Bought a car - how to get a good deal with the extras?

[Starlighttwinkle]

On Friday DP and I put down a deposit on a car. We haggled and were able to get £400 off, free road tax for a year, free MOT for this year.

We are taking it for a test drive today (this exact car wasn’t at our local dealership) and we expect this is when they’ll try and sell us their service plan and extended warranties etc.

Realistically, is there a deal to be done here? Can they discount these things for us? If not, I don’t think I’ll bother with either but happy to take some advice on board as to whether they’re needed! Thanks

I always buy second hand so not quite the same. But I had an issue after the purchase and they threw in three years' scratch and dent insurance. Sounded a bit pointless but was brilliant as they sent people out to make minor repairs with no excess.

Not sure how service plans work but one of the annual services on my RR is nearly £1k so that would be a decent cost saving.

Make sure you know the value of any extras and whether they're worth it to you.

The only time I bought a new car (it was a PCP deal on a limited edition with 0% finance and free servicing that worked out hardly any more than the 1-2 YO version I was going to buy) they went hard sell on Gap insurance, some sort of special coating for the interior and something else I don't remember) but I didn't want any of it and certainly not at the price they were asking - came to a few hundred.

So we went around in circles for an hour or two while the salesman made a big show of 'talking to his manager' and I wasn't far from telling them to just forget the whole deal, when they finally offered it all for about £150, so maybe a quarter of the initial price but I still felt a bit ripped off, especially as I later googled the price of Gap insurance and found that there's was about 5 times more than you'd get it for independently £300 vs £60 I think.

As you are apparently buying a second hand car, check exactly what the warranty covers. Have a look online for servicing costs so you can compare with any service plan they offer. Also do check the MOT history if there is any.

I believe the current situation is that it's difficult to get much of a price reduction atm, but that you might be able to get other freebies thrown in - a tank of petrol, new mats etc., maybe the first service free etc.

Thanks all. It’s a used car, cash purchase. Just about to go in to the dealership so will see what they try and flog us. Don’t think we will bother with gap insurance but may consider their service plan

My other tip would be to look through the used car lists of other dealers and play them off against each other. Particularly if one used car has more extras etc (often cheaper in different regions).

I tend to go in as though I'm totally innocent of cars. They talk mostly to dh (who on a good day realises that a car has 4 wheels and needs petrol) and I make a few concerned noises. Along the lines of "this is a bit rough here, it caught on my finger". They then normally promise to sort it before we get it because they're mostly distracted by impressing dh.
As dh gets closer to a deal, I come in with wanting new brake pads/tyres/anything else that I think might need doing or fancy having done. They're busy negotiating with dh and normally say yes to all. Once they've agreed to that I start on the extras I'd like. I normally go for at least 6 months tax, extended warranty, free service next year. One time I got 6 months of insurance too.

Dh gets quite embarrassed, but it works well. 🤣🤣🤣 He threatened to leave me behind last time. He didn't.

Starting with "unsure about the colour" is a good opening, because if they want to sell you that car they can't do anything about that so they're ready to compromise on other things.
Don't worry about being cheeky. They want to sell to you more than you want to buy from them, and they'll be used to negotiation. I once asked straight out for 50% off, and they came straight back with 10% off which opens negotiations.

However times are tougher now for used cars. Dd's new one last November was a tougher sell, so go for what you want and don't worry about asking. Worst that can happen is they say "no".

I find it quite fun. 🤣

I second everything @MargaretThursday said!

Do your research, find out how much things are worth if you get them from a 3rd party (especially gap insurance, breakdown cover etc). If you're getting finance, get a loan pre-agreed elsewhere and show them that; they'll be desperate to beat that deal as they are incentivised on finance too (make sure you cancel the loan if you don't need it though!)

Everything is negotiable. Try and hold off until the end of the month if you can, they'll be more likely to go the extra mile if they only have a few days left to make their sales target for that month. The tip about the colour definitely works, as a rule never look delighted with what they have in stock, just act like it's not quite what you were looking for but you could be swayed for the right deal.

Ask for anything you can think of: footwell mats, extra inflator kit, de-icer, fuel, anything!

The last car we bought, we were there for 3h, I negociated 20% off the asking price, finance at practically no interest, a higher price for our trade in, gap insurance and breakdown cover for less than half of what they first offered, further reduction in the car price when they said they weren't allowed to give us the car tax for free, cleaning supplies, de-icer etc. At the end of it the poor salesman looked absolutely exhausted ; I asked for some mats and he said "if I give you the mats, do you promise that you'll finally buy this car?" 😂. I did.

DH was looking throughout the whole thing like he wanted the ground to swallow him up, but he was happy with the deal!