
You Will Soon Be Able to Buy a Car at Walmart - t23
http://jalopnik.com/rejoice-for-you-will-soon-be-able-to-buy-a-car-at-wal-1791509892
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Neliquat
You already can at Costco, so this seems logical. Many customers will always
prefer a "non-dealership" due to the long history of pushy shady salespeople,
which if my last 3 visits tell me anything, is still very deserved ( in north
america ).

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amyjess
For that matter, a lot of us aren't comfortable with haggling and are only
willing to buy a car if we can buy it like any other appliance at Walmart or
Costco.

The demise of Saturn means I'll probably never own a car.

My only hope is that some Chinese or Indian company will come to the US and
strike an exclusive contract with Walmart or Costco to be the exclusive
retailer (the contract will specify that the term "dealership" will never be
used) of their cars in the US with a nationwide policy of only selling at
MSRP.

~~~
ghaff
There are some no haggle dealerships though I don't know how common they are.
I bought my last Honda from one.

Honestly though. If you can detach the financing ("Got the cash. Nope. Not
interested in talking monthly payments.") and trade-in ("If you don't give me
X, I'll just donate it.") whether or not either of those things are true. Then
look up the dealer cost on Edmund's or whatever. Add $500 and tell them to
take it or leave it.

It's still a bit of a hassle and you may not totally optimize your purchase
but there need be very little actual haggling involved.

The issue with your suggestion BTW is that manufacturers probably couldn't
sell to them because doing so would violate their contracts with existing
dealers.

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mikeash
Another nice technique is to pit dealers against each other. Pick a dealer,
ask them for a quote on whatever car you're after. Be specific about exactly
what you want. Once you get a number, ask the next dealer if they can beat it.
Repeat until you're tired of it or salespeople start saying "wow, I can't beat
that" in a defeated voice.

Of course, the process can still suck. They'll still give you a spiel about
how you _must_ have the undercoat or extended warranty or whatever. There's
room for other shenanigans too. Last time I bought from a dealer they managed
to overcharge me $1.25 (originally it was $20 over but I fought that, but
figured $1.25 wasn't worth it) and then they filed a lien on my title even
though I didn't finance with them, which I didn't find out until I tried to
trade the car in much later. Untangling that mess was quite entertaining.

~~~
aidenn0
Yeah, a lot of dealers in CA will have you sign the loan paperwork even if you
are paying in cash; this causes a hard query on your credit report even if
they don't file the lien. If you say "but I'm paying with cash" they say
something like "well we have everyone do it." If you get up and walk away you
magically no longer need to sign it though.

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mikeash
I don't _think_ I ever signed anything like that. But since I didn't find out
what had happened until much later, there was plenty of time for memories to
fade.

~~~
ghaff
I'm pretty sure I didn't sure you're not wrong. I can't remember signing
anything like that last time I bought a car.

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saycheese
Walmart has been trying to get into the car biz for a long time. Here's an
example from 2002:

[http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/retail/2002-04-23-walma...](http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/retail/2002-04-23-walmart-
cars.htm)

Here's an example from 2008:

[http://adage.com/article/news/wanna-buy-a-car-head-
walmart/1...](http://adage.com/article/news/wanna-buy-a-car-head-
walmart/133447/)

(Nitpick, but it's "Walmart" not "Wal-Mart".)

~~~
dublinben
They are still officially Wal-Mart Inc, so either would be accurate.

~~~
freehunter
Offically, they are "Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., doing business as Walmart".

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forkandwait
I have now bought two cars through a broker, in my case "Autoland". I got a
price over email, we chatted on the phone to confirm, they delivered the car
to credit union where we signed papers on the pre approved loan. No bullshit,
took 45 minutes I think to transfer the car, which was exactly to spec. Will
never buy a car any other way.

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jrnichols
I'd still rather go like this:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carvana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carvana)

I remember the old iMotors experience. It was nice. Too bad in some states,
car dealers are still ridiculously powerful. (ahem. Texas.)

