Part exchange car?

[LongLensPhotography]

Just wondering if anyone managed to get at leat 70% or more of the average market value when trading in for another banger? What are the tricks to end up with a decent deal instead of getting royally shafted?

In my case I'm probably looking at automatic Passat diesel, 6-10 y/o with low-ish mileage... until I can afford that brand new XC60.

 

[Mr Bump]

I'm not sure there are as most older cars go to auction so they factor what it should sell for -a percentage.

 

[Overexposed]

if you are part exchanging the price you will get depends on the condition of your motor, its book value and the amount of profit the dealer has in the vehicle you are buying.
Sometimes if you are buying new and the dealer is chasing numbers for bonuses you can end up with some very silly deals.

 

[ChrisHeathcote]

Having spent the last 15 years in car sales, the one common thing we see is people getting hung up on PX valuation rather than what actually matters. Focus on the balance to change to get the best deal. Work out how much you want to pay on top of your car for the one you are buying. Dealers now tend to offer as close to market value as possible and then use discount available on the new car to inflate it.

What people forget is that the Market Value is lower than the selling price (ie what they are on auto trader for) because the dealer has to pay prep costs, warranty the car and also pay vat on any profit. Oh and actually make a profit, they are a business after all.

 

[Byker28i]

Got about half the private value for our last car, but it was worth about £800 when we traded it in, but got more than that back on the discount on the new car, extras etc. worked out got for us as we could drive in with the old, drive out with the new and we ended up paying about what I thought the new car was worth.

 

[TheNissanMan]

Working in a main dealer as said before people we see who 'know' what they expect to see in return for their px have valued the car from retail adverts so never going to end well. We use CAP as an indicator of what the cars are going for at block. If you know what your trying to achieve as a balance to change or mdeposit and monthly payment the sales guys will help where they can as they don't get paid until you collect a car.

Trying to explain to someone that they need to look at a package rather than one element can be amusing at times...

 

[LongLensPhotography]

package rather than one element

I struggle with this bit... They have a list price for the "new" used car, and I pay the difference in cash. So the remainder must be the trade in value surely?

I could of course sell it privately through autotrader and also buy privately, with the downside being insuring and paying tax for 2 cars simultaneously for a couple months till one is gone (hopefully that would be my current one but you can't be too certain). So it is all about what way I loose less money in the end, and I reckon 70-80% value would be the cut off line.

 

[TheNissanMan]

In simple terms yes, but, if as a sales exec I know your trying to spend 8k for example and I have margin in my car I can still fulfil your expectations by over allowing on your px and giving you the same balance to change as I would have by discounting my car. You would pay the same but be happier with the px, personally would never recommend this as we as a dealer would have to taek vat into account on the px and your better off with a lower price for ours and a lower price for yours, it's still the same you would be paying.

If financing other considerations come into play, deposit contributions etc...

The hard part in this job is people who read magazines are told to tell the sales execs as little as poss whereas in reality the more we are told the better solution we can find for the customer...

 

[cosmicma]

the last car i got rid of was offered to the dealer in part ex but the best price they could come up with was less than half it's value
i ended up advertising it on gumtree and it sold in less than 24 hours of putting the advert up for 2 and a half time more than the dealer offered in part ex

the car before that one ( around 2 years ago ) we did exactly as TheNissanMan says
i had a price in my head i wanted to spend with the part ex value of my car taken into consideration, the part ex offer was low but to seal the deal they discounted the vehicle i wanted ( with pert ex ) to the amount i wanted to spend.
so far so good every bodies happy
until problems with the car caused me to reject it. it was a cash deal so a simple case of give me back the money and the value of my vehicle in part ex but because of how the deal was done by bringing the value of the car down to an overall price i wanted to pay it meant my own vehicle was part ex'd for stupidly low money. it traps you into buying another vehicle from the same dealer or your gonna lose out big time on your part ex
i did buy another vehicle off the same dealer and 2 years later i'm still happy despite the first car but you can see where i'm going with this
if i hadn't bought another car off the same dealer i would have been a considerable amount out of pocket on the value of my old car

i don't blame the dealer because i agreed to the value because of the reduction in price of the vehicle i wanted to buy which brought the total to what i wanted to spend and all would have been fine if there was no problems
luckily it turned out fine in the end but the story could have left a very bitter taste

