Buying a Car In The Recession - Discount?

Lemlin · 17-03-2009 9:14pm #1

Just wondering what sort of discount people have been getting from garages at the moment?

To listen to some people, I should expect to walk into a garage with 8k cash and walk away with a car priced at €8999 for it. I think a garage would reduce that price to 8500e but I can't see them going down to 8k.

Has anyone here got much discount from haggling when buying in the present climate?

I'm in no mad rush to change my car (September is when I need to have it changed by) so I might even hold off until the Summer when things might get worse for garages.

colm_mcm · 17-03-2009 9:28pm

the discount given or the original price aren't really important, what's important is what you actually pay for a particular car. don't get too caught up in getting thousands off an inflated list price.

Lemlin · 21-03-2009 7:32pm

I went to a local dealer yesterday and they were looking for 12995 for an 03 Audi with 120k mileage!

Way overpriced! In five minutes, the salesman had dropped the price to 11k. Still far too expensive though.

unkel · 21-03-2009 9:40pm

Lemlin wrote: »

I went to a local dealer yesterday and they were looking for 12995 for an 03 Audi with 120k mileage!

Way overpriced! In five minutes, the salesman had dropped the price to 11k. Still far too expensive though.

€11k is very good for an '03 Audi S8

pcardin · 22-03-2009 12:13am

unkel wrote: »

€11k is very good for an '03 Audi S8

or even '03 Audi S6

Seth Brundle · 22-03-2009 12:23am

Looking at carzone, '03 A3s are on sale for €5,999 to €16,950 (different models and mostly from dealers in fairness). Still, thats some difference!
Given that almost nothing is moving these days, a dealer would be a foll to price themselves out of contention!

unkel · 22-03-2009 2:08am

kbannon wrote: »

Looking at carzone, '03 A3s are on sale for €5,999 to €16,950

Who mentioned A3s? Surely the OP is looking for an S8 as I interpreted his post or at least an S6 as pcardin interpreted his post

j@utis · 22-03-2009 3:20am

Lemlin wrote: »

Just wondering what sort of discount people have been getting from garages at the moment?

To listen to some people, I should expect to walk into a garage with 8k cash and walk away with a car priced at €8999 for it. I think a garage would reduce that price to 8500e but I can't see them going down to 8k.

Has anyone here got much discount from haggling when buying in the present climate?

I'm in no mad rush to change my car (September is when I need to have it changed by) so I might even hold off until the Summer when things might get worse for garages.

I'm planning to do exactly the same thing, even with the same 8k eur. my sister got 6.5k car for 6k the same moment when she started waving with the bundle of notes under their noses.

enviro · 22-03-2009 3:47am

I recently looked at buying a 05 Pajero, I had a test drive and showed I was interested in buying the jeep but I made it clear the price was too expensive and told the dealer to get in touch with me if he was willing to do a better deal and we left it at that. Within two days he rang me and dropped the price by 1k. I felt it still wasn't a runner at that price so I said as much. He dropped another 500 straight away. I stood my ground on getting a better deal so that was that. A week later I got a text from the dealer saying he'll let the 05 pajero go for 2k less than the asking price, final price drop and that he'll keep the jeep for himself if it doesn't sell at this lowered price. I'm still thinking about it, But my advice to anyone is to haggle! Buyers market right now for sure. Try find out the sellers bottom line price and go from there.

Seth Brundle · 22-03-2009 11:02am

unkel wrote: »

Who mentioned A3s? Surely the OP is looking for an S8 as I interpreted his post or at least an S6 as pcardin interpreted his post

I reckoned that because this is Ireland, people would prefer to buy the basic model for as much as possible

unkel · 22-03-2009 11:38am

Yeah I suppose a base A3 is even worse value than a Golf or a Corolla

Lemlin · 22-03-2009 5:50pm

unkel wrote: »

Who mentioned A3s? Surely the OP is looking for an S8 as I interpreted his post or at least an S6 as pcardin interpreted his post

It was an A4 I was talking about. Thought I'd said that! Apologies.

Darragh29 · 22-03-2009 5:54pm

Lemlin wrote: »

I might even hold off until the Summer when things might get worse for garages.

Sure wait until this time next year, they might be even worse by then. :rolleyes:

mumof2 · 22-03-2009 5:59pm

Im thinking about waiting till after the summer too, as they're still asking ridiculous amounts. :eek:

MarkN · 22-03-2009 7:57pm

Depends on the price tag..

I got about 10% off an M3, you won't get that off an A3 that's retailing it at 11 grand.

Bargain hard, walk away if you're not happy... salesperson will probably come chasing.

colm_mcm · 22-03-2009 8:00pm

MarkN wrote: »

I got about 10% off an M3, you won't get that off an A3 that's retailing it at 11 grand.
.

1100 off isn't unachievable on something like that. in fact I'd say it's easy.

MarkN · 22-03-2009 8:03pm

Sorry, you're right, just what 10% meant for me and the same discount for 11k is quite a significant difference.

My bad.

What I did in a confusing way mean, is they've less room to move in a cheaper car.

Anan1 · 22-03-2009 8:43pm

MarkN wrote: »

Depends on the price tag..

I got about 10% off an M3

I thought you had a trade-in, MarkN?

MarkN · 23-03-2009 4:30pm

Doesn't mean I couldn't haggle the cost of change down by a lot more than originally offered and while the price for my trading car stayed the same the list of the M3 came down, got the best of both worlds.

Anan1 · 23-03-2009 4:45pm

MarkN wrote: »

Doesn't mean I couldn't haggle the cost of change down by a lot more than originally offered and while the price for my trading car stayed the same the list of the M3 came down, got the best of both worlds.

I'm sure you got a good deal, but it's impossible to say what you paid for the new car when you have a trade-in. Whether the garage raised the value of your trade-in or dropped the price of the new car is just playing with numbers.

MarkN · 23-03-2009 5:03pm

When you look at what you're trading in and the value a dealer gives it and it gets to the point where the retail price of the car leaves maybe 500 quid in it for the dealer you can roughly see the price you're getting the new car for.

To the OP I would just suggest playing hard and go straight in for the kill - say "if you can do this car for x I will take it, if not we'll call it quits". It'll save the messing of trying to both meet each other half way and the salesperson will put their best foot forward from the start usually. I know it pained the dealer doing the deal they did with me on the M3 as they literally told me it did.

Anan1 · 23-03-2009 5:11pm

MarkN wrote: »

When you look at what you're trading in and the value a dealer gives it and it gets to the point where the retail price of the car leaves maybe 500 quid in it for the dealer you can roughly see the price you're getting the new car for.

To the OP I would just suggest playing hard and go straight in for the kill - say "if you can do this car for x I will take it, if not we'll call it quits". It'll save the messing of trying to both meet each other half way and the salesperson will put their best foot forward from the start usually. I know it pained the dealer doing the deal they did with me on the M3 as they literally told me it did.

Honestly, you can't. When there are two cars involved it's impossible to say either what you got for your car or what you paid for the new car - the only definite figure is the cost to change. Sounds like a good salesman though, i'd love to have seen his pained face as he did the deal.;)

Buying a Car In The Recession - Discount?

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