Are garages (especially main dealers) not interested in negotiating with customers?

Murphster

Is it me or has it become commonplace for sales staff in garages to just not bother trying to reach a deal with a customer? This is especially prevalent with main dealers!

I have looked at trading my 2008 Audi which retails at €13k or more, but was offered €9.5k! Now I appreciate that they are a business, have overheads, need to prep the car etc. etc., but that is a ridiculous price and they don't seem to care that they are insulting you!

Dealer made a big song and dance about trying to get the best price for me and eventually came back couple of days later after supposedly trying to find a buyer on some online platform and offered €9750 ... a whole €250 more! I said the min. I would let it go for was €10500 - a very reasonable price I think for the spec of the car, but no! Kind of said no bother and left it at that! I was shocked that he didn't try a bit harder to make a deal especially as we were very close in the 1st place and he certainly has more wriggle room than I do!

Is there something that I can say or do that might make the dealer offer a bit more or want to complete the sale or is it a lost cause?

I find it disrespectful to a customer to come in with a car that they have worked hard to pay for .... understand what it is worth and know that they will not get that for it, to then be insulated and have an attempted robbery committed on you! The dealer wants your car for nothing and wont budge on their sale price either! They want to make money and screw you both ways.

Any experiences like this that resolved favourably for you - the customer!

ba_barabus

Sounds to me like the dealer did fine. Just because you didn't get what you wanted doesn't mean the dealer is at fault.

The dealer knows how much he would realistically get for your car. He would also know how much he would have to put into the car to get that price. He also has to make a profit on it! If you can sell your car privately for what you imagine you should get, then go ahead and sell private. You will have a stronger bargaining hand when you go to buy.

166man

Murphster wrote: »

Is it me or has it become commonplace for sales staff in garages to just not bother trying to reach a deal with a customer? This is especially prevalent with main dealers!

I have looked at trading my 2008 Audi which retails at €13k or more, but was offered €9.5k! Now I appreciate that they are a business, have overheads, need to prep the car etc. etc., but that is a ridiculous price and they don't seem to care that they are insulting you!

Dealer made a big song and dance about trying to get the best price for me and eventually came back couple of days later after supposedly trying to find a buyer on some online platform and offered €9750 ... a whole €250 more! I said the min. I would let it go for was €10500 - a very reasonable price I think for the spec of the car, but no! Kind of said no bother and left it at that! I was shocked that he didn't try a bit harder to make a deal especially as we were very close in the 1st place and he certainly has more wriggle room than I do!

Is there something that I can say or do that might make the dealer offer a bit more or want to complete the sale or is it a lost cause?

I find it disrespectful to a customer to come in with a car that they have worked hard to pay for .... understand what it is worth and know that they will not get that for it, to then be insulated and have an attempted robbery committed on you! The dealer wants your car for nothing and wont budge on their sale price either! They want to make money and screw you both ways.

Any experiences like this that resolved favourably for you - the customer!

Firstly, all the sales guy does in a main dealers is relay information from the used car sales manager to you, the customer. The "wiggle room" is at the used car managers discretion.

Secondly, this is a business, not a charity. It's in their interests to give as little for the car as possible and for you to get as much as possible. You can't even imagine the level of overheads main dealers have. Regardless of what they do to the car they will have to put on average (in my experience) close to €1k in prepping a car. They also have to cost they warranty that they will offer, inlclude a discount for the buyer and also a few pound for the dealer. €9.5k sounds bang on.

Thirdly, bringing a 2008 car to a main dealer may not even end up being retailed (mileage dependant usually), and if it's not retailed then it goes to auction, so you'll automatically be given a lower price. The price you were offered sounds fair to me.

If the dealer has more wiggle room than you, the buyer, then I think you need to reconsider trading the car in for a newer one...;)

Seth Brundle

Murphster wrote: »

Is it me or has it become commonplace for sales staff in garages to just not bother trying to reach a deal with a customer? This is especially prevalent with main dealers

Your experience with one dealer makes you believe it's "commonplace" and "prevalent"?

aaakev

Your car may well be worth 13k but its 2008 and would nearly definitely be sold in the trade and not end up on the fore court of the main dealer. You say its worth 13, he buys it off you (which is what he is doing) for €9,750, he sells in the trade for say €10,750 and the purchasing dealer has to prep it and put a warranty on it. You have just bought a new audi for how much and the dealer has made €1,000 on this entire deal.... not a great return to be honest

freddieot

Another factor would be what you are trading it in against..

bazz26

Just because a dealer "asks" €13k for a similar car doesn't mean they actually sell for that price. Someone coming in with no trade-in will buy that car for alot less. A 2008 car is now 7 years old, most main dealers will not retail a car of that age on their forecourt as a policy. As said they will sell it off to the trade i.e. smaller dealers who will repair/valet and stick their own warranty on it. So the main dealer will buy it from you at just below it's trade value (price they hope to sell it on to the smaller dealer).

