Haggling at a car dealer – the best way?

Was told today at a car dealer that the ticketed price was ‘the price’ and there was no negotiation.

I have a part exchange so there’s some leeway there, but surely if I’m paying cash there’s got to be some sort of discount?

Or is it better to get a deal on Service Packs etc?

Be prepared to walk away. There are lots and lots of cars for sale.

The moment you decide you want *that* car, you’ve lost.

Rachel

they make money off the finance deal (the finance house pays them commission on the rate) so cash isn’t king. Some here have spoken of taking the finance to help sweeten the deal then paying it off in the cooling off period.

Depends on the kind of dealer it is.

Is it a one man operation, in which case the simple expedient of deciding how much you are prepared to go to then offer a bit less, then come up in 50’s might do it.

or

If it is a mainline dealer where the salesman may not have much discretion, in which case your bargaining chip has to be the trade in, then consider getting your own finance, it is another part of their margin.

Car prices are always negotiable

Keep playing them off against each other, dealer, brokers etc. Some cars are selling well enough at list price, others not, so it does depend on the car. I just got 20% off list price, but its on a Toyota dad car.

My parents were asked to take their new car on finance to get a better deal by the salesmen in the knowledge they’d pay it off straightaway.

The salesman told them this was the best way to save a bit more money. I thought that was pretty honest of him.

Part ex puts them in position of power.

They need to turn a profit on that too. Best bet sell privately then come back with cash & do a deal.

I always find taking Mrs. stavro with me is the best way to deal with this thorny problem. She squeezes them ’til they squeek.

All the above advice is good, but the best thing in your armour is time. Walk away.Let them stew and call you back. At least a week. If you go out on a weekend with the sole intention of buying a car today you’ve lost.

If it’s new get a price from an online broker and use that as your guide

You’re screwed on the PX though

The ticket price is the price for them to start negotiating at, not to buy at, go as low as you dare. Don’t let them know how much you love/want the car, if it’s in the colour you want tell them it isn’t. Let them know that’s there’s more cars for sale than there are people buying them. If they say another persons interested etc. ask why they didn’t buy it?

But also- if there’s one you really do like, don’t miss it for the sake of a quid. Comments above are great but it’s dead easy to swing too far in the wrong direction. You don’t need to get the best possible price to be happy, the goal is to get what you want for a price you’re happy with.

Oh and lie a lot. If you feel like you’re about to say something honest, unless it’s negative, lie instead. Forget about colour, it’s not even the type of car you wanted, but maybe…

As above they would much rather you took finance than gave them cold hard cash. I always try and dress down/let them assume I want finance when looking at cars.

Dealer told me today not to take finance as I wouldn’t get a better deal.

Are they only interested in finance with new cars?

Show enough interest to be offered a sit down at the desk and a coffee, then when they won’t move on the price and expect you to pay RRP for the missing parcel shelf, say you’re going to think about it and will be back in 30 minutes before closing. (having left your number and the fact you are two hours from home).

They chased us after 45 minutes with a more attractive price and the elusive parcel shelf, 10 minutes after closing. Still not a huge discount but it was the principle that they refused to even offer a token discount.

It all depends on the vehicle and the price it’s at. How much discount you can or can’t get is largely irrelevant. If it’s 250quid less than other similar cars then if they won’t move an inch on price it’s still cheaper. Don’t get hung up on the fact that you must get a discount, look at the price.

It’s also common nowadays in the world of internet selling and much greater visibility for garages to list vehicles at or very close to their bottom price to get people interested. Or equally to advertise at one price online but have a higher forecourt price.

dickydownes – Member
Dealer told me today not to take finance as I wouldn’t get a better deal.

Are they only interested in finance with new cars?

Sounds like the dealer was an idiot, the finance works the same way regardless.

I used to work for one o the finance houses, was interesting to see the rate that commission started to kick in (varied from dealer to dealer depending on how big they were and the deal they’d negotiated) and was very interesting to see just how fleeced some customers got – 30% APR anyone? 😯

Never payed the asking price for a car, my best deal was 15% off asking price after it had already been reduced. I rang the dealer 200 miles away and said if it was as discribed I would pay £X for it, the dealer said no way so I said if you change your mind ring me….two weeks later I got the call to say they would take the offer, so I cheakely said throw in a tank of petrol and I’ll be there tommorow and they did!

You probably deserve to get fleeced if you’ve not bothered to do the research required to know that 30% is an absolute spanking.

Best quay to get a better deal is to sell the PX car privately for more money, surely!

