Doing a deal on a used car…. How much will I get off?

So I’m just in the process of buying a new family car.

It’s gonna be a ford smax titanium x sport 2.2 diesel or maybe a 2.0 diesel
I’ve got a budget of £20,000 and was wondering your thoughts on what sort of a deal I’m likely to be able to get on a used car, since I’ve been out of the nearly new car market for a while!

Am i being too cheeky to try and get a £22,000 car on a forecourt for £20,000 ?
Is that TOO much to try to get off?

Are there unwritten rules around “asking for too much off?”

Cos that 2k more is the difference of a 2011 to 2012 plate car!

Costs nowt to ask….but I doubt they’d knock £2k off

Depends on many things. I got 850 off my 8000 car.

At you buying with cash ?

http://www.jenningsforddirect.co.uk/cars/view/ford/s-max/reg/ej12cvd/

very nice looking motors!!

I would try for cash off as I cant see dealers doing to well in todays climate!

At least 10% maybe up to 25%.

Make an offer of what you think it’s worth. Don’t be afraid to walk away when he says no.
I did this when buying my last one from a dealer (much cheaper than yours) I said I only have £x will you take that for it. He said no, and then went on about how he had to advertise his best price as everyone checks the internet now so if he builds in haggle room no-one would come to look at it as there would be cheaper elsewhere etc, etc. He rang a week later to see if i still wanted it for £x (I didn’t, I had already bought something else)
That one I talked him into 5% off, with a new set of tyres and the warrenty increased from 3 to 12 months.

I’d try it, as long as you show them your strong enough to walk away.
You might not get your £2k off, but perhaps £1500 or so?
Don’t ask, don’t get.

I got about 20% off a used BMW with a lot of haggling.

There was a similar car, slightly older that was significantly cheaper at a nearby dealers, so I used that for my leverage.

nealglover – Member
At you buying with cash ?
POSTED 6 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

I hope not – he won’t get a good deal – they want to sell finance.

Agree to a finance deal then pay it off immediately if you have the cash.

Paying with hard saved cash (or bank transfer, whatever is required, money’s in the bank)

No PX the old car is a 12year old Honda and is off to we buy any car for £700 – we have had our use out of it, so are happy with £700 before you all tell me noooo they’ll rob you!

So it’s me v’s a car salesman with a pocket of cash….

Buy near the end of the month, preferably near the end of the quarter when he / his boss has targets to hit!

If paying cash I have found saying, “I know its cheeky, but I have XXX” in the bank you can have it today if we could do the deal at that works well. But you must simply say – oh well not today then when he comes back somewhere in the middle.

I hope not – he won’t get a good deal – they want to sell finance.

That’s why I asked.

We bought our 2.0 Zetec TDI Zetec less than a year old with 1800 miles for £16400, over a year ago now, a 60 reg facelift model. We only haggled £600 off the screen price but I think we were both happy with the deal. Didn’t fancy Titanium spec as they all come with privacy glass, which makes parking in tight spots in low light a pain, also my kids aren’t so ugly as to need to be hidden from the world.

So it’s me v’s a car salesman with a pocket of cash….

Weak position I’m afraid.
Finance commission is what they want.

[quoteI got about 20% off a used BMW with a lot of haggling.

Blimey, that’s a lot. Wasn’t an ex demo by any chance?

[quoteFinance commission is what they want.

Yep. Do a finance deal with them at a horrendous rate. Make one payment and settle, this is your legal right. Its the best way to do a deal on the price of the car. The transaction manager will not be bothered on how much they sell the car for as long as he (thinks) is getting as good dfinance deal for himself

I do like the idea of the “take finance then pay it off if the are no early repayment clauses” idea !

Midlifecrashes: it’s about treating myself to a nice family car! Something we’ve missed whilst the kids where young ! But hey thanks for the snide insult / witty comment!

Hmmm finance option might be the way to go, but surely not as much room to haggle ?

Is anyone on this forum / thread a ford dealer?

Taking out finance and paying it off straight away is likely to cost you something around £700 – £1000 in Fees and Compulsory interest on a loan of that amount.