I think what happens in most cases is that owners overvalue their trade-in and have a very simplistic and often inaccurate view of how trade-in values are calculated. When they don't get offered near their valuation they get insulted and think they are being fleeced. Also have you got prices from other dealers or just the one, you need to shop around as cost to change prices can vary depending on the dealer.

If you do still think your car is worth nearly €11k then best sell it yourself privately.

Murphster

I understand that there are overheads, it is a business not a charity etc etc ... The point i was making overall is the lack of willingness to negotiate, rather just a take it or leave attitude and yes, i can leave it, but its not a customer centric approach.

I have been to a number of garages both dealers and otherwise and prices offered varied greatly. Its not my first experience with garages i can assure you. Yes, this car will be sold off immediately but there is meat on the bone to be fair to both of us but there is also profit on the car i would be buying as there was no movement on that number either.

I am realistic - as I stated - about the value versus what I could get and i believed that €10.5 is realistic particularly considering that the car has been dealer serviced, low mileage, NCT for 2 years etc etc

bazz26

The garage most likely offered you what they deemed to be the price at which they need to buy the car and make a profit. The dealer either doesn't expect to get much more for it by selling it on or simply doesn't have much interest in the car. We all take it so personal when they don't offer us our expected price but it's not personal, it's just business. Just move on to the next dealer. As I said if you think you can get €10.5k for it then cut out the dealer and sell it privately.

mullingar

So, asking €13k, which is really €12-12.5k cash price, take away €1k-1.5k for warranty work margin/prep work, minus €1k profit, minus the VAT payable between the buy/sell price of approx €500, means he can offer you approx €9.5k

Perfect offer.

Atlantic Dawn

It is usually about a 30% reduction on the retail value you will get if you are lucky when trading in your car.

aaakev

To be fair its all down to margins available to dealers and offers available at the time from distributors. Iv decent margin to play around with which means i can go strong on trade ins which meets the customers expectations but in the commercial game i can be guaranteed im going to spend a fair bit on prep so i need it most of the time.

Im a main dealer and im very willing to negotiate with customers, im a selling sales manager though and look after new and secondhand sales so i dont have someone else deciding my figures. If i need to go strong on a trade in and know i can flip it at a profit i will

Murphster

That is a valid point well made and I'm sure it is different in every garage. I appreciate and acknowledge the valid points being made. I believe i was fair in my expectations and we were very close on price which indicates that, the point is that there was no negotiation etc to enable a deal worth over €25k to go ahead. Yes, i could sell it myself versus trading in, but we all know the pros and cons of those scenarios. I had gone to this particular garage wanting 10.5 and but definitely not willing to go below 10 ... I was then prepared to spend up to 15 in addition to the 10 or 10.5 but that still wasnt enough to make a deal happen even though the dealer would have a good mark up applied to the new car. Some have suggested that im posting because i didnt get ehat i wanted and that the dealer was right but my point is that it would have taken a small amount of negotiation to seal a valuable sale but instead i was just let walk off to another garage without any attempt to make me feel like i could be a valid customer and quite possibly a fture one too.

aaakev

From your post your looking at a new audi for approximately 25k which puts it in their cheaper range where the margins available are alot smaller as they generally work on percentages. If you were looking at say a new A6 for around the €50 k the margin would be bigger and you may well get your desired price....

Out of interest what are the 2 cars? I take it the new one is an A3 at that money

Take2Sean

������ dreamer go sell it privately for 10k not a chance!

aaakev

Take2Sean wrote: »

������ dreamer go sell it privately for 10k not a chance!

Do you know what car he drives?

Take2Sean

Most likely what most of the rest of the country drive an A4...and if it's an A3 he'll get less and if it's an A5 or A6 it's probably scrap....

Sounds to me like the dealer realised he was dreaming and decided to leave him off...

Murphster

Im actually moving from Audi to VW, the VW is used but almost new. The particular car is priced above its competitors but ticks the boxes in terms of what I'm looking for. I can only dream of a 50k Audi I'm afraid!

aaakev

Your probably right but without knowing his car you can't really call him a dreamer to be fair....

Take2Sean

aaakev wrote: »

Your probably right but without knowing his car you can't really call him a dreamer to be fair....

Fair point. I take that back but so many Irish people have crazy prices and values to their cars in there heads usually from seeing what other crazy prices people are asking on done deal. Then they put up the car, bike or whatever don't get a single call then drop like a stone to the real market value.