 

[nilagin]

the car before that one ( around 2 years ago ) we did exactly as TheNissanMan says
i had a price in my head i wanted to spend with the part ex value of my car taken into consideration, the part ex offer was low but to seal the deal they discounted the vehicle i wanted ( with pert ex ) to the amount i wanted to spend.
so far so good every bodies happy
until problems with the car caused me to reject it. it was a cash deal so a simple case of give me back the money and the value of my vehicle in part ex but because of how the deal was done by bringing the value of the car down to an overall price i wanted to pay it meant my own vehicle was part ex'd for stupidly low money. it traps you into buying another vehicle from the same dealer or your gonna lose out big time on your part ex
i did buy another vehicle off the same dealer and 2 years later i'm still happy despite the first car but you can see where i'm going with this
if i hadn't bought another car off the same dealer i would have been a considerable amount out of pocket on the value of my old car

i don't blame the dealer because i agreed to the value because of the reduction in price of the vehicle i wanted to buy which brought the total to what i wanted to spend and all would have been fine if there was no problems
luckily it turned out fine in the end but the story could have left a very bitter taste

I don't get your reasoning. You wanted to buy a car on sale at say, £10k, you want £4k for your part ex, leaving a cash balance of £6k, they value your part ex at £3200 but discount the price of the car on sale to £9200 meaning you still pay £6k, overall outlay is still the same. Highly unlikely that you will gat much more in part ex at another dealership, so if you have to reject the car, you get the £9200 back to buy another car from where ever you want. You've lost nothing. The value of the alternative car from the same dealer would be £9200.

 

[Cobra]

Having spent the last 15 years in car sales, the one common thing we see is people getting hung up on PX valuation rather than what actually matters. Focus on the balance to change to get the best deal.

Correct me if I'm wrong here (I'm sure you will ) Chris,
Hypothetical figures,
My car is worth 5K the dealer offers me 2.5 K against a 15K car.
I "pay" 12.5K for the car plus my Px.

The dealer is down 2.5k at this point, but he then goes on to sell my car at market value,
Getting full value for his car and also making 2.5k profit on mine.

It find its far better to sell the car privately for 5K
Walk into to dealers and get at least that 2.5K off as I'm paying cash (following a bank loan)
and pocket the rest or reduce the loan I require.

 

[cosmicma]

I don't get your reasoning. You wanted to buy a car on sale at say, £10k, you want £4k for your part ex, leaving a cash balance of £6k, they value your part ex at £3200 but discount the price of the car on sale to £9200 meaning you still pay £6k, overall outlay is still the same. Highly unlikely that you will gat much more in part ex at another dealership, so if you have to reject the car, you get the £9200 back to buy another car from where ever you want. You've lost nothing. The value of the alternative car from the same dealer would be £9200.

you lose the true value of your car

in my case i had already been offered more than twice the value the dealer was offering as part ex at a different dealers for the same value car ( same type of car ) and this is what was explained when looking at the car in question, the dealer decided to match the price by dropping the price not upping the part ex value and if things go according to plan the end result is the same but if the car is rejected i get my cash back but i don't get the what my car is worth because of how the agreement is made
using your figures instead of having 10k total i now have 9.2k making me 800 quid out of pocket

i'm talking about a car being taken in part ex at below it's exchange value not at value

lets go cheaper because i didn't spend 10k i spent 6k the value of my car a 2002 honda accord in mint condition was worth in part ex according to online quotes and other dealers was 1k plus, the dealer in question offered 500 quid which i was not willing to take so the value of the new car was reduced to stay in budget
that isn't a problem if the deal stays but if it doesn't iv'e just accepted 500 quid for a car i was not willing to let go of at that price so when it comes to getting my money back i havn't got a car with a minimum value of a 1000 quid iv'e got 500 quid in my hand
hows that not losing money ???

like i said i worked out another deal for another car with the same dealer so things worked out but if that didn't happen in my opinion i would have been 500 quid out of pocket and no transport

 

[boliston]

I recently traded in a car with webuyanycar and got about 85% of what I would have expected from a "good" private sale and far more than the "trade in" value. It was a good half way house between the hassle of selling privately vs the convenience of a trade in.

