The buying experience from Tesla may not be perfect but just think about your last car "stealership" buying experience.
Ok.
I emailed 6 different dealers internet sales dept, and told them "I am ready to buy Car X, with options Y, for cash. It will need to be a special ordered since nobody has these in inventory and I'm not interested in any other config, and I'm willing to pay Z dollars for it.
If you will make this deal please let me know"
One of them did, they ordered the car, didn't require a penny up front, they kept me well informed through the whole process, and a couple months later I set foot in the dealership for the first time to take delivery of the exact thing I ordered in perfect condition exactly when they originally said I would.
So... a ton better buying experience than I had with Tesla where I had to put $1000 down for a slot to place an order, another $2500 2 years later when I was actually allowed to order, optioning was far more limited, I was lied to probably 30 times by 8 different people throughout the process, and my delivery date changed half a dozen times... then when I did pick it up it was missing several things (including one of the keycards) and the Monroney sticker was wrong (and not attached to the car- both of which are federal crimes BTW)
The
car was excellent in both cases.
But the buying experience was far worse with Tesla.
If you have had car buying experiences like me over the years it usually involves a gaggle of sales folks hanging out under a tent like vulchers eyeing your every movement waiting to attack as you pull into the dealership.
So that's your first mistake.
You don't step into the dealership until the day you're picking up your new car, for which you've already agreed on a complete deal in advance.
You quickly find out that as buyers we tend to know more about the vehicles then the sales staff.
Now that is universally true.
In the story I mentioned above for the non-Tesla several folks who emailed me back hadn't even been aware you
could order a car optioned the way I requested.
Tesla seems worse here too though because besides the sales people knowing virtually nothing about the
product they seem to know nothing about
the process and continually give unclear, uncertain, or outright false answers to customers as a result of terrible internal communications and lack of clearly defined policies.
If you actually make it to the next stage where you agree to start getting some sales figures they will take the keys to your potential trade-in. By the way, you are now held captive so don't plan on getting those keys back until you have been negotiating for at least a couple hours.
Yeah- that's another rookie mistake.
You don't even
mention a trade in until you have a price for the car. In cash.
Price of the car should have nothing, at all, to do with the trade in. Don't let them connect the two.
(this assumes it's worth trading in vs private sale- often not the case but YMMV)
At this point if you are close on the numbers you will get a visit from the sales manager, which 9 times out of 10 is a guy wearing way too much jewelry and he is going to ask something like, "what do we have to do to get you in this vehicle today?"
Oh, I see the problem.
You go in there as if it's a negotiation.
it's not.
Especially in the internet age you know exactly what the car cost the dealer. You know exactly what the typical real-world transaction price on the car is. You know how in demand the car is or not.
Which is why you already know the amount you will pay for the car, including a small profit for the dealer in exchange for him having to do 0 actual work.
"I want exactly car X, at exactly price Y, and I have cash, today, for it. I've sent this message to all local dealers, whoever accepts my price first gets a no-effort sale. Let me know"
At this point, you may have not eaten any food in about 5 hours and are either ready to walk or cave.
I can't tell if this is a comedy or a drama.... maybe both....
So eventually, if you want the car bad enough you shake hands on the deal and just when you think you have had enough you make your way to the finance department.
Oh good lord... speaking of rookie mistakes.
Mistake 1- showing up in person without already having a done deal for a fixed price.
Mistake 2- Letting them convince you a trade has any bearing on the price of the new car.
Mistake 3- Not already having your own financing lined up before you show up. Your own financing is cash to the dealer. (I mean, ideally you're paying cash anyway, but the point remains). You tell them you are paying cash. Also thanks to the internet you know in advance what rates a dealership is offering generally too in case it's better....
If relevant, day of pickup you can tell them "I planned to pay cash, but if you have any incentive that's better for me to finance with you, what is it?"
Occasionally they have something where because they get kickbacks for financing they'll take another few bucks off the car if you finance or something. So if it's worth doing, great. Otherwise just stick to your already arranged option.
This is where the real fun begins as you begin to hear about the 18 different warranty and protection packages.
So Mistake 4- Not already knowing what's available and if you want any of it before you even walked in.
This way you can tell them "Stop right there- I'm interested in X" (X may be none of the above- usually the case as you can usually get factory ext. warranties cheaper elsewhere.
If they don't take that answer, the very first time, you tell them you are leaving if they don't move on. They'll move right on.
Unless you're buying some INCREDIBLY RARE CAR
you have 100% of the power in this deal
And you're acting like the exact opposite at every step of this process.
if you are not paying cash it is time to move on to financing or lease terms and your are about to learn about interest rates/money factors and how much dealers jack them up to boost profits.
If you are just, now at this stage of buying a car, learning about those things, you probably shouldn't be buying a car.
Again you should already have financing lined up before you even walked in.
And know if they'll be able to offer anything better or not too.
I bought two Teslas over the past two months and I did everything online ahead of time including trade-ins, walked in on delivery day and 20-30 minutes later drove away. That is mind blowing when compared to the buying experience at other manufacturers dealerships.
It's mind blowing compared to the Tesla experience thousands of folks have posted about on here that isn't anywhere near that smooth.
So congrats on that.