How is the best way haggle for a used car from a dealer?

[SpringyReframed]

I've decided on the make/model of car I want. I've always bought new before but because of divorce and needing to take car of every penny I've decided to economise by buying a less than a year old less than 10k mileage car from a dealer.
I've read all the info on this site and What Car? and having looked on the manufacturers website the car I want is easily available - 18 possibles within 30 miles of me - but the are priced about 1k more than What Car? says they are worth on the "buy from dealer" valuation. How do I go about haggling and would they really take a hit of 1k on the advertised price? Do I just turn up at the local dealer and tell him I have 11k to spend and see what he shows me or pick out a car in advance and make an offer over the phone or turn up and make an offer? Or indeed something else.
Any advice or experiences would be appreciated.

Bump

Walk into showroom, tell them you have £11k cash, want to buy now, you like XYZ car, how can we do a deal.

Best done a few days before the end of the month when they are all trying to meet their targets.

Friends are ace at this but what they describe is exhausting. Visit the car at least 3x over several weeks and keep moaning how you like it but not for that price. Every single offer they make moan and keep asking why it costs so much. Let them stew after they make an offer them ring back to whinge some more. Repeat repeat repeat.

They won't be interested that it's cash - they'd much prefer if it was finance. Tell them you're looking to buy on finance and then at the last minute you can change your mind and pay cash.

That is so true, what Bartman says. And they're really harp on about buying into whatever maintenance scheme they offer (even though you can quickly work out that it's poorer value than a good local garage). Also they'll push paying extra for an extended guarantee: again, rarely worth it because your legal rights are already pretty robust as long as you follow correct procedure.

Getting approximely 10% off the asking price is possible. The What Car prices are a guideline and it will depend on what extras are on the car and what colour it is, 3 door, 5 door, automatic, manual, leather seats etc. So you must make sure you are comparing apples with apples.

Also car show rooms want to shift cars. They especially want to shift cars that have been sitting on their forecourts for a while. The same applies to new cars if they need to raise their sales figures. We beat the What Car target price by £600 on a new Polo a year ago. This was a reduction from the full retail price of £13,200 down to £11,400. They wanted to shift Polos. We also managed to get a Mini One with a big discount a few years earlier. The garage had 10 identical ones and had sold 9. This was the last one and they wanted it gone. It had 10 miles on the clock.

I would keep looking for nearly new bargains. Some garages may have an overstock of secondhand cars and want to shift the cars out before they send them to the auctions. Look for garages that have loads of the same model lined up and you may well get 10% off. But look at pre registered too as there are some bargains out there. I have found the web sites a good starting point and you can see which garages have loads of similar cars. I would narrow it down to them and go and visit. Have a test drive. Seem keen. Talk about price. Is the car the spec you want and are prepared to pay for? Don't be tempted by over speced small cars. Make an offer. Say a 12% reduction. Leave room to come up to your target price. If they get near it, fine. The salesman usually checks with his/her manager. If you pay a bit more, get a years' tax, full tank included. Good luck.

Wait a couple of weeks. The new 14 plate cars come out on 1st March, so dealers will be keen to offload cars at a reduced price just before the end of February.

Thanks for all these replies. Sorry I didnt get back here before now but have had a nightmare week with present car letting me down. I am intending to go and try to get a deal this week. I shall try my hardest and get back to you with results!