I'll chime in here as usual having worked (briefly) as a car salesman.

Walking away or threatening to walk away does not lower the price of the car. It just makes you a pain in the ass customer.

Buying at the end of the month does not lower the price of the car. The dealer will try harder to get a pain in the ass customer to buy a car at the end of the month, but the minimum price they're willing to sell for has not gone down.

The rest of this is (mostly) reposted from the last time I typed it all out.

Salespeople never control the price numbers, the managers do. But it's to your advantage to go through a salesperson because if a manager sees a salesperson work a deal properly at a lower number, they'll do the deal, as opposed to if you're a pain in the ass customer an gets the manager directly involved, they won't try as hard to get the deal done.

Let's say you go see a car you like on a website, and it's at a dealer. Try to call ahead and find out all the options on the car, price it up on edmunds, in different condition ratings. So you know what the dealer probably paid for it, and you know what they're trying to sell it at. You can usually beat what edmunds says the dealer retail price is, and always be conservative in your estimate of the car's condition.

Go to the dealer, you drive the car, do whatever else, and decide if you want to buy it. The salsperson sits you down, offers you a soda, and starts the paperwork. The first thing they're gonna want you to do is make an offer. Don't say something like, "give me your absolute lowest number," because the salesperson doesn't know what that is and you're doing something that doesn't fall within their standard process they have to follow. Anything that you do to take the salesperson off process doesn't really help you get a lower price, but it does help you spend more time in the dealership than you have to. So, make an offer to the salesperson like they want you to even if that's not exactly what they're saying. Don't bring a printout from Edmunds or wherever, just know that number in your head. Don't tell em you know the edmunds TMV price or anything else, just tell em some number that's a good deal (for a used car, easily 2-3 grand) below that edmunds retail price. They'll write up a form called a buyer's order which has all the info on the car, the sticker price, and your initial offer on it. The salesperson's gonna give you the song and dance about that's so low, blah blah blah, tell em that's what you'd like to pay ideally, you might be flexible, and you just want to see if your number is possible. They'll probably ask you for a deposit, or to fill out a credit application, or both. Give em a deposit, but tell em just to hold the check and don't put it in their account just yet. Let em take the credit application but tell em to not run the credit. This way you're giving more buying signs, but you haven't had any money out of your checking account or a hit on your credit record.

The next thing the salesperson is going to do is give your deposit to the people who handle the checks, and show your filled out credit application (without the credit check being run) and buyers order to the manager. The manager's gonna laugh at your ridiculously low initial offer, and the salesman will tell the manager you said you're flexible. The manager will make a counter-offer with something like 500 bucks off sticker, and tell the salesperson to go back to you. They'll come back with the manager's offer on the buyer's order and say this is the best they can do. Your reaction should be, "well it seems like they don't want to do my ideal number." The salesperson is gonna try and sell you on the higher number, but really they're only looking for you to make a higher offer. You can bump up your initial offer by 500 bucks or something. More goin back and forth with the manager, you might have to allow yourself to get bumped by 500 bucks one or two more times, but then you're still at a good price.

Once you agree on a price, they'll need to run your credit and deposit the check you gave em before, and it's off to the finance office. I didn't work finance so all I can tell you is if you know what car you're gonna buy, get preapproved by a couple outside sources like a bank or a credit union so when the finance guy tries to dick you over on the interest rate you can show him the preapproval sheets from wherever else, and increase your bargaining power. This is especially true on used cars, because the dealers will give you really shitty interest rates on used cars. If the finance guy can't meet or beat your preapproved rate, you just go with the preapproved one.

NEVER let them try to close you based on a monthly payment. They WILL juggle the numbers around so they can screw you as much as possible while you think "oh I got a good deal I got the payment I wanted. Don't buy any extended warranty that costs more than 200 bucks, never ever ever ever buy any sort of dealer maintenance plan, or any other extras that they try and sell you after you agree on the price of the vehicle.

Hope that helps and if you have any questions I can share my opinion on those. h: