Prepared for Lindsey · 2026 Kia Niro EX
You have 47 cars, 20 days, and all the leverage.

Nine dealers are sitting on the same car. Six of them are quietly discounting and three are charging over sticker. Here's every car, ranked by what it's actually worth — plus the exact words to use.

Your target price
$28,000out the door, before tax & registration
Best listed today
$28,801McFarland Kia · $3,019 off sticker
Sign on
Sept 29–30end of month + end of quarter
Do these four things in this order
Before
anything
Get pre-approved at your credit union

Ask for a 60-month new-car auto loan. This takes 20 minutes online and costs nothing. It does two things: it caps what the dealer can charge you in the finance office, and it lets you say "I'm already approved" — which is the single sentence that ends the payment games.

Today
Send the same message to all six discounting dealers

Not a phone call. Written, so you have it in hand. Every dealer below has a copy button with their name already filled in. Send all six within the same hour.

2–3 days
later
Take the lowest number back to everyone else

Log each quote in the tracker at the bottom of this page. Then send round two: the real number, to every dealer who came in higher. This is where the price actually moves.

Sept 29
or 30
Drive out and sign — with the written quote in your hand

Last two days of the month, the quarter, and the incentive period, with 2027s arriving. If a single line on the paperwork doesn't match the written quote, stand up. You will not lose the car.

Every car, by dealer tap a dealer to open

The bar shows how much each dealer is discounting off their own sticker price. Long green bar means they're motivated. Red means they're charging more than sticker.

The 2.99% question answer this before you sign

That $2,000 discount you see on every McFarland car is Kia's customer cash rebate. Kia's own fine print says these offers generally can't be combined with the promotional financing. Which means the dealer may quietly take the $2,000 back the moment you accept 2.99%.

The rule: 6% is your break-even

On roughly $28,800 over 60 months, taking Kia's 2.99% costs you about $2,240 in interest. Taking the $2,000 cash instead and financing $2,000 less at your credit union comes out identical at about 6% APR.

If your credit union beats 6%, take the cash and their loan. At 5.5% you save around $330; at 4.9%, around $775. If your best outside rate is above 6%, take Kia's 2.99% and let the $2,000 go.

Either way, ask this in writing: "Does your advertised price hold if I finance at 2.99%, or is it contingent on the $2,000 customer cash and outside financing?" Do not let anyone answer that verbally.

The fees, by state this is where $600 hides

A dealer's "doc fee" is pure profit for paperwork that costs them about $100 to do. Some states cap it by law. Ask for it in your very first email, and add it to the sticker price before you compare anything.

DealerState ruleExpect
Destination Kia
Albany, NY
Capped by law$175 max
it is illegal to charge more
Tasca Kia
Johnston, RI
Capped by law$200 max
Kia North Danvers
Danvers, MA
No cap~$557 average
fully negotiable
McFarland · Nucar
New Hampshire
No cap on admin fees~$588 average
fully negotiable
Executive Kia
Wallingford, CT
No cap~$735 average
the highest in the region

Even with New Hampshire's higher fee, McFarland at $28,801 + ~$588 still beats Destination Kia at $30,240 + $175 by about a thousand dollars. Fees change the ranking less than the sticker does — but they're free money if you ask.

Refuse every one of these

Nitrogen-filled tires. VIN etching. Paint or fabric protection. Wheel locks (the most common add-on in Massachusetts, averaging $163). Pinstriping. "Dealer prep." "Market adjustment." Any of these on a new car is a line item you did not ask for.

Say it once, plainly: "Remove the add-ons or I'll buy the one in Albany." They come off. They always come off.

