Thank you to everyone in this community for giving me hope that I might be able to secure a Telluride under MSRP. We were able to find and buy ours under MSRP in less than 48 hours. We found a "volume" dealership (ALM South in Union City, GA) that offered "No Haggle Pricing." Volume dealerships usually get cash incentives and bonuses when they sell more and sell them quickly, so even though they may not be marking up the vehicles 5-10k, they are still making a pretty penny from the bonus structure.

They transparently listed the pricing at 2.4-2.5% under MSRP on their website. I used to sell cars, so I was a little skeptical of this especially given it's the Telluride and every other dealership in Atlanta area has it marked up 5-10k over MSRP with mandatory dealer markups. First, let me advise you if you don't already know, that dealer markups like window etching, dent and ding, interior protection, under carriage sealant, etc. are already on the vehicle. You don't have to pay for any of that, even though they will make you believe these things were legitimately added by the dealer. Still, for the Telluride, we were striking out with every dealership. Even a dealership in Asheville, NC on the markups.org website that was listed as a good dealer wanted $3500 over MSRP and said no chance we are getting at MSRP.

So it was refreshing to find ALM South Kia and to talk to the sales manager, Sabrina, on the phone. She confirmed the pricing we saw on the website was legit, so we went in and looked at two Ebony Kia EXs. My other half wanted to stick to the base EX, but was sold when Sabrina showed us the pricing on the EX-X-line. The MSRP was $46,190 Freight ($1,335). Another aside, never pay for freight on a vehicle. These dealerships get them by the truckload, so if most people are paying freight the dealership is making money there, plus on any markups and the difference between the invoice price and the MSRP. So we agreed on the price of $45,490 and they gave me $17,000 for my trade. This was $500 more than CarMax offered and I was happy with that plus the sale price of the vehicle.

Here's where things get a little interesting. When we all agreed on the pricing for car and trade, they wanted to know what payments I wanted. They came to me with a range of payments between $1100-$1400 for financing at 4 years. Let me tell you, this is something to be very wary about when you buy your next car. Dealerships who try to sell you on payment can put you on payment plans that make them a lot of money in kickbacks or directly if they are financed with the dealership's partner. I had already done the math based on financing I was able to get with my own credit union, so I advised them that we will buy the car right now if you give us the pricing we agreed on at 2 year financing at 5.9% interest (which is sadly the best interest rate for my credit union right now with excellent credit). We ended up with 5.25% through Kia financing. I'm sure less educated car buyers fall for the payments and don't look at the interest and total payments. If we had gone with one of their "payment ranges," we would have paid somewhere over $10,000 in interest over two years.

So I was ready for the deal to fall apart, since we weren't helping them make what they probably make on the average customer. Instead, they surprised me and agreed to the terms.

After waiting a couple hours for the finance manager, it was our turn in the "box." Car dealerships like to make you wait a while because they want to wear you down so you will just agree to things to get out of there. It's why it's more of a headache than buying a house.

So of course, the finance manager had his pitches to sell us service plans, extended warranties, GAP insurance and all the "protections" you could ask for ready. Instead, I just said, you can make this easy and just say no to everything you are going to offer me. He was ready to go home, so even though I didn't help his pockets he was a little relieved that I made his life easier. I did of course have to pay the standard fees like title, tags, taxes. I didn't fight over the customer service pack even though I won't be able to take advantage of all the free oil changes included in that simply due to the distance to the dealership.

I was just ecstatic to not lose my shirt on the deal and to get the X-line below MSRP.

Anyway, this is our story and a glowing recommendation for ALM Kia - but also a cautionary tale to do your homework and pull out the calculator when you are looking at financing.

​

Processing img l0hg803xi7ja1...