What kind of price negotiation to use when ordering a 2014 LR4?

[JotaDe]

I know some of you have done this, and I am "in the queue" with my local dealer to put in an order for a 2014 (possibly '15) LR4 when allotments are available.

I briefly mentioned the negotiation process when paying my deposit and was told "we sell all LR4s for MSRP because it's a high demand low supply vehicle." They implied that the sales process would be stress free because there is no negotiating to be done.

On one hand I do feel between a rock and a hard place because they know I really want the vehicle, there are few available, and the few that arrive are purchased immediately.
On the other hand I've never been in a position to just take what the dealer asks and not negotiate.

It'd feel like the shaft to pay MSRP, but I don't see many options in negotiating if they know I obviously want the car that badly.

Thoughts?
For those of you who have purchased are experienced a similar situation how did it turn out for you and would you do anything differently?

Thanks!

 

[aj22]

I know some of you have done this, and I am "in the queue" with my local dealer to put in an order for a 2014 (possibly '15) LR4 when allotments are available.

I briefly mentioned the negotiation process when paying my deposit and was told "we sell all LR4s for MSRP because it's a high demand low supply vehicle." They implied that the sales process would be stress free because there is no negotiating to be done.

On one hand I do feel between a rock and a hard place because they know I really want the vehicle, there are few available, and the few that arrive are purchased immediately.
On the other hand I've never been in a position to just take what the dealer asks and not negotiate.

It'd feel like the shaft to pay MSRP, but I don't see many options in negotiating if they know I obviously want the car that badly.

Thoughts?
For those of you who have purchased are experienced a similar situation how did it turn out for you and would you do anything differently?

Thanks!

Some of the various "buying services" might help. I didn't use them this time, but things like autobytel or truecar, etc. might help. Costco car program has pre-negotiated prices with certain dealerships, if you happen to be a member. I was able to leverage this price a little, even though I bought at a different dealer. I don't know if sharing prices paid is done in the forum, I don't mind sharing, or via PM, let me know.

 

[..mg..]

North of the US border, because of the limited supply, dealers are selling above MSRP... and buyers are actually paying. Crazy.

 

[stormfield]

JotaDe -- I'm just kicking off the purchasing process, myself. I intend to custom order a MY15 LR4. Did you have any success in negotiating? One of the things that's surprised me is that out-of-area dealers say they can't sell to customers outside their 'zone'... which makes things harder.

 

[JotaDe]

JotaDe -- I'm just kicking off the purchasing process, myself. I intend to custom order a MY15 LR4. Did you have any success in negotiating? One of the things that's surprised me is that out-of-area dealers say they can't sell to customers outside their 'zone'... which makes things harder.

For reference I'm in the San Jose are of Cali.

My LR4 will be arriving any day now and I have an "estimated" final breakdown from the dealer; straight MSRP of the vehicle and options (as you'd see on the website), about $550 for license/reg, and local sales tax. I haven't yet signed the docs but it seems pretty straightforward to me, and these prices seemed universal when custom ordering everywhere I checked.

They attempted to sweeten the MSRP price by saying the lot price when not ordering is ~5k above MSRP, and from what I've seen locally they're correct.

I also ran into Land Rover's "sell to locals only" rule and it really caused a pain for me (see my earlier thread here).

Basically my local dealer had no open monthly allotments so I paid $500 to go on a waiting list. After a few weeks I was fed up and started cold calling all nearby (~200 miles) dealers to see if they had open orders. The ones who did couldn't give it to me because I didn't live in their area code. I finally found a loophole. My mom lives in the area code of a dealer who had an open order. They gave me the order with the condition that the vehicle leaves the dealership registered to my mom's address (all that's needed is a physical address where you can receive mail is what the sales mgr told me). I'm free to change it anytime I want to at the DMV later.

After I got my order in I retrieved the deposit from my local dealer and the salesman was actually pretty upset when I told him the story (left out the other dealer's name on purpose). He claimed they (other dealer) were lying to me and that they were "stealing" LR San Jose's sales - his bedside manner needs revising that's for sure. I just hope that when I use my local dealer for service they will treat me well (Finlay likes them so hopefully I'm in good hands).

Let me know if you have other questions.

 

[stormfield]

Thanks, JotaDe! I've bought my last 2 cars (3, if you count my mom's) via an autobroker in LA who's consistently been able to secure great prices on specific trims with minimal fuss. And _he_ told me that he couldn't get anything under a dime under sticker in LA, right now. Truecar data indicates the same.

Alas, we're having a pretty hard time justifying the $16K delta between a top-of-the-line highlander and an LR4+HSE+Climate for something that'll be a family hauler. We've looked at used, but they're never just-right in terms of features/trim.

Regardless of how things turn out with our purchase -- appreciate how informative this forum has been!

 

[Irishrover]

I agree with what has been said about likely not getting a break on the MSRP. My wife and I looked at getting a new LR4 in the Houston area and were told that there weren't even any 2014 models that we could look at because they are all pre-ordered and leave the dealership pronto. We were told that if we wanted we could put a deposit on a 2015 model, which we did, and that there would be about a 4 month wait time to get the car.

In the interim we did a lot of research regarding LR4's both new and used. What was very obvious was that many 2014 models actually go for over MSRP, and I assume that is because they are in short demand and dealers don't seem to have a problem selling them. Second, many 2 or 3 year old LR4s were out there going for what the MSRP would have been for that model year. These vehicles seem to hold their resale value well.

As our car will be used for hauling a couple of young kids (like the previous poster) we ultimately decided to go with a lightly used 2011 LR4 with low miles. The car was almost pristine and we got a good deal on it from a non-Rover dealer in Austin. The dealer in Houston (Southwest LandRover, Momentum) was great, by the way, and returned our deposit without even a question. Seems like these cars are very popular, and having driven one now for the last 48 hours I can see why. They're great.

 

[MudFoot]

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