ALT-1 Car Shopping Services have someone else do the Haggling
Having someone else haggle for your car purchase is a really great concept if, of course, you trust the individual haggling for you and they are good at haggling. One of the main reasons this is so valuable is that the party doing the haggling is going to be far less emotional about the purchase and very objective which will then aid them to be a stronger negotiator.
For anyone who has sat in a car dealership for hours with the back and forth game of "let me talk to my manager," after you've already been told the deal was concrete, the emotions run very high and the exhaustion of the entire process scrambles you to the point that you'll sign just about anything to have it be over. The salespeople are skilled in making you feel substandard on some level by allowing you to feel 1) you cannot afford the payment judging by the low payment you are looking for; and 2) the financing just cannot work out on the terms you want, which leads you to feel that you just cannot cut the mustard credit wise. The truth is none of it is true, but is simply a play on our emotions and it works very well 90% of the time to get you to take a deal that is not at all beneficial to you.
There are, however, risks you take in doing this. When I was 19 and getting my first car, I brought my father to haggle. He did an awful job and I would up paying like $6,000 more then the car was truly worth, it had many things wrong with it, and they got me to sign a financing contract at an ungodly interest rate. My mother, as it turns out, would have been a far better negotiator and she called the dealership and threatened to report them to our local consumer watch news person if they didn't come and get the car immediately. They came and got the car.
On the other hand, my father-in-law accompanied my husband on a car purchase and not only did my husband get a great deal, they gave him a $5,000 rebate that was totally unexpected. To be honest, I think they wanted to get my father-in-law out of there. He was a tough nut to be sure, and although my husband was somewhat embarrassed by the antics his father employed during the process, it worked and he was forever grateful.
So, in closing, I would say a hearty "YES" to a third party haggler, but with the strong caveat that you be careful in your choice.