 

[nilagin]

you lose the true value of your car

in my case i had already been offered more than twice the value the dealer was offering as part ex at a different dealers for the same value car ( same type of car ) and this is what was explained when looking at the car in question, the dealer decided to match the price by dropping the price not upping the part ex value and if things go according to plan the end result is the same but if the car is rejected i get my cash back but i don't get the what my car is worth because of how the agreement is made
using your figures instead of having 10k total i now have 9.2k making me 800 quid out of pocket

i'm talking about a car being taken in part ex at below it's exchange value not at value

lets go cheaper because i didn't spend 10k i spent 6k the value of my car a 2002 honda accord in mint condition was worth in part ex according to online quotes and other dealers was 1k plus, the dealer in question offered 500 quid which i was not willing to take so the value of the new car was reduced to stay in budget
that isn't a problem if the deal stays but if it doesn't iv'e just accepted 500 quid for a car i was not willing to let go of at that price so when it comes to getting my money back i havn't got a car with a minimum value of a 1000 quid iv'e got 500 quid in my hand
hows that not losing money ???

like i said i worked out another deal for another car with the same dealer so things worked out but if that didn't happen in my opinion i would have been 500 quid out of pocket and no transport

You spent £6k, £5.5k plus your part ex. If you'd got £1k for your car, you'd have paid £5k cash on top, still comes to £6k. You rejected the car, the dealer provides another car of the same £6k value, if he doesn't have anything to your liking he reimburses you £6k. No loss.

 

[Byker28i]

My example.
I keep my cars forever so traded in a primera with 155k miles but full service history.
Car I bought was advertised at £20.5 k so you know the figure the dealer wants is around £20k
My car was worth £600-700 so I started at £800 at what I wanted for the car, said the most I wanted to pay was £19.5k
Tradein value was £400 then they knocked £400 off the price and we settled on £19.7k, but the car was taxed, boot liner and a few other extras thrown in. Both think they've done the best deal, both happy.

 

[nilagin]

I recently traded in a car with webuyanycar and got about 85% of what I would have expected from a "good" private sale and far more than the "trade in" value. It was a good half way house between the hassle of selling privately vs the convenience of a trade in.

I valued my previous car with WBAC, part ex'd it on my current car got the same amount, plus £500 discount off the car, £300 worth of extras thrown in and the car had already priced at the next model down anyway. Which ever way you look at it I either got £1800 discount on the replacement car or £1800 extra on my part ex.

 

[cosmicma]

You spent £6k, £5.5k plus your part ex. If you'd got £1k for your car, you'd have paid £5k cash on top, still comes to £6k. You rejected the car, the dealer provides another car of the same £6k value, if he doesn't have anything to your liking he reimburses you £6k. No loss.

i lose 500 quid
the bit you seem to miss is my car is worth £1k not 500 quid the car was listed at 6.5k the price was reduced to 6k to stay within budget and close the sale
my overall budget was £6.5k with the part ex value of my car
you see the difference ???

 

[nilagin]

i lose 500 quid
the bit you seem to miss is my car is worth £1k not 500 quid the car was listed at 6.5k the price was reduced to 6k to stay within budget and close the sale
my overall budget was £6.5k with the part ex value of my car
you see the difference ???

So basically you paid the full asking price for the car. Got no discount at all. I would have walked away.

 

[ChrisHeathcote]

Correct me if I'm wrong here (I'm sure you will ) Chris,
Hypothetical figures,
My car is worth 5K the dealer offers me 2.5 K against a 15K car.
I "pay" 12.5K for the car plus my Px.

The dealer is down 2.5k at this point, but he then goes on to sell my car at market value,
Getting full value for his car and also making 2.5k profit on mine.

