dealer screen price Vs actual sold prices

sciencegeek

Hi

I am interested in buying a second hand car soon and would like a bit of advice about prices.

I am particularly interested in how much cars advertised for, say, £5000 are actually sold for at small independant garages.

One example ive seen recently had a 'screen price' of £4999 but I saw that the dealer was advertising the exact same car elsewhere for £3999 (neither was a typo).

Now I realise that dealers must price in some haggling room but 20% seems a lot. Are dealers really prepared to drop £20% off the screen price.

Finally, If I know the same car is advertised twice (once at 4999 and once at 3999) do you think there is margin to get it even cheaper? - (Parkers list the independant dealer value as £3850)

Thanks for any advice

SG

Inactive

Make them a silly offer, they can only say no.

Kilty_2

I think the most important thing is to have an idea of market value before you go in - ie compare prices from other dealers.

Dealers tend to have one of two pricing strategies - price it high to let people get their "bargain" by haggling (or so that they can say "WOW! SAVE £1000!" in a month's time) or price it low with no room for negotiation.

missile

Some dealers like Arnold Clark are notorious for inflated screen prices whilst others are more realistic. Some cars sell easily and you will be lucky to get a deal, some are difficult to shift and dealer will be prepared to sell at any price.

Shop around

Gordon_Hose

Offer them what you believe to be a fair price, if they laugh and say no be prepared to walk away.

bryanb

I offered £6500 on a screen price £7500. The salesman said "We can do better than that" fiddled with his computer and said £6200. I bought. A few weeks later I went in to collect some mats that we had agreed. The manager told me that the salesman had been working his month notice when I bought, so I said what about the spare plip key I asked for? He immediately ordered one in for me. I felt pretty good, but I'm sure they made something on the deal.