Make sure the discount you get makes it worthwhile.

Neal

My thoughts exactly…

Car dealers often sell “no commission clawback” finance to protect themselves against this sort of thing.

So the finance company need to protect themselves too (because they have already paid commission to the dealer)

The standard charge would be 2 months payments + a couple of document fees on top.

Possibly look at the end of the month just before the new reg comes out possible goods deals to be had. Nissan give you a 14 day cooling off on the finance I’m sure others do too which allows you to pay off without the interest being charged you will have the admin fee normally about £150 but as others have said you can save much more taking the finance option. Good luck

Taking out finance and paying it off straight away is likely to cost you something around £700 – £1000 in Fees and Compulsory interest on a loan of that amount.

Wrong……if you exercise your “Right to Withdraw” within 14 days of signing the agreement, you only have to pay the interest up until the point that you exercise your “Right to withdraw”. Ie if you notify the finance company within 5 days, you will only pay 5 days interest.

After 14 days your ROW lapses and you then would need to ask for a settlement figure and then you would need to pay the acceptance fees plus interest up until the day you request the settlement, plus 30 days interest. So if you ask for a settlement on day 15 you would pay 45 days interest plus the fees.

Paying with hard saved cash (or bank transfer, whatever is required, money’s in the bank)

Out of curiosity, why would you want to put your own hard earned savings into a depreciating asset. Why not consider the dealer funding options and keep your hard earns savings in the bank?

If you can’t get 10% walk is my rule. My thinking is all good trades folk overprice by 10% for wiggle room. If you can’t get this off, you are overpaying…..

Its a fairly common car, so if you search/google you’ll pretty much get a good idea what others have it for sale at. That is your starting point.

I’ve been with friends to help them buy their cars, mainly because I can do numbers in my head, which puts me infront of the Dealers sales/finance guys. You need to know the cost/value of each and every part of the deal, from the car through finance to ‘whats a tank of fuel cost).

And there is no point offering less than they want to sell it at, so be realistic – and be happy to walk away if needed.

Most finance companies won’t pay commission until they are past that point, but will also include acceptance & doc fees so they are never out of pocket.

You’d get a better discount on New, the Used Car market is premium at the moment as people are not buying new, so there is no decent stock coming into the Used Market, S-Max Diesels are pretty sought after too, especially the newish well spec’d ones…….

My advice is be prepared to pay screen price if you see one you like.

Shotsaway, fair enough. The 14 day right to withdraw is new since I’ve had anything to do with finance commission and sales.

Just looked it up and it’s pretty good for consumers that’s for sure.

Not sure how it will affect the finance industry though, in particular the amount of Commission they will be willing to give to people who sell their products.

And if there is commission claw back from the dealers if the loan is cancelled within 14 days, how much discount are the dealers going to be willing to give based on commission they may not even get.

Shop around. Email the spec to ford dealerships in 100 mile radius and see what they have to offer. My brother did this, saved a wedge, and the dealership even delivered the car.

Wasn’t trying to be snide, my sister has the Titanium. We both have to reverse into unlit driveways and office car parks. A fair bit easier without the privacy glass. It’s a big old lump of a car and the parking sensors only help so much. I’d have bought a Titanium if I could have found one without dark glass. I like the toys too, and the standard stereo on the Zetec is nowhere near as good.

Not sure how it will affect the finance industry though, in particular the amount of Commission they will be willing to give to people who sell their products.

And if there is commission claw back from the dealers if the loan is cancelled within 14 days, how much discount are the dealers going to be willing to give based on commission they may not even get.

ROW isn’t an issue with finance companies as the number of customers who exercise their right is less than 1.5%

customers who exercise their right is less than 1.5%

I would guess that if that’s correct, they are now paying 2% less finance commission than they previously were to cover their losses.
And the dealers are giving 3% less discount than they previously were to cover theirs 😀

(It will all get passed on to the customer (plus a bit extra just in case) that’s for sure)

Weak position I’m afraid.
Finance commission is what they want.

