Haggling on a car sale

27col

As I have had my present car for 9 years I thought that I might treat myself to another. Something up to 4 years old and maybe up to £10,000.
Do all car dealers expect you to make an offer when buying a car.
I hate haggling, but I also hate the idea of missing out on the possibility of a price reduction.
Presumably they can only say no and would not mind if the prospective buyer walked away.

Dukesy

Whether buying from a dealer or privately you should always, always haggle. If spending up to 10,000, I'd start at about 2-3000 below the asking price, as there is always haggle-room built into an asking price. Never offer to pay full price immediately!

missile

How much wiggle room, rather depends on what car you want and how desirable that vehicle is. If you are not confident, ask someone who is to negotiate on your behalf for half the saving they negotiate.

jaydeeuk1

If the car is priced sensibly already, ie average market value, then I'd expect 10% off, more so if its an unfashionable model, eg large saloon petrol with no toys

TradePro

Dukesy wrote: »

Whether buying from a dealer or privately you should always, always haggle. If spending up to 10,000, I'd start at about 2-3000 below the asking price, as there is always haggle-room built into an asking price. Never offer to pay full price immediately!

This is a bit too silly/greedy - if a dealer has a car up at £10,000 and agrees to sell it to you at £7,000, that would mean he had only given £6,000 - £6,500 for it.

How many 'previous owners' would take £6,000 for their car that could be worth £10,000??

I honestly think that the majority of the general public think dealers get their stock for nothing

Ectophile

TradePro wrote: »

This is a bit too silly/greedy - if a dealer has a car up at £10,000 and agrees to sell it to you at £7,000, that would mean he had only given £6,000 - £6,500 for it.

How many 'previous owners' would take £6,000 for their car that could be worth £10,000??

I honestly think that the majority of the general public think dealers get their stock for nothing

Surely the point of haggling is that you start with a very low offer, and then allow yourself to be haggled up to a more reasonable figure.

If you start off at the "correct" price, then you'll end up paying more than that.

Dukesy

TradePro wrote: »

This is a bit too silly/greedy - if a dealer has a car up at £10,000 and agrees to sell it to you at £7,000, that would mean he had only given £6,000 - £6,500 for it.

How many 'previous owners' would take £6,000 for their car that could be worth £10,000??

I honestly think that the majority of the general public think dealers get their stock for nothing

Please note that I said START at 2-3000 under. You seem to be misunderstanding the fundamental point about haggling, which is that the buyer starts at a point below what they'd pay, the seller starts at a point above what they'd accept, and a deal is made between the two figures. Not at the opening haggle...

Grimezy

I recommend watching some Wheeler Dealers on the Bio channels on sky On a serious note, I wouldn't feel too pressured about getting thousands knocked off, because it's unlikely to happen. The key thing is don't act too enthusiastic about the car when they're showing you around it, you want to act interested but at the same time you don't want to come across as an easy sale. Try and find little niggles that aren't quite up to scratch. These will help to get the price down slightly.

Also remember that dealers are the best hagglers around, they can tell if someone is trying to light heartedly get money knocked off something so they'll stay pretty solid on their price. Especially companies like Evan Halshaw, apparently the one that we went to operated on a 'best price' policy which was linked to various internet sites which meant there was no negotiating room whatsoever. Although they would negotiate on the part-ex price for our old car.

Like somebody else suggested, take somebody with you who is confident at looking at cars. They will spot small problems much easier and will be able to use this against a dealer. Most dealers now only try to haggle on either finance rates or on the part exchange amount. They may do a deal if you're paying up front though

bris

You can get a serious discount if you have nothing to trade in, if you are trading in your own car then this is the tool they will use to determine the price. They often pay more for the trade in to sweeten the deal, but once the trade in has been determined they very, very rarely knock any thing further off the asking price.

Some times it's better to have nothing but cash and a good off to tempt them. Look about ebay and auto trader for private sales and see what the cars true value is, then decide on your offer.

Grimezy

Yea as bris said, private sales are the way to go if you have cash and if you don't mind shifting your car yourself. Quite often you'll be able to haggle quite a fair chunk from them because they're just trying to get rid. The only benefit you have from a dealer is if they offer warranty but to be honest, by the time they've flogged GAP insurance and extended warranties, etc to you, you've probably paid more than you'd have needed to anyway! At the end of the day when dealers take in a car they pretty much just sit in it and look at the mileage and service history and say "yea, here's £x amount". If you buy privately you can interrogate the person about it's history personally and can normally have a bit more of a relaxed test drive.

stuart1917

I am currently selling my car, a buyer has offered to buy it for his brother without seeing it (they say they are working on a ship) and want to pay via paypal then have a courier collect it.

This feels a little suspicious - is paypal a secure way to receive the money, or is there a scam here?

Sorry this is in this thread - I couldn't work out how to post a new thread.