Advice needed for entering a car showroom.

[Tolkienista]

Its 17 years since I bought my last car..... brand new, so the car showroom is not familiar territory. I'm just starting my search for a new car.......a small, compact city car. Nothing fancy, probably brand new otherwise a couple of years old maximum. First I need to book some test drives and after that, I'll decide how I want to move forward with which car.

So this is it.......when you see a car priced in a dealership is that the price you pay? I just don't know. I'm in a position where I can pay cash, so I won't be looking for finance. However, how does making an offer work?

Any advice, honestly gratefully accepted.

If you want brand new, then check whether taking finance will save you money - it did for us. We just paid the balance as soon as we could without penalty and it worked out cheaper than paying cash up front due to the incentives offered by the manufacturer.

I used the car wow website once I knew which car model I wanted. Dealerships then offered their best price/offer and I picked the best deal.

When I bought my Kia Picanto new, the price was the price. No negotiation. They were doing a £2k scrappage scheme which meant my worthless 17 yo car suddenly became quite valuable.

The Picanto fits your criteria by the way. I love mine (but I'm no petrolhead clearly).

I ordered a new car at the end of July and mentioned that drivethedeal.com (I think it's .com) had quoted me £x and could they match it. They couldn't but did reduce the price a bit.

I did this with my previous car too and they did match that.

Asking was completely out of my comfort zone though!

(This was Ford both times)

Buying new?

I'd suggest using the net etc to sort out a shortlist of cars, no more than four or five, that will do what you need. Visit the dealerships making clear where you are on the research curve. Once you've narrowed it down to a couple look around at prices. Drive the Deal and similar are a good place to find baseline prices for negotiating.

Would prefer to buy locally for goodwill etc if there are problems so might pay a few hundred more in local town rather than having a car trailered down from Glasgow!!

Thanks everyone for your advice so far.....that's really great.
I must admit I did think that finance might be an option if I could just pay off the balance without penalty so I might well need that in my back pocket.

The showroom usually get commission for selling finance so there’s no advantage to paying cash. The last time I bought a car they gave me £1k off for taking out finance and I was able to cancel and pay it all off after the first payment with no fees

i Have never paid the ticket price, never. But be prepared for bloody ages of back and forth. Be prepared to walk away