Haggling over the price of a car

eidolon · 30 Apr 2006 at 10:08

When selling a car, what sort of amount do you feel is acceptable to knock off the price?

I'm asking because I saw an Elise that I quite liked yesterday, I noticed that it had been up for sale for 5 weeks now so I contacted the owner. After various emails it sounded like it could be the MR2 replacement so I asked what sort of offer he'd consider to which I was told that he wouldn't accept a penny less than his asking price of £17,000. As the car needed one of the wheels refurbishing I asked if he'd knock £100 off the price for that. He replied with a resounding "no".

It's not like I'm asking for £100 off a £500 banger, it's a £17,000 car at the end of the day. He's had the car up for sale for a fair while and we're even with the same bank so I'd be able to do an instant transfer so he'd have an immediate sale.

Am I being unreasonable expecting something off the price or is he just being awkward?

eidolon · 30 Apr 2006 at 10:14

That's what I was thinking, it's not like there's a shortage of Elises out there.

The search continues!!

eidolon · 30 Apr 2006 at 10:22

Pure comedy!!

I've just this second received an email from him, he's raised the price on Pistonheads so that he can pretend to drop a couple of hundred quid to £17,000

eidolon · 30 Apr 2006 at 10:54

>Good morning Steve,
>
>Just to let you know that I am not around this morning, so may not
>be able to reply to e mails before 3PM.. If you are interested in
>the Elise, it mght be quicker to give me a call on the mobile
>0712345678
>
>Just to let you know that I have adjusted the price slightly
>(upwards !) on the Pistonheads website, but of course will respect
>the our previous exchange of e mails ie £17k.
>
>Cheers
>
>Xxxxxx

And my reply

Hi Xxxxxx

Thanks for letting me know but I've decided not to bother with the Elise.

I noticed that your car has been up for sale for at quite some time and knocking £100 off the price would've almost certainly secured a sale today with immediate transfer of funds. There is no shortage of Elises out there so I'll just keep searching.

Good luck with the sale.

Steve

eidolon · 30 Apr 2006 at 11:08

Muncher said:
111S Steve?

Yep, an 04 spec 111S.

eidolon · 30 Apr 2006 at 12:00

It just gets better.

Yesterday the price was £17,000. This morning it was £17,195 and now it's £17, 250!!

Considering it's been on the market for a while and hasn't sold, what makes him think that putting the price up will help it sell?

eidolon · 30 Apr 2006 at 12:10

To be honest I'm not gonna bother contacting him again. I made what I thought was a fair offer, he could've had the funds in his account today but instead he decided to hold out for that extra £100 so I'm just gonna leave it.

As you say, there's plenty of Elises out there. I've got the cash and I'm not in a hurry, might as well use that to my advantage.

eidolon · 30 Apr 2006 at 12:34

The_Dark_Side said:
common mistake number one. to use the sticker price as the starting block.

Good point, and blatently obvious when you think about it.

eidolon · 30 Apr 2006 at 13:15

The_Dark_Side said:
you'd be amazed how many people do just this though.

Yep, that's me alright.

I'd better start practicing my techniques!

eidolon · 30 Apr 2006 at 14:15

The_Dark_Side said:
hey i'm not patronising mate, no-one gets it right everytime.

Sorry, I didn't mean that you were patronising, I just meant that I've learned something from this thread

blueboy2001 said:
IMO haggling via email is not the best way to do it. It needs to be done face to face so the seller doesn't have too long to think about it and you can read their reactions.

I totally agree however the Elise was a fair distance away so I wanted to sort out price beforehand rather than get there and end up with the same conclusion.