Tips on buying a used car please?

[Starlighttwinkle]

We need a new (used) car soon. Budget of about £14k and we reckon DP’s car which we will trade in is worth about £2k, so we are prepared to pay around £12k cash.

I really dislike dealing with pushy salespeople so I’d rather go to the dealership armed with advice on how to get the best deal possible please.

Am I right in saying that salespeople are less likely to give you the best deal possible if you pay cash, rather than take finance? (I’m thinking they get more commission from finance deals?)

Realistically, what can I ask for? ie are they likely to knock money off the car we’re hoping to purchase or is the advertised price set in stone? Should we accept the first offer for the value of DP’s car or should I haggle until they give me a better offer? What freebies should I be asking for?

Thanks!

There is a shortage of cars at the moment so don't expect them to move much (if anything at all) on the price of the car you are purchasing. Look at what Autotrader says you will get for your current car, both for a private sale (the highest figure) and as a trade-in (lower figure by about 1/3rd) and expect to negotiate to a point between the 2. You should get a 1 year warranty from a dealership and might be able to get breakdown cover and a tank of petrol.

As someone who works in scams department banking- my main advice...DO NOT TRANSFER MONEY FOR A CAR BEFORE YOU HAVE IT 😊

As a veteran purchaser of rubbish second hand cars I have a shortlist: Full Service History essential. Warranty that covers engine and gearbox failure.
RAC/similar check. If the dealer won’t let you do this (if they haven’t done so already), walk away.
Word of Mouth is the way to go when working out best local dealers.
My budget has never exceeded 2K so I suspect with yours you’ll find something really nice. Happy shopping!

Full service history
Fresh mot. Even if it has 6 months left get them to get another one.
Get a mobile mechanic to go and do a pre purchase inspection, these are around £150/180 but worth it.
Warranty

Thanks for your tips all.

@ItsOKToFeelProud would dealerships such as Arnold Clark or Peter Vardy be willing to put the car through another MOT or would it be more local garages or private sellers who would do that?

If there are deposit contributions available on finance then it can be worth taking the finance and then settling it.

Looking to buy at the moment and PP is right on the fact there isn’t much bartering to be done. Prices are really high!

@Starlighttwinkle

Am I right in saying that salespeople are less likely to give you the best deal possible if you pay cash, rather than take finance? (I’m thinking they get more commission from finance deals?)

All you can do is ask them. Finance commission isn't as great as people think, especially on low finance or zero rate deals, garages have to offer it as very few people can afford a car buying without finance and they can use it as a sales tool, i.e. they have everything at their fingertips to extend the term to make repayments lower, etc., to sell a higher value car!

If they have too many cars in stock or are approaching busy times when lots of part exchanges are due in, they'll be far more open to doing a deal to get rid of some stock and get some cash in the bank to aid cash flow.

You really need to establish good dialogue with them. Even when used prices are stupidly high at present, there's always a deal to be had. The garage won't be expecting to sell their cars at windscreen price, even today. You can always find ways of reducing the difference between your PX and the windscreen price of the car you're after. Some garages will "negotiate"on the value of your PX, others will throw in some "freebies" such as a new set of mats, a full tank of petrol, a "proper" spare tyre if it doesn't have one, an extended warranty, etc. For a car up at £14k and a PX of £2k,

I'd be starting negotiations at £10k and see where it goes. I'd also not conclude any deal same day - if you've not got them down far enough, then walk away (politely I mean, not strop off) - you'll often find you get a phone call the next day with an improved offer! - obviously make sure they have your name and number! We've never paid windscreen nor list price for any of our new or used cars. The last new car we bought was a 25% discount - list price was £20k and we "negotiated" them down to £15k. That took 10 days of "negotiation" where we basically stood our ground and they phoned us back every couple of days with an improved offer! Re used cars, windscreen prices may be high, but it's still a "negotiation" between buyer and seller - garages rely on people not wanting to be seen as "awkward" by bargaining/negotiating, so put high prices on cars in the expectation of "doing a deal". VERY few people pay list or windscreen price, so feel free to haggle hard.

I usually know exactly what I want by the time I go to any dealer. I'm autistic so spend hours researching cars and dealer stock before I leave the house.

My top tip with any salesperson is to say to them right at the start 'please do not try to sell me a car, that's why I am here, I already want to buy a car' - they usually drop the shite at that point which makes the experience much nicer.

I have always paid cash and they do try to steer towards finance these days. I had one try to tell me I should take finance then use my cash to pay it off straight away because it would benefit me. I'm like no mate it will benefit you. I just want to pay and leave!!

I paid cash my my last car and got £2k knocked off to match the deposit contribution. No idea how that happened and I wasn't expecting it but the dealer sorted it so I didn't lose out.

Bought a second hand car recently, I had cash.
Zero price drop to be had.
My car had a new MOT, service, warrenty for 6months ( As it happened , the slave drive had to be replaced after 6 weeks and was fixed no prob by them- Though I had to drive back to dealer (onsite mechanics) they gave a courtsey car for a week though. )
It had a valet too.

