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Car Shopping Help :: Comparing Quotes

Comparing Faxed Dealer Price Quotes

Once your 24-hour RFQ response window is closed, it’s time to compare the responses.

Here’s what to look for:

  1. Any exceptions or missing line item pricing
  2. Best pricing on base car model
  3. Best pricing on all options
  4. Total of all fees
  5. Total price quote - complete

Here’s a capsule overview:

Exceptions - A dealer may take exception to your quote format, particularly in the fee area. If they haven’t agreed to the fee structure you’re imposing on all dealers, then their quote isn’t a true match to the others.

Missing line item - Mistakes happen. Make sure all requested line items actually contain prices. You may need to phone for clarification if some lines are not priced.

Base car price - The base model is priced separately for a reason and that’s to get a higher discount on the options. Make sure that the base car price matches or beats your best online price. Some dealers may ignore your format and only give one price.

Option pricing - Online dealer invoice pricing for options doesn’t offer much of a discount and that’s just wrong. Option pricing has incredible profit margins. You should be gaining at least a 10% extra discount on your options compared to your online quote.

Total fees - Dealer responses here can vary wildly. The guy with the best discount on the options may have the highest fees. Remember that most fees are just a profit center for the dealer. Never agree to pay inflated fees just because they ask. Just say NO!

Total price - You’ll find a small group of dealers have pricing that’s consistently better than the rest of the pack. There may be one that’s way better than all the others, but usually there’re three or so that are very close together.

Summary spreadsheet
We’ve included a spreadsheet so you can enter each quote in its own column. That will allow you to review everything at a glance.

You’ll be able to compare the individual line item pricing at a glance. Plus, you can see clearly which dealer offers the best deal on the base price, on the options, on the fees, and most importantly, on the whole enchilada.

Plugging everything into a spreadsheet will also catch any math errors within a dealer’s quote. Just because somebody’s bottom line says they’re the lowest cost provider doesn’t mean that’s necessarily so. A simple math mistake or a data entry error from changing a line item, but not updating the total, can create the wrong impression.

Be sure to double check your own data entry for accuracy as well. You can also use the spreadsheet data sorting capability to rearrange your dealer list by whichever pricing item is most important to you.

If you don’t have a spreadsheet program, just use the printed form and handwrite in the information.

Last Step
Now it’s time to do one more thing - get a “best & final” price from your top dealers.

Next: Getting Best & Final Pricing      Previous:  Fax Campaign