You are correct Christopher, however nowadays most people will research their car prior to going to the dealer, so the chances of even being offered half of the value is remote, because the dealer would be fearful of upsetting the customer and not getting a second chance. Most likely they may offer a few hundred below market value.

I'll try and put in figures what both Ryan and myself are trying to explain.

Part exchange - New Car - £15000
Dealer Selling Price £6000
Private Sale Price £5000
Market Value £4300

Dealer Offers - £5000

Balance to change - £10000

or

Part exchange - New Car - £15000
Dealer Selling Price £6000
Private Sale Price £5000
Market Value £4300

Dealer Offers - £4300 Dealer Discounts - £700

Balance to change - £10000

Ultimately the PX is only worth what its worth anything over that is discount.
With regards to selling privately you will ALWAYS get more selling privately than PX.

If you have an older car then to get the best deal, sell your car privately and negotiate discount.
If it is a newer car then you may be better PX'ing as the dealer may be willing to discount their car more based on being able to retail your PX.

So my advice on how to buy a new car:

1. Research, what your car is worth.
2. Compare the car you are buying against identical cars at other garages
3. Decide what you are willing to pay and let the salesperson know this after they have presented their figures (keep a little reserve up your sleeve, but be realistic)
4. Be realistic with the salesperson, they don't get paid unless you buy the car. They are on your side. Treat them fairly and they will work for you.
5. The best time to negotiate is when you are ready to buy. If the salesperson goes to his manager and asks for discount and then goes back and tells his boss that you have gone home to think about it, it won't be a comfortable conversation for him. Needless to say he will be a little reluctant to give you his best price so that you can go to another garage and use it as a bargaining tool. Remember this is their career and pays their bills

NB. In the main, dealers may have in the region of 4-8% margin to play with. Maybe a touch more on more niche market vehicles

If anyone wants to speak in more detail to clarify any of this, PM me and I will give you my phone number, I am always happy to discuss things, like I said this has been my career for 17 years, I now train salespeople and help dealers implement their sales processes.

 

[cosmicma]

So basically you paid the full asking price for the car. Got no discount at all. I would have walked away.

you could look at it that way but if a car is keenly priced which it was there isn't much to shave off a 6.5k car and cash isn't king any more they want that finance deal
if i wen't in with 6.5k cash i might of got a bit shaved off but part exing for low value isn't the best position to be in

 

[ChrisHeathcote]

you lose the true value of your car

in my case i had already been offered more than twice the value the dealer was offering as part ex at a different dealers for the same value car ( same type of car ) and this is what was explained when looking at the car in question, the dealer decided to match the price by dropping the price not upping the part ex value and if things go according to plan the end result is the same but if the car is rejected i get my cash back but i don't get the what my car is worth because of how the agreement is made
using your figures instead of having 10k total i now have 9.2k making me 800 quid out of pocket

i'm talking about a car being taken in part ex at below it's exchange value not at value

lets go cheaper because i didn't spend 10k i spent 6k the value of my car a 2002 honda accord in mint condition was worth in part ex according to online quotes and other dealers was 1k plus, the dealer in question offered 500 quid which i was not willing to take so the value of the new car was reduced to stay in budget
that isn't a problem if the deal stays but if it doesn't iv'e just accepted 500 quid for a car i was not willing to let go of at that price so when it comes to getting my money back i havn't got a car with a minimum value of a 1000 quid iv'e got 500 quid in my hand
hows that not losing money ???

like i said i worked out another deal for another car with the same dealer so things worked out but if that didn't happen in my opinion i would have been 500 quid out of pocket and no transport

So basically you paid the full asking price for the car. Got no discount at all. I would have walked away.

If you was rejecting the car then they would be trying to find you a replacement. Ultimately though unless you are buying as a distance sale, then to reject the car you would have to give the dealer an opportunity to put things right first, either fix the fault or provide another vehicle of either the same or greater value

 

[Fodrigal]

If the salesperson goes to his manager and asks for discount and then goes back and tells his boss that you have gone home to think about it, it won't be a comfortable conversation for him.

