Do dealerships not negotiate on used cars any more?

[Rroff]

The Nissan dealership wouldn't budge on my Leaf either although they did throw in three years free servicing and some fancy Supaguard treatment on the bodywork and interior. As it was used approved it came with a Nissan 1 year warranty and remainder of ten year warranty (7 years) on the battery.

I think this is standard tactic for Nissan - twice in my experience when bringing up the price the response has straight away been "I can't move on the price but here is what I will do" and throwing in the Scotchgard and extra servicing.

 

[[TW]Fox]

go somewhere else, I know for a fact dealers make big profits on cars. I used to know quite a few of them and they were all making thousands per car they sold. Sometimes ridiculous amounts from taking advantage of people who died and their family were selling the car off. They would offer like £12000 for a £17000+ car

How much do you think it costs to run a car dealer? Most of those 'thousands' per car go towards leasing the building, business rates, paying staff, paying for access to systems, paying for equipment...

 

[Bint Box]

Check out Auto Trader prices using Chrome as the browser with the Auto Trader add-in. This will show the previous price reductions on a car (if any).
The point being is that dealers might list a car at a high price in the hope of snagging a mug. After a few weeks if they have not sold the car they start to reduce it.

If you walked into the dealers soon after the car was first listed they probably say no to a discount, a few weeks later they might have had a reality check and be willing to listen to offers.
It depends on the delaership, the car and how long it has been listed for sale.

 

[lordrobs]

How much do you think it costs to run a car dealer? Most of those 'thousands' per car go towards leasing the building, business rates, paying staff, paying for access to systems, paying for equipment...

Exactly, let alone vehicle prep and any warranty issues they end up having to remedy. All things considered you can see how despite 'making' thousands per car they sell some dealerships struggle to turn a profit.

I prefer the idea of the screen price being the price you pay. Then again if anyone has seen Ant Anstead in the TV series For The Love Of Cars, that's basically my level of negotiation!

 

[jpaul]

Most of my local dealers also do repairs, which looks more renumerative, based on my contribution to their finances, and the mechanics fill in spare time with prepping cars.

For warranty issues aren't they usually underwritten by a third party company, but I guess the cost of those increases if the garage frequently sells cars with problems.

I've been looking at some used BMWs and have found a lovely 330e for just over £22k. This is probably £1k more than I can spend (PCP), but when I asked about movement on price for this car, I got this response:

It was a face to face, verbal discussion ? and you were paraphrasing what they said.

my intended strategy - have been monitoring local 50m radius stock for several months so in a position to say - you've had this in stock for several months,
these are my specific alternative cars, at these prices, - this is my offer to you.
Unfortunately never know what the cars sell for, even if you track any price reductions with the Autotrader App, for similarish cars at close dealers (it's not like houses)

 

[OldKitMan]

How much do you think it costs to run a car dealer? Most of those 'thousands' per car go towards leasing the building, business rates, paying staff, paying for access to systems, paying for equipment...

Warranty as well, the shifting metal channel is quite open about what they buy and sell some cars for but if your 'profit' on a BMW is 4k and it throws up a massive engine problem two weeks later then that could be the profit gone and then some. I did manage to score and extra couple of hundred off the EV - I'd used the autotrader plug in and found it had been listed for sale for a while so figured they might have been happy to get rid as it was taking up space and costing money every day it sat there.

 

[[TW]Fox]

the mechanics fill in spare time with prepping cars.

Which will be billed to the sales side of the business and be taken from the contribution towards costs (it's not profit at this stage) of the sale.

For warranty issues aren't they usually underwritten by a third party company, but I guess the cost of those increases if the garage frequently sells cars with problems.

Sometimes they are, sometimes they are not - if the warranty company fails to cover a part but it's something that is covered by the purchasers statutory rights it's the dealer who has to pay for it.

my intended strategy - have been monitoring local 50m radius stock for several months so in a position to say - you've had this in stock for several months,

Unless you're buying a Ford Focus or something else for which there are 800,000 for sale all of the same specification, limiting yourself to just 50 miles for such a large purchase is how you get a bad deal or a car that isn't really what you wanted.

The closest car I've bought in the last 20 years was 150 miles away.

 

[dlockers]

Yeah this whole mileage thing is bonkers. To be fair tho, a lot of car folk have some embarrassingly weird issues issue with catching public transport.

 

[jpaul]

you mean public travel to a dealer ? I would hope to do a part exchange, in particular to avoid any temporary coverage for insurance cover ,
but can't really remember how I orchestrated that last time, as I picked up new car, and later sold old one to a German work colleague.

I thought fox exclusively bought auc bmw from dealers so wouldn't you get them to send the car to your nearest dealer or that is $$$,
ex traffic-cop cousin drives bmw's between dealers , but sometimes has to use public transport, for return.

 

[dlockers]

you mean public travel to a dealer ? I would hope to do a part exchange, in particular to avoid any temporary coverage for insurance cover ,
but can't really remember how I orchestrated that last time, as I picked up new car, and later sold old one to a German work colleague.

