Did I negotiate badly?

gabitzul

Look, you did very well all things considered.

If anything, he needs to man up and help with the negotiating next time.

oldhand, I whare your pain - I will NOT take my wife with me to buy a car next time either. Last time she "cost" me £200, as she really liked the car and moved to the seller's "team" trying to convince me to pay their last price just as I was about to close the deal at a very good price.

arcon5

So you'd spend that much money on a car without your wife being there to see and feel it? All over a further saving of about 1-2%.
Some people just want a good car at a fair price without the drama and theatrics. Nothing wrong in that really.

pinkteapot

So, you've agreed to buy it at £11.5k? I think you did fine. You were only aiming for £100 less than that so I really wouldn't sweat it.

One other tip for next time, if you didn't do this... We got quotes for our car from drivethedeal and carwow, which told us what price to aim for. It's hard to get local dealers down as far as these prices, but we managed to get ours down to within £250 of the online prices on a £28k (list price) car, so we were happy with that. (I still prefer to make such a big purchase from someone local).

Other tip for when you're in there as a couple (we were, too). It's a pressurised situation so don't be afraid to say you need to confer. We stepped outside the dealership a couple of times during our negotiation, which went on for about 90 minutes in total! We did that when they were getting near what we wanted. Gives you breathing space to regroup. It reminded me of Dragon's Den when business partners go and whisper at the back of the room.

Other tip for anyone else reading... Different dealers present deals in different ways. Some talk about which of your optional extras they can do for free. Some talk about the new car price and any trade-in offer as two separate things. And some - as ours did - talk about "cost to change" - what we'd pay on top of trading in our car. We didn't know beforehand which price measure they'd talk about, so we studied and knew our figures inside out, and knew what prices we wanted for any of the different ways of putting it, so we didn't get confused. Again - Dragons Den style!

EDIT: Just seen you were looking at used, not new, so ignore the bit about drivethedeal and carwow - substitute Autotrader as you've done. Although it will only ever tell you asking prices, not actual paid prices (unlike with houses).

pinkteapot

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

It's okay, it wasn't bought in haste, he's been researching for ages so he knows it's the spec he wants. He's pretty excited about having more bhp, whereas I'm the one asking if the fans have a preheater to clear the windows quicker, and noticing that you can't move the seatbelt up and down. I really should have asked why the previous owner didn't want it anymore, we're guessing it was a lease arrangement so that would have been a good reason to barter. If you only expect to own a car for a few years there's no incentive to drive it gently.

I can't imagine you'd ever get an honest answer to that question from the dealer.

Cornucopia

I think you did really well. Negotiating on cars is difficult, and something that most people get so little practice for.

FWIW, I've only really got truly great deals by stacking things against the dealer - though they can always walk away, if they want to.

1. I bought a new Citroen on 0% finance, knowing the best-ish price for the new car and my trade-in. Because it was 0% it was easy to know how much the monthly payments were going to be, and sure enough, that's how the deal was presented: £215 per month for 3 years. All I did was ask if they could get below £200, and after some consultation, they did - worth about £500.

2. I bought an Astra just before a model change, and I had offer details from Vauxhall with a built-in discount, and reduced rate finance. I then haggled for another £500 discount, and just as the Dealer was about to start completing the order form, I asked for £2750 of GM card points to be added in to the deal.

Other than that, not so good.