[danbrew]

So this is one of those posts that I’ve really debated about making as a relative newcomer here. I searched high and low for a deal on my 2SS and was willing to fly and drive. I got meh pricing from ALL of the often referenced dealers. The best pricing was in my own market from a dealer that wanted to move a car - and he beat the best offer I had received by 2X.

Granted, I’m in a big market (Chicago), yet it was pretty easy to get really good pricing with a little negotiation. Of course I drove it off the lot, which I’m sure helped. Ironically three or four other dealers wanted to trade for this car and sell me the same car (at a higher price).

There was nothing special about my 2SS - I get that if you’re looking for a hard to find car, you may not have many choices.

The point of my post? Spend some time searching for the car you want and go find the dealer that has it on his lot. Yeah, it was a bit of a pain looking at inventory from multiple dealers, punching in different zip codes, etc. but I built a spreadsheet and it was easy enough to figure out who had what I wanted and then go see them. I searched the inventory of every dealer in IL for my specific wants. Took a couple of hours. Kept the results in a spreadsheet and it was easy to see where the cars I wanted were located. It helped that it was near year end and there weren’t hundreds of black 2SSs convertibles on the lots.

Saved me about five grand over and above the best price from the “best dealers”.

FWIW.