to expect at least some negotiation on car price?

[Twillow]

Went to look at a used car we liked at a major dealer. Sat down to discuss price which basically consisted of trying to sell us warranties and 'care packs'. Set out my maximum budget (not a million miles off) so the salesman did a search online for a cheaper car! We actually walked out without anything!! Are the days of negotiating some discount completely over?

Depends, if it is one of the big car supermarkets then the screen price is the price. Main dealers usually will negotiate.

Depends on the dealer. As a general rule, car supermarket type places and dealers with a lot of stock will tend to not budge as much, if at all, especially if say they have other people who have arranged test drives etc or if they are reasonably confident they will be able to get the asking price.

You may find that if the car doesn't sell it might get a reduction though, so keep an eye on it over the next week or two, or just keep looking for something that is within budget.

Evans Halshaw by any chance? We've just been through the trauma of buying a car, any savings we got will be spent on wine to try and block the experience from my mind!

Wrong time of the year/month. Sept regs are due so the dealer might have enough business from those keen to get the new plates. Also, go towards the last couple of days of a month, when they have less time to hit their targets.
Let the dust settle after the Sept regs and you should see more negotiation around the back end of Oct.

I didn't find there was that much room for negotiation when I got my 2nd hand car a few years ago.

Even walked out, expected a call to say they would negotiate but they didn't, got a bit off but not much

We tried to negotiate with our local dealer for a used Volkswagen car. We had previously bought a car from a different branch of the same company and had managed to negotiate it so that we felt it was comparable with a car supermarket.
This guy wasn't prepared to budge at all. We definitely were there to buy a car too!
A couple of weeks later we saw it dropped in price a fair bit 😂

We had already bought a different car by that point!

Sorry. Just realised you were after used not new.
Have you looked online at the Parkers guide to see what they consider the price to be?

It was a little higher than the Parkers guide price. Maybe the internet means they can't overcharge! But they had had it for a month and it was towards the end of the month so I was hoping for a little leeway! And no it wasn't Evans Halshaw.