How to negotiate on used car price?

Chippy_Minton_2

See he's gone off line now. Probably legging it down to the dealer, who will in no doubt have a good drink tonight.

Inactive

Champers I would guess..

harveybobbles

The only way to haggle is to do research and find out if it's well priced for similar stuff. It's hardly a bread an butter car so the dealer will be able to use that to his advantage.

Anihilator

The more you think about it the worse it actually looks.

The OP has managed just a saving of £187 on the advertised price with no extras etc.

Depending on what car he traded in he has probably been robbed.

eschaton

Anihilator wrote: »

The more you think about it the worse it actually looks.

The OP has managed just a saving of £187 on the advertised price with no extras etc.

Depending on what car he traded in he has probably been robbed.

No - he has been robbed :rotfl:

Chippy_Minton_2

eschaton wrote: »

No - he has been robbed :rotfl:

and after asking our advice too.

all_greek_to_me

Jeez, you're a pleasant lot when you get going. I was offline taking my son to a birthday party and (not that it should make the blindest bit of difference) I'm a "her", not a "him".

In my defence, I never claimed to be anything other than hopeless. I don't know a thing about cars, other than that I can't manage without one out here in the sticks, and even less about haggling. But I did my homework on which make and model might suit me best, followed Honest John's advice on what to check at the test drive stage to the letter and then came on here for advice.

Given that the first reply I got stated (quite reasonably I thought),

Chippy_Minton wrote: »

If there are none under or at 9k and he knows you want one why should he budge on his price?

and I couldn't find any comparable cars at the same price or cheaper, it didn't seem too daft to pay "only" £187 less than the asking price. But now the same person is telling me I could have got the car for £8.5k. Call me thick (I'm the first to do so), but I don't understand.

all_greek

Anihilator

all_greek_to_me wrote: »

Jeez, you're a pleasant lot when you get going. I was offline taking my son to a birthday party and (not that it should make the blindest bit of difference) I'm a "her", not a "him".

In my defence, I never claimed to be anything other than hopeless. I don't know a thing about cars, other than that I can't manage without one out here in the sticks, and even less about haggling. But I did my homework on which make and model might suit me best, followed Honest John's advice on what to check at the test drive stage to the letter and then came on here for advice.

Given that the first reply I got stated (quite reasonably I thought), and I couldn't find any comparable cars at the same price or cheaper, it didn't seem too daft to pay "only" £187 less than the asking price. But now the same person is telling me I could have got the car for £8.5k. Call me thick (I'm the first to do so), but I don't understand.

all_greek

It's all explained now.
So as someone who knows zero about cars and is about to spend 9k on one have you had it checked mechanically.

And yes but what you dont seem to grasp is you shouldnt have let the dealer know you wanted it badly etc and let him think he was doing you a favour.

If you told him you had been looking at other cars and marques he wouldnt have had this card to play and would have been forced to drop his price.

You should have when offered it at this price advised him you had an appointment to look at a Toyota or Ford elsewhere which was retailing at say £8195 or similar and whilst this was your preferred car a near grand saving was too much to say no too and unless he could do better you wouldnt buy.

You would have had the car for under 9k with extras.

all_greek_to_me

Thanks. I appreciate that I'm never going to win any awards for my negotiating (which is fine, because I've got them for other things ), but I didn't think I'd done too badly, overall. I'm sure there are quite a few people (I make no judgement on gender) in my position (and without any knowledgeable friends or family members to hand) who would have done less research and made no attempt whatsoever at negotiation. I walked away yesterday without once betraying my (serious) interest in the car and I did tell the salesman today that I'd looked at lots of other models and that the Polo was out of my budget. Okay, so perhaps I fell at the final hurdle, but it's not particularly pleasant to have that failure laughed at.

Anyway, I live and learn. When I come to buy my next car (in about 10 years' time, when this one's on its last legs, if history keeps repeating itself), I'm sure I'll do a much better job.

all_greek

emmell

all_greek
Enjoy your new car.
ML.