To haggle at a car dealership?

[purplejungle]

Looking to buy a nearly new car from a car dealership.

Can I/ should I haggle? Any tips?

Tia

@Sssloou

What % do you think you could get off the list price .... or what value extras could you get?

I feel like a right dick .... got talked into all of these on top of the published price:

£400 warranty for tyres and alloys for 3 years
£400 warranty for scratches for 3 years
£400 interior scotch guard

They threw in 3 years servicing worth £300

Then £450 for parking sensors, parking camera, and cruise control.

Then they called me today to say it was so hard to find a car but had tracked one down but it had multi functional steering wheel so another £300 “for safety”

It is 3 yes 0% finance. VW Up

Should I pull out and start again? Only paid £250 deposit but signed some paperwork via email on Friday.....

I'm not sure of the paperwork you have signed but Christ you're being robbed!

You do not need all those extra warranties. It may be possible to renegotiate your deal, pulling out will probably mean losing your deposit.

@Sssloou is it a brand new UP? That’s insane, I bought a 3 year old UP with low mileage in February and I’d have laughed the salesman out of his own showroom if he’d tried that nonsense!! I do appreciate that they work on commission though and their industry has been heavily affected by covid but WOW.

Unless you have particularly messy passengers - children, mucky dogs etc then the interior protection isn’t really worth the money, anything spilled or stained will come out with a good valet. Parking sensors etc are nice, but the UP is so small and easy to drive I really don’t think they’re necessary on a small car like that. (unless of course, you do want these things, then unfortunately that’s the price you pay for them...) I do think they’re taking the piss, I’d ask for your deposit back and look elsewhere if you can.
I also have zero buttons/functions on my steering wheel and I manage to drive perfectly safely. They’re are plenty of UPs about (used mind you) so it might be worth shopping around.

Adding to the above, £400 interior scotch guarding, what on earth? You can buy a can and do it yourself easily for about a tenner.

@SmileyClare

Yes I always have. My tips;

-look up the book price this will give you an idea of the cars base value

-Go for cars with full service history

-As few previous owners as possible

-low mileage for age of car (look this up before hand)

-full MOT, look at "recommended repairs" on the MOT certificate.

Any of the points above give you leverage to haggle the price down. Good luck.

I don't understand that, do you mean that lack of any of the above is a bargaining point?

If those things are important to you why would you want a car without them even at a cheaper price?

[quote crazyspaniellady]@Sssloou is it a brand new UP? That’s insane, I bought a 3 year old UP with low mileage in February and I’d have laughed the salesman out of his own showroom if he’d tried that nonsense!! I do appreciate that they work on commission though and their industry has been heavily affected by covid but WOW.

Unless you have particularly messy passengers - children, mucky dogs etc then the interior protection isn’t really worth the money, anything spilled or stained will come out with a good valet. Parking sensors etc are nice, but the UP is so small and easy to drive I really don’t think they’re necessary on a small car like that. (unless of course, you do want these things, then unfortunately that’s the price you pay for them...) I do think they’re taking the piss, I’d ask for your deposit back and look elsewhere if you can.
I also have zero buttons/functions on my steering wheel and I manage to drive perfectly safely. They’re are plenty of UPs about (used mind you) so it might be worth shopping around.[/quote]
Yes it is new. How much was your 3 year old one? They told me that there were v few 2nd hand ones around.

I can go back and take off all of the xtras.

How much should I get off the list price (£13 475)

There is also £870 “RFL 1st Reg Fee and Delivery” + £20 petrol! Don’t even know what RFL is.

They seem to be sourcing it - does it not just come from a factory.

@SmileyClare

Yes I always have. My tips;

-look up the book price this will give you an idea of the cars base value

-Go for cars with full service history

-As few previous owners as possible

-low mileage for age of car (look this up before hand)

-full MOT, look at "recommended repairs" on the MOT certificate.

Any of the points above give you leverage to haggle the price down. Good luck.

RFL is road fund licence I assume, so car tax

Seriously @Sssloou, you need to get someone to help who actually knows about buying cars, they are ripping you off

If those things are important to you why would you want a car without them?

Those points I mentioned would be the ideals but say for example the car had part service history, 10 months MOT, or a slightly higher than average mileage for its age, I would still be interested in buying the car but would push the asking price down. Or for example the MOT had an advisory to replace brake pads in the near future. If you want to haggle a price, you need leverage to do so. You can't just demand to pay less because you want to (worth trying I suppose ) I find you need to present a valid argument or reasons to knock the asking price down.

Maybe I'm not the best person to advise the Op. I buy second hand cars very cheaply (£2k max) due to financial constraints and never take on car finance.

The £870 is broken down to £529 delivery charge - £55 reg fee and £180 road fund license. Can I get the £529 reduced?

So if I get rid of the warranties and extras that I don’t want - how much can I get off the list price?

