Originally Posted by JCL

Nothing wrong with a dealer selling a car at retail when there is demand for that car. I get choked over the concept of 'additional dealer markup' but what is wrong with retail pricing when there is a lineup of customers?

I would do just about anything to avoid haggling over a new car price, so I may be biased, but it seems to me there are two groups of dealers.

The first group rely on their sales dept for the profit; play games at selling at a set price over dealer cost, or at least what we believe dealer cost to be, since the rebates aren't shown; will always beat another dealer quote, and so on.

The second group charge a higher price at time of the sale, but tend to invest in service technician training, service department facilities, and owner loyalty programs (not reward points, rather things that improve the customer experience). The service department is a contributor to the bottom line, not a necessary evil.

I choose to deal with the second group. Rather than looking at sales margins over dealer cost, how about rating the dealers on the quality of after-sales service, the availability of loaner cars, etc? BMW even help by doing surveys. They know themselves who is in each group.

I realize that it isn't all black and white, and some low-price dealers do give good service, but all I am saying is that I wouldn't focus solely on tranaction price.

Good luck.