No movement on price?!

[BeforeNextWeek]

Currently looking for a new (2nd hand) car.

Every place I've been to, the car salesmen are saying the price is the price, there's no wiggle room.

I've never had this experience before - there's always bartering! Not even budging a penny, resulting in no sale and the car stays there, unsold.

What's going on?!

Yeah it's common now. I prefer it tbh. The price is the price so I know there's no point even test driving if I'm not prepared to pay it. If you're part exchanging you can usually negotiate on the value of your own car.

That's interesting! So that's just how it is now?

Very different to my experiences before!

My dd bought a car about a month ago and haggled the price down, this was from a garage, not a private sale.

I bought one about a year ago and the salesman told me that pre-covid the dealership had the authority to negotiate on price. During covid because of all the difficulties /cars being ordered online / not seeing customers face to face that was taken away by head office and it never changed back (he said it was a PITA for them as well because everyone expects to be able to get a few hundred quid off at least so it makes their jobs harder). Mini BMW.

How old are these second hand cars @BeforeNextWeek / how high is the price?

I know that sounds like a weird question, but my understanding is that most used car dealers make money on finance and products sold. If they’re not selling car finance to help the cars get off the forecourt, then it’s all about margins on the price , which is why some are very strict about price.

My other question would be.. what incentive are you offering them to sell?

I know that sound bizarre right - you’re the customer walking in, you should be red carpeted and made to feel you came away with a bargain. But imagine if this was a Vinted thread , I can’t imagine anyone would be saying similar about a customer - everyone wants their price.

But what I meant by “offering them an incentive”, is trying to find out what they want or need.

Do they prefer cash buyers of cars so to speak? If so, can you go and research three similar cars on sale nearby, and in a positive friendly way show them the lower prices, and why you think the car should be priced at X?

If you are financially ready and show willing to buy at near to the price, and they refuse, then move on - honestly , forget about them. There’s a dealer near me with a Range Rover that’s 2.5 times the price of a normal one that age. They will stick to the price for its colour and rarity, but it will never ever sell for that. It’s just how long the dealer is willing to wait to find that out.

Good luck to you and I hope you can uncover the things that motivate a dealer to want to sell so to speak.

Used vehicles are keeping their value and even increasing at the moment: they don't have to haggle to achieve their price so they won't.

Great post @JacquesHarlow thank you.

My price range is £15-18k. One car that I researched, test drove and liked was priced at £17,950 but on inspection it had a couple of disappointments not mentioned in the Ad (minor things, I'm not a tyre kicker) which meant the value wasn't worth the top-top price considering the comparative high mileage, but the guy wouldn't budge.

He seemed surprised when I walked away!

I don't understand when the vehicles are sitting in their forecourts for months, surely it's better to get a sale?

I agree @BeforeNextWeek I can't understand it either.

I have a feeling (and I am not in this trade) that the Internet (aka everyone can see all the prices at once) and buying cars remotely during Covid, has just led to a situation where the prices being advertised online are close to the very margins of what a dealer can make profit on, if the only profit is from the price. It's why they want to sell you GardX or paint protection every time they sell a car, or why some have the (shudder) £99 "administration fee".

The big car supermarkets turn over hundreds of cars a month, and they are the benchmark for price. Imagine you're a small dealer locally trying to sell a Kia Sportage or whatever, and your listing goes onto Autotrader, along with 100s of other big dealers selling the same model. You'll need to be close enough to those dealers price just to get the phone to ring, which I guess means the margins for haggling might be a few hundred off maybe, instead of the bigger numbers I was used to haggling years ago.

I agree though, leaving stock sitting for months can't be putting any money in anyone's pockets, it must be a scary situation where if they discount, they stand to even lose a bit on the value they bought the car for maybe

We bought a car recently and both garages said very clearly on their website that the prices were 'No haggle' prices. I don't want to haggle, I want things to be priced reasonably. If places allow haggling then they are usually priced high to start with.

Second hand cars are now at a premium , new cars hard to get and shift. They know they will sell the car and it’s priced to sell. Trust me someone else will buy what you walked away from.

What incentive are you offering them to sell?
But what I meant by “offering them an incentive”, is trying to find out what they want or need

God help us if that is the attitude we need to adopt in order to buy ready available goods. 🐂💩

Yes we brought a second hand last year from the dealership. Lots aren’t coming down on price but we did ask about extras. Got a three year service plan included and took out finance we didn’t need (paid it off within 7 days) which gave us a contribution from the dealership too.

I have contact with a couple of car dealers in my role. The last thing they want is vehicles sat on the forecourt for months, they generally want to turn them quickly. But they also don’t want to let things go too cheaply and lose out on potential profit. It’s a balancing act.

If they are not reducing the price it’s either because they have had a lot of interest on the vehicle and know they can get more for it, or they know from experience that the right buyer will pay what they are asking and they have enough profit in the vehicle to allow them to wait it out a bit. If a vehicle really needs to go they will usually squeeze the price as much as possible for a quick sale as the vehicle is costing them every day it’s sat there. If they don’t want to budge on price it’s because they don’t need to.

We got one a month ago and there was wiggle room.

I also prefer it. Tell me the price and I’ll tell you whether I’ll buy it. The only thing I’ve ever negotiated price on was my house.

There is a used car been on a loca garage forecourt for 3 months now. They have actually put the price UP. Tats not he way to sell the thing

You likely won't get a price reduction but depending where you are buying from - ask for a service plan, tax, tank of fuel, new mats, that kind of stuff and you'll probably get something thrown in