Getting value for your trade in

Nuttzz

What is the best way of haggling/getting the best price from a garage on your existing car?

My story is that I drive an 02 laguna and last weekend I went into Liffey Valley Renault to look at the new laguna, I asked them for a price of my 02 and they offered me 10K, I laughed as I was offered 11k & 11.5K from two other dealers albeit non renault garages. So after telling the salesman that I would waste either of our times getting a quote I drove off, but the time I got to the M50 roadabout the sales guy range me back offering 11.25k and a plasma tv for the car if I did the deal that weekend.

I seems to me that he probably had end of month targets to hit, but it sounds to me like he was trying to con me with his first offer.

Anyone have good haggling tips?

Eoin

Nuttzz wrote:

Anyone have good haggling tips?

Well, I think you answered your own question - just drive off if you aren't happy, and if they can raise their original offer, they will contact you / call you back or whatever.

Jip

I wouldn't say he was trying to con you, just trying to make money. When you're buying a car you don't immediately hand over the asking price, you try to get it for less which is similar to what he was doing.
I traded in recently and got a good price for my old car. I then spotted it for sale yesterday for almost €2,000 more than I got for it. I know you can get more privately but this car, while in being good condition, had no NCT and high enough mileage. I doubt they'll get their asking price but will probably get about €1,000 more than I got.
I'm not too bothered because I got a good deal in the end anyway.

whippet

sales is sales.

A sales person earns more money by selling at a higher price and trading in at a lower price. Of course he will try and get the best price for him. Gulliable customer will take the first offer and most other will look to squeeze them down. Its a matter of how this is done.

The sales person obviously thought they were calling your bluff, and when you drove off he then rethought his strategy and made the better offer.

Also the line 'if I get an order today/this weekend' etc .. again is salesman ship, if the offer is available now it will be still available next week. If not take the buisness elsewhere.

bazz26

Nuttzz wrote:

What is the best way of haggling/getting the best price from a garage on your existing car?

My story is that I drive an 02 laguna and last weekend I went into Liffey Valley Renault to look at the new laguna, I asked them for a price of my 02 and they offered me 10K, I laughed as I was offered 11k & 11.5K from two other dealers albeit non renault garages. So after telling the salesman that I would waste either of our times getting a quote I drove off, but the time I got to the M50 roadabout the sales guy range me back offering 11.25k and a plasma tv for the car if I did the deal that weekend.

I seems to me that he probably had end of month targets to hit, but it sounds to me like he was trying to con me with his first offer.

Anyone have good haggling tips?

Even €11.25k for a car that is only 3 years old, that probably cost €26/27k new is nothing to smile about imo, is the depreciation on a Laguna that bad?

Back to your original question, remember that new car sales from June onwards slows considerably as you are now into the second half of the year and most people buy their new cars in the first six months. This means that montly sales commissions are leaner. Also because the facelifted Laguna has only recently been launched dealers should be a bit eager to move stock. Saying that these guys gadge you when you walk in the door and most try to pull a fast one to see if you are serious or just killing time.

stratos

If a time element is put on any deal walk away. bring cash but far less than wanted, it's amazing the effect of the site of a wad, (once knocked 3 of a 6 grand car this way). If the dealer says there is someone else interested walk away. Laugh at everything the dealer says as if he has cream cheese on his face. Make no mistake this is a battle. sell your car privatley and walk onto the forecourt with cash. (who's the daddy?). pick out and find every flaw in your intended car. these people will lie to you manipulate you so beware. it's their job.

whippet

stratos wrote:

these people will lie to you manipulate you so beware. it's their job.

tarring everyone with the same brush?

I have met alot of very honest dealers and car sales people, and they ususally get the business. As with all walks of life there are the dodgy kind but you can't form a generalisation.

stratos

no generalisation or tarring. sales techniques are well established. if you think you met a decent salesman, you just met a good one. He bought something for one price and sold it to you for a grossly inflated price. You could have been wise and got it at his first price, whats decent about that? Why are we still paying middle men.

thatkindofgirl

Hey! At least he wanted to sell you something.

(I'm going off on a tangent -- I'm good at that -- but I'll get on topic by the end, I promise).

Wednesday night my g/f and I ventured to DG Nissan at Liffey Valley.

I am looking to buy, and a new-ish Micra is my favourite choice. My g/f has a two year old Almera with next to no mileage (we live close to her work) but really would love a Primera.

The "salesman" we got offered no information, didn't try to sell anything, didn't bite when my gf started talking about being very tempted about upgrading her car and offered her piss all for her car as a trade in when she pressed the matter!

It was like pulling teeth! I want a real salesperson. I've never bought a car before, and I'm really excited about buying my own car. I want the person selling it to me to be excited about selling it to me!

Anyway, where this is related is that the salesman offered her about 50% of her purchase price for her two year old car, in perfect condition with just over 10k mileage.

The stupid thing is I know her, and she was ready to buy the primera that was there on the lot. Only she was digusted with the salesman that she didn't! :rolleyes:

What is it with salespeople who don't want to sell?

Dagon

Another thing that sucks about dealers is that mileage doesn't seem to make a difference to them. If a car is a few years old, that's it - it's a few years old, therefore it's worth very little €€€.

On the other hand, if you are selling privately, usually people will pay that little bit extra for a good car that has a very low mileage. e.g. if a 1998 car has a very low mileage (under 25K) then you can sell it way above the market value, and possibly sell at the value of a 00 model. People will pay for this because they know it's like a new car.

thatkindofgirl - sell the Almera privately, and you will get the money it is really worth.

samo

I went about selling a 00 Almera some months back thru the Buy and sell (ended up getting an ok deal trade in) but the amount of phone calls and emails I got for people looking for the car when the ad was finally published was unreal.

For some reason it took the B+S about 3 weeks to publish the ad and by then car was already gone so there was me thinking nobody wanted it when in fact I could have sold it easily on the strength of the buy and sell.

Nuttzz

Thanks stratos, I followed your advice on it and ended up getting 14k for it. I brought a grand with me and told him I was a serious buyer and I'd give him a deposit on the spot if he would do the deal there and then, I introduced the time factor to him and it worked. also on the finance I played off BNP (now fexco), PTSB and BOSI against each other and got the inital (dealer finance rate) down from 7.75% to 6.4%.

It does pay to be a cheeky ba$tard by the sounds of it......