Tips For Dealing With Dealers?

Stuff

Stuff

Stuff

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So, you go to a car dealers with the view of potentially buying a car...

What should you say and what shouldn't you say to maximise the best deal possible? Aswell as any hints/tips from people that work in car sales please?

Is there a best time to go? End of the month maybe? How accurate about my budget should I be? etc

Cheers.
 
Read up on the car you are buying - the common defects etc. Look for them. Ignore shiney shiney and go for the substance. Most dealers will take a knock down the price a bit, unless it is an amaing car.
 
Ask the right questions so that they know you aren't a joker.

Never appear that interested in the car. Find as much fault as possible.
 
Try really really hard to find the same car from somebody who isnt a member of the motor trader. Most dealers are sharks, offering nothing of any value whilst charging you more money for it.
 
Always be prepared to walk away. Make sure you know the book prices but appreciate they are not always right. Look at what similar cars are selling for. Remember the dealer has to make a profit (£1000 to £1500 at a large dealer). Always be prepared to walk away (worth mentioning twice!)
 
the number one tip....

dont trust them, not even slightly, and not even for a second. As Fox is so fond of saying, the best person to buy a car from is one whose wife makes you a cup of tea.
 
beermonster said:
If the dealers lips move he's lying.
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I've bought or bought on behalf of someone else cars from more than a dozen different dealers (second hand and brand new) and every single salesman has been a lying **** who'd have sold you their own mother if they thought a good price was in the offering.

If something doesn't seem right, walk away... in fact, run.

(Yeah, I really don't like salesman, and car salesman are the worst of the lot).
 
All I would add is that buying a car from a dealer is something to utterly dread. Never something to look forward to. If you come away happy then you don't even know it yet that you've been screwed. If you come away angry or sad then you're doing pretty much as well as anyone.

Oh and avoid Stratstone. Avoid them like plague. They're pretty much the worst of the worst.
 
Another Stratstone fan up there i see, amazing the number of people that lot annoy.
 
Housey said:
Make sure you get GAP and the special polish, that'll learn em.
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Hahaha indeed.

My tip from when I worked in a dealership, is buy elsewhere. If you positively have to buy from a dealer, strip out any add-ons that they give you 'free', they are not free.
 
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always knock a min 1000 off before you start haggling. go with at least one other person. two on one is better .
 
[TW]Fox;17869607 said:
Try really really hard to find the same car from somebody who isnt a member of the motor trader. Most dealers are sharks, offering nothing of any value whilst charging you more money for it.
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^^^^^
What Fox said.

99% of dealers are scum in my opinion. They're all out to get every penny out of you and will gladly give you 50p for your immaculate car whilst charging thousands over the true value of their own tarted up crap.

There are one or two good dealers out there (RSJ Sports Cars where I got the Boxser from for example) but the vast majority aren't IMO.
 
Kitchster_uk said:
Read up on the car you are buying - the common defects etc. Look for them. Ignore shiney shiney and go for the substance. Most dealers will take a knock down the price a bit, unless it is an amaing car.
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Read up about the car, and then when you go into the dealership pretend you know nothing about the car, then you can see how much bu***it the dealer is giving you!
 
I had some interesting experiences with dealers over here - a load of them were just ridiculous in their sales tactics - would literally every other sentence say "so are you buying it now?", "so how about I get the paperwork started now", while not answering any questions :p Or guys who didn't know the year or mileage of their stock but were still trying to 'close' the sale - utter sharks to be honest, old school 'salesmen' at their very worst.

Not to mention their consistent 'upselling' - I go in with a budget of $5-6k and they go straight to the cars in the $10-12k region :confused:

As it happens the dealer I went with was the one where they were the total opposite - offered a range of cars to look at, said I could test-drive any of them, to come back in a few days when they had refreshed their stock to see if there was anything else I wanted to try - just the complete opposite and if it was a tactic it worked :p

I don't know if you can do title checks like you can here (Carfax) but you can always ask the dealer for one and it tells you how long the car has been on the lot which is a useful bargaining tool. Over here it also tells you how the car was sold i.e. at auction or to the dealer direct. Ask to see the logbook/service history of course and judge the reaction.

Don't get emotionally attached to a car - and even if it's urgent try not to let that influence your decision - there will always be a 'great deal' out there.

Figure out your budget, and your 'extra-special over-budget' and stick to them. When you go in and they ask what range, knock £500-1000 off what your real budget is so you'll have a bit of movement.

If they promise to do any work on the car for the sale - get it in writing! And from my experience - if you're interested in a car - ask on here and there'll be someone who can tell you what to look for :p
 
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Insist on written terms to accompany any implied warranty. A 'gentlemens agreement' is worthless when the timing belt snaps!

If you decide to buy and they are going to stick a fresh MOT on a car, make sure they supply all the relevant MOT paperwork i.e Advisory notices.

Its scandulous what some these jokers try and get away with.
 
Take 4 mates and give the man a good hiding before you say a word, that'll catch him off guard and you can start to negotiate from there.
 
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