Negotiating a sale.

Ernie Ball

Is there a rule of thumb for the relation between price asked and price ultimately paid when buying from the forecourts? In other words, the asking prices are inflated but, generally, by how much? Should I expect to pay 5% less? 10% less? Does it depend on the value of the car?

All help appreciated.

lomb

look on ros.ie, input details and pay no more than 10% on these max for dealer pricing and 3% for private.

bazz26

It depends whether you are doing a straight cash deal or have a trade-in. A straight cash deal gives the buyer more negotiaton power. The asking price is always inflated so that the seller can drop money while still making reasonable money on the deal. Expect to get up to 10% off the sticker price for a straight cash deal from a garage. If you feel you are not getting a good deal just walk away, you would be surprised how this can change the mind of a salesman seeing a straight cash customer turning and heading for the door.

Having a trade-in reduces the buyers power to haggle but you can still haggle. Again the price of the car you are buying is inflated to allow the seller to drop to the actual price he wants for the car. Also they tend to side track you by distracting you with how much they are allowing you on your car. The important figure you should be interested in is how much it is costing you to trade up, not how much your car is worth. Again offer the dealer about €1k less than they are asking, usually they will meet you half way, tell them that you cannot do it and start walking away, then come in a second offer a hundred or two lower telling them that that is as far as you can stretch. More than likely they will come down or split the difference with you.

At the end of the day it is like a game of poker, play your cards and see who folds first. If dealers were not making money they wouldn't be in the business of selling cars.

Once I was looking at a car and the dealer wanted €8k (which was inflated to start with)to trade up. He dropped to €7k just like that so I started off at €6k. Eventually got him down to €6.5k after I started heading towards the door saying I couldn't stretch to €7k. Didn't buy the car in the end as the other half didn't like it but still felt it was a half decent deal.

unkel

bazz26 wrote:

At the end of the day it is like a game of poker, play your cards and see who folds first

Very much so, but before you play your cards, it would be of great help to know the market for the car you are buying very well. The private sale / trade prices it is going for and deviations up and down for higher / lower than average mileage, extras etc. How quick and easy a car would shift for the garage - if it doesn't shift it's gotta go to the lower level trade at very low prices. How keen the seller is in a private sale (replacement already bought, etc)

Timing is also important. A lot of the salary of a reasonably successful second hand car salesperson is sales bonus, not basic, so play with that too

Play well and it will be the easiest money you've ever earned

Ernie Ball

Thanks, all.

I've got cash so I'll have to plan to use the leverage that gives me.

But tell me this: by 'cash' do you mean actual cash, as in notes? Or will they take a bank draught?

unkel

Ernie Ball wrote:

tell me this: by 'cash' do you mean actual cash, as in notes? Or will they take a bank draught?

cash = bankdraft

Provided the seller can confirm with the bankmanager of the branch that issued the draft that it is real

I wouldn't be comfortable carrying a lot of cash (more than a couple of thou) around

Wanton

lomb wrote:

look on ros.ie, input details and pay no more than 10% on these max for dealer pricing and 3% for private.

sorry, probably blind, but where on the site are you talking about?

lomb

Wanton wrote:

sorry, probably blind, but where on the site are you talking about?

www.ros.ie
then choose "Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) Enquiry System" at the top

then click on " Category ‘A’ Vehicles e.g. Passenger Vehicles"

then enter details.

https://www.ros.ie/VRTEnquiryServlet/showVRT

Wanton

cheers