I thought fox exclusively bought auc bmw from dealers so wouldn't you get them to send the car to your nearest dealer or that is $$$,
ex traffic-cop cousin drives bmw's between dealers , but sometimes has to use public transport, for return.

I'd recommend splitting the deal so you can't get bamboozled with PX vs. car price. A lot of folk win on PX but lose on car price and vice versa. Motorway et al. worth a shout to value your current car.

 

[dirtychinchilla]

Thanks for all the advice. Conversation was via email so I wasn’t paraphrasing, that’s exactly what he wrote.

The car is up for sale on Motorway tonight. Hopefully it’ll go well.

How do you deal with the potential gap in insurance?

 

[dlockers]

Thanks for all the advice. Conversation was via email so I wasn’t paraphrasing, that’s exactly what he wrote.

The car is up for sale on Motorway tonight. Hopefully it’ll go well.

How do you deal with the potential gap in insurance?

Depends on how anal you are and how long it'll be. If it's just a few days I'd ignore. You're insured to drive it, doesn't mean it's your problem if something happens to it.

 

[dirtychinchilla]

Depends on how anal you are and how long it'll be. If it's just a few days I'd ignore. You're insured to drive it, doesn't mean it's your problem if something happens to it.

I thought that was exactly the problem - if something happens to it, you’re in the hook.

I don’t know how long the gap will be tbh. I’m hoping it’ll go late next week and I’ll be able to get the new car that weekend, so it may only be a couple of days I guess.

 

[dlockers]

I thought that was exactly the problem - if something happens to it, you’re in the hook.

I don’t know how long the gap will be tbh. I’m hoping it’ll go late next week and I’ll be able to get the new car that weekend, so it may only be a couple of days I guess.

I'm sure other folk may say that but a car can have many insurance policies so not sure how they'd pin it to you if anything did happen...

 

[jpaul]

you'll only ever be driving one of the cars at any one time and other will be safe.

Conversation was via email so I wasn’t paraphrasing, that’s exactly what he wrote.

I think these conversations are best face to face - less easy to be fobbed off with a pat answer

 

[dirtychinchilla]

you'll only ever be driving one of the cars at any one time and other will be safe.


I think these conversations are best face to face - less easy to be fobbed off with a pat answer

I agree. I just got in touch with them to ask some questions, that was all. I’ll hopefully go there this weekend or the next.

 

[JonRGV250]

I know for a fact dealers make big profits on cars. I used to know quite a few of them and they were all making thousands per car they sold. Sometimes ridiculous amounts from taking advantage of people who died and their family were selling the car off. They would offer like £12000 for a £17000+ car

Maybe back in the 90's & early/mid 2000's, but those days are long long gone, it's the service departments that bring home the bacon now.
Dealers rely on so much "back end" money for new car reg's/used sales that it's very not uncommon to sell cars at a loss and still make profit.

How much do you think it costs to run a car dealer? Most of those 'thousands' per car go towards leasing the building, business rates, paying staff, paying for access to systems, paying for equipment...

Very much this.
Also factor in the staff training at main dealers, it's absolutely insane how much courses cost and it's mandatory, and if those training targets aren't met then less "back end" money for the dealer.
Another thing is the "prep" costs of used cars.
I've worked as a PDI tech for Merc and Toyota/Lexus (as well as a salesman for Merc, Audi & a few others) and anything we put down on the inspection that wasn't within manufacturer guidelines had to be rectified, often blowing any chassis profit out of the water.
It's a very different game these days to what it used to be.

 

[Fr0dders]

recommend this chrome extension that shows you the price history of the car. Shows how long the dealership have been trying to sell it and crucially any price drops it's had. Should give you an idea as to how much they've already knocked it down and how desperate they are to sell it if they' constantly reducing it by £100 every other day

AT Price Tracker - Chrome Web Store

Show price history on AT UK and track price changes automatically

chromewebstore.google.com

 

[Joxeon]

I've been looking at some used BMWs and have found a lovely 330e for just over £22k. This is probably £1k more than I can spend (PCP), but when I asked about movement on price for this car, I got this response:

"Unfortunately, we do not have any movement in price for our cars. We do not price our used cars in the dealership, this is done at a head office level. They do check prices daily however and adjust them accordingly."

I know this could just be talk, but I don't see any reason for him to lie as this 4.5% drop in price would easily secure the car!

Maybe I'm just ignorant

The other option I have is a 318i, but they're not particularly comparable - the 330e looks awesome! I'd rather get a 320i if I can't get the 330e.

Went to look at a 4 series gran coupe a few months back at which was priced at £18999, after looking it over the wife and I decided we would not pay anymore than £18000 so we made an offer and were told by the salesman that they couldn’t even reduce the price by 1 penny so we walked.

3 months later the car was still for sale and reduced to £16500 so their loss for not being willing to negotiate.

 

[dlockers]

3 months later the car was still for sale and reduced to £16500 so their loss for not being willing to negotiate.

Surely your gain? :S