So can you haggle with a used car salesman or is it a myth?

Bald-Eagle22

Bald-Eagle22

Bald-Eagle22

Soldato
Joined
30 Mar 2007
Posts
2,876
Location
Essex
Guys i have about £4,000 pounds in cash to spend on a second car and was wondering if screen price is the price . Car lots not private sales.

If I can haggle on a vehicle say priced £4500 what woukd be the most I could expect off of the screen price , most I have had is £150 so far .

It seems readies don't have the desired effect anymore.

What's your experiences.
 
How long is a piece of string? Some used car sales places will price cars keenly and not drop a penny, others will factor in wiggle room in the price and start dropping hundreds as soon as you open your mouth.
 
I got mine reduced from £4995 to £4500 - simply got out of the car after the test drive and offered £4500, which he accepted with no haggling.
 
Of course you can :confused:

With a £4k budget I'd be avoiding dealers, though. Buy a nice car privately from somebody who has it ages.
 
Most put the price higher to allow for haggling. Always be prepared to walk away, they soon come running after you. If not, you can always go back after making them sweat for a while. Was just about to close the deal on my current car, then I squeazed a free tank of petrol into the equation (after getting lots of other things thrown in). Never harms to ask.
 
Of course you can haggle!!!

The problem you have is that the car dealer usually has way more experience in these matters, and you may be a novice. Do some research about deal negotiation, there's plenty of advice on the internet.

Rgds

Also, just to say that the dealer will sell a car at a price that "works" for him. To find out that price, then initially you have to be offering a lot less than that, and let him tell you what his best price is.

Never reveal that you are overly keen to buy something. Body language is important too.

Always say that you've looked at another car down the road.

Always be polite in a negotiation, e.g. if a car is £4,500, you can easily politely say something like, "Would you take £3,500 for it?". There's no harm in asking if you do it politely. Always try and develop rapport. They can only tell you no and give you their better price.

Remember, a deal is done when the interests of buyer and seller meet, so you have to start offering low and let them improve their sale price.

Rgds
 
Yes, I got a grand off when I bought the Mondeo (down to £10.5) which moved it from being around about what I was expecting to pay, to a good deal.

The lower you go, the less movement you can get usually.
 
Why a dealer?

You are going to get a better deal if you go private, just make sure the car has a up to date history.
 
Yes you can!

I got just over 10% off my most recent used car purchase from a dealer.

However the previous one I bought wasn't willing to move on the price but I got a cam belt, water pump, full service and 2 tyres (budgets) out of it.

I have however failed to get a solitary penny off or any extra's on a used car purchase privately before! lol
 
Have a look for any imperfections on the car, are the tyres due to be replaced any time soon? How long since it had a cam belt change etc, any scuffs / scratches on the car (likely on a £4k one), use these to haggle the price down, or suggest that you'll pay closer to book price if they replace the tyres, pay for the cam belt / repair scuffs etc.
 
Yeah you can always have a go, just remember that £500 of a £4500 car is quite a big chunk to get knocked off, so be prepared to be told no, the guideline I always have in mind is about 5% of the window price. Always have a few options on your horizon, so that you can walk away from one forecourt onto another.

If the car your looking at is a fairly common model where there is plenty to chose from then you hold the balance of power as the seller will know you could buy it from a dozen places so they need to make it worth while for you to buy theirs. On the other hand if the car your looking at is the only example for miles around the seller has control and will be less likely to haggle.
 
If you have examples of pricing from other sources, ideas of cost for any work required etc, then you can fairly reliably get a pricing change. It's when you blindly go in and say "whats your best price?" that they'll tell you to do one (or say it's on the car already..)
 
You certainly can. You need to be (or need to appear to be) prepared to walk away to most effectively turn the screw.

My last (independent) dealer purchase was a cheap runnaround Polo. I needed it that day, as I needed a car, but obviously it wouldn't do to let on how desperate I was. Screen price £2950, online price (advertised on Autotrader) £2750.

I offered £2,400, cash, straight up, he said can't go below £2,700, so I said "I think we're too far apart here" and walked off. He quickly said £2,450 which we settled on.
 
Yep I knocked £300 off a £4k car, I tried for £500 but settled on £300.

As others said, look for any imperfections, in my case it was on the original exhaust so I made a bit of a point about it looking about to drop off, slight exaggeration but hey.
 
To go in with an arbitrary x% target reduction isn't really an appropriate thing to do, though it will still be likely to get you somewhere.

As above you need to know what you think it's actually worth from the outlet you're buying from (i.e be realistic about the difference between a private and trade sale) along with likely bills the car has got coming up, or money that should already have been spent on it (apparent FSH but no cambelt for example - not that I'd buy a car with this) and use all of these to put your own price together and start off lower than this.

Ultimately though, the "why" of your price doesn't matter a jot, the trader will have a price that they will sell in mind and a target price based on you - then will do their best to get as much out of the deal as possible. If you walk up looking and sounding to them like you will be prepared to pay the asking price then guess what you'll be paying?

I've walked away, then told them not to call back when trying to get the business as I didn't like the person I was dealing with, walked away then ended up buying the car, walked away then never had any call back, bought the car after spending a few seconds negotiating, bought after going through the farce of "the manager" appearing several times etc etc. Ultimately if you already know what you would be happy to accept and can get there (or better) there isn't much to lose
 
Last edited:
Depends entirely on how determined you are (and that doesn't mean being aggressive - it means being firm but fair), what the car is actually worth, and how fast the dealer wants to shift it. Most of them know how likely it is for someone else to walk past 10mins later and offer them the asking price.

My latest daily, an Auris Hybrid I know don't sell brilliantly as most people go for the Prius and I wasn't in a huge rush to buy so offered ~£2k under the asking price, they wouldn't go near the price, I walked away, couple of days later he rang back and we struck a deal for the price I wanted. On the flip side when I bought my 350Z I travelled 2hrs south, the car had only been for sale for 3 days and the dealer knew full well I was buying it for whatever he wanted as I wanted the car - so I basically got nothing off it other than negotiating up my PX price a little.
 
Really depends on the dealer and the car, some will not budge, whilst others will, some can be desperate to get shift of a car that's been on the forecourt for a while or ones that are not very desriable, but they won't ever go down their profit margins, most have high mark ups anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom