Advice needed re haggling/discounts please!

[insanelycheerful]

We are looking to buy a second hand car from a dealership (1-2yrs old), spending between £20-24k to give a rough idea of budget. Both DH and I are pretty inexperienced at this sort of thing, have owned current car for 6yrs, I'd previously only bought 1 other car, DH hasn't bought any others.

It looks like we will go down the route of using the dealer finance, where you pay an initial deposit, monthly repayment then have a guaranteed minimum future value etc. It seems the best option for us in terms of affording a really nice car for the next 3 years at which point we'd look to replace it.

Won't be doing part exchange as the trade in value offered was v poor (different make of car, older vehicle etc) so will sell existing car privately.

Based on this info, shouldn't we expect a bit of wriggle room/haggling on what we pay for the car we are buying? DH seems to think there won't be much or any room to negotiate, but the impression I've always got, eg from family members who change their cars much more regularly than us and so are more in the know, is that there are deals to be done and you never pay the price advertised or even within a few hundred of it. Have I got this all wrong??? I suppose I want to be realistic but get the best deal, and it's not that DH doesn't agree with that but I want him to be on board with haggling given that it will probably come down to him to talk figures as he is much better than me at being concise, not getting emotional/flapping etc!

Hope someone with more experience of car purchasing can offer some advice please......

I've never paid the advertised price, and also bargained them down on interest rate on the finance. The salesperson gets commission so they will want you to commit to the purchase, and they will have a certain amount of leeway they can move.

Thanks Rockchick, that is interesting to know re the interest rate too. They have acknowledged they get commission on us taking the finance so it is v useful to know that there could be room to negotiate there too as I'd only thought of haggling re price.

On a day £23k car, what would you look to get off the advertised price?

As you said, the finance route should give them a bit more to play with.

I'm not much of a negotiator but have picked up a couple of things, use them at your own discretion.

"If your first offer isn't completely insulting to the dealer, it's not low enough." - A shy bairn gets nought and all that, if you don't ask you don't get.

Look for a reason to get them to drop the price, will it need tyres soon, is it due a service (or get that included in the purchase price), are there similar vehicles you are considering, is this one priced too high, etc. etc. On a young car there probably won't be a huge amount to pick up on.

Make sure you take a calculator with you and always work out the total amount you're going to be paying, watch out for 'finance arrangement' fees, 'admin' fees, 'delivery' fees and everything else they throw on.

If you know you want to change cars in exactly three years and if you don't cover a huge mileage, consider leasing instead of PCP (although mileage affects PCP as well); the deposits are often much lower (3 or 6 monthly payments) and there are some very cheap deals around (and the car is brand new). Again, calculate the total cost of ownership and compare to the PCP deal.

Thank you WMittens, v useful advice and I love your shy bairn turn of phrase!

Anyone else have any tips for how to get the best deal please?.....

I would find out how much would it cost me in total over 3 years if I borrowed the same amount from my bank.

Only then you can compare total cost of both options.

antimatter
I would find out how much would it cost me in total over 3 years if I borrowed the same amount from my bank.

Only then you can compare total cost of both options.

Total cost isn't quite as clear cut as that - says two banks, A & B, lend you £1000 and you pay it back over 12 months.

Bank A asks for £900 in the first month, and then £10 for the remaining 11 months - total repaid is £1010.

Bank B takes £10 a month for the first 11 months, then £900 as the final payment - total repaid is £1010.

Both banks ask for the same number of payments, even for the same amounts, but in a different order. The APR of Bank B's loan is lower as you have more of the cash at your disposal for longer.

*say, not says

I haven't got any experience of second hand cars, but whenever we have bought new I have found the key to getting them to knock the price down is by saying no and being prepared to walk away. When we bought our new insignia at the beginning of the year it's advertised price for what we wanted (winter pack, in built sat nav etc) was about 28k. By the time they had knocked off the 8 percent for having a family member working at a certain company and various other discounts, we ended up paying 22k and got 3 years fee servicing. We got such a good deal by going in at the end of the month (they wanted the sale on that months figures) and through me standing up when he got to 25k and just saying to my partner that I wanted to go and check out the Audi dealership at the bottom of the hill before I signed anything there. He went and spoke to his manager who authorised the 22k as long as we signed then and there. That was with a hefty deposit (no trade in) and 0percent finance.

Scarlet The dealer was probably stunned at a private buyer wanting to spend £22k on an Insignia. I don't think you got a good buy at all. You can pick up a 2013 example for under £8k at the moment - all be it probably lower spec than yours but even so. Which version is yours?

A little more looking gets a 2013 63 plate 2.0 CDTI 160 SE (so between 8 and 12 months old) with nav and half leather for £13k at a main dealer.