Haggling Tips & Pointers

BeatMaster

BeatMaster

BeatMaster

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Just about to embark on trying to haggle for a Ford Fiesta Flame on behalf of my girlfriend.

fiesta.jpg


The car in question is priced @ £6499. The car is on a 2004 (54 Plate) with 17,000 miles, however parkers has the car priced @

with A/C - £6,205
without A/C - £5,860

I'm not sure if it does or doesn't have Air Conditioning, although the advert doesn't mention it so I presume it doesn't. Either way, it's not really a deciding point on the car for her.

Anyway, cut to the chase. She's got her current car to trade in which is a Citroen Saxo 2000 (V Plate) with 60,000 miles valued at £1,150 according to parkers. The MOT runs out this month so it's not really worth selling privately because the time you get it serviced and anything needs done it'll come to the price of selling privately, plus you save the hassle.

The Fiesta is at a Ford Main Dealer however there is also a local garage which must be in someway connected to Ford and they can get hold of the stock the main dealer has. Now my idea was to get the best deal out of him then go to the main dealer and say what they've offered and see if they can better it. Assuming they can, I can then go back and forward until the best deal is agreed whichever end. Then to be cheeky ask for the usual 12 months Tax & MOT, full tank of fuel and perhaps a set of Ford mats.

I know a guy that works at another Ford dealership and I remember him saying he could get £500 any of the used cars, so I assume this would be similar throughout other dealerships, its just getting it thats the problem!

Now the question, are there any tips or pointers people have in trying to achieve this? I'm sure it'll help others in a similar situation in the future too :)

Thanks,

BeatMaster :D
 
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Confidence. You need to be really confident.

Don't be shy or cower (is that the correct word?) away from always pushing for more.
 
Hi there

What I'd do is just walk in and say I want £1500 on the trade in and want that car at £5500, so paying a total of £4000 with your car traded in.

You gotta be confident and close to damn right cheeky, but they will either meet your demands or come damn close.
Take evidence too, look up your girlfriends car on autotrader and find the most expensive ones selling with similar mileage/age. Then find the car the garage has on the internet to make sure their internet price is not lower and also look for other examples, but this time find the cheapest ones. So then you can go in and say hey look out much our car is worth and hey look how cheap we found the same car as your selling from other dealers.

The result will be you getting a better all round deal. :)

When my mum got her car I did all the haggling, the end result was more for the trade in than book suggested which at the time was a Rover so to get more than value trade in for that was good going. Then got them to reduce the car by a further £750 of their list price. All in all they saved about £1000 on their purchase over what the dealer was originally trying to offer. Which was about 10%. :)
 
Gibbo said:
Hi there

What I'd do is just walk in and say I want £1500 on the trade in and want that car at £5500, so paying a total of £4000 with your car traded in.

You gotta be confident and close to damn right cheeky, but they will either meet your demands or come damn close.
Take evidence too, look up your girlfriends car on autotrader and find the most expensive ones selling with similar mileage/age. Then find the car the garage has on the internet to make sure their internet price is not lower and also look for other examples, but this time find the cheapest ones. So then you can go in and say hey look out much our car is worth and hey look how cheap we found the same car as your selling from other dealers.

The result will be you getting a better all round deal.

When my mum got her car I did all the haggling, the end result was more for the trade in than book suggested which at the time was a Rover so to get more than value trade in for that was good going. Then got them to reduce the car by a further £750 of their list price. All in all they saved about £1000 on their purchase over what the dealer was originally trying to offer. Which was about 10%.
Click to expand...

Excellent! Just found a couple of Saxo's for £2,500 and 2 Fiesta Flame's for £5,700 and got them printed off :) Should definately help with the haggling though!

It's right what your saying, it's better to damn right full out cheeky otherwise if you just a little bit cheeky you'll wish you'd been that little bit more :p Hopefully by been a bit more adventurous she'll get the cheeky deal but by asking for the damn right full out cheeky deal ;)

Hopefully, dealers will be keen to get cars sold too with it been 2007 and all, fingers crossed!

BeatMaster :D
 
This is just an educated guess (I am a car salesman) but I would imagine they have £1500 across the screen of that. as a very general rule of thumb they will deal at £800 profit however that may come about. i.e. through over allowance on your part ex or discounting the screen price.
They will be looking at getting the new year off to a good start so its not a bad time to buy.
A decent salesman will only let you walk away when he cant do any better deal. so use this to your advantage. you need to judge the point when he is going to let you walk and more than likely this is pretty much the best deal you are gonna get
 
As BIGWEB said any good salesperson will only let you walk away when they cannot be squeezed any more!

Therefore, push and push until you have to walk off.

Go and get a drink and a bite to eat, mull over the offer and then if you think "yep" go back and shake his hand.

People used to do this to me, the people who got the best deals!
 
(got this from a bloke off the telly)

after you ask for something off, stop talking....
....wait for the other guy to come back to you.
the first guy who speaks, has given ground.

be nice, you won't get a deal off someone who doesn't like you.

.
 
TBH I'd forget about the individual prices for the trade-in and car you're buying and just focus on the difference or "price to change". Just set a figure, such as the £4k Gibbo mentioned and tell them that's what you can afford, end of. Whether they achieve that by raising the trade-in value or lowering the price of the new one isn't really a concern to you :)
 
Great advice already given.
I'll add that you do have to be confident but not arrogant and stick to the figure you decide.
First thing i always say prior to a deal is that I am here to buy. If you have what i want at the price i want then you have a sale, No messing. This just lets the dealer know that his time is not wasted and a deal can be done.
Once you have his attention let him go off on one whenever he feels like it and never be rude.
Always leave something to kick the price on till last and don't go showing all your cards from the off.
Basically you have to just ask him for the best price he can do right this minute. Once you have this price Then negotiate a trade in price and push on that as well.
Then go again with the price and really squeeze him in a jovial way. Once you have proper kicked him in the sacks over price and trade in then start on the giveaways like a Full tank, Matts and any other extras you can get thrown in.
Once you have him nailed down with a good discount a good trade in price and a **** load of extras then get a Coffee and think about it.
Once you have your Coffee then tell him that you will let him know by close of business take a card and the details and leave.

This needs doing in at least 3 decent places using the figures from the last to kick the next one harder in the sacks.
 
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