Awesome site; very informative and just what I need to study up before purchasing my Duramax in a couple of weeks. I've read a ton of posts, but still have a couple of questions:


- I'm looking at a 4X4 SLE Dmax with the LLY engine. I'm in GM's western region; what should I be paying (I've got one dealer at about $900 over invoice at the moment). I'm thinking that is about as good as it's going to get - thoughts?


- I am considering lifting it from the get-go with a 6" Fabtech lift and putting 315 70 R17 BFG's on. After reading about the inability to reprogram the Allison trans, I'm a little nervous. What advice do you have?


Thanks!!


Rick

If you are willing to fly/drive to idaho, you can get any GM product for $58 over invoice + advert fee with NO haggling at dave smith motors. He is the biggest GM dealer in the northwest.http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Cool.gif


Cheers.


MikeEdited by: mwgasman

I was able to get my 03 at invoice if your willing to wait till mid summer.End of July on the last saturday of the month. If not when I was looking in the spring the dealers I dealt with were not willing to move too much off sticker as the D/A weren't sitting on the lots very long..ie I'd look on thursday and the truck would be gone Monday.. That bieng said $900 over invoice this time of year dosen't sound bad.. If your not trading might want to check out the guy in ID as stated in the above post??http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Geek.gif Edited by: david b

Get a hold of one of the "in the driveway certificates" that GM is giving out by the thousands. There are several offered by people on this web site. It gives you suppliers price, which is invoice without advertising tacked on and also does not allow the dealer to add on Doc fees. On my 2004 GM Duramax that I am picking up Monday the sticker was around 42,000 I pay 37100.

I talked to several dealers about prices before ordering, and got $300.00 over invoice prices, but had to pay the local advertising fee and that was to order one.


You need to find out if the dealer you're talking to will accept the "GM In The Driveway" certificates. It's a voluntary program and not all of the dealers will accept the certs.

Be patient and talk to lots of dealers, the deals are out there, if you're satisfied with the truck, then pay the 900 over invoice. I paid 100 over invoice in sept '01 for an '02 and again in sept '03 for an '04. Depends on who is in a good mood at that time. I never test drive a vehicle when I'm ready to buy, that always throws a salesperson off, they can't get to your emotional side . Keep it all about the price you're paying, not how much monthly payment you can afford. Do all your homework in advance. Get on the dealer lot before hours/ after hours and look then check out prices on edmunds.com find out what invoice price is, find a dealer that will deal for 100 over invoice don't waste your time haggling over price, if your concerned about paying an extra 500 bucks you can always go elsewhere. There are many dealers in the US who sell for 49 or 59 over invoice, buckles in urbana, Ohio is a GMC dealer, there is a chevy dealer in illinois or indiana. The deals are out there, be patient and talk to lots of dealers. Both purchases were at different dealers and they traded to get what I wanted.

Trading with a dealer you know has many advantages. As someone who has been in the auto industry for 35 years and buys and sells thousands of vehicles annually for dealers, I always get a kick out of the advice on bulletin boards. http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gif


There are many variables in the deal other than the cost of the truck, ie trade-in value, financing, doc fees, gap insurance, jacked up prices on extended warranties.


I compare buying a car at a big dealership to playing a game like basketball. You play the game once every few years and go play a team of guys who play every day, who wins?http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gif


Seventy percent of vehicles are now sold through high-volume, high-profit stores, many of them chains or publicly owned corporations and good deals are few and far between.


Best advice I can give for getting a good deal. Find a small dealer with a good reputation nearby and stay with him.

One of the things I do when shopping for a new vehicle locate the one I want by going to www.gmc.com (http://www.gmc.com) and finding out what is out there. I found mine by locating within a 200 mile radius. The best way, is to locate by City and do one city at a time. Just type into the surch info, each decent size city within 200 miles. After printing out the window sticker from every truck that I found acceptable, I went to a dealer that was not my 1st pick , just to get a price and trade value. After I felt I did my best there I went to my favorte dealer with the deal written on paper from the 1st dealer. Ask them if they can beat that deal as far as the trade value and Amt. over invoice that you pay for the new one. Then when it comes down to what truck you want, show them what you have located and let them have a few days to see if they can get what you want. I actualy did a better job of locating then the dealer did. When looking for a lly engine the truck will have a 2 in the 8th place on the Ser#. A 1 is a lb7. A lot of trucks will show up on the locate that don't have the Duramax Allison ,so don't bother looking for any with a window sticker of less than $40,000 when you do the surch. You can also do the same surch at www.chevy.com (http://www.chevy.com) Just remember there are 2 sales going on when you trade a vehicle. You are selling yours to the dealer and he MUST buy at wholesale only. Then you are buying his and he MUST make a profit. By the way when he sells you a $40000 truck at invoice he is grossing about 5% markup. Its the poor sales person that has to try to get every extra dollar above invoice out of you as he can to satisfy the sales managers numbers for the month and to make a few extra bucks for Himself. I always look for a seasond salesman that has been at the dealership for a while and buy the way my favorite is a woman. Good luck. Its a lot of fun doing the window shopping from your home.

