lamb to slaughter

tuftyclub

Well.. I am off to buy my first ever car at the grand old age of 37 .:j I've been advised to go to a dealer as I know nothing about cars....... I have checked the prices at parkers/ whatcar online for the model I like and the dealer website cars seem to be about 500 quid more than they should be..... Now I don't mind paying a bit more - but have no idea of the average discount, i'e car priced at 5k - should I pay 4.5 or 4.8 etc...... so few questions:

1) What sort of rough discount should I be looking for at a 5-6k car...
2) In todays credit crunch is by ability to pay cash looked upon fondly?

I am very tempted to just send the dealer an email saying - saying - Ok I can spend this.... this is roughly what I want - let me know your best price - and we can wrap it up quickly.

Also - when the say £500 off etc are they telling the truth - there is one priced at that - but have no idea if it is a con or not

please help me, I have never felt so vulnerable in my life.

Tucker

The best time will be spent doing your research. Get a good idea of what you want, the approx year, model, mileage etc and find the keenest price from a big car supermarket. These places often sell at low margin's whereas main delaers will have a mark up on the screen price. If you go in with a vague idea of what you want, you probabaly won't be equipt with the knowledge to beat them down to a competitive figure.

The last week of a month is a good time as dealers will be desperate to reach sales targets and more likely to sell with a small profit than not make a sale.

For a car in the £5 to £6 K price range, I would hope for at least £500 off the screen price from a main dealer, but would certainly try for more.

If I found a £6K car that I liked I'd show interest but claim the max budget was £5K and stand firm till you get the lowest price possible. Be prepared to say thanks the price isn't right and leave. You will often get the salesman's attention and a better price if he/she thinks he is about to lose a sale.

Don't be fooled into committing to buy until you are sure it's right for you and don't fall in love with a car (or display that emotion either...), because that's a sure fire way of paying over the odds.

tuftyclub

thanks - I really appreciate it!

So today would have been a good day to go shopping!

Tucker

I suspect so.... March is a bumper month because of the new reg plate, so April is probably quiet.

On the finance front, I am sure they would view that as the icing on the cake if you took out their finance, but it's often less competitive than the high street. I doubt it will dent their desire to get their hands on your money and move a car on.

tuftyclub

I'll keep quiet on having the cash until we are signing things!