Negotiating on used car price

Goudy

It is normal to consider haggling, but you need to do your homework first.
Look at some car price guides, these will give you an idea if they have over priced it, which dealers tend to do.
Then with this knowledge, negotiate. 

Price guides will usually give different prices for the same car, year, mileage etc.
A trade price.
Private sale.
Dealer price.

As it's being sold by a dealer, expect to negotiate around the dealer price.

The used car market have been a bit mental these last few years but it's starting to even out a little these days.
I would expect a dealer to want to shift cars with a 20% mark up (but advertise them higher).
So you can work out what is reasonably priced and how much you might try to cut in on the price based on Trade price + 20%. 

Herzlos

Tinkertonian said:

what was wrong with the car that you feel warrants a discount on the asking price ?

Nothing really. I just assumed that it was normal to haggle on used car prices and wanted to check if this was generally the case or not. 

It used to be, where you'd list the price about £1000 higher than you want and knock some off. But with online buying if you're not the cheapest price in the search you won't even get a phone call.

Couple that with the crazy car situation now and dealers have no incentive to negotiate on price - unless it's been sitting for months then someone will buy it at the sticker price.

You need to look at the actual costs; a £10k car is better value than the same car that was £12k with £1500 haggled off.

force_ten1

many dealers now advertise on Auto Trader and they have started using price flags and if a dealer hikes the price to allow for haggling then they get and amber or a red flag for a higher or a high price and nothing would put buyers off more than a red flag for high price so check out Auto Trader for similar cars to the one you want to buy and see how much the good and great price cars are and how that compares to the car you are looking at  

also if you are at a car supermarket you will have pretty much zero chance of haggling as they are all pretty much the price you see is the price you pay. fords of Winsford started doing this about forty years ago where they had low miles nearly new cars that came from auctions and closed sales and they put a £200.00 margin on the car and stuck it on the lot and you had no chance getting anything off the price. Motorpoint were the same the price you see is the price you pay and l would imagine all the car supermarket type places are the same no haggling

also a lot of main dealers are the same now for used cars and you may be able to get a few extras thrown in some new mats some paint protection or if you are paying enough you may be able to get a second years warranty thrown in but not much chance of money off sticker price 

if the car needs some extra things needing doing soon like if the tyres are on around three mill then say to the dealer the tyres are near end of life and try and work a bit of discount for when you need to replace them or if the car requires service fairly soon then try and factor that in same for MOT if it has six months left on the MOT ask them to throw in a free MOT six moths down the road but l would say the days of money off because everybody overprices the car so the buyer thinks they are getting somthing off are pretty much gone 

the days of cash is king are gone and dealers hate cash now as they cant pug it away under the bed to avoid tax and VAT because that is fraud and you cant just make stock cars disaster so can save a couple of quid on a cash sale 

Also if a dealer takes cash they have to pay to deposit that into their business account and bank charges are not cheap also most banks now will limit the amount of cash you can pay inn some as low as £2500.00 per day so if you pay a dealer 25 grand cash they may have to go to the branch multiple times to pay it in and they are not going to do that also large amounts of cash are now questioned around money laundering.

plumb1_2

I’ve been looking at buying a new car 2nd hand. Been looking on auto trader.
Theres 2 cars on with a main dealer, both same spec, same colour same age, both full service history, both petrol . both 1 yr warranty.

Only difference is one has 16,000 and the other 22,000 miles.
Now the one with the lower mileage was £17,850 , then £17,500 and now reduced to £17,200. The one with higher mileage was £17,999 now reduced to £17,750 Been watching these cars for about 3 weeks.
what I don’t understand is why is the one with higher miles priced more and been reduced less.
Is the lower priced car a bit of a lemon and trying to off load it ?

Alanp

Do you have a px ? You might be able to negotiate on the value of this, 

Herzlos

plumb1_2 said:

I’ve been looking at buying a new car 2nd hand. Been looking on auto trader.
Theres 2 cars on with a main dealer, both same spec, same colour same age, both full service history, both petrol . both 1 yr warranty.

Only difference is one has 16,000 and the other 22,000 miles.
Now the one with the lower mileage was £17,850 , then £17,500 and now reduced to £17,200. The one with higher mileage was £17,999 now reduced to £17,750 Been watching these cars for about 3 weeks.
what I don’t understand is why is the one with higher miles priced more and been reduced less.
Is the lower priced car a bit of a lemon and trying to off load it ?

Both with the same main dealer on the same forecourt?

I'd expect that the higher price one is either in nicer condition or it's got some additional features.

Can you share the listings?

plumb1_2

Herzlos said:

plumb1_2 said:

I’ve been looking at buying a new car 2nd hand. Been looking on auto trader.
Theres 2 cars on with a main dealer, both same spec, same colour same age, both full service history, both petrol . both 1 yr warranty.

Only difference is one has 16,000 and the other 22,000 miles.
Now the one with the lower mileage was £17,850 , then £17,500 and now reduced to £17,200. The one with higher mileage was £17,999 now reduced to £17,750 Been watching these cars for about 3 weeks.
what I don’t understand is why is the one with higher miles priced more and been reduced less.
Is the lower priced car a bit of a lemon and trying to off load it ?

Both with the same main dealer on the same forecourt?

I'd expect that the higher price one is either in nicer condition or it's got some additional features.

Can you share the listings?

Sorry don’t how to put links on 🙁
Yes both on same forecourt, no extras like winter pack etc.

I’ve looked very closely at the pictures on autotrader and the information. Both very good paintwork. Etc  The only difference I have noted is the lower priced car was registered October 2019 and the other November 2019. So for 1 month difference is £550 

LeafGreen

I did negotiate a discount on the last car I bought (from a main dealer), but that was 10 years ago and I imagine it is not as easy in the current climate.

That said, no harm in trying - I found the best strategy is to come up with what you think is a reasonable offer, nothing silly, then say "If you'd be prepared to accept £x I'll sign up right now" (assuming you are!)... and if they say no be prepared to say "OK I'll need to think about it and get back to you" and walk out.  This also worked with my wife's last purchase.

plumb1_2

I’ve been to a couple of dealerships in the last few weeks, both were non negotiable on the price.
But in my post above I’ve been keeping watch on a couple of cars for about 3 weeks and prices falling, so why no negotiation?

plumb1_2

plumb1_2 said:

I’ve been looking at buying a new car 2nd hand. Been looking on auto trader.
Theres 2 cars on with a main dealer, both same spec, same colour same age, both full service history, both petrol . both 1 yr warranty.

Only difference is one has 16,000 and the other 22,000 miles.
Now the one with the lower mileage was £17,850 , then £17,500 and now reduced to £17,200. The one with higher mileage was £17,999 now reduced to £17,750 Been watching these cars for about 3 weeks.
what I don’t understand is why is the one with higher miles priced more and been reduced less.
Is the lower priced car a bit of a lemon and trying to off load it ?

Hi I’ve been and had a look visual look at these 2 cars, and noticed on the cheaper one with less miles. On the number plate it was printed Vw Fleet Services. And the other vw dealership name.

So maybe that’s why the price difference?