A 27-year-old Keller man saved thousands on a new car by letting ChatGPT take the wheel in a high-stakes negotiation.<\/p>\n
Collin Huntzinger had spent months scouring Facebook Marketplace and dealership listings for a used SUV but struggled to determine what was a fair price. Then, in early June, he let artificial intelligence take over the negotiations. Within a week, he walked away with a 2021 Toyota 4Runner SR5 Premium for $40,000 out-the-door price, a price he says saved him at least $5,000<\/strong> compared to what others were paying.<\/p>\n \u201cThis thing saved my life,\u201d Huntzinger said, recalling his more than 11% in savings. \u201cI was struggling for months. I only used this thing for a week. Sixty days versus a week.\u201d<\/p>\n Huntzinger scouted out the cars and dealerships on CarGuru. Then ChatGPT helped Huntzinger maintain communications<\/strong> with half a dozen dealers strictly via text \u2014 a deliberate strategy it recommended so that he wouldn\u2019t \u201cfold\u201d during high-pressure phone calls, where Huntzinger felt the dealers had an extreme information advantage.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew I would fold if I talked to them on the phone,\u201d Huntzinger said.<\/p>\n He fed all of his dealer\u2019s texts and car info to one master chat with the large language model, where he says he received advice, support, and draft responses.<\/p>\n The used vehicle, with 50,000 miles and aftermarket wheels and tires, was listed at $38,000 by a Ford dealership in Prosper, north of Dallas. Once fees, warranty, LoJack, dealer accessories, and other expenses were added, the total ballooned to $45,000. But Huntzinger, using ChatGPT to generate messages and evaluate the dealer\u2019s tactics, played hardball.<\/p>\n When the dealer tried to justify the price based on aftermarket upgrades, Huntzinger fed the message into ChatGPT. It immediately flagged the term \u201cvalue\u201d as a tactic:<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a classic dealer deflection,\u201d it responded. \u201cWhat They\u2019re Saying vs. What It Means: \u2018The price reflects the aftermarket upgrades\u2019 = We\u2019re trying to justify a high price for a high-mileage vehicle by adding \u2018value\u2019 that we probably won\u2019t itemize or discount for.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n ChatGPT warned that \u201caftermarket upgrades do not add value,\u201d and told Huntzinger to stay focused on a fair out-the-door price. It suggested this response:<\/p>\n \u201cThanks for working with me and for getting that initial discount from your Sales Director \u2014 I appreciate it. AI also warned Huntzinger not to mention the down payment immediately. \u201cYou leverage your down payment after they drop the price \u2014 that way, they don\u2019t price the deal higher just because they know you can afford it,\u201d the AI advised.<\/p>\n Once the dealership countered with $40,450, ChatGPT called it progress and pushed him to apply pressure:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m planning to put $15,000 down and finance the rest. The dealer apparently took it to the sales director. After a short wait, the offer came back: $40,000 even.<\/p>\n \u201cBOOM. That\u2019s a win,\u201d<\/strong> ChatGPT told Huntzinger. \u201cYou played this perfectly.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Huntzinger said ChatGPT made him feel confident in a process he had no experience with. \u201cIt would kinda hype me up. My confidence went through the roof\u2026 it was beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n However, he wasn\u2019t just copying and pasting blindly.\u201cI made ChatGPT explain every move to me so I could understand why we were doing it.\u201d ChatGPT also helped Huntzinger understand that salespeople often try to pivot when faced with pressure. After one dealer texted, \u201cIt\u2019s likely unachievable on this vehicle. I can take a look to see if we have another that fits your budget,\u201d ChatGPT advised Huntzinger.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a classic soft no \u2014 not a hard stop, just testing your reaction. They still want your business. You\u2019re just not quite at their target margin yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The AI guided Huntzinger to hold firm:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d love to get it done at $39,000 out the door, and I\u2019m ready to move forward quickly if we can make that number happen. If not, I totally understand \u2014 but wanted to be upfront that this is where I\u2019m most comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n ChatGPT also helped him negotiate interest rates and monthly payments. He wound up agreeing to $450 per month, rather than an initial $800 per month.<\/strong><\/p>\n Huntzinger, who says he\u2019s \u201cnot a huge car guy,\u201d had never purchased a vehicle before. His parents always leased, and he felt ill-equipped to negotiate something as big as a car purchase. \u201cI would\u2019ve gotten taken advantage of without it,\u201d<\/strong> he said.<\/p>\n He believes the AI made the process transparent, digestible, and fair. \u201cChatGPT made things make sense to me [without being biased in favor of me or the dealership],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Huntzinger now uses ChatGPT for Facebook Marketplace deals, dietary planning, and researching upgrades for his new Barcelona Red 4Runner \u2014 including swapping out chrome, door handles, and taillights. \u201cWould I use it again? Everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 27-year-old Keller man saved thousands on a new car by letting ChatGPT take the wheel in a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":40665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[32288,691,738,302,32286,32285,32287,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-40664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-aftermarket-upgrades","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-chatgpt","12":"tag-collin-huntzinger","13":"tag-facebook-marketplace","14":"tag-huntzinger","15":"tag-technology","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114800457344952139","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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After looking closely at the breakdown, I noticed the accessory add-ons and total fees are pushing the final number pretty high. I\u2019m serious about buying and ready to move forward quickly, but I\u2019d feel much better closer to $39,000 out the door, especially since I\u2019m coming in with a substantial down payment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
I really want to move forward on this one, but if we can\u2019t get closer to $39,500 out the door, I might need to explore some of the other 4Runners I\u2019ve been looking at.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
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