buying a 2nd hand car -- haggling

trixyben

ok say you were buying a 2nd hand car and it was priced at €3,500

you go look at car, take for test drive, happy car is 100%

now you decide you would like car and time to talk about price

so how would you haggle on the price and what strategies do you have up your slieve to get the price down? Now we all know that sellers expect to knock a bit off but for the buyer what do you say to get that bit more and seal the deal???

Anan1

Start off by putting the asking price aside and working out what the car's worth, both in the open market and to you. I've bought some cars at deep discounts, and i've paid full asking for others.

trixyben

trixyben wrote: »

................ for the buyer what do you say to get that bit more and seal the deal???

A bit like asking Messi how does he score goals really imo

trixyben

RoverJames wrote: »

A bit like asking Messi how does he score goals really imo

Messi would tell ya no problem

trixyben

trixyben wrote: »

Messi would tell ya no problem

......... but would you be able to put the words into play and get the goals too :pac:

kildare.17hmr

Watch pawn stars, them boys can haggle

giant_midget

**puts on adverts.ie hat*

"I'll give ye €700...what ye reckon" :pac:

mad muffin

If you've got cash and no trade in, you've got a good start and always ask them first, what is the best price they can offer, not what you're willing to pay.

Knock a few hundred off that then and see how it goes from there.

Daved_XB

Someone once told me that if your not ashamed of your first offer your offering too much.....

L-M

i was selling my last car (Golf) for 1900. i met him in a petrol station. Drove it, everything was perfect, no complaints and then he offered me €1,100.

Said nothing, just walked over, got into my car and drove home. He text me offering me more but i chose to ignore.

You have to plan carefully, try sussing the seller out. irrelevant to market value every seller has a "lowest they'll go price" and a "that's low enough to insult me" price.

it's about individual cars, and individual sellers.

r3nu4l

mad muffin wrote: »

If you've got cash and no trade in, you've got a good start and always ask them first, what is the best price they can offer, not what you're willing to pay.

Knock a few hundred off that then and see how it goes from there.

This is the approach I used just over a week ago.

I told him I couldn't pay the asking price and asked him for his best price.

We both knew that the next words out of his mouth would be far from his best price but we played the game anyway and he gave me a price.

I paused, thoughtfully pursed my lips and rubbed my chin before saying that I just couldn't go as high as that best price and asking could he possibly do better giving him a figure about 800 lower than his best price.

It was then his turn to look regretful, sigh and say 'There's no way I can give it to you for that.

I upped by 400, he asked for 100 more, I said 'Yes', he shook my hand and we both went away happy

It's very rare but sometimes the dealer will present you with his best price first time around but to be honest, if you've done your research you'll know it's a good price and go for it or try to knock another 100 or so off it.

Satanta

Depends on the car and the seller. I've got very good discounts on car's and then in other situations, even starting with the usual slightly cheeky offer, having to come quite near asking.

Then from a sellers perspective, I priced the last car I sold so that it would sell. I had a couple of guys offering stupid money saying they wouldnt budge much above it and I wouldnt get what I was asking in the current climate blah blah. Fair enough I said. No sale. Ended up taking very close to asking on it because I know it was worth what I was asking.

dr.fuzzenstein

This is how it works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n3LL338aGA

david

It's completely dependant on how well the car is priced. I'd have no problem paying full asking if I felt it was worth it.

Just purely from personal experience with tyre kickers, I would never offer silly (insulting) money expecting them to meet half way. I tell them straight out what I'm willing to pay, if they don't bite I'll walk, leave them my number and tell them to call me if/when they reconsider. Works in Curry's too

Henry Ford III

Yep. If the car is worth €3500 be prepared to pay that. If it's advertised for €4000 but worth €3500 offer €3000, and try and meet in the middle.

kildare.17hmr

Limerick man wrote: »

i was selling my last car (Golf) for 1900. i met him in a petrol station. Drove it, everything was perfect, no complaints and then he offered me €1,100.

Said nothing, just walked over, got into my car and drove home. He text me offering me more but i chose to ignore.

You have to plan carefully, try sussing the seller out. irrelevant to market value every seller has a "lowest they'll go price" and a "that's low enough to insult me" price.

it's about individual cars, and individual sellers.

You should really work on your negotiating skills!

L-M

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

You should really work on your negotiating skills!

Sold the car for €1,750 the next day, there's nothing wrong with my negoiation skills. i don't have very, very little time for arseholes.

Jimdagym

Limerick man wrote: »

Sold the car for €1,750 the next day, there's nothing wrong with my negoiation skills. i don't have very, very little time for arseholes.

You have a lot of time for arseholes???

giant_midget

Limerick man wrote: »

Sold the car for €1,750 the next day, there's nothing wrong with my negoiation skills. i don't have very, very little time for arseholes.

your dam right, all this what's the best cash price stuff is tyre kicker talk...you saw my add for my car for €2,000 so bring €2,000 with you when viewing, people expecting some sort of discount on a "cash sale" of a car of this value...:rolleyes:

if i was selling something for 2k id expect 1700 to be paid to me...

Colts

I tend to ask for their best price, negotiate down a little and then use any small issues with the car to get it down a little further, ie. scuffed alloys, marked bumpers, problems with upholstery etc.