It's an Irish thing.....I've been there myself as well.

Best option is go sell the car. I was in a similar position to you recently with a car I wanted to trade in they offered me €5000 max for it (08 saloon) I believe it was worth €8. I sold it privately for €7400. However I must stress I got lucky. I quickly realised the car was realistically worth €6000-€6500. Also if there is high mileage you must remember the next owner is basically married to the 08 car. They're losing their shirt if they sell it with the off putting 150-170k miles....I got 2 phone calls in 2 weeks

Try your hand privately. But audis are flooded everywhere so it's a buyers market...

Murphster

Anyone who thinks that they can go out and buy a well maintained and looked after 08 S Line for under 10k is really the dreamer and I certainly don't dream when it comes to a transaction in the region of 25k ... Perhaps some...perhaps many can afford to, but not me.

Murphster

Just to make a point on the dreamer/crazy/ whatever I may appear to be, take a look at the numbers I mentioned earlier versus what was offered ... I didn't go in looking for 15 or 20 grand or some amount that warrants the title of 'dreamer' ... I wasn't just in the ball park, we were almost in the same row! That is again, why I made the initial point about negotiating.

Murphster

Murphster wrote: »

came back couple of days later... offered €9750... I said the min. I would let it go for was €10500

In fairness, sounds like he was reaching for a 'meet in the middle' agreement of 10k.

If you see your car online priced at 13k, then chances are it's selling around 12ish. 2k is still a lot of cash, but what you're really paying for, is the dealer's 'headache removal service'.

ie; not having to put up with Joe down the road coming down to have a spin in the car, and Mary ringing up for a chat about when cars really drove like cars. And Tom from across the country who drove 3 hours to get to you and has 5k in cash and won't go any higher after spending an hour talking to you about how the windows dont close a little faster so it's not to his taste and he's doing you a favour by even stretching to €5k.

And that's before Stephen, on his provisional, comes in with an offer of 15k, and agrees a time and place to collect after a lengthy test drive and then texts to cancel 5 mins before hand cos his insurance is too high so he cant buy it.

By the time someone makes a genuine offer you're spending hours googling 'car buyer scam' and youre not quite sure if his €50's are genuine so you're paranoid and giving him 'the look'... haha.


Accepting the 10k means you avoid all that, and the car is gone and done and dusted.

I'd put up with the headaches personally, but for many people they'd happily take the hit and get rid of it quicker.

I think the dealer were fair.

ba_barabus

Anyway, the trade in value is often meaningless.

OP what was the cost to change here relative to other garages?


That'll tell you if you got a good deal or not

sk8board

I changed my car last week.
the main dealer offered me 11.5k for my car. There were similar ones asking 15k. They were straight up with me that as its an '08 they wouldn't keep anything older than '11 on the lot and it would be auctioned out the back door to the trade the following Wednesday - like they do every Wednesday.

We did a straight deal on the new car instead and I sold mine for 13.8k privately.

Tea 1000

mullingar wrote: »

So, asking €13k, which is really €12-12.5k cash price, take away €1k-1.5k for warranty work margin/prep work, minus €1k profit, minus the VAT payable between the buy/sell price of approx €500, means he can offer you approx €9.5k

Perfect offer.

Take away the €1k he's not giving on the cash price of the car being purchased and you have €8,750 being the actual price offered!!

Murphster

Murphster wrote: »

....lack of willingness to negotiate...

It's not a lack of willingness to negotiate; it's a lack of willingness to do a deal at your price on the spot. If your car was worth more to the dealer, or if he really wanted to make the sale on the car he had to offer, and he really thought a better price for your car would seal the deal, then he'd be "in play". The fact that he's not says that he feels there's no need to get into a haggle or no value in doing so.

anewme

I am not sure why the op would say the dealer is not "customer centric" just because he would not give him what he wanted.

the reason why they let you walk off the forecourt was that they decided that they did not value your trade in any higher. That does not make them bad people or not interested in customers.

it's nothing personal, it's business. Why would you even ask if you could get them to change their mind? It seems they have been upfront and straight with you and rather than waste your or their time bartering on a (potentially) loss making deal for them (in their eyes anyway) they've said, thanks, but no thanks. and I think it's a bit unfair to accuse them of not caring about customers because the offer did not suit you.

Sh1tbag OToole

Deleted User wrote: »

And that's before Stephen, on his provisional, comes in with an offer of 15k, and agrees a time and place to collect after a lengthy test drive and then texts to cancel 5 mins before hand cos his insurance is too high so he cant buy it.

Did this really happen?:eek:

corcadorcha

What discount would you expect on new car if no trade in?
What benifit of selling car privately ?
Thanks,