Buying a car outright from dealership - do/can you haggle?

[redcherrybottle]

I find it excruciating to haggle on things but wondered if I’d be foolish not to try ? Or is it not the done thing with modern dealerships?

I’m about to purchase a car - I’m happy with the car, age, spec and condition. I’m also happy enough that it’s a fairly priced car but is it expected that I’ll try to negotiate extras/some money off?

what’s your experience ?

Of course you negotiate.

I just bought a car from a big, nationwide dealership. I asked if I could haggle the price and they said no because it’s set by head office and no wiggle room on that. What they would negotiate on was the price they’d give me for my part-exchange. I negotiated an extra £1000 out of them for that (which was £1500 more than we were expecting).

I haven’t been able to haggle on the last 3 cars I bought. Prior to that it seemed dealers always haggled. I get the same message that head office have set the price, it’s competitive, etc. Apparently you might have a better chance at the end of the month if they are struggling to meet targets, problem is if they’ve met the target for the month they won’t care!

Yup, don’t let them fool you into thinking otherwise which they will try.

The sales person will trot off and pretend to be trying hard negotiation with the sales manager but they’ll actually be chatting about footie. Then they’ll come back and pretend they’ve worked a hard bargain for you and knock £50 off!

You need to stay strong and walk away, they’ll almost certainly phone back a day or two later with a better offer!

Last year we got a brand new car for £4k under list price after the salesman saying there was no negotiation.

A few years before we got £5k off a brand new car, different make, different dealership.

A couple of years ago, got £2k off windscreen price of a used car at a dealership after the salesman saying he couldn’t even give a free tank of petrol, which we did get plus new floor mats on top of the £2k off and upholstery/wax coating/guarantee.

Have you tried shopping for your car on CARWOW? I got £9k off a demo model with 100 miles on the clock.

Agree with other posters that you can haggle at a dealer.

They make more money when people take out finance/PCP deals so there’s likely very little negotiation to do but if you don’t ask you don’t get.
they usually don’t reduce the price just chuck in service plans etc.

Yeah it seems because I’m buying outright there’s less room for negotiation than if I was financing the car - they make their money from commission from finance companies apparently.

I’m a salespersons dream as I’d pretty much agreed to buy when my son pointed out I hadn’t tried to get a better deal from them.

My inlaws tried this last year...three second hand cars sold before they decided to just pay the price on the fourth. Sadly if you buying outright there's limited negotiations and if second hand the car sells quickly from a main dealer. This was a skoda garage. Its worth a try though so go for it

This is exactly what they do with kitchens too. Guy quoted me £16,000 no appliances. I literally stood up to walk out and he knocked a good bit off there and then, then came the phone calls before I’d even reached the car. Ended up paying £6,000 with 2 double ovens and a dishwasher 🤦‍♀️. I literally told him please give me your best price I’ve just had a baby and I have no shits to give or time to waste so infuriating

You can buy the car on finance and then ring up the finance company once you've picked up the car and pay it off.

My friend bought one on finance and then paid it off the next month as it worked out cheaper than buying outright with the dealer’s discount due to their commission.

The FCA has banned commission on finance now check it out it’s a whole class action, the next PPI

https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/car-finance-complaints

Same experience last week. Just get hard sell on extra warranty etc.

I didn't haggle on price during our latest purchase, which was a van for our campervan conversion, as it was already a very fair price, but did negotiate an extended warranty (12 months). Prior to that on our last car purchase in 2020 just before COVID I did a slight reduction in price and also pushed for more on the part exchange for our old car.

You can only really negotiate on price if you are willing to buy on finance but you can negotiate on other aspects such as getting a full tank of petrol, new car mats, extended warranties etc.

I always buy outright from main dealers, and never got anywhere with trying to negotiate price - they're just not interested, it's very much take it or leave it, or offering to show me a cheaper car. They usually try and sell extras and would make offers around those (service plans etc) and try and talk me into buying on finance.
I do think these days it's similar to the rest of retail where the people on the shop floor don't have any real say over the prices. Perhaps different if you go to a small independent, where the person showing you the cars is the owner.

Always haggle , although I admit it getting harder . Whereas I used to be able to haggle the sales price , now it’s more about extras or a better part exchange price . Also as buying outright putting the deposit on one credit card to get the cover , but paying the balance on a card the dealer had lower charges on which in turn meant he was more open to adding other things in . Also check the last MOT advisories and get them to do any work that will need doing by the next one .

Depends what you buy. A new Porsche - you won’t get much. Our EV BMW that was 6 months old, a whopping £23,000.

This isn't true.

Commission can still be paid, but it must be disclosed to the buyer. The buyer can decline commission being paid to the dealership (even though there's no benefit to the buyer for doing so as it's separate to their finance agreeement), but equally the dealership can then decline to sell them the vehicle.

What's no longer allowed is the discretionary commission some firms used, where the buyers APR was allowed to be adjusted by the dealership based on the different commission levels they paid.

To OP - while you can still haggle, there's much less wiggle room in car sales now post covid. Once the big auctions opened up to the public, coupled with the manufacturing delays covid/brexit/Ukraine brought on, the cost of buying in cars has increased.

Dealerships in general just don't have the margins they used to have. Still a few scumbags around rinsing every last penny from customers though, avoid anyone finance led. So if there's no price on the vehicle and they're pushing you towards getting finance in place first, walk away quickly!

Main dealerships or the likes of Cinch are usually better priced now anyway, they sell so much they can afford to have a smaller margin. Never hurts to ask mind you.

This ⬆️⬆️

It depends on a lot of factors, I tend to buy pretty low value cars. I've found getting money off is nigh on impossible, but getting extras like an extended warranty, 6 months road tax or a full tank of fuel is more likely to work.

I always go for the extended warranty as my main thing for the extra peace of mind

Don't forget, as a woman, you're expected to take the sale at face value. Don't worry your pretty little head about man's stuff. Of course you negotiate.

Always worth a try. You’re more likely to be successful at the end of a sales quarter / year / when the new reg plates are about to come out (if buying new and the car has already been registered on the ‘old’ plates).

At the very least, push for free / heavily discounted extras: mats, service plans, fuel etc.

Luckily, the last couple of cars I’ve bought, I’ve not experienced this. Only in one dealership did I have someone specifically talking to my husband rather than me even though we’d explicitly said I’d be the main driver.

@BeingATwatItsABingThingthis happened to me. Arnold Clark Seat.
the salesman was waxing lyrical to EXH about BHP, fuel economy, safety features. EXH to be fair told him I was buying/driving etc and he was merely there accompanying me. The salesman turned to me. Opened the back door and told me the car a
had 5 speakers, and plenty room for car seats and buggy (I wasn’t pregnant nor did/do I have children)
I didn’t even utter a word and just walked out, spent my money else where