We loved our 2011 Subaru Forester, but recently driving various rentals made us realize how far cars had come. My wife felt heated steering and it was game over.

New car here we come.

It took some time to decide which vehicle was right for us, but we ultimately settled on a hybrid SUV of a particular color.

Now what?

Drive to a dealer and negotiate? Call or email first? Visit multiple dealers since several have our vehicle? What exactly should we say given we have a trade-in as well as some payment flexibility? When is the best time?

I turned to AI, specifically Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet, for strategy:

Let me help you develop a negotiation strategy for your purchase. Let’s break this down systematically:

Market Analysis:

• Having 10 vehicles available across 3 dealerships gives you good leverage for negotiation
• Hybrids generally have strong demand, but having multiple options suggests less scarcity pressure
• Yours is a common color combination, which is good for negotiating as it’s not a rare specification

Pricing Strategy:

• Target Price: You should aim for 3-5% below MSRP in the current market

Negotiation Approach:

1. Contact all 3 dealerships simultaneously:
   • Email each dealer requesting their best out-the-door (OTD) price
   • Mention you’re contacting multiple dealers for the same vehicle
   • Don’t mention your trade-in initially
2. Trade-in strategy:
   • Get the vehicle price negotiated first
   • Only then discuss your trade-in
   • Consider selling your trade-in privately if dealers offer less than $1,500
3. Specific tactics:
   • Request itemized pricing including all fees and taxes
   • If a dealer comes back with a good offer, use it to negotiate with others
   • Be ready to walk away - having multiple options is your strongest leverage
   • Consider end-of-month timing when dealers may be more motivated to meet sales targets

The conversation was more extensive and specific, but I’ve edited for brevity while retaining the essence.

Following instructions, I kicked off the process by emailing 3 dealers on a Wednesday night near the end of the month, then over the next 2 days I adhered to Claude’s strategy as much as possible, communicating over email, text, and phone. The first phase of the process was negotiating between dealers on out-the-door (OTD) price alone, then I introduced the trade-in, and finally I sealed the deal by calling the dealer with the then-best offer and committing to buying the following morning if they could offer more for the trade-in.

Here is how it went, visualized. Each point represents an OTD dealer’s OTD price offer:

In the end we saved over $4K on the OTD price, including receiving a higher-than-expected $1500 for the trade-in.

We’re happy with the outcome, and even happier with the car.

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This work by Derek Croote is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0