I got quotes for my 2019 Laramie from the usual suspects: Autonation, Caravan, Vroom, and Carmax, plus Mark Dodge (from whom I ordered my 2021 Longhorn). Autonation and Mark Dodge offered the exact same price, which makes Mark Dodge's price better, because of tax advantages.
Still, I thought I might be able to negotiate a bit more out of Autonation based on three things:
- A few days after they gave me the first quote, they emailed to say, "Your RAM may be worth more than we thought."
- KBB price went up by $1,700 since they made their offer.
- I could use the tax advantage as a bargaining chip.
That and I'm slightly paranoid of something happening to my truck between now and delivery, like an accident or asteroid hitting it my driveway (though in that case, I'm dead, so it doesn't really matter).
So today I took it into to the local Autonation. They offered their original amount. I tried bargaining with them using reasons 2 and 3 (honestly, I forgot about reason 1 until I had already left), but they didn't move.
The tax advantage amounts to over $3,000, but I told them I was looking for half that (an additional $1,500 over their offer). That'd save me a from the drive out to Lake Charles (about 700 miles), and I'd have the cash in hand. No dice.
But that's all good, because I've got a great offer from Aaron at Mark Dodge. It's been said before, but Aaron is awesome, everything has been hassle free so far, and I'm confident things will continue to be hassle free right through the end. I negotiated with a local dealer for the order, and now with these dealers for the trade, when I could have just worked exclusively with Aaron on both ends of the deal, and gotten great offers.