Haggling Heaven: Your feedback on haggling for cars

Pssst

whitehat wrote: »

I've just replaced my 11yr old pug 106D banger. We decided on a Toyota Yaris and decided to go for a nearly new, rather than brand new, to save on the initial depreciation hit. Looking for 1yr old low mileage cars there were very few private one available so we looked through a few supermarkets also.

We decided to head to our local main Toyota dealer to view a few cars they had for sale, also as it was only 4 days before the end of the month I thought this would be a good time to haggle for a deal and get the car off their books before the end of the month.

As we do around 17k miles/year, mostly motorway, we were looking for a diesel. New price is around 11k, best we could find on the internet was £10600. We found a 1yr 7500miles one owner car, on the dealers list for £8800. As the car we were trading in was a complete banger they would only do £200 for it.

Without too much haggling we managed to get £1k off the asking price, the salesman did have to check with the manager for this. This was good, but not quite good enough for me. Pushing even harder, and as we were able to take the car before month-end, we managed to get an extra £150 on the trade-in price, and a full tank of diesel (the salesman did have to speak with his manager again!). The whole haggling process did take a bit of time, and when we got to the final price I went for a further £50 off, just to seal the deal!

So a £1200 saving on a nearly new from a main dealer, not bad me thinks.

You bought a yaris to do 17k and motorway miles? Im just wondering what engine size it is and what is the performance like?

The old "I'll have to check with the manager" is a familiar car salesmans ploy. Its so funny...!

Lemonade_Pockets

GoldenJill wrote: »

Have three prices - an 'amazing low low offer', a 'sensible deal for that car' and your 'limit'. Never ever offer your limit!

Show interest, make loads of notes in a notebook, ask if MOT, servicing, road tax, fuel, mats are included. Then say you have the whole day to find a car, and you will not be leaving this area without purchasing a car today. Thank the sales person for their time and say you need to keep looking. Even if you go and have a coffee somewhere for an hour. Then go back and ask to chat about the options.

Say you have 3 cars on your shortlist today and their car in particular is on the short list. The sales person will most likely say something like how do we get our cart to the top of your list. The the negotion begins.

Offer a low low price. The sales person will probably laugh and huff and puff and make noises about having to feed his kids! Don't say a thing!.. wait for him to come down on his price. wait wait, if with partner have partner make I'm really not sure faces/comments.

Come back with a little extra than you previously offered - say you're very keen to purchase today and if the salesman could come down to that, he could very well have a deal there and then.

When he comes back with his offer or acceptance, then start on the MOT, road tax, servicing, car mats etc.. Also always ask for a full tank of fuel!

He'll probably go out of the room to "talk to the boss" - he may be talking to the boss but this is a bit of an act on their behalf. I have heard some rumours that car rooms can be bugged or easy to hear what people are saying outside the room so if you've got your partner with you say 'well, if he can't come down to our price, we'll just have to leave and go and purchase that XXXX that is second on our list' to which your partner 'strongly agrees' with you.

He'll come back into the room - if he comes back with a response near the last figure you offered and also throws in some of the items above, say you're happy with that. If you are, he will start filling in the form for you.

If you are still holding out for one of the items mentioned above, once he has fully filled in the form, don't sign!!! Pick up the pen, pause and then put it down - say you want to have one last going over the car. Take your time. Then go outside - come back after 5 - 10 minutes and say, ok ready to sign if you'll throw in "insert whatever you're still holding out for".

He has done all the work, filled in the form and you're so so so close to signing! This should help you get exactly what you want.

Most of all keep it light, throw a few jokes in and be chatty. You don't want to be rude or insulting.

We did all of the above yesterday and received all of the above items plus only paid an extra £50 from betwen our 'amazing price' and 'good deal' figures we had.

Also do as much research on the car as possible beforehand.

Best of luck

Oh.. I also said at the very end they'll need to collect me from my work when the car is ready - to which they agreed!