Seven rules that do the work for you
  • Negotiate one number: out the door.Not the monthly payment. Not the sticker. The total you write a check for, with every fee in it. A dealer who can't quote OTD is hiding something.
  • Never say what you can afford.The moment you name a monthly payment, they build the deal backwards to hit it — and pocket the difference in the term, the rate, and the add-ons. "I'm not discussing payments" is a complete answer.
  • Four separate transactions, in this order.Price first. Then trade-in. Then financing. Then the finance office. Blending them is how they win. If they ask about a trade before the price is set: "Let's finish the car first."
  • After you name your number, stop talking.Say the number, then say nothing. The silence is uncomfortable and it is supposed to be. Whoever speaks first, loses. Count to twenty in your head if you have to.
  • Everything in writing before you drive anywhere.A screenshot of a text is fine. An emailed buyer's order is better. If the number changes when you arrive, that was the plan, and you leave.
  • Be genuinely willing to leave.There are thirteen of this exact car at one dealership alone. You are not lucky to be there. Walking to your car is the strongest move available to you, and it usually gets a phone call before you reach the highway.
  • You are not being difficult. This is the transaction.They do this eighty times a month and you do it once a decade. Asking for an itemized number is the normal, expected thing. Nobody is annoyed with you.
What they'll say, and what you say back

Every line on the left is scripted. They've said it thousands of times. Read your answer once now, and it'll be there when you need it.

"What monthly payment are you trying to be at?"

"I'm not working from a payment. What's your best out-the-door price on stock number ____?"

This is the first question and the most important one to refuse. Repeat it verbatim as many times as needed.

"Let me go talk to my manager."

"Sure. Please bring back a printed out-the-door number with the fees itemized."

The trip to the manager is theater and a delay tactic. Asking for it in print means they can only make that trip once or twice.

"That price is only good if you finance with us."

"Put that in writing with the rate and term, and I'll compare it to my credit union."

Sometimes legitimate, sometimes a bait-and-switch. Either way the answer is the same: in writing.

"This price is today only."

"Then it's not the price for me. I'm signing on the 30th."

Kia's rebate runs through month-end. There is no cliff on the 12th. Call it and stay put.

"I have another customer looking at this one."

"That's fine — you have thirteen of them."

Say it pleasantly. It's true, it's on their own website, and it ends that line of conversation permanently.

"What would it take to earn your business today?"

"$28,000 out the door. Yes or no."

This is the one question you answer directly and completely. One number, then silence.

"The doc fee isn't negotiable, it's the same for everyone."

"Understood. Then take it off the selling price instead — I only care about the total."

Often true that the fee itself can't move. Irrelevant. The total can always move.

They slide over a worksheet split into four boxes.

"I only need one number on this page. Cross out the other three."

The four-square is a tool for hiding profit by moving it between price, trade, payment, and down payment. Refuse the format, not just the numbers.

In the finance office: "For only $14 more a month you get…"

"No thank you — just the car and the loan today."

Extended warranty, gap, paint sealant, tire-and-wheel. You can buy an extended Kia warranty later, cheaper, from any Kia dealer in the country. Say no nine times if it takes nine times.

How to get a real person's email takes about 20 minutes

Dealers hide their email addresses on purpose. Their websites list a direct phone number for every single salesperson and scramble the email links, because a phone call favors them and a written quote favors you. Only one address in this whole group is published openly.

The workaround

1. Open the dealer's listing and hit Check Availability. Type one line: "Please email me an itemized out-the-door price on stock number ____. Email only, no calls."

2. Within an hour a salesperson replies from their actual work address. That is the address you wanted.

3. Paste it into the box on that dealer's card above. Both email buttons go live and open your mail app with the full script already written.

From that point you have a written thread with a named human, which is exactly where you want this negotiation to live.

One shortcut: McFarland's general manager publishes his address, so you can skip straight to step three there. If any dealer calls instead of writing, answer once and say "please put that in an email" \u2014 then hang up. Written or it did not happen.

Your quote tracker saved on this device

Log every out-the-door number as it comes in. Lowest sorts to the top — that's the number you take back to everyone else in round two.

Prices, stock and mileage as listed on Sept 10, 2026 and change daily — confirm every number with the dealer before you drive. Car illustrations show listed exterior colors, not actual photos. Kia's $2,000 customer cash is scheduled to expire at month end. Doc fee figures are state caps where they exist and market averages where they don't. Built by ZM3DIA. Build 3 · Sept 10

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