Poll: Lease vs Buy - 2018 version

[jzajzz]

There seem to be some common elements here on the forum.

This type of strategy:

and having plenty of money in retirement.

That strategy actually has cost me a lot more money with repair and maintenance.. not to mention the time off from work .. and how much money that has costs me..

 

[OldShooter]

Agree with you, everyone has their own style - and then also need to adjust your style based on the style of the salesperson you are dealing with. No one size fits all for sure. I'm willing to give a number to the salesperson but it's slightly lower than I was willing to accept. If they agree, then cool, if not then I still have done my homework and know where I want to be.

Yes. There are some fundamental things, too. Like a good negotiator will check his/her ego at the door and will usually have the goal of being underestimated. I can steal a lot or salami in slices too small to fight over, particularly if the guy on the other side of the table is snoozing. So in most cases I am quite happy to "look like a clown."

We have an elderly friend, kind of an honorary aunt, who wanted to buy a new Toyota a few years ago. I spent about 1/2 hour teaching her a simple ego-less technique called "absent authority" negotiating. By the time she was done she had saved several thousand $$ vs the dealer's first offer and in the end she didn't even pay the standard documentation fee. They never knew what hit them.

I had a business friend, worth well north of $10M, whose whose whole persona was built around this. One evening I had to attend a city council meeting to deal with some kind of issue with our business. Jim was there seeking a variance on one of his many properties. He stood there in black low-cut work shoes with thick rubber soles, white socks, one of those Sears grey/green work shirts with matching pants and with a wild head of white hair that looked like he cut it himself. The council immediately gave the "nice old man" what he asked for. Had he come in wearing at $1000 suit, flanked by a couple lawyers and pounding his chest they would have thrown him out on his a$$. Fun to watch and learn from.