Seen a used car we like on sale at £3,194. Its only a run around for the wife. We have a car to part ex and am bringing it down tomorrow for them to give a part ex price.
They say the price is £3,194 incl Vat but excludes road tax and a £49 admin charge. Stupid question but is the price the price or is there any negotiation? At £3194 I am quite happy but don't want to embarass myself or spend a few quid I don't need to.
Cheers
Edited by Pugugly on 03/02/2009 at 10:23
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The rules are simple. If you really want it, you may end up paying the sticker price. Car dealers have a sixth sense when it comes to detecting a buyer who can't resist what's on offer.
If you take a more relaxed view (cars are mass produced items and there are others) then go in hard. Haggle and if you don't get what you want, leave an offer on the table. I always put a time limit on this - usually a week. I did this with my Skoda Superb and then to my surprise, found another better one for even less money. It's always gives me a good feeling to withdraw a low offer before the deadline - you have an absolute right to do this.
659.
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Any PX? Plenty more cars out there, so tell him you have £3k and not a penny more. What's the £49 admin charge for? Whose admin costs £49.00?
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Several of the car 'supermarkets' apply these admin/valeting/pre-delivery/other made up terminoligy for the simple reasen...people will pay it!!
I wouldn't pay it - let alone have the cheeck to even try & ask for it!!
Road Tax, well yes, these are costs which have to be accounted for, but not anything else! As for VAT, it's rare to even mention it, on a usedcar sale.
VB
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£3k and not a penny more.
And make sure you tell him that you only in the area for that day, worked for me, managed to increase the px on my car by 240%
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Thanks guys, shall play polite hard ball........
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Car dealers have a sixth sense when it comes to detecting a buyer who can't resist what's on offer.>>
This is very true and we've seen this in action with our local dealer. On two occasions, over several years, my wife had to get a new car and they had one that she liked - and she gave off the appropriate signals. Consequently, we got very little i.e. new wheel trims or a small amount knocked off the asking price.
On another occasion, she had shown some interest in a car on the forecourt but was by no means desperate to change at the time. The salesman sensed this and followed her round as she ummed and aghed "can I knock a £1000 off, what can I do to persuade you to buy it" etc. She could have had him eating out of her hand.
So, the salesman can sense how desperate you are to buy. Whether or not you get a bargain depends on how good an actor/poker player you are.
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All good advice above.
In a nutshell, I would say you have to be prepared to buy the car, but also be equally prepared to lose the car. You have to communicate both of these to the seller. If the seller doesn't sense former, they'll think you're a timewaster, and if they don't sense the latter, you'll never get the deal you want.
You will come across a particularly nice example of a car occasionally, or one in a rare spec and colour combo that you really want which can tempt you to be less demanding, but keep a level head, be interested, but be cool.
We got the exact deal we wanted on our MX-5 (1yr old, Mazda main agent) by leaving an offer on the table that was close to their "best offer", but far enough away to matter, and walking out (amicably, of course). We hadn't got home before the mobile rang asking if we'd sign today if they agreed to do the deal we needed. If they hadn't called, we would have happily moved on to the next car.
for main dealers, a copy of Autotrader also works well to help batter down some of their margin. Granted, they aren't going to match private sale prices, and neither should they, but I've had good success with "It's the same car a grand and a half cheaper, I'd be stupid not to go and at least have a look at it". It usually at least gets the discussion going in the right direction.
The point is, be keen, don't appear as a timewaster, and be prepared to move on. Keep it amicable and friendly too.
Edited by DP on 03/02/2009 at 10:21
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Ditto all the above.
I also throw in that I really like the model (note: not their car, but the model: shows keeness but hopefully any removes the tyre-kicker tag they might attach to me) & am making a local shortlist - implying you've seen some others already, as you may well have done. I'm also not so fussed about colour or detail spec (so they won't think i 'must' have the coral blue one in their showroom or need desperately the cruise control, whatever..)
I'm always polite & positive & 'nice' about their car: talking it down to negotiate a price is a bit of a cliche & tends to put people's backs up somewhat. Although I will point out any minus points in passing - again lightly in a 'thinking out loud' sort of way.
In amongst this I'm noting the key points I'm interested in & not necessarily emphasising them to the seller: if I really see a turn-off, 'I make my excuses & leave' in the best News of the World manner.
The idea I'm trying to inculcate in the seller's head is: this guy will buy if the price is keen, he's serious but not doo-lally in love with my car.. I'll have to try hard here..
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New(ish) to this but the dealer says their prices are lower than autotraders and they are happy to show this?
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Ditto again. But if you were just buying you would have a good chance of knocking the price down. If you want to part-ex, you are only exchanging cars, so most of your leverage has gone - you will just swop reasons why the other's car is worth less. But by all means try ...
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