Buying my first car from a dealer....how to knock some money off

Soldato
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1 Sep 2007
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As the title says really, Going to be buying a car from a dealer, everyone I have spoken to has said to try and get some money off...but I am young and naive...how do I go about this?

Cheers Motors.
 
Use annoying expressions like:

"What's the lowest price you'd sell it for"

"<suck in air through teeth/><squint eyes/><shake head/> That price is just far too high"

"Can you do a special deal for me; right here, right now"

"If I wanted to be *** ***** you *******, I'd have stayed inside where I had a cell mate called ****** who called me his ****. You ****. ****"

"Hold out your hand. I'm going to name my price and then we shake hands like men... Something special has happened here today."
 
[TW]Fox;24371641 said:
How much is the car up for? Whats it actually worth? How much are other similar models?
Also, how are you planning to buy it? Dealers will knock more off on a finance deal as there is more profit in it for them to begin with.
 
Isn't it the opposite? I thought if you pay cash they're more likely to knock some off.

Depends, if the garage is the lender then they're getting interest on the full amount and a predictable cash flow, notwithstanding a default. If they're using a third party, they still get the full amount up front anyway, just from somebody else.
 
Isn't it the opposite? I thought if you pay cash they're more likely to knock some off.

Down at Mike's Magic Motors sure, because he'll sell you a car for £5,000, put it in his books at £4,750 like he's only made £50 profit and pocket the £250 in cash himself off the books.

At Official Brand UK dealer, then they won't be doing that sort of thing, so they're more interested in finance commissions, PCPs to get return custom etc. etc.
 
Tell them how much you're willing to pay, then be willing to be stand there unembarassed for long periods of silence.

They'll either sell it for that price or they won't. Ignore everything they say and only talk to them about what price you'll do a deal. Or say nothing. Act like you're losing interest. Or even better do lose interest. Be happy to walk away.
 
Like Fox said, do a bit of research, find out what other similarly spec'd cars sell for both privately and from dealers, factor in whatever you feel that the dealer's warranty is worth. Then you'll have an objective starting point to decide whether you think the car is appropriately priced, over priced or looks like a steal (unlikely from a dealer). That will put you in a stronger position in the negotiation. Also, as Inogen said, be prepared to be very silent and unembarrassed about it. Silence is hugely powerful!
 
If it's a main dealer, every time they run off to their little room to re-jig the numbers and print off another piece of paper, keep sending them back in there to do it over and over again. Ensure that you do this many many times. Hopefully by the end of it they will have gotten bored enough that they will give you the lowest possible price where they get the minimum possible profit that they can get away with. Also try to keep things back until later, for example if you have a couple of grand cash that you can add into the mix to get them to sweeten the deal etc. and if you are trading in a car at the same time keep asking them if they can do a better deal on the trade-in price as well as lowering the cost of the car.
 
As the title says really, Going to be buying a car from a dealer, everyone I have spoken to has said to try and get some money off...but I am young and naive...how do I go about this?

Cheers Motors.

Use glasses guide as a starting block,
mention other cars with similar mileage going for less elsewhere,
find enough things wrong with it that you consider "need fixing" and approximate a total cost to you to get this done.... Knock that off the sale price.
If he doesn't go for the deal. WALK (not pretend to walk, or cave in and just pay what he's asking but ACTUALLY WALK AWAY) after leaving him with your contact details of course. ;)
EASY.
 
Not that anybody cares, but I always have a view of what I am prepared to pay for a car based on research from other dealers, price guides and what ever else I can get my hands on.

If its less than the car I want is for sale for, then I am just let it be know that that amount is what I believe the car to worth and if they don't want to sell it for that I am happy to walk away.
 
WALK (not pretend to walk, or cave in and just pay what he's asking but ACTUALLY WALK AWAY) after leaving him with your contact details of course. ;)
EASY.

This +1,000,000,000 when we bought our car dealer refused to budge on price at all, it was a 3 grand car but needed a couple of panels respraying and a couple of other bits, so offered him £2500, would budge kept telling me he had someone who would pay full price etc. So I walked away from it (annoying as it was a really nice example). Left my details with him in case he got anything similar in. Lo and behold 3 days later had a phonecall saying I could have to car for £2500, told him that I was about to go and look at another car that afternoon suddenly the price dropped to £2300 including 6 months tax so all-in-all by walking away I effectively had £800 knocked off.
 
Thing with car dealers is the price on the screen isn't what they will sell the car for, its more. They add road tax, delivery fuel (come on!), admin charge, finance set up fee and some more.

When I went to buy a car the first thing I said is no one pays the screen price. The sales man said thats what the car is being sold for, so I said sell it to me for that price then. We went and sat down and he started to add all the extras and fees. I reminded him he was selling it to me for the screen price, he then did the talk to his manager thing came back and knocked off all the main dealer fees, 6 month road tax etc etc. So the drive away price was the screen price. Then he said right now we are at the screen price, happy? No, again I told him no one pays the screen price but now the price difference will be in my favour not the dealers.

Also check over the car if its nearly new and they are charging top book price for it. make sure you get every scuff and stone chip sorted by them. Dealers never fix every thing on a car being sold unless the customer requests it, again if you don't ask them to do it then its extra profit for them as the repair would have come of the sale price.

Some thing need to be done about screen price and the price you actually buy the car for. Most of the extra cost is the dealer adding his own cut to the top line, sort of having his own built in margin to haggle. The one that really gets me raging is extra for metallic paint. The cars are all painted the same way. Unlike the 80s when metallic paint took longer and required 2 paint stages. These days every car is painted the same way. Why charge more for metallic. Its just so the dealer can make more its not charge by the factories.
 
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