When I started in car sales the very first customer I spoke to, did this exact thing after 45mins of dealing, saying they would come back after they'd had lunch.

As I was so naive the boss wasn't that angry but bet me £100 that they would never come back, and I stupidly took him up as I hadn't become cynical of customers lies yet


They came back two hours later and bought the car A dark green Vectra estate (I remember the reg but won't post it )

There was a zero tolerance for letting customers leave after that day though so it was most definitely a one off!!!!

 

[TheNissanMan]

When I started in car sales the very first customer I spoke to, did this exact thing after 45mins of dealing, saying they would come back after they'd had lunch.

As I was so naive the boss wasn't that angry but bet me £100 that they would never come back, and I stupidly took him up as I hadn't become cynical of customers lies yet


They came back two hours later and bought the car A dark green Vectra estate (I remember the reg but won't post it )

There was a zero tolerance for letting customers leave after that day though so it was most definitely a one off!!!!

Wonder if anyone has part exchanged a beback bus?

 

[nilagin]

I hate all this going off to see the sales manager nonsense. I just want to walk in negotiate a deal with the one salesman and leave it at that. If the salesman needs to go see his sales manager, I'll be out the door before the salesman reaches the office.

 

[Fodrigal]

I hate all this going off to see the sales manager nonsense. I just want to walk in negotiate a deal with the one salesman and leave it at that. If the salesman needs to go see his sales manager, I'll be out the door before the salesman reaches the office.

All the major outfits I've known/worked for operate with sales managers, so to avoid it you'd be limited to buying from an independant dealer

 

[TheNissanMan]

I hate all this going off to see the sales manager nonsense. I just want to walk in negotiate a deal with the one salesman and leave it at that. If the salesman needs to go see his sales manager, I'll be out the door before the salesman reaches the office.

You'ld be stuck in pretty much every main dealer I know...

I work with 10 sales execs as a specialist sale person but at the end of the day it comes down to accountability, I have been in most roles over the last 10 years and when talking about the volume we are doing you need someone to sanity check all deals. If your sales exec is any good they should only need to pop into the office once or twice as they will have a good understanding of what you are after in terms of new car/px, products etc.

It wouldn't be feasible to to give all sales execs access to delivery systems etc and I'm sure if you were ordering your shiney new toy you would want to know exactly when it was touching down, if there were any available sooner rather than later etc.

 

[cosmicma]

If you was rejecting the car then they would be trying to find you a replacement. Ultimately though unless you are buying as a distance sale, then to reject the car you would have to give the dealer an opportunity to put things right first, either fix the fault or provide another vehicle of either the same or greater value

i'l explain it might shed some light on the situation

the time came for a new to me car i'd saved up a few quid and it was to to go shopping
i looked at a few and talked to a few different dealers mostly indi's not main dealers for price reasons found out what dealers were willing to pay me part ex in general on the value of car i was looking at and finally found a car i liked at the right price
took it for a test drive and all seemed fine worked out the deal as stated earlier in the thread and bought it using my car in part ex
a day later the airbag/ srs light came on and i noticed the back brakes binding a little which is no big deal but the airbag was
took the car back the day after i bought it and pointed out the airbag light and binding brakes and was greeted with "no worries bring it in tomorrow and we will sort it"
on the way back home it started to rain the bloody wipers didn't work, for some reason the wipers stop working because of the airbag / srs fault which turns out to be the front passenger seat pressure mat
the final straw was finding a diesel leak from the fuel pump which wasn't obvious but showed after driving a while

anyway the car was taken back the next day as requested and they had it for over a week trying to fix the problems and was struggling with the airbag fault it was then when i rejected the car and they didn't argue the rejection
in their words it should have never been put on the forecourt with the faults it had
the dealers were very good about it and gave me a good price on the car i ended buying from them and they made damn sure the car was right before i took it
all in all everything turned out well all be it some inconvenience to me but i got a car i liked and 2 years later i still like it

 

[ChrisHeathcote]

I hate all this going off to see the sales manager nonsense. I just want to walk in negotiate a deal with the one salesman and leave it at that. If the salesman needs to go see his sales manager, I'll be out the door before the salesman reaches the office.

