We had a debate in my office today about the % of people who just accept the first figures that a salesperson gives them-and buys the car without haggling. I thought everyone haggles ( I do) but surprisingly others said they would be too embarassed to "challenge" the figures.
I would appreciate knowing this % from anyone related to sales.
Thank you.
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Mrs MLC's cousin is a Renault salesman. It's staggering to hear about the number of people who buy at list price, with no haggling.
There's one woman who buys a Clio every twelve months without fail, paying list price.
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...There's one woman who buys a Clio every twelve months without fail, paying list price...
The garage should be ashamed of themselves, no need to give the shop away, but at the very least they should give her a decent discount.
Unless, of course, they are via a part-exchange.
When I sold cars in the 1980s, there was the occasional cash customer who was prepared to pay full price.
The (privately-owned) dealer's policy was to give the customer a discount.
No need to go mad, just a matter of fair dealing.
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I always haggle and if they don't agree an acceptable price to change then I go elsewhere.
Edited by andyfr on 27/04/2009 at 21:25
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I do my homework first. What am I trading in, what are these currently on the market at, taking dealer margin into account what will I be offered? What am I buying, what will I expect to pay?
I then have a cost to change and that's where negotiation starts. As I have a good idea on both parts of the equation it doesn't take long. 20 minutes with the last car. I can't be bothered with spending hours in a showroom waiting for sales staff to disappear, chat about fooball with a colleague then come back with another figure.
I never take their finance either - this makes a much cleaner deal as it's too easy for 'monthly repayment figure' to become the negotiation and not the cost of the car.
Edited by daveyjp on 27/04/2009 at 21:44
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I always look at it that a car is an appalling investment which haemorrhages value, so I want as little money as I can reasonably get away with tied up in it. Haggle hard, as most of what goes into a car never comes out again!
Edited by DP on 27/04/2009 at 21:52
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I got near on 20% off list for our Daihatsu and I would always expect similar deals - if you dont ask you dont get - the car was already discounted from list by £1700 and I knocked another £300 off that.
I also made him reduce the interest on the finance to the lowest figure the computer would allow him to put in ( He showed me the screen as he was knocking it down - he said its not his money but the banks so he didnt mind giving it away cheap ).
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...There's one woman who buys a Clio every twelve months without fail paying list price... The garage should be ashamed of themselves
Why? its not a charity. There is a published list price, a discount is not mandatory or legaly required. The custoner is clearly happy as she keeps coming back.
The last time i was buying a new car the salesman would not meet my target. So i walked and he didnt sell to me. I made sure that the wife had her new car serviced there just to prove the point.
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When I did the deal for the new Alfa Mito -there was little scope for maneouvre so I concentrated on getting one or two extra things in the deal rather than more cash - there comes a point when you just can't get any further -but always always try
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A frine dbought a Clio last year - he pushed hard and got a good deal. Dealer showed him the profits on each unit for the month (they made 400 on his) some were 2K profit, others a couple hunderd so I guess some were paying near list, although most big dealers get some back end either way.
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I recently achieved £2500 off list price for my new Mazda5, and received above glass's guide price for my trade in. Before the sales executive (salesman to you and me)had opened his mouth, I said I was looking at a figure well below"What Car magazine target price". That was easily beatable. I was very pleased with the deal, especially as the cost was less than the deal for a nearly new vehicle, I had been offered at Christmas.
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I haggle in shops where they don't have "checkouts" and where you can get to speak to the owner or manager. In recent years I've negotiated discounts on shoes, jeans and suits.
Edited by L'escargot on 28/04/2009 at 14:58
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If no-one accepted the dealers' figures, there wouldn't be much or any haggle room for the rest of us.
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At a roadside bar somewhere near Benin City in the seventies, I had just turned down a glass of palm wine on the ground that there were little green things swimming about in it when a commotion arose. The 'owner' of the Nissan Patrol we were travelling in - it was hotwired but he said he had stolen it from his father, so that was all right then - was haggling over the price of a Coca-Cola. The guy behind the bar said 10 kobo, but this lunatic wanted it for 9 kobo and became threatening. The actual words used were: 'I will punish your mother and father!', accompanied by a wave of his fly-whisk. The barman didn't take it at all well and we had to calm the situation down as well as paying the full price (far from exorbitant in any case).
I am deeply suspicious therefore of anyone who wants to haggle with honest traders. It can lead to trouble, especially if the haggler is a nut case. This one was a real lulu. One of his shoulder blades had been scraped raw a few days earlier in a fall from a motor bike, and his idea of treatment was to spray the large open wound from time to time with a DDT aerosol. My advice not to do this was rudely rejected. Apparently we Europeans are a decadent wimpish lot. Of course I knew that already.
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I spend my life haggling. It is part and parcel of what I do. Moving goods around the planet on a daily basis we argue about price, terms of payment, quality, packaging, delivery dates and so on and so on......
When I come to buy something for personal use I almost can't be bothered. With cars I generally just say, "look I want to buy this car. What is your best price please? If I think you are offering me a fair deal I'll do it now and if not I'll go elsewhere"
Seems to work.
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Don't know if it is still current practice but some years ago at a Dixons (remember them?) dealership I once spent almost an hour trying to get a salesman to give me a bottom line figure. This evidently proved to be an impossible task as he insisted on talking about monthly repayment figures. Not needing finance I left!
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I'll stick to buying mine from auctions, only take sa few minutes to work out if I've bought the car at the price I want to pay.
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