HEAVY LIFT // CAR BUYING
From fibermaxxing last week to a Tundra this week, heavy lifts come in all shapes and sizes.
Here’s why car buying made the cut. Over the last year, between three back surgeries and a lot of time flat on said back, I was swapping gut-health notes with friends and working mortgage files at my day job. But the car-deal questions just kept coming. A lot of them. It’s been 22 years since my last shift on a dealership floor, and somehow I’m still the first call on car deals for a bunch of people.
So naturally it had to join the Heavy Lift lineup. And this isn’t some salesy theory or decades-old dealership talk. I bought two vehicles in the last 12 months and ran this exact playbook on both. The Tundra was the most recent.
The 90-mile (ish) ride
I didn’t buy the 2026 Tundra SR CrewMax 4×4 from the Toyota dealer down the road. I bought it from one 112 miles away, because that dealer gave me a straight answer and the local one didn’t. One local dealer was too proud of its trucks, discounting a whopping $500 off the sticker price. The other absolutely lowballed my trade. It’s as if they forgot there’s trade-in valuation websites all over the internet. Between the discount on their Tundra and what they offered me for my trade, the Toyota dealer 112 miles away beat both local guys by a combined $4457.
I spent five years in management on both sides of a car deal, the sales desk and the F&I box. I know where the money hides. Even so, it still took some persistence to get a clean deal. If it’s that hard for someone who’s sat in those chairs, it’s probably just as hard for everyone else. So I have to share.
Preflight 3-2-1
1. The monthly payment is where deals get hidden. Monthly payment is important for every budget, but it can’t be your only focus. It makes life for a car salesperson and sales manager really easy. They can stretch the term or pack the payment by adding room for a backend product(s), and the payment barely moves while the price climbs. Negotiate the out-the-door price for the new car or truck first, and only that number.
2. The F&I office is a second sale. Extended warranties, GAP insurance, paint and fabric protection: wheel protection plans, etc, these are all optional, negotiable and often marked up heavily. “Built into the payment” doesn’t mean “required.” And the extra $50 per month added to a term that might have already been stretched? That means you just paid thousands more.
3. Distance is a negotiating tool. Believe it or not, the price for buyers who walk in the front door can and usually differ wildly from internet pricing. Ask several dealers for written quotes by email, and suddenly the price you’re competing for isn’t just the one down the street. I managed to save $4457 by expanding my search area.
1. “Can you send me the out-the-door price, itemized, in writing?” A dealer that won’t put it in writing is telling you something. Listen to them and move on to the next dealer.
2. “Which of these line items are optional?” Ask it about every add-on and every fee that isn’t tax, title or registration.
Follow this roadmap and have an out-the-door price negotiated before you ever step foot on the lot.
I purchased two vehicles and spent 45 minutes in the first dealership and 75 minutes in the 2nd. (the 2nd took longer because they had to ground a Honda trade into inventory- that’s a whole separate newsletter!)
Want the full checklist I used on both deals? The 90-Mile Brief walks through it step by step → https://heavyliftpilot.gumroad.com/l/90-mile-brief. The checklist also comes with some common objections you’ll likely hear from salespeople and how to overcome them.
And if you have a car deal in the very near future, there’s also the ability to have a seasoned copilot review your deal before you sign. I’ll tell you to either pull pitch and take off, (green light), check the master caution panel for possible trouble (yellow caution light), or shut it down and return to the hanger. (red light and kill the deal)
CROSS-CHECKING YOUR INSTRUMENTS
Gut: Week two after fibermaxxing. If you added a fiber food last week, hold steady this week before adding another. Climb, level off, climb.
Home: Mortgage mailers are spiking. If one promises a lower payment, check the loan term and closing costs before the rate. The fine print is where the train can come off the tracks.
One more thing…
Buying my new truck was the easy part. Getting Gibbs and Wally in and out of it took some engineering, since the 4×4 ride height is a decent jump in and out. The solution had to save my back and their joints all at the same time. The Big Ass Dog Company came to the rescue. The dog stairs get their own video on Instagram this week → @heavyliftpilot
Stay tuned and while you’re waiting on the video, be sure to Take the Left Seat.
Jeff
Some credentials never expire.
