I wanna buy a new car

[Delilah]

Can you haggle when buying a new car, if so what is a good amount to try and get off the price when paying with cash?? I am new to car buying and any advice would be welcome.

[Nile]

Hello Delilah

I'll move your thread to the 'Motoring & Public Transport' board.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=1009335#post1009335)) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email abuse@moneysavingexpert.com (abuse@moneysavingexpert.com).

Regards

Nile

[Delilah]

Thanks nile i dont seem to have the hang of all the different threads yet.

[mattymoo]

Depends a lot on the type of car. BMW / Audi / Merc etc are very reluctant to offer discounts because they know the car will sell wether they discount or not. Discounting also pushes down used values and these firms trade on their strong second hand resale values.

French firms are known for discounting particularly Citroen.

The bulk manufacturers like Vauxhall and Ford are also open to discussion but instead of hard cash most try to push cheap extras (to them) or extended cover / full tank of fuel to sweeten the deal.

Offers to pay in cash do not work. They make more money from the finance.

Finally, do you have a car to part ex? It gives the dealer and you an extra bargaining tool but most people get a better price selling privately rather than part ex.

[Little John]

This is the process I took
Find out which car you want
Find out the price places are selling them for

Then come up with a total you are willing to pay knock a bit off the normal price and tell them you have so much they will always try to upsell you. just stick to your guns hopfully they will knock a bit off. Once a price is agreed go for the jugular and ask for the mats, umbrella and tank of fuel

If your financeing then divide the amount by the number of months you want to pay it over and round it down maybe £10 or £15 a month. and tellt he guy you can afourd that much a month can you get me in a car, if you can I will buy one.

lay things out for them, have a set plan and don't deviate you will get a decent deal out of them.

I got a £19500 car that was 5 month old colour and spec I wanted for £12000 including the finance repayment charges (interest) everywhere else listed the price as £12500-£13000. the guy had to build in the finance, the price I paid islisted at about £11000 and a £1000 for finance.

I was happy with the deal.

[piggeh]

I think it's best to look online at how much they go for with online firms, and then stick to this figure as your price, then ask for extras, etc. What Car also do a target price though I've never used it so don't know if you can get it lower than this.

Tis true about finance - maybe worth asking about finance or an extended warranty and then seeing if there's any get out (ie cooling off period, etc). Maybe say you'll take the car for x amount and also the extended warranty, then cancel the extended warranty within a cooling off peirod once you've used it as a bargaining tool to get the price lower.

[peterg1965]

Delilah, what car are you looking to buy, it will help us to advise on what price to aim for.

[vansboy]

To get an idea of REAL TIME prices, WITHOUT the need to haggle, check http://www.honestjohn.co.uk & clik on This Weeks Best Deals. It's a list of LOADS of current offers, from LOADS of sources.

& as mentioned earlier, some brands don't usually discount, but surprisingly, show up on the list more often than not!!

VB

[jobbingmusician]

I have mystery shopped for cars. In the MS they try to get you to get the very best price you can for the model - I did really well, I think because I didn't care what price I got, so was prepared to walk away!

Anyway, this is how they told us to do it.

Go to www.whatcar.co.uk and find the list price of the car and the target price. (Write these down, together with all the specifications you are looking for. I think it helps to have notes with you).

Tell the salesman the best price you have been quoted. (I made up a price below the whatcar target. THe salesman will ask who gave you this price. Tell him it was a dealer outside whatever big city you are closest to, and that this is quite convenient for you as you have friends who live close to the other dealer, but you'd rather buy close to home if he can match the price.

Sit back and watch the fun!

WHen he comes up with a price, say that you're interested but that you're not quite there - can he throw in any extras for this price? Research your extras in advance, know which you would like and the prices of them all. THe dealer might offer you an extra at a discounted price - you need to know how much discount you are getting.

Good luck with the process! :D

PS I am a girlie who knows nuffink about cars, so needed to work that much harder with the salesmen...

[raf35y]

To find the best price on any new car reserch the web for the best price, then visit your local dealer and ask him to beat that price. Don't enter into any haggling just tell him if he beats it he will get the sale. I did this and they knocked £5 off the cheapest web price I could find on a Honda jazz and I was only in the dealership for 15 mins.

[DealDrivers company representative]

..'get a price online then take it to your local dealer to ask them to match it' ....why not use the deal the online agent has worked on for you - if it is an agent, like ourselves, who enables your dialogue and transaction to be direct with normal main brand dealers in the first place?

Online car pricing works the same way online retailers of holidays, TV's, washing machines etc work - the supplying dealers involved take a risk on no-profit sales but get large volumes of registrations in return (and they have an unguaranteed chance to earn volume-related bonus to make up for the loss of profit on the actual car sale if the broker feeds them enough orders).

