Supplier Discount – Does it Guarantee the Best Price?
It’s early on a Friday morning, and I just hit my 15th coffee on my Starbucks Gold Card so my French Vanilla Venti is on the house today! I’m pumped because I just saved someone $6,854 on a new Audi Q7. The dollar amount of the savings has me excited but what I’m more excited about is that I did this for someone who thought they were guaranteed the best deal because they had an Audi Supplier Number!
Have you ever heard of a supplier number? Many large companies in the US have extra incentives for their employees for buying certain products. Audi, GMC, Ford, Chevy, Jeep, Chrysler and a few other manufacturers offer them to employees of companies like JP Morgan, Bank of America, Amex, Citi Bank and many more. Supposedly this supplier number entitles you to get a new car at what’s supposed to be the best price without any negotiating or hassle and it’s exclusive to these supplier numbers only. So if you don’t have one of these supplier numbers you won’t be able to get close to the price. Totally not true and here is a prime example.
An employee of one of these companies, with a supplier number, looking for a new Audi Q7 calls me and wants to know if its still worth it to use my services since he has the supplier number. Of course, I say yes- because there is no such thing as a guaranteed best price from a manufacturer to anybody. Period.
This was his deal: A $48,600 base car with none of the options he wanted for $700 per month and $3,500 due at signing. After me working the deal for him, finding him the right car with options he wanted and an MSRP of $55,545 this was my deal: $689 per month and $3500 out of pocket. How am I able to get him a car that’s $6,854 more expensive and $10 less a month but he had a supplier number? Obviously a supplier number doesn’t guarantee the best price or stop a dealer from playing $6,854 worth of games.
I’m glad this person contacted me because he would have been miserable driving around a base Audi Q7 for 36 months with none of the features he wanted and more miserable writing the $700 check out every month. Moral of the story… every new car deal should be checked no matter what “Guaranteed Price” you might thing you have.
Check your price here before signing –
Are you driving around a new car that doesn’t have all the options you wanted? Do you think maybe you could have gotten a better price or at least had some more of the options you wanted for the same price you’re paying?