What discount on nearly new car prices?

[Ladybump]

:confused: Looking to buy my first car and am looking at used cars. Comparing the prices in car dealerships and private ads, both are considerably over the list prices. Obviously hope to negotiate a good price, but what is a reasonable discount to expect? I'm quite interested in Skoda Fabia, (although would consider others) but most I've seen are advertised at £800-£1000 over list price. Any guidance? Many thanks!

[lincroft1710]

When you say "list price" do you mean used car price guide prices?

[XDA]

I just bought a second hand car privately yesterday, was able to get £200 off the price.

I tend to find that if you offer them cash there and then, then you are more likely to get a discount.

[DealDrivers company representative]

List price is the full-up manufacturer brand-new price in their published pricelists for first-registered-owner deals, and before any dealer discounts or manuf'r offers are put against them.

You cannot really compare 'nearly new' as you are buying a used car, not a new one. Do you mean an ex demo' car with up to 8-10k miles on it? or soemthing in terms of age? i.e up to 6mths old/12mths old etc? Anything that age is more likely to be ex-rental if not an ex-demonstrator.

No-one's likely to be advertising cars at more than the manufacturers published pricelist for a brand new car!

[Hintza]

Dodge Avengers are currently on BOGOF for £20k.

[Ukuser]

that BOGOF was a gimmick - other DODGE dealers are advertsiing for as low as £7,800 each

[Ladybump]

:o See I really am confused.... I should have said the prices I have been comparing against are guide used car prices, based on model, year and mileage.

[lincroft1710]

Most dealers' prices will be higher than those in price guides available to public, they use (or used) Glass's Guide, which at one time was only available to the trade, but may now be on internet. Even prices in Parkers and What Car, the two most popular "public" guides can vary considerably for same car. Most new car dealers specialise in the make(s) they are agents for and their used stock will also be predominantly this make and usually priced higher than those in non agents' stock.

[Locoblade]

Guide prices are quite often inaccurate, so basically you can only really go on what cars are actually selling for.

A lot of private sellers tend to be a tad optimistic and price their cars similar to dealers, but don't forget buying privately is buyer beware basically, you have no comeback if there's a fault, so generally you'd look to pay a reasonable amount less than you would from a dealer.

I'm currently looking around for a car at the moment and if anything Im finding cars are below book price, although that may be different in the small, economical supermini sector as you're looking in, as due to fuel prices and everything else, it seems people are downsizing their cars rather than upsizing or going for premium brands.

[nickj]

it's a buyers market - cars are not selling
maufacturers have a stock pile
so do dealers
name your price and if they don't like it go elsewhere

[Lemoncurd]

Having just bought a nearly new car our experience was that it was pretty hard to get a good discount. We walked away from 5 or 6 different dealers because they simply wouldn't negotiate on price at all. I was expecting there to be more movement in this climate.
In the end we got a small discount (less than 5%) and some extras thrown in and that was it. Felt happier when we thought of the new price for the car - list for the model we have with the same features included is £28,000 but we got it for £15,000. It's only 14 months old with 11,000 miles, seems amazing that anyone buys new if they have to take that kind of hit in the 1st year!

[lincroft1710]

Lemoncurd - don't keep us in suspense, what car was it? Allowing for dealer mark up, that seems like almost 50% depreciation in just over a year.

[Lemoncurd]

Lemoncurd - don't keep us in suspense, what car was it? Allowing for dealer mark up, that seems like almost 50% depreciation in just over a year.
It's a Ford S-Max, hope it doesn't continue to depreciate quite so fast!

[DealDrivers company representative]

Crikey...are you sure about that? What spec' was it?? Current brand new price on a hi spec Titanium 2.2 TDCi 175ps inc metallic paint is only £19600.

Even if it was Titanium Individual Special Edition 2.2 TDCi 175ps the new price is still available at around £23,200.

...and all the Titaniums built from 3rd March this year have better residuals as they were given bluetooth, solar reflect windshield, ambient lighting, chrome door handles & lower grille all as extra standard kit (and the Tit'm X Pack got additional Bi Xenons too).

[Lemoncurd]

DD, I was just going on what my OH said but have just put all the details into the 'Vehicle Configurator' on www.ford.co.uk and it comes up with £28040 as the new price. It's a 2.5 220ps Titanium with X pack, full leather, DVD nav + 6CD, met paint, 15" alloys etc.

[DealDrivers company representative]

ahh..right. I think what you're trying to advise is that you've got " a lot of car" on a used SMax under 2yrs old, in comparison with what the latest model would cost now (end '08) with similar extras (if you ignore the extra items the current SMax model has as 'standard' over your older one).

To get the real 'value' change you need to compare against the cost of your model when it was new, not the latest SMax. There have been several price changes on SMax since yours was built and a no' of spec' changes on the Titaniums especially. So.. it's not a case that yours has 'halved in value' as it hasn't, in real terms...against its accurate 'new price' at the time - and taking into account that it hasn't got several items that the latest models are now built with.

Also, bear in mind - that 2.5 petrol engine will cost you £300 next April to tax due to its emissions, and a little more in April 2010...this is why high-engined petrol vehicles are selling cheaply on used stocks as they are harder to get rid of due to the tax changing substantially in Apr 09...and it does only 21.2 mpg urban cycle, 30.1mpg combined cycle (mfrs own figures) - another reason for the price you've got it at.

I don't know what Ford's offical figures are for UK SMax sales of diesel v. petrol, but just on our own order-bank for them over the past 2yrs the diesel engines have outsold petrols by a ratio of 83:19 i.e. 81% have bought diesel as the residual values and economy are substantially stronger.

Sorry to be pedantic (!) but there's a lot of misinformation and misleading comparisons being done lately, that don't quite give the 'real picture' of what is happening to car values, and more importantly, why some are faring so badly when others are still doing ok!

[paddytt]

What discount could you expect on a new S-Max at the moment then?

Where's the best place to go for a 1 or 2 year old used one?

thanks

TT

[credit crunch victim]

the 2.5 in the s max is a volvo engine and you will be lucky to see 20mpg this is one reason why they are heavily discounted
just the same as the focus st 2.5 which i have had two of
i just had an s max 2.0 diesel for a couple of weeks and that was a nice car these can be picked up from 10k now and that is where my money would have gone