While looking around the net getting more info so I can be prepared to purchase my new vehicle when the time comes I found this article/website. Does anyone think this type of tactic would work when trying to purchase a new TCH?

http://www.auto-broker-magic.com/newcarpurchase.html

 

Dan,
We have something like this out in the SF Bay Area where we live. Some of the info is good and you can try it. For buying my TCH, my husband prefered to work with a friend of a friend who is an auto broker out here. While the deal might not be as good as one we negotiated at the auto dealer, my DH was happy to pay someone else to get us a good deal and avoid the dealer hassles. And since my DH was paying for my car...

We were so pleased with our broker, that we are using him again to get my DH's 07 Prius next week. So by this time next week, we will be a 2 hybrid car family! )

Check around with your friends and family to see what they have done... you might auto broker in your area that will do the negotiation part for you at a price of course...

 

There are various ways of going through the negotiation process, I have heard a fair amount of success of people using brokers. Personally I hate dealing with any high pressure sales type of thing, so we actually contact the broker that my Wife has access to through her job. In the meantime I sent emails to all the Toyota dealerships within 50 miles.
The funny thing is that within 48 hours I was emailing back and forth with a handful of dealers, mostly playing the prices against each other. I ended up with in a couple hundred above invoice for the packages and color I wanted. The car was in transit to the dealership before the broker even got back to me...go figure.
As far as the emails went, I was very specific as to the options I wanted and the color choice. One or two dealerships said I would have to pay a premium for the color I wanted (Blue Ribbon), most did not. Some came through with a partial list of options or more than I wanted, again I either scratched them off my list or sent them a copy of an email from another dealership that had what I wanted. All in all it was about an hour's worth of emailing back and forth until I went with one dealership.
I was surprised how much easier this was than in person, though still a little stressful.
The biggest downside for me was that they still tried to play games with financing and trade-in. I didn't finance through Toyota so that was easy, just had to keep telling them no and I went in armed with KBB quotes on the trade in, took a small hit on that but I figured I would anyways.
To get back to your question, the broker did eventually get back to me and what he would have been able to do was not too bad, but not quite as good as I ended up with. However, sometimes not having the stress or spending the time negotiating can certainly have some monetary value to off set such a thing and just to reiterate the broker would have been able to get a decent price on the car.

 

Sounds like so far the email route is th easiest way to go so far. Thank for the input. Anyone else have input either way or tips with experiences in negotiating through the net.

 

I also did the email route.. I mass mailed roughly 20 dealers asking for their best price based on my options/color preferences. I informed them up front that I was not in the business of going back and forth, and to send me THEIR BEST PRICE.. Some responded, but the majority didn't (I think it was because the option package I wanted was not available).. But I got 2 offers right around invoice. One was actually below invoice, but I decided to go to the more "expensive" dealer due to my previous experience with them.

 

I used Edmunds.com. You configure the car with the options you want & it gives you an estimated price. Then you have the opportunity to get quotes. Enter a zip code & they email three dealers for you. I entered three Bay Area zip codes and almost all responded. Two or three "got it" and responded with very good discounts, within 2 or 3 hundred of their last best price.

All by email. Low hassle. The sales guy at the dealership where I finally bought the car said they realized the Internet sales were all about price & they knew they really only had one shot in that first response.