Negotiating a discount at a dealer

PunkRoquefort

Would you consider it a bit underhand to initially have a dealer think you want to buy a car on PCP, in order to get the 'dealer contribution' or discount on a car, then once the discount is offered, say you'll pay cash?

I have heard this often works as dealers get comission from the finance companies when they sell a car on PCP.

Would you/have you ever done this, or is it best just to try and haggle on a price irrespective of how you pay?

HillStreetBlues

If you do that the dealer can simply refuse to take that price in cash.

PunkRoquefort

I know some people strike a price/deal on PCP to get a discount, then quickly pay it off in full, as the penalty they pay for doing so still means the discount is worth having.

My mother has suggested this too is underhand and probably not worth the hassle.

Keep_pedalling

PunkRoquefort said:

I know some people strike a price/deal on PCP to get a discount, then quickly pay it off in full, as the penalty they pay for doing so still means the discount is worth having.

My mother has suggested this too is underhand and probably not worth the hassle.

Was worth the hassle for me when I bought my EV a couple of years ago, a reduction of £1,700 was not to be sniffed at. 

PunkRoquefort

Keep_pedalling....

Did you negotiate by discussing PCP initially, then paid cash?

Grumpy_chap

The thing to do is negotiate the best cash price first - use online brokers to establish where that should be.
Then take the PCP incentive - these usually have no negative impact to the Dealer as they are funded by the Manufacturer.  The Dealer may (often) receive a commission for selling the finance.
Then buy the car, via the PCP route.
Then pay off the PCP swiftly, but retain the incentives whether that was a cash discount, service plan, extra warranty or whatever.

It is not underhand - these are the rules that the PCP is sold on.
It could be said that it is underhand of the car Dealers / Manufacturers to have more reason to sell the finance than the car.
It is not a massive amount of hassle for what can often be a large incentive - £2k or thereabouts.  Perhaps your  Mother is of of a generation where these types of games simply did not arise.

The best deal is by being flexible and taking the influence of what the Dealer has more readily available.  We recently did this buy a car - we wanted the red paint which was £2k more than white so tried to negotiate to close the price gap.  The Dealer was not moving on a red car, but did produce £3.5k discount for a white one.  That made the difference £5.5k which was a no-brainer.

Keep_pedalling

PunkRoquefort said:

Keep_pedalling....

Did you negotiate by discussing PCP initially, then paid cash?

No, I had already negotiated price based on quotes from carwow. The £1700 was a contribution from VW finance. I paid the finance off within the cooling off period. 

Car_54

PunkRoquefort said:

I know some people strike a price/deal on PCP to get a discount, then quickly pay it off in full, as the penalty they pay for doing so still means the discount is worth having.

My mother has suggested this too is underhand and probably not worth the hassle.

The hassle for me consisted of a couple of emails and a bank transfer. Worth it for £1,500.

Bigwheels1111

Mate got a Merc on finance for the discount 2.5K back in 2016.

Delivered on car transporter.

Looked over and signed for it.

Walked inside the house and rang the finance company there and then and paid it off under the 14 day cooling off period.

No fees not even 1p in interest or charges.

That is the game.

motorguy

Bigwheels1111 said:

Mate got a Merc on finance for the discount 2.5K back in 2016.

Delivered on car transporter.

Looked over and signed for it.

Walked inside the house and rang the finance company there and then and paid it off under the 14 day cooling off period.

No fees not even 1p in interest or charges.

That is the game.

He would have got a £2,500 "finance contribution".  Not a specific discount from the dealer of £2,500.

Quite common for buyers to clear the finance and avail of the benefit of the finance contribution.

motorguy

PunkRoquefort said:

Would you consider it a bit underhand to initially have a dealer think you want to buy a car on PCP, in order to get the 'dealer contribution' or discount on a car, then once the discount is offered, say you'll pay cash?

I have heard this often works as dealers get comission from the finance companies when they sell a car on PCP.

Would you/have you ever done this, or is it best just to try and haggle on a price irrespective of how you pay?

You wont get an "extra discount" from the dealer for taking out the finance - really the amount of kickback for them is quite minimal these days and thus they wont factor it in as a way of getting you a better price.

You can often get a finance contribution by taking out the manufacturers finance offering though.

The more common route is to do the latter, take any finance incentives then clear it a few days after delivery of the car.