We pay cash and it seems it’s no longer “king”. Too many kick backs from the finance company.

We pay cash and it seems it’s no longer “king”.

It never has been with main car dealers to be honest. (Or at least not for a Verrrry long time)

Too much of a paper trail with cars. And finance commission isn’t a new thing anyway.

Cash is still a bargaining tool with people who can, and are willing to, hide income easily.

Not sure I agree that a finance deal is the only one dealers are interested in. A salesman gets commission on selling the car anyway and the dealers like to see stock being turned over. So someone coming is with cash is still an attractive proposition as they will not have any PX nonsense to worry about and salesman will probably get his commission faster. [When I worked in the trade many years ago, the salesmen were only paid their commission when all the cars in the chain had been sold, so the last thing a salesman wanted was an ok / duffer of a car on PX]

As stock turns over they get cash flow. No good to a dealer if a car is sitting on the forecourt for months not selling because they will only look at someone who is doing a finance deal. The main things to look at are what you are prepared to pay and what the overall cost to change is to you. As others have said, provided you are prepared to walk away if the deal is not in your interests or you don’t feel comfortable then you should be ok. The dealer will have a figure he can’t go below and a figure he doesn’t want to go below. At month / quarter end they may be tempted to break the latter if it means a sale and stock shifted – especially if it has been a slow month.

We pay cash and it seems it’s no longer “king”. Too many kick backs from the finance company.

TBH cash has never been seen as “king”. It is only consumers that see it that way.

The commissions a dealer will earn are relatively small in the scheme of the whole business.

The reasons dealers want you to fund with them are:
A) Most dealers have forecourts full of cars and dealers don’t have pockets full of cash to buy these cars. They tend to use finance company stocking plans. Therefore the more customers they introduce to a finance company the better their negotiation position as to what interest rate the finance company charges them for their stock cars.
B) These days customer loyalty is “King” and customers who finance are more likely to repurchase again from the same dealer. I believe that 30% plus of customers who finance through the dealer buy again from the same dealer, where as less than 5% of cash customers buy from the same dealer on their next purchase. So a finance customer is 6 times more likely to buy from the same dealer again!
C) Loyalty and renewals are so important that some of the dealers within the BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Audi use Chrysalis renewals software. This software estimates your cars current value and it estimates your settlement figure. When the software calculates that the customer is in a position of equity, the dealer will ring you up with a good news story (ie you can change your car today for a similar monthly payment, with no deposit).
D) Many manufacturers offer free or subsidised service plans when you take finance. Again this is about keeping you in their business. If you go back and have your car serviced you are having more “touch points” with the dealer and again you are more likely to purchase from them again. If you don’t take finance and therefore if you don’t get the free service plan, you could go anywhere to get your car serviced.
E) 80% of customers who buy cars from franchised dealers buy their car with borrowed money. Whether that is dealer finance, bank loan, remortgage, direct lenders (Tesco, Sainsburys etc). So as 4 in 5 are borrowing the money from somewhere, the dealer might as well try and persuade you to borrow from them rather than somewhere else.
F) They also want you to buy Paint Protection, GAP insurance and other add on’s. If you turn up with £10k for a £10k car you are unlikely to buy any of the add on products. However if you finance you may buy some of the add on products, especially when it may only add £10 or so to your monthly payment.

So yes finance commission is important to dealers, but so is customer loyalty, so are stocking charges and so are service customers. These are the reasons why they want you to fund through them.

Sorry to the original OP, as we seem to have changed the direction of your thread!

Cheers shotsaway, that made for very interesting reading. 😀

Dont take financial advice from strangers on the internet.Neal Gloved thinks its a bad idea.Or at least he did yesterday.

Oooh aren’t you the clever one 🙄

How is Retail advice on the best way to get a discount on a car similar to advising someone how to invest a £100k inheritance ?

If you can point out any similarities it would look like a valid point.

But at the moment it looks a bit like you are stalking me, trying (and failing) to make a valid point.

It seems You’ve got your knickers in a knot because I had a different opinion to you on another thread.

Get over it, these things happen 🙄