Advice on buying a used car from a dealer, please

vivridge

Appologies if there is already a thread regarding this.

I need to change my car for a more economical one and have been looking at what the local dealers have to offer as I want to part ex.

Does anyone have any guidelines with regards to reasonable negotiation of price. Is there a certain percentage we could expect them to come down or are their figures set in stone if you are part exing?

Any advice would be welcome. Thanks

shaun_from_Africa

Firstly, don't accept the first price that you are offered for your old car.
For used cars, the dealers will have quite a big margin to work with on their selling price and can usually knock a fair bit off the sticker price.

I collected a new car this morning (6 month old, ex demo car). The sticker price was £12,500 and I was initially offered £1500 for my 2001 focus, and the guide price for this from Parkers was £1400 for part exchange.
I eventually got £2000 for it, which was more than I was expecting.

It sometimes helps if you can find a couple of dealers with cars that you want, and get quotes from both of them and them play them off against each other.

One thing you must remember is that however good a deal you get, the dealer will still be making money, so never be afraid to keep asking for a bit more.
I managed to get GAP insurance for £82 off their original price and a new set of car mats FOC. I'm sure if I kept at it I could have saved a bit more, but all in all, I was happy with the deal I got.

You can get a very rough idea of your cars value here:
http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/used-prices/

Inactive

The only figure that you need to be concerned about is the " price to change ".

Big discount, small Part - Ex price.

Small discount, big Part - Ex price.


The best option is to not part-ex, but sell your own car, you are then able to talk serious discounts.

NeverAgain_2

Changing the car costs a great deal of money.

You say you need to change for a more economical car.

Even if the new car does 10mpg more, it will only save you a couple of hundred pounds a year in fuel costs.

We all like a new car now and again, but if the motivation is genuinely only to save money, don't do it. it's a false economy.

vivridge

Thanks for the advice. I do think we will definitely save money by changing as we currently have a 8 1/2 year old saab 9.5 which has high co2s does less than 20mpg around town and is just starting to cost serious money for repairs. Looking at possibly changing to a diesel small family hatch which we have worked out will save approx £1800 a year in fuel alone.

I agree that selling ours privately would get a better deal but not really sure if there is much of a market in this economy for our current car.