How Much " Wriggle Room" Is There?

Ronin247

I am probably buying either a Skoda Octavia or a Volkswagen Passat for about 20,000 in the next week or so.

I am the worst negotiater in the world, so I was wondering how much wriggle room is there with a dealer. For example, if I see a car for 19,900 then how much should I realistically hope to pay for that car.

I have been told that I could negotiate up to 15% off the asking price, which seems like an awful lot to me( which is why I am a terrible negotiater).

So all the hard nosed wheeler dealers out there, how much would you end up paying?

bazz26

There is always wriggle room but how much depends on a load of factors:

* How well the car is priced against other similar cars of same age, spec, milage, etc. If at €20k the car is the cheapest priced then the discount maybe smaller than say a very same car asking €22k from the dealer down the road.

* How much it owes the dealer, depends on how much he gave the last owner for it, how much they have spent prepping it for resale, warranty being given on it.

* Popularity or demand of the model in question. If a car is a popular used buy with people and he has plenty of interest then a dealer might hold out for the most attractive deal to him/her.

* Timing - how long the dealer has the car and how eager he/she is to shift it. If the car was only traded a week ago then he might be willing to sit on it until the right offer comes along. Whereas if the car is sitting there unsold for 2 or 3 months then there might be more flexibility. Same thing goes with quarterly or monthly sales targets which have a bearing also.

Ronin247

The example I have in mind is where dealers have up to 10 of a certain type of car, eg one dealer has 8 141 passats at 22500 euro each, all roughly the same mileage, and it seems every dealer has the exact same price for each type of vehicle.
Do they all work to the same margins and if anyone (me) is daft enough to give the asking price they are laughing or is it just haggling like crazy?

bazz26

I'd say there is a bit of price watching going on imo. You probably need to play them off each other.

Casati

If you are buying straight, i.e. with no trade in, then the simple and often best approach is to get the dealer to negotiate down their price themselves by simply asking them whats the lowest straight deal price they will accept.

In many cases dealers, especially with multiple similar cars in stock, they will fairly quickly go close to the minimum they will accept, and which point you can chance your arm and offer a few hundred less.

spaceHopper

What have you got to lose by making an offer say 18k for one priced 22 k then walk a8 way if they come after you then you have him and he'll drop his price. If he doesn't follow you then your offer is way to low. Also if you stand in front of him with a cash deposit he'll find it very difficult to say no

Ronin247

Looking at a couple tomorrow.As has been said there is a bit of price watching going on so if I see one I like I will use Spacehoppers method and offer around 15% less and see how I get on.
probably end up paying more than asking price knowing my negotiation skills

noelf

Try and get a years warranty full service history and make sure car hasnt been damaged repaired .. one car i had was damaged four times in 18 months .. ;(

Ronin247

The idea of buying a 141 from a dealer is to get the remaining 2 year warranty and a full service history without paying the new car premium. I like a Volkswagen Jetta or Passat or possibly a Skoda Octavio. Going to a dealer should do away with the need for a car check etc.

landmarkjohn

As a rule of thumb I would target 15% discount and minimum 10%.

Make sure the guy knows you are a genuine customer and not fluting about and he should talk genuine numbers.

Last car I bought was in February last year from a second hand dealer, asking €16,000 I paid €13,500. A lot depends on the popularity of the model, in my case it was a large petrol.... no so popular so easier to negotiate on.

bazz26

Ronin247 wrote: »

The idea of buying a 141 from a dealer is to get the remaining 2 year warranty and a full service history without paying the new car premium. I like a Volkswagen Jetta or Passat or possibly a Skoda Octavio. Going to a dealer should do away with the need for a car check etc.

A manufacturer's warranty will only cover issues that are related to defective parts, etc. They will not cover issues that were as a result of the previous owner such as abuse or neglect.

Ronin247

Looked at a couple of Jettas and Octavias. Very surprised at how quick some salesmen drop the price....... " that one is 21,500 but I can give you 500 off that" was the opening bid a couple of times, saw an 141 Octavia for 21,000 which was 19,500 before the real haggling took place, unfortunately they were looking for 5.9% or something like it on the finance so was a no go.
Definitely can get 10% easy and a good haggler can probably get up to the 20% mark.

Still confused as to what to buy.

bazz26

Getting 10% or 20% off is all good and well unless the sticker price of the car was high to begin with. Bit like a Harvey Norman sale, adding it on to take it off.