I didn't know if there was an even better time, based on having a wide window.
Like that. Though that might be a wider window than I want.

I finally got around to reading DUCY and his advice on getting the best possible price on a car was this:

Find two dealers with the exact same car that are close by.

Go to dealer A and offer a very low price, say $15k on a car marked at $25k. Tell them you'll be creating an auction between the two dealers, take it or leave it. They obviously say no.

Go to dealer B and offer 15.5k
Go back to dealer A and offer 16k
Eventually you'll get to their bottom price where they know if you walk out the door, the other dealer will accept the offer (assuming no collusion between them).

Haha I love Popes ruthless spirit cuz that’s how u gotta be w them in theory. That theory could work in practice, just have to change the scale to 21k for scar marked new for SALE st 25k and not msrp (otherwise maybe the high teens are possible if it’s 25k Msrp). Obv doesn’t apply to pre owned. Here’s a couple issues in practice tho:

Dealers do collude. The competition is the competition but they also work together and are friendly, due to their interaction resulting from obligation to fulfill swaps if a competitor sells a blue Honda to a customer, but doesn’t have it in stock. They call the mgr of the store that has a blue Honda and horse trade for an equally desirable car back. They can end up doing each other favors if one store is stuck w a bunch of blue Hondas that they over allocated themselves (monthly requests to manufacturer district rep, biggest volume stores get the best picks but not by much). Every month there would be a few emails from informed customers who would basically say “I will be buying this car on Saturday. Whoever can offer me the best price will earn my business. Deadline for bids is 3pm Thursday.” If the prospect maintains they will buy the car within a week m, in their email, the dealers will respond w seriously low price. But they despise these emails and while some stores will accommodate the custoner’s request, others, who aim for higher gross and accept lower volume will not try and compete w the dealers who have rep for “whoring” out their cars. Unless the customer is within that stores territory, in which case they will match any store, partly to protect their territory and partly bc all they have to do is match and the added convenience of being closer closes the deal for them. There’s other things too. But I can’t articulstr them til I have coffee lol