Lets suppose you employ someone to sell your car for you, you agree to pay him £100 regardless of how much he makes (or loses). How much negotiation do you think your salesperson will do?

 

[ChrisHeathcote]

You'ld be stuck in pretty much every main dealer I know...

I work with 10 sales execs as a specialist sale person but at the end of the day it comes down to accountability, I have been in most roles over the last 10 years and when talking about the volume we are doing you need someone to sanity check all deals. If your sales exec is any good they should only need to pop into the office once or twice as they will have a good understanding of what you are after in terms of new car/px, products etc.

It wouldn't be feasible to to give all sales execs access to delivery systems etc and I'm sure if you were ordering your shiney new toy you would want to know exactly when it was touching down, if there were any available sooner rather than later etc.

If the manager is any good, if the salesperson comes back with a second counter offer, they would come and speak to the customer

 

[ChrisHeathcote]

i'l explain it might shed some light on the situation

the time came for a new to me car i'd saved up a few quid and it was to to go shopping
i looked at a few and talked to a few different dealers mostly indi's not main dealers for price reasons found out what dealers were willing to pay me part ex in general on the value of car i was looking at and finally found a car i liked at the right price
took it for a test drive and all seemed fine worked out the deal as stated earlier in the thread and bought it using my car in part ex
a day later the airbag/ srs light came on and i noticed the back brakes binding a little which is no big deal but the airbag was
took the car back the day after i bought it and pointed out the airbag light and binding brakes and was greeted with "no worries bring it in tomorrow and we will sort it"
on the way back home it started to rain the bloody wipers didn't work, for some reason the wipers stop working because of the airbag / srs fault which turns out to be the front passenger seat pressure mat
the final straw was finding a diesel leak from the fuel pump which wasn't obvious but showed after driving a while

anyway the car was taken back the next day as requested and they had it for over a week trying to fix the problems and was struggling with the airbag fault it was then when i rejected the car and they didn't argue the rejection
in their words it should have never been put on the forecourt with the faults it had
the dealers were very good about it and gave me a good price on the car i ended buying from them and they made damn sure the car was right before i took it
all in all everything turned out well all be it some inconvenience to me but i got a car i liked and 2 years later i still like it

So as laid out in the SOGA you returned the car, gave them fair opportunity to fix it before rejecting it, they found a replacement and agreed a deal you were happy with and replaced the car. Good result then?

 

[cosmicma]

So as laid out in the SOGA you returned the car, gave them fair opportunity to fix it before rejecting it, they found a replacement and agreed a deal you were happy with and replaced the car. Good result then?

yes i think so

would i buy from them again ? i probably would

a dealers worth is how they deal with problems not how they sell you a car and in this case they did rather well

 

[nilagin]

You'ld be stuck in pretty much every main dealer I know...

I work with 10 sales execs as a specialist sale person but at the end of the day it comes down to accountability, I have been in most roles over the last 10 years and when talking about the volume we are doing you need someone to sanity check all deals. If your sales exec is any good they should only need to pop into the office once or twice as they will have a good understanding of what you are after in terms of new car/px, products etc.

It wouldn't be feasible to to give all sales execs access to delivery systems etc and I'm sure if you were ordering your shiney new toy you would want to know exactly when it was touching down, if there were any available sooner rather than later etc.

I've bought 4 cars from main dealers, Only one dealership p'd me off with the sales manager farce so I walked out. The dealers that got my custom, well all negotiations have been with the one salesperson, some but not all may have had to get confirmation of the part ex value from their 2nd hand sales department but that is it. All quick and painless.

 

[ChrisHeathcote]

Wonder if anyone has part exchanged a beback bus?

Not yet, but apparently somebody is interested and will be in with his deposit in the morning, he just needed to go home and speak to his wife

 

[nilagin]

Lets suppose you employ someone to sell your car for you, you agree to pay him £100 regardless of how much he makes (or loses). How much negotiation do you think your salesperson will do?

