How much can you haggle down?

mel123

How much do u reckon u can get off a second hand car when buying in a garage by bargaining with them??

Cyrus

normally between 7-10% in my experience

if its a straight sale, if you are trading in prepare to be punished!

rowanh

Id say it totally depends, some garages add a lot more on than others so can take more off, also moreso it would depend on if they think they can sell it for the asking pricve easily or if have had it for ages and also if they need to get rid of cars or not.

I got 20% off my previous car buying from a garage.

Edit:i see no reason to ever trade a car in, they will not give you anyhting like what your car is worth..

tuxy

If you are paying in cash you should get more off then paying by cheque.

cbyrne

tuxy wrote:

If you are paying in cash you should get more off then paying by cheque.

Why is that? i always thought the old 'discount for cash' meant cash as in a straight buy as opposed to trade in or financing etc.. Didn't think the method of paying, be that notes, cheque or credit card makes a difference. (they surely won't release car until cheque has cleared anyway).

Of course, notes are harder to trace in terms of the revenue...;)

tuxy

cbyrne wrote:

Of course, notes are harder to trace in terms of the revenue...;)

Exactly and that's why dealers like being paid in cash.

Anan1

tuxy wrote:

If you are paying in cash you should get more off then paying by cheque.

What absolute twaddle.:)

wingnut

Cash is certainly an advange to dealers over credit cards (credit cars = fees = less profit).

tuxy

Anan1 wrote:

What absolute twaddle.:)

Well when I was buying my car from a small garage, I was asking him to lower the price for ages with no success. But when I said I would pay some of it in cash (about 1k I think) he dropped the price from 4k to 3.8k right away.

2stageturbo

Anan1 wrote:

What absolute twaddle.:)

classic Withnail !:)

tuxy

Ah, I missed the withnail quote. Never mind.

Anan1

tuxy wrote:

Ah, I missed the withnail quote. Never mind.

Seriously though, I haven't heard of that happening before. Did you offer cash as opposed to a bank draft? The only reason I can think of is, as has been said, some kind of a tax dodge.

tuxy

Anan1 wrote:

Seriously though, I haven't heard of that happening before. Did you offer cash as opposed to a bank draft? The only reason I can think of is, as has been said, some kind of a tax dodge.

Yes I offered part cash and part bank draft. He possibly only declared what was on the bank draft.

colm_mcm

so he knocked off €200 so he wouldn't have to declare €1,000?

tuxy

colm_mcm wrote:

so he knocked off €200 so he wouldn't have to declare €1,000?

Your right that wouldn't make much sense. It may have been more in cash. He defiantly seemed happy when I offered some cash.

mikemac

I'd never heard that before. Just thought cash meant no trade-in and you can pay by bank draft/cheque also.

At least if something goes wrong with your purchase and you're getting no help from the dealer, you can threaten them with a call to the Revenue to start an audit later that year

mel123

well i suppose if i got 10% off i would be happy enough with that!!

Anan1

It really depends on the particular car. It's not what you're getting off, it's what you pay that counts.

sesswhat

mel123 wrote:

well i suppose if i got 10% off i would be happy enough with that!!

It also depends on your starting point. If the car is advertised in a local paper for example, it seems to be standard practice to add a couple of thousand, just like most private sellers do. If you ring the garage and ask for the best price, there will always be room to come down to a more realistic price. A bargainer will always treat this as just a starting point.

Getting the best deal is only possible though if you are prepared to walk away. Once the dealer sees you have fallen in love then you can forget it:)