Haggling when purchasing a car?

[Tigris]

Hey,

years ago a lot of people used to haggle when purchasing cars, is this still the case?

I know when i've been looking, car dealers often say "Autotrader says good price, we can't go any lower".

Places like autotrader do tell you based on the condition, miles etc if it's a fair price as well basic checks now.

 

[Mark T Jones]

There's no harm in trying, but as you've found, ghe screen price is often non negotiable these days.

You might try to get more value with some conditions

Full tank of fuel
New MOT, without advisories
Wheel refurbishment etc

 

[Ozzy]

I'd always try and haggle; I like the hustle of it. Whether new or used, purchase or lease.

 

[Tigris]

I'd always try and haggle; I like the hustle of it. Whether new or used, purchase or lease.

Went to a big car dealer for my personal car a few years ago.

They said they don't budge on price so I walked away. We ended up working out a deal in the end

 

[Ozzy]

They said they don't budge on price so I walked away

I've done this too; the dealership rang me the next day and I said I'd already placed my order elsewhere. They were shocked, and I said 'you told me you couldn't budge on price'
They tried to convince me to cancel my order with the other dealership but I refused . The next time they remembered me, and I got a good deal (these were leases from JLR)

 

[Paul Norman]

You can still haggle. It is still no unusual to do so.

Some new car brands now do have a fixed pricing thing going on. But you can still negotiate on the part ex value.

I like everything, you can negotiate. And like everything, the dealer is allowed to have a price below which they won't go.

 

[Mark T Jones]

After many years of not buying cars from dealers, I have done so 3 times in as many years (only one was what you might call a motivated purchase)

Having dealt with the trade about 30 years ago, I was well up for some old-fashioned Arfur Daley wheeler dealing.

Overall, we visited 14 dealers (new & used).

Depressingly, the overwhelming feel from the sales people was of inertia and disinterest in varying degrees.

Most went through the motions of taking details, only 2 ever got back to us.

Notable exceptions:

a van sales person who was absolutely professional in every way - we reasonably quickly arrived at maximum discount & incentive level - and definitely no room for further negotiation.

A BMW sales person who was the opposite. Evidently his policy was 'say what they want to hear and don't stop talking until they sign'. My wife spent the last 15 minutes trying not to laugh & kicking me under the table, because she knew I was feeding him lines to wind him up.

Mostly though - particularly on used - price was non negotiable, but certain extras were.

 

[Paul Norman]

After many years of not buying cars from dealers, I have done so 3 times in as many years (only one was what you might call a motivated purchase)

Having dealt with the trade about 30 years ago, I was well up for some old-fashioned Arfur Daley wheeler dealing.

Overall, we visited 14 dealers (new & used).

Depressingly, the overwhelming feel from the sales people was of inertia and disinterest in varying degrees.

Most went through the motions of taking details, only 2 ever got back to us.

Notable exceptions:

a van sales person who was absolutely professional in every way - we reasonably quickly arrived at maximum discount & incentive level - and definitely no room for further negotiation.

A BMW sales person who was the opposite. Evidently his policy was 'say what they want to hear and don't stop talking until they sign'. My wife spent the last 15 minutes trying not to laugh & kicking me under the table, because she knew I was feeding him lines to wind him up.

Mostly though - particularly on used - price was non negotiable, but certain extras were.

As a serial purchaser from dealers, I fear your experience is not that unusual.

We get very good levels of service from our dealer, but we are repeat customers and kind of fairly well known there now.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

When the local VW dealer wouldn't play ball a mate of mine went to one 40 miles away and got a very healthy discount.

 

[Gecko001]

If you are paying cash haggling, in my experience, is not only acceptable but expected. If they do not budge on price, they will sometimes move on the price of the car you are trading in.

 

[Karimbo]

most cars are sold through car finance, even £8000 cars are bought using finance, so they're paying through their nose on interest anyway, haggling down couple hundred quid seems trivial when these people will be paying some £2000+ in interest during the life of the finance.

And the buyer is looking at the monthly payment for the car, so haggling a couple hundred quid off the sale price is going to be <£5 difference in monthly price.

The thing that gets deals done nowadays seems to be spec. Base model, base spec sit around for ages, buyers will pay extra for all the nice add ons. It's £30 a month extra to get +50hp, heated leather seats, illuminated pop up speedo, full reverse camera, pan roof etc. Maybe cash buyers might want to save £1000 and buy the base model, but finance buyer sees it as just £30pm more.