The prices are absurd.

Over the years I usually offered cash of17% off of MSRP, no trade in and would usually buy it after they tried to get more. Earlier, this week I offered 10% off for a Ram limited and they were not at all interested. Finally paid 5% off plus ttl. I know it would have been smart to wait, but I sold my Ram 3500 and was out of a pickup.

The concept of offering "cash" for a vehicle as an incentive has always been strange to me, what do they care as long as they get paid, I suspect they actually make more if you finance it. I usually do pay cash for vehicles but I have never made it part of the deal.... houses are different, I have closed houses in 5 days at the title company so I get the deal there. Do you say this because you think it makes them take you more seriously?

Based on the hard sell they put you through, I believe dealerships want you to keep your cash and finance the vehicle through them. Cash payment may have meant something in the old days when dealerships were not lenders, but I don’t think it really helps you today.

Yup. Finance & insurance is sometimes a bigger profit center on new car sales than is the sale of the vehicle itself.

My new F250 is built and on the way. I get the X-plan pricing and first responder rebate (scraps), but it won't be a terrible deal. I wouldn't buy used at this point.

The dealers, new anyway, arent really lenders, they are brokers for lenders who I'm sure pay them for this. I would think the best way is to act like your gonna finance then pull the check book out at the last minute. I suspect if you can wait a year that is best bet in current state of things, I bought last year when things were bad and the model my wife likes is not currently in production so she decided to wait a year and see what is available then. She likes her current ride, its 5 years old with 50k miles so no biggie.

Plus #1.

Makes zero sense at all. If you finance with me and I get you 3.99-4.99% we have banks that will pay us a 5% flat in some cases without marking the rate up at all. Go to Classic Chevrolet right now and try to pay cash, they won't even take it.

New car stores for sure make more money on F&I than new car sales profit. Most of them are reinsured so it's very profitable for the owner to focus on the warranty products. They are all held in offshore companies.

don’t four square me bro!

When I did IT for a bunch of DFW dealerships, it always seemed like there was some beef between the sales tower and the finance managers.

That's a whole different world compared to what we do here at TMC. The finance managers want the sales managers to get people to commit to a payment. And they want the payment to be way higher than what it actually is, so it makes there job easier to sell all the additional products. Warranties are great, tire and wheel maybe and only if you get it for a low cost (400). The dent and ding, paint protection, replacement key are all worthless. So if you commit to a $400 payment at the sales floor, and go into finance it's say to say that it's only $400 with all these ad ons.

I've been itching for a new truck but don't see anything in stock that's blown my skirt up.

It's 2021. That could change and your insurance will pay.