Sslouu I've no idea if you've already signed a finance agreement or are tied to a contract here. I would advise looking everything up, including what all the abbreviated terms are and going back to try to renegotiate. I would have thought you could register and tax the car yourself?

So if I get rid of the warranties and extras that I don’t want - how much can I get off the list price?

Probably not much in the current climate but always worth asking! Check CarWow and other VW dealers out as well.

@Sssloou I paid £8k for a 67 plate with only 5.5k miles on it. Where are you? I’m in Scotland and there’s definitely plenty second hand ones about, more so in the central belt, at least there was when I was looking in February.

Always - at the very least you should be able to negotiate free servicing / mats / satnav file updates or whatever.

I spent 4 hours in the BMW garage a month ago negotiating on a upgrade to my car. Got a bigger more expensive car for a reduction in my monthly payment. I sent them into their office 8 times to look at cheaper rates.
I never sign up for the "extras" you can get cheaper elsewhere.
I would reccomend seeing what deals you can get on finance and then paying the finance off once you have the car if you have the money. But look carefully at intrest rates.

@Slippy78

You can always go for finance to get a better deal and then immediately pay it off with cash when the transaction is complete.

This. Best of both worlds.

I got a new (to me) car a few weeks ago, priced at £7990, they knocked off £300 when we asked if that was the best price they was offering for cash buy. I had hoped for 500 though!

I think warrenty ect is fairly standard but we did get it serviced and its first MOT done from them aswell (4 years old), plus 4 new tyres upon asking.

They didnt once seem angry/shocked. I think they absolutely do expect it and tbh worst they can say is no and you pay full price anyway!

The mark up on second hand cars is usually large for this exact reason I always thought!

Ive only ever been refused once but that was a private seller so to be expected!

Thanks so much for the Carwow tip....have found the basic UP that I wanted for 12688 new for cash or their 0% finance - and that’s an on the road price - saving £££££,s

I (obviously!!) have never bought a car like this before - so now v anxious about what happens at 3 years and the balloon payment - does this mean I have to be so stressed not to scratch the car etc - I plan to buy it in 3 years and hang on to it for another 7.... would I be better off getting a cheap Tesco loan now so that I would just own it out right and not be stressed about any damage - or should I just get that loan then?

If you don't ask you don't get. But be prepared to just walk away if you can't agree a price in your budget.

I don't do the whole game play nonsense. I just say outright what I'm prepared to pay and what extras I want included so they can look at it and we can either proceed or part ways without wasting time.

@Sssloou

Thanks so much for the Carwow tip....have found the basic UP that I wanted for 12688 new for cash or their 0% finance - and that’s an on the road price - saving £££££,s

I (obviously!!) have never bought a car like this before - so now v anxious about what happens at 3 years and the balloon payment - does this mean I have to be so stressed not to scratch the car etc - I plan to buy it in 3 years and hang on to it for another 7.... would I be better off getting a cheap Tesco loan now so that I would just own it out right and not be stressed about any damage - or should I just get that loan then?

If you plan to buy it in three years time it doesn’t matter if it’s scratched to buggery. Get the loan at the latest possible date, assuming the next three years are interest free - why pay interest if you don’t have to?

@Blossomtoes - ahh of course .... that makes sense. Only thing I need to ensure I suppose is that they don’t over charge me in 3 years time?

[quote Sssloou]@Blossomtoes - ahh of course .... that makes sense. Only thing I need to ensure I suppose is that they don’t over charge me in 3 years time?[/quote]
They won’t. You agree a final price now and that’s what you’ll pay. If you’re happy with the numbers it’s foolproof.

Go at the end of a month, or even better the end of a quarter. They'll have targets to meet.

I came on to say this. We went to a dealership today, and through the open door to the sales manager’s office we could see the monthly target for each model. It seems to be a good time to buy a Berlingo in SE London, is all I’m saying .

Yeah. Once the price appears to be agreed appear to have second thoughts and ask for an extra 50 quid off.

Get as big a discount as you can squeeze out of them! Dh used to work for a car sales company and says you can get decent discounts, but they do still need to make some profit, so it depends on how much they have spent on buying the car in the first place for how much discount you can get.

We once went and bought a (not hugely old) car from a dealer a couple of days before the new cars were being delivered for the new registration plates coming out in the September, got extra discount as they needed to clear as much space as possible for their new cars.

Of course!

Dealers used to price cars quite cheekily, expecting to haggle with customers and still achieve a price they were happy with.

The internet has changed things though, as it’s made it so easy for customers to compare prices. People now go on Autotrader, search for the car they want, and filter price low to high. Dealers have to price very cheaply otherwise the phone won’t ring. As a result many dealers won’t haggle the price any more.

‘Discount for cash’ is also a thing of the past. Dealers much prefer to sell on finance now as they earn a huge amount of commission from it - often more than they make from sellling the car.

The way to get a good deal these days is to sign up to their finance deal, then pay off the finance in full the next day.