KinchTheBlade

Limerick man wrote: »

i was selling my last car (Golf) for 1900. i met him in a petrol station. Drove it, everything was perfect, no complaints and then he offered me €1,100.

Said nothing, just walked over, got into my car and drove home. He text me offering me more but i chose to ignore.
QUOTE]

I think this is just incredible.
Asa potential seller, is it the done thing to ask a potential buyer what their minimum offer is before accepting an appointment to view? Is there any point - would it have saved Limerickman the inconvenience?

L-M

KinchTheBlade wrote: »

I think this is just incredible.
Asa potential seller, is it the done thing to ask a potential buyer what their minimum offer is before accepting an appointment to view? Is there any point - would it have saved Limerickman the inconvenience?

Doesn't bother me, i'll never travel more than 5 miles to meet someone (again from bad experience), it's up to the seller if they want to travel from Cork to Limerick to try and waste my time.

KinchTheBlade

Well you're clearly a more patient man than I am.

barura

3500? If it was perfect, offer 2800 and then settle for 3100/3200. It's always nice to go out with what you plan to spend in your pocket. I mean, don't let the haggle get the best of you. If you were going the bangernomics route, for example, and were viewing a car that was up for 800, bring 675 in you pocket and then your haggle is easy since you cannot spend more than you have! If you go over, then you're not haggling! I've viewed cars with 650 asking and got them for 400 and 350 for the other one time because the guy liked me! It's all on how you play it.

On the other hand, going to view a 2k car with 800euro would just be fooling yourself and wasting bother your, and the sellers time.

KinchTheBlade

barura wrote: »

3500? If it was perfect, offer 2800 and then settle for 3100/3200. It's always nice to go out with what you plan to spend in your pocket. I mean, don't let the haggle get the best of you. If you were going the bangernomics route, for example, and were viewing a car that was up for 800, bring 675 in you pocket and then your haggle is easy since you cannot spend more than you have! If you go over, then you're not haggling! I've viewed cars with 650 asking and got them for 400 and 350 for the other one time because the guy liked me! It's all on how you play it.

On the other hand, going to view a 2k car with 800euro would just be fooling yourself and wasting bother your, and the sellers time.

Not trying to be provocative and I know that the world will not change to suit my view of how things should be but...this whole thing strikes me as a stupid, if inevitable, game. The seller then adds x% to the price he wants to account for the ritual haggling. 675 is 84% of the asking before negotiations even start.
If I had priced something at a realistic price to have someone come and view while secretly being in a locked in postion at 84% (short of going to an ATM) would in my opinion be acting in bad faith and would be a waste of my time. Just my opinion.

So then I add 20% on top of what I think is a realistic price, the buyer brings 84% of that and job done - is that it?

Neilw

Last car I bought was advertised at €4250, offered €2800 and bought it for €3000.

barura

KinchTheBlade wrote: »

Not trying to be provocative and I know that the world will not change to suit my view of how things should be but...this whole thing strikes me as a stupid, if inevitable, game. The seller then adds x% to the price he wants to account for the ritual haggling. 675 is 84% of the asking before negotiations even start.
If I had priced something at a realistic price to have someone come and view while secretly being in a locked in postion at 84% (short of going to an ATM) would in my opinion be acting in bad faith and would be a waste of my time. Just my opinion.

So then I add 20% on top of what I think is a realistic price, the buyer brings 84% of that and job done - is that it?

Unless the car is something special that you must have, I don't see a problem with that, no. Not at that price range, and people do want money straight up, so it's not such a problem in that sense.

Bringing this amount of money is a solid way of just making you think like you only have that much to spend. It may be a bit cheeky, but I can't see a problem with it. Asking for 15%~ off a car isn't unreasonable, especially if you argue your case in a mature and reasonable fashion.

Then again, I've spent a long time of my short life dealing with people haggling with me over services I provided as a sound engineer... Basically, if the seller isn't completely wet behind the ears, they'll have a price that they know they need to get and anything else is a bonus on top of that.

Anan1

Negotiation is impossible to condense into a formula, it's essentially about reading the other person.

KinchTheBlade

Neilw wrote: »

Last car I bought was advertised at €4250, offered €2800 and bought it for €3000.

Is that representative of the game at large (What was fair value for the car, his price, your price or in the middle) or is it just representative of the market as it stands in Ireland in 2011?

Neilw

KinchTheBlade wrote: »

Is that representative of the game at large (What was fair value for the car, his price, your price or in the middle) or is it just representative of the market as it stands in Ireland in 2011?

I think it was more to do with the type of car and time of year, was an mx5 and I bought it during the bad weather early 2011. He wanted €3800 cash for it but I bargained him down to €3000.

KinchTheBlade

barura wrote: »

Unless the car is something special that you must have, I don't see a problem with that, no. Not at that price range, and people do want money straight up, so it's not such a problem in that sense.
QUOTE]

I genuinely have no problem with the such a position so long as its disclosed before the viewing not after the viewing. Maybe I'm naiive but if somebody has decided that the most they'll spend is 84% of what I'm asking then I'd like to know that beforehand and respond accordingly so I can decide whether to spend my time showing, it.
84% max leaves no room for negotiation except 84% or less or the deal falling through, having never had a chance of success if the vendor was determined to accept no less than, let's say, 90% of asking.

Anyway, like I said, inflating the asking seems to be the simple solution.