To ask for your tips on haggling on a car price?

[NotMeItsYou]

I’m booked to test drive a (used) car from a dealership, let’s say it’s for sale at £9000 and ideally I don’t want to spend much more than £8000-8500 max if I can. I’ve already made the mistake of saying I’m a cash buyer because the salesman asked if I needed finance or a part exchange and I need neither and I couldn’t lie. I’ve now learnt it’s not good to offer this info up straight away 😂 I’m clearly a novice car purchaser

If I see the car and all looks good, how do I go about negotiating on the price? Do I test drive then ask what’s the best price they can do for me?

Unfortunately I have no one to come with me who can give it a second pair of eyes and I’m not the most confident in this situation.

Any tips or advice most welcome!

Put the details of the car into webuyanycar.com and see what price comes up. That will give you a good idea
of the value of it.

Yes, the value of the car to the dealer BEFORE they add their costs and profit on to it. You’ve absolutely no chance of getting a car from a dealer at anywhere near the WBAC valuation.

I got quite a lot off a car. Buy at the end of the month if possible
If you can't get the actual discount try for a tank of fuel, first service, insurance, MOT etc
No harm walking away and coming back

I bought a car for cash 7 months ago. £15,000. Nobody was interested. A main VW dealer said "we dont do that" when I asked if they'd take £800 below. I got the same response from Volvo.

In the end I bought from an independent but you could just see the disinterest when you said you were a cash buyer. It's not how they make their money these days. It's all about finance & warranties/insurances etc..

I am always a cash buyer, of older cheaper cars. Never haggled as too nerve racking. Did once get £100 knocked off without asking for it but I check on auto trader and know how much it's worth before hand. The impression I get is that the dealers can't really be bothered to sell them. I am usually keen to drive it away immediately but that always seems too difficult. I get that there's not a huge profit margin in a £2000 car, but it's still money in their pocket. Maybe they are hoping I will go away and someone else will buy it on finance...

We have bought a couple of second hand cars. Our impression was that pricing is far more transparent than it used to be, so dealers don't negotiate much. You can ask for eg a tank of petrol, car mats etc, but no way will you get a £1,000 discount

Be prepared to walk away. A friend of mine used to work as a second hand car sales men and he said very rarely did they get a sale on this first day. Be upfront about what you are willing to pay and do some research on similar cars before.

@mygenericusername

We work in the high end restoration and premium markets. We don’t offer finance and no customer of ours has ever even enquired about such a service. If you can’t afford cash or a small high street loan you shouldn’t be buying it in the first place.

PCP is a ticking time bomb. Car dealers like you that ‘rent’ cars to customers that can’t afford them are a disgrace. It’s sub prime mortgages all over again, ruining people’s lives for a piece of plastic and cheap metal. Hopefully heavy regulation is coming your way.

If the dealer starts trying to tell you you’ll be better off on finance OP leave. Find an honest dealer who is interested in their customers, not lining their pockets with commissions. You’ll get a better car got your money

The difference between a car finance agreement and a personal loan taken out with a bank is one is linked to the car snd one isn't and the finance company have some liability if there's an issue with the car which a bank loan won't. Both are charging fees, both making money out of you. Bank loan vs standard car finance is about the rate and main dealer rates are often very negotiable. PCP, completely different kettle of fish.

If you’ve no intention of paying anywhere near what the price of the car is then cancel your appointment and look at something that is within your price range.

Most dealerships are appointment only at the moment so please don’t waste your sales persons time when they could be helping someone else buy a car instead.