You won’t get much movement on cost at the moment but push for extra. Service and MoT plan for 3 years, additional warranty etc

I bought a car yesterday from main dealer. Price was 11k, I managed to negotiate £350 off that price. I’m paying cash and didn’t trade my old car in. Old car is a 2009 Ford fiesta and I will get more for it if I sell privately myself. Very few cars for sale in my area in my old car price bracket so I’m sure I can sell it myself.

I bought a vehicle recently. There was no movement whatsoever on price (similar budget to yours) in any of the dealerships I went to. I found the smaller, family run dealers were much nicer to talk with and cheaper than the big names, but the big names obviously had more choice.

I’d work on deciding what you want first - possibly with lots of internet searching, or if you’re bolshy enough, by going and test driving lots of cars at one of the bigger dealers.

Once you’ve decided, set your autotrader / AA cars search to ‘national’ and look for the best version of the car you want. I got the train to the other side of the country for my car but I’m so glad I did (lower miles, better extras than any of the local versions).

WRT your trade in, it might be worth checking what WeBuyAnyCar would offer you before going to the dealers. I was pleasantly surprised by my dealings with them and I got significantly more from WBAC than I would have on a part exchange.

Hi OP,
For that budget you could look at Cazoo and similar firms. There's no negotiating on price but we bought a little car from them and it was really easy. (We didn't part exchange that time but they may do that too.)
Friends have bought from Car Giant with no issues too.
Would recommend checking valuations (both of the car you are buying and the one you're part exchanging) - if you pay a small fee Parker's online can do a mileage etc adjusted valuation.
And obvs check when the next MOT etc is due and get a decent warranty.

Some really great advice here, thank you.

@Badbadbunny sounds like you drive a hard bargain! I’m impressed you got such a discount on your car. What did you get?

@halesie I didn’t think of cazoo (despite seeing adverts all the time for them and cinch!). I’ve had a look this morning and seen some great deals.

Has anyone got experience of buying from Cazoo/Cinch/other online car sales?

I'm somewhat relieved to read there is no movement on car prices at the moment - that was our experience in buying our ~£10K car a couple of weeks ago from main dealer-type garages, so I'm glad we are not losing our touch! (have previously got decent sums off when buying).

There were four cars we pursued, none of the dealers would budge a penny on price (and my DH is a very good negotiator!). Three of the dealers would also not budge an inch on delivery (the cars were all >150 miles away, charging £1+ per mile for delivery) but the car we ended up buying, did agree free delivery. My DH also got them to agree to £30 worth of petrol top up (I.e. so the tank wasn't empty when the car arrived). We got the standard warranty, the car had been serviced etc. They would have also given us a discounted price for an extended warranty (which we declined).

So I would say you are more likely to get money off extras (delivery, extended warranty, getting them to do a MOT, getting them to touch up the alloys, tank of petrol, set of mats).

With regard to part exchange, none were particularly interested in pursuing it, and told us we'd get the same/less than we buy any car.

Have a look at car supermarkets OP. Often the price is fixed but you might be able to negotiate extras and have a new MOT and service. I got a car a couple of years ago from Available Car, but if you google, a few others come up such as Motorpoint.

They generally have good websites where you can enter your criteria (max price, size etc) to come up what's available, or you can go and browse, often without being 'helped' until you actually ask. If the car you are interested in is at another branch, they will often arrange to bring it to your local branch for you to view.

Main dealers often give a better price for finance but then you have to balance it against the cost of finance, which is likely to be at a relatively high interest rate and I would have thought they cost more than the car supermarkets, but there could be anomalies, so you just have to look around, My car was cheaper than comparators from Cinch/Cazoo, but I think it might have been underpriced and I was lucky, because the same place is selling the same age car for more money now, even though it's two years older.

Unfortunately its a shit time to have to buy a car, so it might be worth thinking about whether or not you can squeeze another year or two out of your current car, even if it means paying more for repairs than you otherwise would.

I wouldn't discount Cazoo/Cinch and I think I've seen a few people on here say they were happy with their purchase from them. I only didn't consider them because they were more expensive than the car I wanted from a local car supermarket.

You can see a video of the car online and you have 14 days to return the car, eg if you hate driving it.

We actually have a Cazoo showroom locally, so have a look to see if you have the same.

Hi OP for context we got a few years old Toyota Yaris about 18 months ago (so not v expensive and a make and model generally known to be reliable) and have had no issues at all. Suspect we wouldn't have been so brave with anything much more expensive or more risky on reliability though!
We had always bought from dealers before (some branded, some not, some ok, some not great) and negotiated and we just didn't want the hassle so this was perfect.

We're looking at second hand cars currently and are using MyCarCheck to check the cars history - it does MOT/car tax/if it's previously been written off or reported stolen etc and it's handy as all the info is saved in the same place so me and DP can look back at previous checks.

We also paid someone to come with us for a few of the cars we were serious about (I can't think what the official name is for them but they were a recommendation from a previous MN thread!). It was really handy as they checked the car over fully and also handled some of the negotiating for us. We are also cash buyers.