Trade in price vs cash price

NDJ4

Hi,

I'm in the process of buying a 2nd hand car and am trading mine against it. The garage was looking for 16500 for the car and are offering me 7000 trade in for mine. I haggled a bit and got them down to 15700, so 8700 cash plus my car.

I have a potential offer of 7000 for mine sold privately (family member thinking about it) so was wondering if I went to the dealer with cash could I do better than 15,700? My guess is that they will prefer not to have my car to sell on but I don't know how much profit they make from selling their car and whether they will make much profit from selling mine on.

Anyone any ideas on this? Could I expect to get another few hundred knocked off the price or would this be a waste of time for the dealer?

Also wondering if I should get a mechanic to take a look over the car? The garage is a main dealer and are offering a fully comprehensive 12 month warranty. My hope is that a main dealer can be trusted in this regard and it shouldn't be necessary to get it looked over?

Thanks!

oregano

NDJ4 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm in the process of buying a 2nd hand car and am trading mine against it. The garage was looking for 16500 for the car and are offering me 7000 trade in for mine. I haggled a bit and got them down to 15700, so 8700 cash plus my car.

I have a potential offer of 7000 for mine sold privately (family member thinking about it) so was wondering if I went to the dealer with cash could I do better than 15,700? My guess is that they will prefer not to have my car to sell on but I don't know how much profit they make from selling their car and whether they will make much profit from selling mine on.

Anyone any ideas on this? Could I expect to get another few hundred knocked off the price or would this be a waste of time for the dealer?

Also wondering if I should get a mechanic to take a look over the car? The garage is a main dealer and are offering a fully comprehensive 12 month warranty. My hope is that a main dealer can be trusted in this regard and it shouldn't be necessary to get it looked over?

Thanks!

1. Get a mechanic if you want, it will help you sleep better.
2. Ask the dealer for a price if you sell your own car, then you know the deal pre selling it to your family member.

Personally, I like to get in trades. It saves me going out to buy stock, and I can sell them on for more profit. When I'm full of stock, I prefer straight sales.

yoke

I'll second what oregano said in the previous post - I'd advise to get a mechanic to have a look at it before you buy it if you're spending that much anyway, since it's usually good to even just get a second opinion about the car.

Also, a mechanic can quite often put a price on things (eg. cost of fixing minor scrapes, corrosion on alloy wheels, condition of interior, etc.), and although the main dealer might not budge too much on price (this was my experience anyway last year trying to buy a used car from a main dealer at the same price range), it will help you decide if you might be getting a better deal elsewhere.

Regarding asking the dealer before selling it to your family member - remember you're the guy giving him the money overall, so you have the control. You're not in the business of selling cars to him at discount prices, so go ahead and tell him that you're going to give him 15700 cash instead of 8700 and your car, and ask if it's OK with him - assuming he's a reasonable person, he will not have a problem with this.

If he does have a problem with the above, it means that he would effectively be admitting to trying to rip you off on your trade-in.

Finally, regarding the "straight cash" discount, it's unlikely he'll lower price just because you're giving cash unless the dealership is very cash-strapped

bazz26

I would expect a better price if not trading in however you may not get it now as ideally it would work out better asking the cash price first and then introduce the trade-in to the conversation.

Handing over straight cash as opposed to handing over some cash and a car that the dealer has to sell on, is more appealing. Cash flow is important to most businesses these days.

oregano

bazz26 wrote: »

I would expect a better price if not trading in however you may not get it now as ideally it would work out better asking the cash price first and then introduce the trade-in to the conversation.

Handing over straight cash as opposed to handing over some cash and a car that the dealer has to sell on, is more appealing. Cash flow is important to most businesses these days.

In general, I'd agree. If, on the other hand, the OP is trading in something like a Golf or a Ceed, which dealers can't get enough of, you may find the dealer sweetening the deal to get the trade in into stock!

Regardless, if the family member wants the car and you can get a few quid off the price, buy the car. If not, stick with the trade in as agreed. But... ask the dealer how much he'll sell your car for to your relative ...!

lalababa

Yes it depends on how much stock the garage has. (IF) with alot of stock in the garage and a depressed market ,I would expect max.15% off the straight price without trade in. So 16500/100 *85 =14025. But I don't know how the market is at mo.:D

NDJ4

Thanks guys,

Going to call him in the morning to see if he will budge on price but I'm not expecting much. As oregano said he could be expecting to make a profit on my trade so will lose this as well as cash on his sale. The OH is confident that he will come down more but I'm not so sure...

If my private sale goes ahead and he doesn't want to budge on price I'm actually considering buying another car privately, same car/spec, 10000km lower, new tyres and 1700 euro cheaper. I hadn't really thought about buying privately as I was never planning to sell mine privately but looking into it now it seems to be a no-brainer. Obviously would need a mechanic to give that one the once over and hope for no major trouble in the first year, at least no more than 1700 euro worth...!

NDJ4

lalababa wrote: »

Yes it depends on how much stock the garage has. (IF) with alot of stock in the garage and a depressed market ,I would expect max.15% off the straight price without trade in. So 16500/100 *85 =14025. But I don't know how the market is at mo.:D

From looking around at cars in my price range the best they will do for a cash sale is 1000 off. They tend to advertise a straight sale price e.g. 16495 but if you're trading in this price jumps to 17495. So that would be more like a 6% discount. You could probably push for a bit more like ask them to tax it for you but I don't think any dealer would stretch to 15%. Then again I don't know so stand to be corrected!