Price of cars at garages/dealers

[Ocean Breeze]

Is it basically impossible to get a car at a garage or dealer for the same price as a private seller?

I am using autotrader app to give be a rough idea of a cars value so obviously the ones at garages etc seem over inflated.

If I was getting a good deal how much percentage higher than the cars value would it be?

Thanks

 

[Spleen Sauce]

Main stealerships will barely budge on price, best I've done is knock £1000 off a 2 year old S4 when buying cash. Maybe i'm just rubbish at negotiating though.

 

[Joe T]

For most cars up to around £15k you're looking at £1,000 premium to buy from a dealer. Roughly.

 

[200sols]

Is it basically impossible to get a car at a garage or dealer for the same price as a private seller?

Yes, private seller is cheaper for a reason. Because more risk is involved.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

So if I add £1k on to what auto trader valuation is telling me, that’s roughly what I should be paying?

Iam looking at cars between £11-13k.

 

[vanpeebles]

Small independents are your best bet for haggling deals.

 

[kurosagi01]

Depends how desperate the dealership are in selling a car that has been sat at their forecourt for x amount of days and how much cash you're willing to throw at them on top of part exchange.

 

[Armageus]

Is it basically impossible to get a car at a garage or dealer for the same price as a private seller?

Why wouldn't it be? A private sale essentially has no comeback, whereas a dealer/trader legally has to resolve any issues or accept the car back if the customer "rejects" it.

It's also the reason why there are generally very few <£1k cars available from dealers any more - it isn't worth the time/risk for the dealer to sort any issues the buyer may have.

 

[ahar]

Try Parker's price guide.

Www.Parkers.co.uk

Shows you target prices for private and dealer

 

[sigma]

Small independents are your best bet for haggling deals.

But equally they will be the worst bet for after sales care, therefore more likely to rip you off, or at least try to.

 

[vanpeebles]

But equally they will be the worst bet for after sales care, therefore more likely to rip you off, or at least try to.

Well you can't have both Go in with your eyes open and do your homework

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Small independents are your best bet for haggling deals.

i found they wouldn't budge at all not even give me a tank of petrol which is only £40.

the car however i have now found out was massively underpriced. i could have sold it a year later and lost nothing on it. they sold second highest spec at the lowest on the market for it's age. mileage was a bit higher than usual though but still well within extended warranty allows.

i think i got lucky and as i say the price was really good. so no idea what other garages offered the seller for these guys to make a decent profit on it. i think they gave us £2500 for our trade in value and tried to sell it at £4500. probably got £4000 for it. so just shows you that at the low end they are looking to make £2K. they offered us £2K initially and i said you wouldn't be getting the alloys on it but the originals. they wanted the ones on it as they were immaculate and looked amazing. i said well they are £1800 from BMW I would want £500 for them at minimum as i can get £600 for them any day second hand in that condition. Little did they know I bought them second hand refurbed for £400 so I made a profit on them taking them for £500.

I was due some luck as that car had cost us thousands in repairs more than what it was worth. I now will never let anyone else apart from me choose our cars. The wife wanted that one over a more reliable one because it was a nicer colour. It was cream vs racing green iirc.

 

[glenimp617]

Now is the time to buy, end of March when dealers trying to hit sales targets

Just got 7k off a £30k car....brand new 19k plate cheaper than a used one

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Now is the time to buy, end of March when dealers trying to hit sales targets

Just got 7k off a £30k car....brand new 19k plate cheaper than a used one

what car?

 

[wingman]

Now is the time to buy, end of March when dealers trying to hit sales targets

Just got 7k off a £30k car....brand new 19k plate cheaper than a used one

You'll get similar deals all year round with the likes of Carwow and Drive the deal. £7k is quite strong but it would depend on the car.

Have a look at the discounts page of the special offers on DTD, they're usually consistent:

https://www.drivethedeal.com/SpecialOffers.aspx

 

[glenimp617]

You'll get similar deals all year round with the likes of Carwow and Drive the deal. £7k is quite strong but it would depend on the car.

Have a look at the discounts page of the special offers on DTD, they're usually consistent:

https://www.drivethedeal.com/SpecialOffers.aspx

yeah checked carwow, and dtd

 

[Semple]

So if I add £1k on to what auto trader valuation is telling me, that’s roughly what I should be paying?

Iam looking at cars between £11-13k.

It's really a how long is a piece of string type question.

Unfortunately with so many variables when buying a car, it's not really as easy to say that it will be 1k on top of private, it could be significantly more.

If that's your budget, personally i wouldn't even be looking at private sales regardless of how much of a bargain they seem. Just imagine the scenario where you've parted with 13k cash/BT, and driven it home, and the following day something majorly goes wrong. You take it to the garage and they price up a 2-3k repair bill. You can't go back to the seller and ask for your money back because they've sold you a lemon. So you're now stuck with a hefty repair bill.

You're more than likely to find a better deal at an indy garage over a main dealer. I know when i was looking for my current car, and i'd kept a log of hundreds that had popped up on AT, it was very typical that main dealers were asking the ceiling price for some that were even quite high mileage. I found an exact matching spec at an Indy with 40-50k miles less for the same money. Although they wouldn't budge on price at all. The guy said to me that they can keep their prices a bit lower than a main dealer because they don't wear suits to work, or have a flashy office with a coffee machine. This place was literally just a forecourt with a cabin on the side, although it was said in jest, it does make you realise that the premium you are paying at a main dealer is also to fund the 'look' of the salesmen and the flashy office.

 

[Joe T]

it does make you realise that the premium you are paying at a main dealer is also to fund the 'look' of the salesmen and the flashy office.

And a (longer, likely 12 months rather than 3) warranty that's likely to actually be worth something.

And probably drive-away insurance, breakdown cover, and many other benefits if you go approved used (e.g. Network Q etc)

 

[lordrobs]

It seems quite hard to actually buy a car private now even if you wanted to. Philip Schofield has done a good job of convincing everyone to throw their cars at We Buy Any Car... that said my one experience of selling a car privately I will probably do the same in future as well!

 

[HangTime]

Yes it is 'impossible' or rather extremely unlikely that a trader with a bunch of overheads and post-sale commitment can match private sale prices, that wouldn't make any sense under normal circumstances. Rather than think in percentages I would say there is more like a minimum markup on a trade-in of around £1000-1500 obviously with a bit of variation around that.

The only time see a dealer being competitive is on price versus private sale is a franchised dealer selling ex-demo cars, due to there simply not being that many cars sold privately less than a year old.