Tips on negotiating good deal with garages

cerise

Hi, I could do with some tips on negotiating a good deal to buy a used car. Bought my last car in '03. I have a 01 Punto, 36,000 miles to trade in (know its not worth much, been offered €1,500). Have started visiting garages and want to know how much of a discount I should try to get from their list prices (which are quite expensive).

For example, Have seen:
06 Seat ibiza 1.2, 5 door(basic) 19k miles on at €10,500 and 07 Seat Ibiza costa plus, 5 door, 16k miles @ €11,500. What should I look to offere

Looking for a 1.2, 5 seater hatchback, decent boot adjustable driver seat and sunroof age: '05/06/07.

Thanks

Zorba

cerise wrote: »

Hi, I could do with some tips on negotiating a good deal to buy a used car. Bought my last car in '03. I have a 01 Punto, 36,000 miles to trade in (know its not worth much, been offered €1,500). Have started visiting garages and want to know how much of a discount I should try to get from their list prices (which are quite expensive).

For example, Have seen:
06 Seat ibiza 1.2, 5 door(basic) 19k miles on at €10,500 and 07 Seat Ibiza costa plus, 5 door, 16k miles @ €11,500. What should I look to offere

Looking for a 1.2, 5 seater hatchback, decent boot adjustable driver seat and sunroof age: '05/06/07.

Thanks

U should be thankful you've already been made an offer on your Punto, from what i'm heard garages aren't taking trade ins anymore because they can't shift them.

Owen

Normally, a garage would give a discount if there's no trade in. If you have a trade in, you'll be given a part exchange allowance. It's up to you to negotiate how much that will be in either case.

What I'm trying to say, is that if you ask for a discount on list prices, and then later introduce your part exchange, the garage will have given away all it's margin on the car they're selling, and you could find your 1500 Euro Punto, is worth a paltry 800 instead. It's swings and roundabouts, because whether you have a car for example costing 6 grand, and a part ex allowance of 1500, or you ask for discount off the 6k, end up at for example 5.3k and then have your part ex valued at 800 Euro, your cost to change will still be the same. These are just example figures

AlanD

The power of negotiation depends on your circumstances. I would think that the dealer has the power in this case because you have a car you want to trade in, plus it's a car that few people would want (no disrespect to your car, I'm just talking about the market here).

You will go in to the garage looking to strike a good deal, but because you want to trade in your car, the dealer will want a better deal for him so that essentially, he'll get the Punto in costing him a couple of hundred euro, which might allow him to flog it easily. This means you'll get shafted.

If you want to shift the power balance your way, sell the Punto private for 1500 or whatever you can get. Then go in to the garage and take 1500 off their price, or maybe even 2000 off their price. See how they react after being persistent with it for a while. Let them make you an offer before you make an offer. Don't offer 9500 for the '07 and then start offering 9700 and then 10000, cos it will look like you are only playing a game and the dealer will just hold out until you've hit close to what he wants. So stay strong and be prepared to walk away if the deal isn't right. But let him know you are serious about buying it. So if you want the car and would pay 10k for it, make sure it's clear that for the right price, you will buy it, no doubts. Then the dealer will take you seriously and the threat of missing out on a definite sale will keep him negotiating.

It's a delicate game to play, but well worth doing if you hold your nerve and don't fold because you love the car.

Best of luck

Notch000

Sell you car privately, going to the gartage with cash and ambush the dealer, have a set price and stick to it, offer cash on the spot, be cheeky, persistant and firm with your offer, tell them to take it or leave it,
then walk or drive away,
i've done it, it works
Cash is king

regedit

Sorry for hijacking the discussion but when it comes to a new car, what is the profit margin for a garage. I.e, if a car is listed new as 20.000, its it the case that they cannot drop the price for less than 10% to have some profit for themselfes. Or is it 7%.

cerise, I agree with OP's that the best thing is to sell your car privately. It may take you longer but you will get a better deal.

I will be trading in a 2003 Corolla soon and I think I will be going the private sale.
Good luck in selling the Punto and I hope it served you well.

Hanley

regedit wrote: »

Sorry for hijacking the discussion but when it comes to a new car, what is the profit margin for a garage. I.e, if a car is listed new as 20.000, its it the case that they cannot drop the price for less than 10% to have some profit for themselfes. Or is it 7%.

cerise, I agree with OP's that the best thing is to sell your car privately. It may take you longer but you will get a better deal.

I will be trading in a 2003 Corolla soon and I think I will be going the private sale.
Good luck in selling the Punto and I hope it served you well.

Hopefully this is not too OT, but how much do you reckon you'll get for it? I've a Luna model from the same year with abotu 75k miles on it which I got for a really good price a few months ago. If I could could turn a profit on it I probably would....

-Chris-

regedit wrote: »

Sorry for hijacking the discussion but when it comes to a new car, what is the profit margin for a garage. I.e, if a car is listed new as 20.000, its it the case that they cannot drop the price for less than 10% to have some profit for themselfes. Or is it 7%.

This changes from make to make, model to model and will also depend if the car is new or used.

How much profit is in a TV set?

regedit

Hanley wrote: »

Hopefully this is not too OT, but how much do you reckon you'll get for it? I've a Luna model from the same year with abotu 75k miles on it which I got for a really good price a few months ago. If I could could turn a profit on it I probably would....

It is a 2003 Luna. Just over 50K miles. In immaculate condition and serviced by an authorised dealer. All this will not help a lot. Will be happy if I get around 7500-8000 Euro.
BTW, male driver.

-Chris-

Depends on no. of doors and engine size, but I'd have thought that's a fair expectation for your Corolla.

Male driver shouldn't really make a difference.

regedit

AudiChris wrote: »

Male driver shouldn't really make a difference.

That was messing. You see how cars are advertised as one woman driver. Women are not as good drivers as men and give the clutch etch much stress...

-Chris-

Sorry, I took it seriously because I get so many customers saying "one woman owner" to me in the earnest hope that it will affect the value of their car.

I won't get into who's the better driver (even though it's obviously men ), but for me I'm more worried about condition than who drove it.

L-M

Op, i'd advise you sell privately.
Lets just say you keep your car, take on the task of selling it yourself and go in on a straight deal.
In the tough times we're in (lol) you would be hoping to get 750-1000 off on that car on a straight deal.
Therefore your punto now stands to you at 500-750 euro. If you then sell it for 1500 euro your now up another 750.
So if you trade in, it's going to cost you
10,500-1500= €9000 euro to change.
If you go privately, and things work out you could be looking at (go with the lower estimate)
10,500 - 750 - 1500 = 8250.

Therefore you save €750. If you drive a hard bargain on a straight deal, and sell your own at a good price all should work well. If not, you could easily sell the car for 750 etc. and break even.

Confusing but i hope it makes some sense. There are always people looking for cheap cars, and 1000-1500 doesn't sound too bad for a 00 Punto.