A few things here. It's not a matter of "going to war" and none of this should be interpreted as such (even, i assume if you are reacting to the term "sucker punch".. I'm poking a little fun here and there) nor is it unfortunate. Some choose to do just as you say, find a quick deal that they are perfectly happy with to essentially avoid or minimize negotiating and "move on" - nothing wrong with that whatsoever, i'm not hinting otherwise. Purchasing isn't a battle and i don't see it that way. In fact, entering any negotiation with an adverserial attitude typically ends well before the negotiating even had a chance to begin... The goal here is for you wind up with the car you love at a price you're comfortable with. Once again, these are merely points to consider, some tips you might benefit from when you purchase, nothing more, nothing less.

Why do i revel in the madness? I'm a loon . I enjoy negotiating and the reward for me is minimizing my costs and still driving away in exactly the car i wanted and having had a little fun in the entire process. I fully understand at the end of the day this is a purchase from a business that wants to make a little profit and that's perfectly fine - they've got bills to pay just like me. As stated in posts above, i don't want to drive away wondering if i paid any more than i had to. I don't go in with the goal of leaving behind a quivering pile of primordial ooze (although i reckon there are some out there who probably like to do just that - i'll just have to watch out to step over the gellatinous mass so as not to get the soup on my shoes)...

As far as others' experiences of never having dealt with early payoff penalty clauses may be overlooking the point I was trying to make that contract law varies from state-to-state - it may not even be relevant in yours (was just one of those clauses i did deal with before to get the wheels turning there are some out there that can have unwanted financial fangs to avoid altogether; but some of them you can actually use to your advantage when negotiating costs)... It really is great for those of you who didn't deal with that before but there are certainly other clauses out there too i am entirely unaware of others may have dealt with. The point was to caution to read the contracts provided to you carefully, consider all of the financial implications, and for those clauses you don't like consider negotiating those too.... Besides, what's the worst they can say? "no"

Happy shopping!