I run this particular online car price agency service as an independent professional business and we partner high-volume dealerships and motor groups to get our pricing, but my family have run main brand dealerships for over 50 years, so I have some sympathy with smaller dealers being asked to match broker-derived pricing.

Asking a smaller dealer, who makes their revenue on servicing & maintenance (but doesn't sell large numbers of new vehicles), to match the price is a tough 'ask'. He may not hit his sales target, as he won't be getting the volume needed to make up for the loss from your single vehicle sale, and probably won't get any bonus either as he has no brokers feeding large numbers of orders into him.

There are few small dealers grateful for customers who merrily wave broker quotes at them, expecting them to be grateful for a 'chance to match it'. It leaves them with no profit in the sale and they've only shifted one car.

If you insist on buying locally and they aren't a high-volume dealership, be prepared to leave them with profit in the sale. If you don't care which shopfront dealership the car transaction comes through and just want the cheapest purchase price, use the broker or agent's own dealer partners who are getting the volume needed to enable them to offer that price.

As pricing agents, we probably spend more time giving multi-brand advice, quotes and stock locating to customers than the average showroom salesman would ever have the patience for. So if your online agent has done a good job, give their partnered dealers the sale.

If there is still some sort of fear about using a company with a website to ask for a car price (but you never 'buy online' with us anyway!), you can even visit us, our offices are open to the public Mon - Sat, and we can quote on almost any brand.

[fossman]

Near the end of the month is a good time to go looking for a new car, dealerships are trying to hit the sales targets in order to get the big bonuses from the manufacturer.

I got my car at the end of July last year, list price was £9,790, What Car Target price was £8,563, I got it for £7,595.

No matter how well you think you do the car dealer will always win.

[Delilah]

I'm looking to buy a xsara picasso. i was told 12000 over the phone but then i saw one 3 months old for 10000. is this good??

[peterg1965]

Delilah,
If you are after a previous model Xsara Picasso (the old shape) you will get one very very cheaply. Citreon are renowned for heavy discounts and with the car being discontinued you should aim for less than £9000 dependant on your model choice.

[nullogik]

The Citroen Picassos are really cheap (with huge discounts) and theres a reason for that. Build quality is shockingly poor, and reliability (especially on the electrics side) are iffy.

I would rather buy a second hand year or two old Toyota Verso or Almera Tino if I were you. Their better built, have better residuals (so it'll be worth more when you come to sell it) and reliability is light years ahead.

Now cheap doesn't always mean rubbish. Kia & Hundai are cheap but build quality rivals the best and reliability isn't too far off the Japanese. They're only cheap because they want to break into the mainstream market. Citroen Picassos are cheap because no one would buy them at full price what with the awful reliability and the like.

[plane_boy2000]

The Citroen Picassos are really cheap (with huge discounts) and theres a reason for that. Build quality is shockingly poor, and reliability (especially on the electrics side) are iffy.

I would rather buy a second hand year or two old Toyota Verso or Almera Tino if I were you. Their better built, have better residuals (so it'll be worth more when you come to sell it) and reliability is light years ahead.

Now cheap doesn't always mean rubbish. Kia & Hundai are cheap but build quality rivals the best and reliability isn't too far off the Japanese. They're only cheap because they want to break into the mainstream market. Citroen Picassos are cheap because no one would buy them at full price what with the awful reliability and the like.

Bit of a sweeping statement - I had one for 2.5 years, and 45K miles, and had very few problems. One small dash issue which was fixed under warranty, and something to do with a wiper motor. It never broke down or failed to start / get me where I was going without drama. I fully agree that they are built to a price, but so are all cars. I cant think of any other new car that matched the Picasso for the same money - in fact we would still have ours if it was not for the need for 7 seats.

[peterg1965]

Bit of a sweeping statement - I had one for 2.5 years, and 45K miles, and had very few problems. One small dash issue which was fixed under warranty, and something to do with a wiper motor. It never broke down or failed to start / get me where I was going without drama. I fully agree that they are built to a price, but so are all cars. I cant think of any other new car that matched the Picasso for the same money - in fact we would still have ours if it was not for the need for 7 seats.

I agree plane_boy. The Picasso has been the biggest selling mini MPV over the last 6 years or so, Citreon build quality may not be up to German standards but I would say that reliability has been nothing worse than average for the class of car. In terms of numbers you would expect there to be a few problems but proportionally nothing particularly to worry about.

[Delilah]

just to say thanks for all your help and advice, i managed to get one £10200.00 brand new, full tank and carpet mats.
Thanks:j

[raf35y]

I understand what you say, but the local dealer can always say no. Also the best deals I found involved me traveling to pick up the car or paying a delivery charge. At the end of the day the dealer still made a profit on the car or he would not have sold me the car. Why put myself to any trouble when I can get the best deal on my door step.