so no need to have your blood pressure raised.

Cheers

Captain

Hi Boo Boo, I have just bought a new Triton cab chassis with no tray and went to my local dealer. He gave me a price of $34,000 with no extras, so I went down to the Central Coast and got a price from the dealer their. I told him that the local dealer was robbing me so he gave me a quote with ALL extras including diff lockers for $32,000. I told him I would not hold him to the quote, so he made it as low as possible without loosing. (NO Profit). Went back to local car dealer and told him to match it, or I'll go elsewhere. He matched the price, now have new 4x4 cab chassis with all extras for $32,000. Beat them down, play one against the other, I do it every time I buy a new car.

try telling them that your also looking at a colorado and can get one much cheaper,they dropped the price quite a bit when i was looking but still couldnt beat the colorado price so i went that way instead

A large amount of aluminium trays are manufactured by MMM Holdings in Brisbane.

When I bought my ute I didn't want the tray Nissan offered and had MMM custom build one.
After arguing with the Nissan dealer the purchase price was reduced by $2000.
The new tray cost me $1700
MMM Holdings sell to the public but a call to them would give you a good indication of tray price. Beware that there are different qualities in trays. My Nissan has a heavy duty and the extrusions on the underside are about 40 mm apart.

On my ford, the factory tray, made by MMM has extrusions every 100mm apart and is therefore lighter in construction.
The other consideration is do you want a straight headbord, a cropped headboard or round bar.

Just make sure you compare apples with apples
MMM Holdings phone number is 07 3807533
I know there are other manufactures around but have only dealt with MMM.
Hope this helps

Cheers Teza

When we were looking to purchase the prado last year we went to the local dealership, who had what we wanted in stock but would only allow us to test drive it around the block with her in the car and then used high pressure tactics to get us to commit to the sale and straight up gave us a massive 'discount' which she said would leave her sales manager shaking his head - the only thing that left us shaking our head was the bad acting by the sales lady and her sales manager (yes, we could tell that you didnt think that the discount was WOW)

We then went to our car broker and got him to broker us a deal that got us $10k off rrp and included tinting, car mats, light protectors and a couple of other things.

As we are using hire purchase with this car, the bank was the one that paid for the broker's services.

Strangely enough, when the local dealerhip contacted us regarding the purchase we let her know we were getting it elsewhere, for how much and what was included. She was willing to match this deal but we let her know that after our dealings with her and her attitude towards us test driving we would rather make the 2 hour round trip to deal with another dealership.

As cunning as dunny rats.

The car dealers have not sent me a quote, instead they have inviter ime in to test drive the car and allow them the opportunity to show why the isuzu is better than their competitors.

They also need to ask a number of questions to make sure they can offer me the best deal.

For goodness sake it's obvious I think the isuzu is better than their competitors otherwise I would not be asking for a quote.

I'll tell them I have driven my mates dmax so I don't need a test drive.

I'll then ask why do they need to ask questions when I have told them what I want.

This is fun!

I love buying cars.
The first thing I say to the salesman is:- "I am here to buy a car and not for you to sell me one".

Makes them think I can tell you.

I don't buy many these days as I am a very happy Terracan owner but with my comment above don't use a smart arse manner - just be polite and it works most of the time.

The Bigfella

I'm sitting here doing the paper work for our tax teturn and got a bit bored with it.

So I went into the Isuzu showroom and found the bit where you can get pricing, and low and behold the pricing will change depending on the suburb you are in.

Scone is cheaper then Campbelltown and the tray price will also change.

Scone $36408 $1729 Campbelltown $36572 $2029 Thats for a business.

The $36408 is without a tray so with a tray $38237, This looks like full retail without on road costs.

Oh well back to the paper work, almost beer o'clock.

This post has been read by the moderation team and has been moderated due to a breach of The Foul Language Rule .

Forum Moderation Team

Salesmen haven't changed in 40 years because the customers haven't changed either. Clearly there must be many that just pay full RRP or they wouldn't play the game like they do. In general there appears to be about a 20% profit margin on most cars although this would vary between brands & depend on exchanges rates, availability, sales insentives etc. I normally look at the recommended retail price of the car & subtract 15% to work out what I'd expect to be the best possible price. I then find several dealers that have the car in stock or have unsold cars on order & play them off against each other working towards that 15%. You must let them know that you are ready to buy today & have priced elsewhere but after that they will chase you with offers. My last new car dropped $5000 over the time I had lunch at the pub & ended up buying on the phone from a dealer I'd never met.
Also remember assesories cost dealers very little so negotiate a discount on them as well or better still have them thrown in with the deal. The fact your dealer only dropped the tray price $1500 probably indicates that's all it cost him.

OK

I have received 3 replies.

1. Initial enquiry over the phone $34000 w/o tray driveaway.

2. By email $38000 w/o tray driveaway. However would consider an offer as he had two and was prepared to sell either!!!!!! Remember I asked for a quote and his best offer.

3.By email $33777 w/o tray driveaway.

I am waiting for one more quote which I expect will come on Monday morning.

I believe two of the quotes are not bad, but I am going to ask for a tow bar and see what happens. I should have asked for it as part of the quote I know, but did not think off it.

The problem is, if we push them too hard we have a few more 'Rick Damellian's' and less competition to bargain with.
I usually buy with about 3 online requests and then judge on price, service and attitude.
I recently purchased a new Landcruiser and was quoted $1500 less by another dealer, the salesperson I bought from had been in touch over the past 10 or 12 weeks when my enquiry was originally on the new Prado which wasn't in stock for 6 weeks, he emailed me all updates and the latest reports together with what was available and when.
At the end of the day, when the price was officially released on the PRADO, I decided to switch to the bigger Cruiser and stuck with him.
This is where the cream rises to the surface...I told him when placing the order by email that even though I had a cheaper quote, i would buy from him for the reasons noted above. His response was not just a "thank you very much", he said that he would go and talk to the boss to see if he could match that price...he got back to me with a, yes he would.
Not only that he delivered the vehicle to me from Castle Hill some 40 kilometres away, that is service and civility that cannot be beaten.
Incidentally, I rang him 5 weeks later and purchasesd a new Yaris for my wife...no questions asked, it was delvered as well.

G'day all

Well I finally bought my new toy on Monday. The Dmax will look good when every thing is put on.

Final deal was 34K on road plus towbar and wiring, bonnet protector, mats and a full tank of fuel.

The down side is my daughter will be the first to drive it as we will be in Bundaberg.