Perhaps some work on taking a percentage of the profit from the sale rather than a flat fee. As I said, I've bought cars without the fiasco and it's a much better buying experience, The trips to the sales manager just leave me with the feeling I'm being stitched up, instead of getting a good deal even if I'm not.

 

[Yves Geza]

Not yet, but apparently somebody is interested and will be in with his deposit in the morning, he just needed to go home and speak to his wife

I still fondly remember one of our salesmen who'd pick up the phone from his desk, dial and ask "Hello, darling! I'm with Mr Heathcote ... is it alright if i sell him a car today? I just thought I should check with you ... " ... and customers loved him

 

[ChrisHeathcote]

Most garages now work on a percentage, however guarantee a minimum amount, otherwise salespeople would stay away from the stock that is becoming overage and therefore has been discounted heavily leaving very little margin.

Fixed premiums will become more common practice, especially as if it was up to the FCA all salespeople would be on flat salaries rather than commission.

Some garages will give a salesperson a certain amount of "wiggle" room, ultimately if you want the best possible deal, don't be averted to getting the manager involved, sometimes they will even sell at a loss if they need the car off the stock books.

 

[ChrisHeathcote]

I still fondly remember one of our salesmen who'd pick up the phone from his desk, dial and ask "Hello, darling! I'm with Mr Heathcote ... is it alright if i sell him a car today? I just thought I should check with you ... " ... and customers loved him

When I first started I had a sales controller that would do the same. Wasn't it a line from the film "Suckers"

 

[OldCarlos]

As said above. Research the value of your car (be realistic) & research the value of your potential purchase.

If poss, sell private.

Have a max figure you are willing to spend & stick with it.
It's the cost to change that matters & not what you want for your p/x.

If you've seen a vehicle & can wait until the 4th week in the month, you might have a better chance of a deal. (monthly target/sales figures)
I've bought a couple of times in the past just before Christmas & got decent deals.

I never tell the salesman up front what I'm willing to spend, but they have a rough idea by the car you're enquiring about.

As negotiations/conversation goes on, they will need some idea of your budget, so I tell them I'm looking at spending X £'s (less at least 15%)
If they flatly refuse, you can be fairly certain there won't be a deal at that price.

I'll then up my offer by maybe 5% & say that is my max.

Off they pop to see their manager............. on return it's nearly always " we're getting there, but not near enough".

At this point i'll um & i'll ahh,.....then um & ahh again, shake my head a couple of times & say it doesn't look like i'll be able to afford it. (silence then usually ensues for a few seconds)

I'll then offer another couple of %.

Again, off they pop to see their boss ............. on return saying "Ooooh we're nearly there!."

At that point I get up to walk, but say I can maybe borrow a few quid from family, then offer another couple of %.
At that point it's usually enough.

If they let you walk out & don't ring you back within 24 hrs, your offer wasn't quite enough.
I've left showrooms/dealers over 6 months road tax...... but I've also had the phone call after being back home for an hour, that they'll do the deal.


It's a game & they're a business after all. Pity it's such a PITA & takes what seems forever, but it's your hard-earned.

Don't get fixated on that 1 car you've seen............there are others just as good (or better) if you can wait a few weeks.

 

[ChrisHeathcote]

I'll then offer another couple of %.

Again, off they pop to see their boss ............. on return saying "Ooooh we're nearly there!."

In my opinion if the manager is doing his job properly, at this point you should be talking to him

It's a game & they're a business after all. Pity it's such a PITA & takes what seems forever, but it's your hard-earned.

I will apologise in advance if I am a bit short in my response, however this is an attitude that really p@&£&)s me off, (and possibly many other people in my profession). To us it is not a game, we rely on it to pay our mortgages, provide food and clothing for our children. It annoys me that so many people look down on our profession. Would you refer to your profession as a game?

 

[Lynton]

feel free to correct me, but surely the only figure you need to condier ids the £x between car y and car z.......

whether discount, warranty, whatever.. how much to change,