Dear me there’s some rot on here. Any good dealer couldn’t care less about your p/x, they just don’t want to lose money. I used to run a trade loss on maybe 500 p/x’s a year of +/- £20 per unit. If you lose money, you’re not trading well and buying business. If you make money then you’re being greedy and missing out on sales.

Finance is however a profit centre but not in anyway what it was. An average dealer of average cars might make £200 – £300 per unit including GAP and Warranty sales. Other profit centres are paint products and dent/scratch protection products.

The key these days for dealers is the balanced sale, a little from all of the above.

My advice would be agree to buy the car on finance, including all the products but screw them on the price of just the car. Compare their car against every similar used car on the net if used or contact at least 5 other dealers if new. Take the value they give you for your p/x, find out what webuyanycar will give you, bear in mind that they’ll pick fault in EVERY little thing and use that to devalue it, then advertise it in autotrader for 2 weeks at least £500 below a dealer advertised price for the same thing considering mileage. In the meantime and ideally 1 or 2 days after you have agreed to buy the car not take delivery. Cancel all the products and the finance (unless it’s silly cheap finance).

Good luck

EDIT: Legend is very wrong and you are right DickyDownes. Many new cars get a deposit contribution from the manufacturer, this is often in lieu of a discount, there are reasons for this that I’m not going into now. Therefore but the new car on the finance with the contribution, pay it off immediately after (there is a penalty but it will be negligible) and off you go.

A used car does not get a deposit contribution unless it’s made by the dealer cos they need to shift that particular car or have an event on. It is illegal to incentivise a customer to pay using a certain method by means of price.

Spend £15-20 on a month old Glass’ guide from eBay. Walk into the showroom with it. You know ~what they paid for the car you’re wanting to buy, they now know that you know this and you know that they know that the margins are laid bare. Its just agreeing a reasonable figure between the sticker and the trade.

They’ll try and give some sob story about how much they’ve had to put into it in order to make it ready for sale…blah blah blah

Glass will also allow you to see how your trade price on your own vehicle has changed over the past few months.

I looked at a car that was on a main dealer forecourt for 20k. I asked how long it was here. He said a week. I saw rusty discs and in the boot a price card at 22k. So knew they were lying. Most and liars and will treat you like shit. PX was stunningly poor for our car. Eventually ended up at 18k for car, minus 4k px, which was 1k below where I wanted but bought it.
Personally I find car buying at a main dealer on a level of buying a house from estate agents. They are cunning, shifty and will bodge and hide stuff to protect they commission over any customer consideration. This was a Volvo dealer and the second I have had the misfortune to buy from.

When I bought our last new car there wasn’t any scope for a discount but there was a waiting list. I called or emailed all the franchises in Scotland and said I’ve been offered a car in 8 months, I’ll buy from the person who takes the most time off that. Got one to the spec we wanted in 8 weeks.

Next time around I’d be tempted to do the same, spec a car and a price and call all the dealers, first one to give me the price gets the sale. Cuts out the bull and it’s an easy sale for them, might not work but worth a shot I think.

A follow on from what I said above…. don’t get hung on part ex value or discount on price – cost to change is all that matters. If they give you 1k part ex on paper for a 5k car but knock 4k off the price it’s all the same in the end.

Couple of things that helped for me – both on new cars though.

First confuse them. I wanted a Mini, so I took my wife along. They spent the entire time trying to do an emotional sale to my wife who was quite happy with her company car. They made the sale but I liked the deal I got compared to what the guides / magazines were suggesting. Similarly when my wife wanted a BMW, I did a load of talking then she did then I did. They weren’t sure who they were selling to.

Next when we’d pushed as far as I could I asked two questions. Are you offering a good deal and would your competitors say you were offering a good deal? He started waffling about service – meaning there’s more money to come out of this.

So I said fine, we need to discuss this, we’re going for a coffee. Then I rang the dealer in the next town, gave them these and got a price, walked back into the first dealer and told him if he could beat it they could have the sale. They did and they did. Probably could have got a bit more off, but I felt happy enough.

Finally know what you’d be happy with. And walk away if you don’t get it.

thegreatape – Member
You probably deserve to get fleeced if you’ve not bothered to do the research required to know that 30% is an absolute spanking.
POSTED 30 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

but then when the paperwork says “15% flat rate” on it and the dealer doesn’t explain the difference, you can see how things get messy.

EDIT: Legend is very wrong and you are right DickyDownes. Many new cars get a deposit contribution from the manufacturer, this is often in lieu of a discount, there are reasons for this that I’m not going into now. Therefore but the new car on the finance with the contribution, pay it off immediately after (there is a penalty but it will be negligible) and off you go.
A used car does not get a deposit contribution unless it’s made by the dealer cos they need to shift that particular car or have an event on. It is illegal to incentivise a customer to pay using a certain method by means of price.

What are you talking about? Deposit contributions don’t change the fact that a dealer putting a new or used car through on finance will get paid by the finance house (if the % rate is above their threshold). Or maybe I didn’t setup thousands of finance accounts on used cars?

Ah yes. I remember the BMW dealer getting annoyed that I didn’t want / need finance. He needed to learn to control his emotions better.

Aye fair enough legend, I guess a pro will spot when he can blag someone, if that is his way..

@ legend and thered – no wonder no-one trusts car dealers!

I remember the BMW dealer getting annoyed

All car salesmen will go to hell, but there is a special circle reserved for BMW dealers. They think they are a cut above all other forms of life; despite the shiney suits and hairgel.

I was a bit above where I thought I should be/could be on a car purchase in December. It was a staff deal through mrs pf and I found out in a round about way what it could go for. I didn’t mention that though, despite the guy complaining non stop that it was impossible for him to go lower.

So I went and bought a random Mercedes that weekend and turned up to her work to meet her. Her boss seemed a bit perplexed as to why I’d just bought another car from another brand, since he thought I was buying one from one of his guys. I told him we couldn’t agree on price, he asked where we’d got to and where I wanted to be, then marched down and kicked the young lads arse for taking the mickey on a staff sale. He then walked back up and offered the car for the price I wanted, plus 2 years servicing, 2 years warranty, MOT protection and 2 full tanks of fuel…if I cancelled my order on the other car…which I’d fully intended to do anyway 🙂

BUT..I hadn’t thought the cancellation bit through. Although the cancellation was done no problem, I felt awful for the guy whose sale I’d just ruined. I know I shouldn’t, but he was actually really decent and because I’d never intended to keep the car I felt like a shit.

Still, I can live with guilt easier than I can live with getting a bad deal.

One thing I’ll never understand is why sales people get annoyed/angry when you are dealing with them. As soon as that happens I will mention it and if they don’t apologise immediately that means I walk.

If someone can’t control their emotions when selling a 20K car then I don’t want to deal with them, obviously the sale means more to them than a satisfied customer.

Do what I did: name your price, then get up and walk away. When the stealer asks why he should give you the discount, reply “Because if you don’t I will just buy it from somebody else”. It works.

It obviously depends on the make of car and how long they’ve had it.
A very good mate owns a french car dealership – just last weekend he said they aim to make about £1k on a used car (this figure hasn’t really changed in 10-15 years).

I’m currently talking to a german car dealership re a used car and I’m looking for £3.5-4k off the forecourt price – I should get it.
My mate also says that, with used cars, once a dealer has had a car for 70-90 days they’ll be desperate to move it on as it will be costing them too much money.

His advice is find the car you want, put a cheeky bid in, don’t get arsy when your offer is declined, then walk away and wait for the salesman to blink. If the car is sold at a higher price another one will be along soon enough.

When buying expensive things, I like to keep a few things in mind.

1) Decide on your max price.
2) Be flexible about model. Sure, you want to buy a new mountain bike. But you don’t need to buy a specific brand/model. Be flexible so you can get the best deal.
3) Never be desperate. You should never NEED to have something straight away. If you do it’s tough to not get ripped off. I’ve waited literally years to buy something I wanted until it came down to a price I considered acceptable.
4) There is always another one for sale. If you can’t get the deal, then wait. Be patient and look for the next one.
5) If your first offer doesn’t embarrass you it’s too high. I’ve even surprised myself how cheap I’ve got things.
6) Have the cash in place before you start looking and be ready to move quickly. If you’re replacing something you shouldn’t be relying on the money from the sale of your current one to pay for the new one. You should be able to have the time to sell it at your leisure.
7) Never buy on finance. Credit card is best, but only if you have the cash to pay it off straight away. If you need to buy it on finance you can’t afford it – buy something cheaper or save up.

Whenever I’ve been told ‘the tickets the price’ and ‘your PX is only worth this sir’ (even though they are saying thats below book) I immediately switch attention elsewhere.

Funnily when you’ve sorted a car the ^above salesmen still ring/leave a message for you saying they can cut a deal. Funny that.

Unless its an Elise in baby blue etc- why get hungup on one dealer?

In fairness, it depends on the dealer

Someone massive like Car Giant is just a supermarket for cars. They don’t haggle, offer good PX prices or test drives but they flogs a hundred cars a day at least

They rely on low margin high volume, the price you see is the price you pay
Normal places have a different set up

Motorpoint seem to be similar to the “price you see if the price you pay”. Anyone got different stories from them?