GJ x

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Someones been to the Dominic Littlewood school of haggling.

view

Lemonade_Pockets wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Someones been to the Dominic Littlewood school of haggling.

who is Dominic Littlewood and why is that so funny?

certainly worked for me.

fatpiggy

Hey Pssst - don't be rude! My Yaris does 400+ miles per week, 50% motorway, 50% city. It has a 1litre engine and skips along perfectly happily. I go down to Cornwall and back (from N. Cheshire) and it is very comfortable. Each journey takes less than 3/4 of a tank of petrol. The only place it struggles a bit is going up the hills on the A30 in Cornwall, but as I learned to drive on a Morris Minor, I'm well used to having to use a lower gear and travel a little slower than some!

aakaaruk

I was following the links posted by MSE to purchase a new BMW series 1 and got a price by broker4cars.co.uk whihc was nearly £3500 less than quoted by the BMW dealer. Is that true? When emailed the brokers thre was no reply yet. Can I haggle with the dealer for th eprice quoted by broker4cars? Will they reduce and match the price? I haven't done this and nervous to go an haggle for £3500. Have nayone done this and succeeded.

Pssst

layercake wrote: »

I've heard that too. They just drag one of their colleagues into view, start chatting, look like they're sincere and point ocasionally at you.

After the sale they go into the back room, cackle, then dive into their money pit.

Yes,its a familiar ply. The last time i haggled, he said he'd have to ask the manager and i told him that if he didnt have the authority to do the deal,I'd be off. He sat down again.

AdrianHi

aakaaruk wrote: »

I was following the links posted by MSE to purchase a new BMW series 1 and got a price by broker4cars.co.uk whihc was nearly £3500 less than quoted by the BMW dealer. Is that true? When emailed the brokers thre was no reply yet. Can I haggle with the dealer for th eprice quoted by broker4cars? Will they reduce and match the price? I haven't done this and nervous to go an haggle for £3500. Have nayone done this and succeeded.

I got 8%, about £2700 off a 1 series convertible for my mother this time last year with a BMW main dealer. Car sales were slower back then than now/
Depends on the model you are going for, £3500 seems very optimistic though.

hamario

Well, I'm looking to buy a brand new BMW 3-series coupe soon. Been reading through these tips, and they're all great so thanks for the advice! Has anyone had any great success getting big discounts from BMW dealers?

Should I try and wait until mid-December to buy my car, when it is Quarter-end?

Also, when yo utalk about broker sites i.e. Broker4cars, where do these companies get the cars from? How come they look so much cheaper than from a main dealer?

AdrianHi

hamario wrote: »

Well, I'm looking to buy a brand new BMW 3-series coupe soon. Been reading through these tips, and they're all great so thanks for the advice! Has anyone had any great success getting big discounts from BMW dealers?

Should I try and wait until mid-December to buy my car, when it is Quarter-end?

Also, when yo utalk about broker sites i.e. Broker4cars, where do these companies get the cars from? How come they look so much cheaper than from a main dealer?

There was a time you could get 14% from a main BMW dealer but that has stopped now, 8% or may be 10% if your really lucky.
A lot of these brokers basically go looking for a dealer who needs to sell 1 more car to meet a sales vomue target and will let a car go at an unusually low price to get it and so the bonus.
Shopping around for a young used example is better value for money if you can get 20%-25% off list price for something up to 6 months old. You can search here: http://www.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/auc/advanced_search/0,,___,00.html?empty=1

the_edmundator

I am currently trying to get the best deal I can on a BMW 116i Sport or Audi A3 TFSI 1.4 SE - both very similar cars in terms of spec, mpg, bhp.

I've found that the dealers will do their best to sell you cars they have in stock, which are often more expensive than the one you want. If you're interested in doing a PCP deal, they'll do their best to reach a target monthly payment on a car you don't really want, because they want to shift their paid stock (cars they've had to buy from the manufacturer).

I'm close to finalizing a deal, but have found that ringing around dealers in your region to find out what stock cars their dealer network has can be very helpful. One BMW dealer had no 116i at all (except a ludicrously pricey M-Sport) and did his best to sell me a 118d instead. I went home, rang up another dealer and found out that they have a choice of 4 116i Sports in stock and would be able to match the deal I've been quoted from the first dealer. Went back to them, and they said they'd beat whatever deal the second dealer offered me on a new factory order car to my spec.

Also currently working the same system with Audi on the A3 and then playing Audi off BMW as much as I can, although the Audi dealer is pretty insistent his car is better and worth more money (which it might well be).