Approved Used BMW Negotiating Advice Please?

[piscean86]

greetings all,
I've been in the market recently for a used 118i and have spoken to 3 different BMW dealers in different parts of the country about cars i found on the AUC website, but none of the dealers have been willing to negotiate at all on the price.
i don't want finance and have no part-ex and so i realise that that's probably not exactly music to their ears, but i did at least think these places would still be open to a tiny bit of movement on price?
i admit i'm not a great business negotiator and probably don't know what i'm doing, so i am just asking you folks for some advice please about the state of the market and if these days these prices are just take it or leave it ?
the cars i've been enquiring about admittedly haven't seemed out of line with other similar vehicles on the market, but i guess i just assumed that whatever price they put on the windscreen is inflated by default?
The cars i've been looking at have been around £18-20k.
thanks in anticipation of any advice.
Paul.

 

[piscean86]

Just to add, i had the same response from a car i enquired about with Arnold Clark. absolutely no willingness to knock anything off (even though the car was on the high side according to autotrader's guide).
Maybe the industry has changed a lot since i last bought in 2005. Back then i managed to get about £900 off a new Clio that was already on a promotional offer.

 

[muon]

Unless you can show cheaper like for like cars, can't see why they would negotiate. Best bet is to find out how log the car has been unsold.

 

[Housey]

To many factors to give any sage like advice.

 

[muon]

Also £18-20k for an F series 118i?

 

[piscean86]

Thanks for the replies.
I think I will just save the hassle and pay the price. I'm not a good haggler and might as well save embarrassing myself by trying! cheers,
Paul

 

[muon]

Thanks for the replies.
I think I will just save the hassle and pay the price. I'm not a good haggler and might as well save embarrassing myself by trying! cheers,
Paul

If you want. Go for a test drive. Leave to think about it and try and haggle via email if you want. Not that it will get you anywhere, but you might be more comfortable doing that.

 

[paradigm]

Cars are still in short supply and in high demand. The likelihood of any movement on price is minimal, especially if the car hasn’t been on the market for long.

 

[Rroff]

Yeah - somewhat a seller's market, some models/marques aside. If you scan down the dealer's listing you'll see some they are obviously having trouble shifting you'd probably get some movement on price but otherwise unlikely to get much if any movement on price and even getting any extras thrown in is getting harder lately because in many cases if you don't buy it someone else will.

 

[chanjy]

If you’d be happy with any of the 3 cars then you need to say to them ‘if you will do it for £x then I’ll pay the deposit to secure the sale today’ and let them come back to you. They’ll have to do the whole ‘ooh that will be tough I will have to check with my manager’ thing but someone will do a deal. You could even say you are offering on 3 and first one to agree a deal will get the sale, put a bit of the pressure back on them.

If you are just asking if there is a potentially discount available without a firm commitment to buy they will all say no until it’s a proper offer.

 

[BennyC]

If they're unwilling to negotiate on price then look for consumables that will be due shortly and ask for them to be changed as part of the deal. For example if tyre tread is on the low side or discs/pads nearing the end of their life but not necessarily due yet.

You'd expect AUC cars to be in good shape so this might not be necessary.

 

[Rotty]

I managed to negotiate p/ex up £500 on a 30k BMW approved and that took a bit of work so it suggests not a lot of scope

 

[Vita]

From my experience with various dealers, on use approved, you’d be hard pressed to get discount unless the cars been sat for sale a while. Always worth asking though.

 

[piscean86]

Thanks again folks. You've given me some helpful words of advice and opinions.
I think my best hope is to try to get a free delivery (if it's from a dealer somewhere else in the country) or new mats or something like that. Price discounts seem a no-goer these days.
I feel a bit better about it having read other people saying that it's like this at the moment. In other words, it's not just me!
Cheers,
Paul.

 

[HangTime]

The issue is the current market doesn't lend itself to discounts on cars that are already competitively priced (presumably you haven't enquired about the overpriced ones). There is a shortage of cars so they don't need take offers as they know another buyer will come along and offer sticker price if you don't.
Even though you don't want finance try to find out if there are any incentives for taking out finance like manufacturer contributions. Then you just buy it on finance and settle really quickly before you've paid much interest.

 

[bm_999]

right now prices for cars are crazyyy, def a sellers market as supply cannot keep up

 

[Dandle]

The fact you don't want finance doesn't help your cause as the finance houses normally offer generous contributions to the dealer that they will then use to reduce the price. On an 18k Car say that you have 5k cash to put down and want to finance the rest, look interested and agree to the monthly payments if that brings the base line of the car down in value. The last two cars I've bought I got £1500 off the list price with the finance contribution. When you have bought the car you have 14 days to cancel the finance and pay it off, you will only incur the interest for the days you have had the finance. I paid mine off at day 8-10 and it was about an £90 fee.

 

[chanjy]

I’ve managed £1,000 off two different used cars from main dealers in the past 6 months. Both were newly listed and not hanging around. They will drop the price to secure a sale if you’re serious but they can smell a time waster a mile off.

 

[Slackworth]

When I brought my AUC F11, they wouldn't budge on the price but I managed to get a genuine bootliner, rubber mats and USB charger which was a few hundred quid of retail value.

Other half's Mini F54 was the same - managed to get some scratched trim panels replaced but price wise they would not drop a bean - they'd already done a fair bit of work to the car to make it sellable though including two new JCW wheels so not really surprising they wouldn't move much.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I have never paid the screen price for an approved used BMW. Whether they'll drop the price depends entirely on whether they feel they need to in order to sell the car - those of you who say they wouldn't do any better than screen price and a USB charger are a case in point. You bought the car anyway, a USB charger was all they needed to offer you. This doesn't necessarily mean you'll always get a discount, they may decide they don't need to drop the price to sell to you because they can sell it to somebody else. Remember, car sales people are professionals - they know what they are doing and if they've worked out you'll buy the car if they give you a phone charger thats the best you'll get.

In terms of finance I have never had any luck getting any sort of different deal through finance for a used car. Absolutely for a new car, and occasionally the deals are there on nearly new, but non manufacturer supplied general used stock? Never seen it.

Also, if you have £20k to spend and an F20 118i is the best car you can find, I'd seriously reconsider. I know the used market is crazy right now but paying 20 grand for a 1 Series that came out in 2011 with a 3 cylinder engine is not sensible in my view.