buying a second hand car from NI

doolin101

I am planning on travelling to Belfast this weekend to buy 2 second hand cars-one worth about £3500 the other about £7500. These are the sticker prices and so I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on what I should approach the sales as an opening offer. I have heard that down here that you should be paying between 66% and 75% of the sticker price..Any thoughts on NI- espiecially as I am buying 2 cars- cash!

Thanks!

Tipsy Mac

Depends on the car really, something desirable and mainstream like a Golf or Focus would have less room to move than say something like a 3 litre Subaru Lagacy. I would start the bidding at 25% less than sticker and see how you go. You should price similar cars up there to campare, usually main dealers will charge 10% to 25% more.

Anan1

TBH, i'd want to have a very good idea of the bottom line on both cars before I walked out my front door. Bargaining's a lot harder when you're standing in Belfast with money in your pocket looking at a car you want to drive home in. Ring the seller.

carface

Tipsy Mac wrote: »

Depends on the car really, something desirable and mainstream like a Golf or Focus would have less room to move than say something like a 3 litre Subaru Lagacy.
Northern dealers work with smaller margins,smaller volume, if a car has been prepared for retail sale ie valet,serviced,bodywork,warranty etc. and offered for sale at £3500 they may not entertain southern buyers who arrive expecting them to bend over backwards because they cash have to spend.
its not a crime to pay a dealers price for well a prepared car afterall you have stated you are buying both cars so we presume you have tried to buy the same cars here but found a saving by looking north.
The culture of haggleing,bidding,promising wads of cash is nothing new in carsales(that might shock people) one of the oldest tricks in sales is to catch people bidding. Go and inspect both cars carefully before you try to conclude any deal.

lifer_sean

carface wrote: »

Tipsy Mac wrote: »

Northern dealers work with smaller margins,smaller volume, if a car has been prepared for retail sale ie valet,serviced,bodywork,warranty etc. and offered for sale at £3500 they may not entertain southern .

+1

Northern dealers typically have asking prices much closer to what they actually want to get. Smaller dealers will work to margins down to 200 pounds or so. Also they know the Southern buyer is getting a bargain relatively speaking, so they are not under the same pressure to discount the price.

commited

Considering that alot of the cars are in from the UK, which are generally available at least 20% cheaper over there, then I don't think that they work off such small margins. What they want to get and what they paid for the car are 2 very different ball games.

blade999

I know when I bought my car for 18k I got 200 off! In general I think the rule in the UK is about 5-10% discount for cash. The dealer usually tells you the ballpark figure over the phone.

carface

commited wrote: »

Considering that alot of the cars are in from the UK, which are generally available at least 20% cheaper over there, then I don't think that they work off such small margins. What they want to get and what they paid for the car are 2 very different ball games.

?????????? Can you explain your point better please?????????? thanks.

lifer_sean

commited wrote: »

Considering that alot of the cars are in from the UK, which are generally available at least 20% cheaper over there, then I don't think that they work off such small margins. What they want to get and what they paid for the car are 2 very different ball games.

Have you direct experience of buying cars from the dealers in NI to base this opinion on ?

Re. cost difference between UK and NI, remember that if a dealer buys a car in UK then he has to transport it back to the North and then prepare it for sale. For example, I know a very well established dealer in NI that budgets 600 pounds over and above auction hammer price to reflect the cost home in his yard, and that's before preparing it for sale.

NI dealers have shown me invoices of what they have paid for cars, and I have bid against them at auctions, and I guarantee you they work on modest enough margins.