Trading with a dealer you know has many advantages. As someone who has been in the auto industry for 35 years and buys and sells thousands of vehicles annually for dealers, I always get a kick out of the advice on bulletin boards. http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gif


There are many variables in the deal other than the cost of the truck, ie trade-in value, financing, doc fees, gap insurance, jacked up prices on extended warranties.


I compare buying a car at a big dealership to playing a game like basketball. You play the game once every few years and go play a team of guys who play every day, who wins?http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gif


Seventy percent of vehicles are now sold through high-volume, high-profit stores, many of them chains or publicly owned corporations and good deals are few and far between.


Best advice I can give for getting a good deal. Find a small dealer with a good reputation nearby and stay with him.








So I guess even with a GM Supplier price and rebates piled on top of that with no advertising and doc fees added in by the dealers.................the consumer is STILL GETTING SCREWED ???? http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Angry.gif


Makes us all feel real good about the whole experience.........http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Ermm.gif


Now I know why most people hate going car shopping, no matter what the deal the consumer is still getting the SHAFT....http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Dead.gif


Thttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Ouch.gifNY

HI RICKLAUT & the rest of you!! I still I have a couple of the certificates left. Send me a e-mail with your Name,Address & Phone# so I can send it to you. It works out to 15% off of M.S.R.P. Send me the info. to = howard_m18@yahoo.com

I just purchased a 2004 SLT Crew 4x4 (pick it up on Tuesday). I used an "in the driveway" certificate, and was able to purchase at about $400 under invoice. MSRP was $47,600, Supplier price was $42,243 - $2,500 factory rebate - $1,000 in GM card points - an addtional $750 bonus offered by the GM card (dealer inventory only). I paid about $38,000 + tax/license when all said & done.

My 04' was purchased $3000 under invoice, but I traded in and got hit hard with negative equity ($3800), but I just had to have the Duramax/Allison... I also added gap insurance... overall I felt I did pretty good, but I still don't like my dealership and probably won't buy there again... sometimes it is better to pay a little more and like the people at the dealership (since you will be associating yourself with them for awhile) make sure to check out the garage and get to know the people before you buy the truck, that could make all the difference someday and you won't regret paying a little more... unlike me who hates my dealership and was only looking at the bottom line... now I'm paying for it with bad service.

Howard - I just sent you an e-mail about the certificate. Thanks!



One dumb question - can the certificate be used with GMAC's current financing offers (0% for 48 MO, 1.9% for 60 MO, 3.9% for 70 MO) or are they mutually exclusive like the rebates?


Thanks!



Rick

ricklaut,


The GM in the Driveway Cert can be used with the existing GM rebates and your GM card points. Normally, GM card points cannot be used with Supplier pricing, but in this case they can. I had a hard time convincing my dealer of this until they finally called the GM card rep to confirm.

sammy,


That's interesting, why this case on the card points with supplier pricing?


I just threw away another GM card solicitation because, among other things, in the fine print they specifically excluded the use of the card points with supplier pricing....http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Ermm.gif

I was told by my dealer that when we use the "in the driveway" certificate we do not come under that exclusion because we are not actualy suppliers. We are just Temp. being allowed to buy under suppliers priceing as a promotion to boost sales. http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Clap.gif I was so blessed that my dealer did not have the truck I wanted when I first got the certificate and by the time we located it, this new $750 bonus came out. Win some, lose some. This time we winhttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Approve.gif. When do you think these auto makers will figure out that their vehicles are just priced to high in the first place. Instead they set the prices sky high then put on a bunch of rebates and bonuses to cut the price back to a realistic leavel to sell them.http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Confused.gif