What else should I haggle for wjen buying from Mr Clark?

gazebo

Good morning everyone, I was just hoping for some useful hints and tips when purchasing a car from a dealer.

So far, we have managed to knock £400 off the windscreen price by way of strange mix of appearing uninterested and haggling.

We will be getting £200 trade in for the current heap we drive (which is more than offered by webuyanybanger).

The websites for the dealer have the car priced at £6000, but with all of the above and also adding in the road tax and £25 of fuel they have to put in, we are looking at owing them £5335 all in.

Now we will be paying by cash as we have this available and do not agree with finance plans that had between 8.8 and 10.3% APR for 60 or 36 months respectively, thus the dealer isn't getting commission from this.

Would it be reasonable for use to attempt to haggle further when we go for a test drive and proper checkover of the vehicle? (Couldn't do this yesterday as it was five mins to closing time, so we have put down a fully refundable deposit).

Having researched the car in question, it does appear to be a good deal but is it worth telling them I'd walk away if they didn't throw in breakdown cover, free year servicing and some car mats for example?

I have never really successfully haggled before so I'm pleased with my achievements so far.

Thanks in advance

chrisw

They do a 2 year mot and service plan which normally costs nearly £200 which I got thrown in. I was rather sceptical but I must admit, we've used one mot and one service so far and they have been faultless.

macman

If you paid a deposit then you are already contracted under the terms of the deposit, so most unlikely that they will negotiate any further.
A deposit isn't a reservation system with an opt-out, it's to confirm a contract.
Why put down a deposit on a vehicle you haven't even tested?

gazebo

I should say, deposit was the wrong word to use. I think the term given was reservation amount, fully refundable and not a contractual agreement to buy said car.

I was not going to give any money over at all as I know test driving is important, but I was assured I would get it back and I was not entering into contract

Herzlos

Go over it very carefully and request any blemishes are fixed or some suitable price reduction. They'll have a contract body shop so it'll cost them next to nothing to get the paintwork touched up.

RichardD1970

If you have got the cash, try using their credit and see if you get a further discount, then settle the amount of credit in full the next day.

I did the same but using a life of balance 0% CC balance transfer (paid it on one card then transferred to 0% card).

Obviously this depends on the credit agreement allowing this without further costs.

macman

gazebo wrote: »

I should say, deposit was the wrong word to use. I think the term given was reservation amount, fully refundable and not a contractual agreement to buy said car.

I was not going to give any money over at all as I know test driving is important, but I was assured I would get it back and I was not entering into contract

I do hope you got that in writing. I can see no other reason for them taking money off you other than as a deposit. If it's fully returnable, what is the point of it (from the seller's aspect) if it's not binding and it prevents them from potentially making a sale elsewhere? If the garage is closed, they're not going to sell it to anyone else anyway.
Sounds like classic car sales rep bull to me.

colino

As the largest, independent, European car dealer, there is a school of thought that AC have more complaints because they shift more cars. However, knowing where they source their cars, their truly basic, inept techs and painters and their even worse attitude to customer care, I'm sure mathematically some good, fair deals accidentally get through.
Just about any car is worth £100 scrap. More if you want to ebay or gumtree it. £200 is a net zero trade-in, there's enough padding on the screen price to allow that to come in and straight off to the auction/scrapper.
What is this £25 fuel they have to give you? AC historically rarely has on-site fuel as he couldn't manipulate the price, so simply adds fuel as required and bills customers at an extortionate resell price over what the apprentice says he actually put in (its not the price of the litre its the service we give).
Is the car new? As of this month everyone has to (re)tax their own car purchases anyway.
If you really must and it's second-hand, see the V5C and find out who really operated the car before you. Apart from normal fleet buy-ins, auctions buys and trade-ins, you really don't want one of their own their rejected lease cars, hire-drives, mobility cars or driving (school) equipped munters.