How to get best discount from a dealer
Discussion
IanCress said:
How come people are so anti-haggling all of a sudden?
There are a high number of motor trade on here so you can get a biased view at times.Try posting about bankers and their questionable activities and you'll get a similar response from the banking contingent.
My advice re haggling would be to make it clear you are ready to do a deal today but don't go down the 'whats your lowest for cash' route.
Be pleasant but point out areas where money will need to be spent eg tyres, brakes, near due service etc.
If the aren't keen on coming down in price they may negotiate on extras like a couple of free services.
I'd have thought trying for £1,500 off a £15,000 car isn't asking too much. They probably have a £3k margin in in if they bought / p/xed right.
trickywoo said:
There are a high number of motor trade on here so you can get a biased view at times.
Try posting about bankers and their questionable activities and you'll get a similar response from the banking contingent.
My advice re haggling would be to make it clear you are ready to do a deal today but don't go down the 'whats your lowest for cash' route.
Be pleasant but point out areas where money will need to be spent eg tyres, brakes, near due service etc.
If the aren't keen on coming down in price they may negotiate on extras like a couple of free services.
I'd have thought trying for £1,500 off a £15,000 car isn't asking too much. They probably have a £3k margin in in if they bought / p/xed right.
£3k in a car?? If only, I'd say average margin in a relatively mainstream car is somewhere between £1500 and £2000. Of course if you look to Land Rovers etc there's more but they can have significantly higher prep and warranty costs so they still don't make a huge margin.Try posting about bankers and their questionable activities and you'll get a similar response from the banking contingent.
My advice re haggling would be to make it clear you are ready to do a deal today but don't go down the 'whats your lowest for cash' route.
Be pleasant but point out areas where money will need to be spent eg tyres, brakes, near due service etc.
If the aren't keen on coming down in price they may negotiate on extras like a couple of free services.
I'd have thought trying for £1,500 off a £15,000 car isn't asking too much. They probably have a £3k margin in in if they bought / p/xed right.
Everyone looks online these days so you have to price competitively for people to even come and view your cars.
trickywoo said:
There are a high number of motor trade on here so you can get a biased view at times.
Try posting about bankers and their questionable activities and you'll get a similar response from the banking contingent.
My advice re haggling would be to make it clear you are ready to do a deal today but don't go down the 'whats your lowest for cash' route.
Be pleasant but point out areas where money will need to be spent eg tyres, brakes, near due service etc.
If the aren't keen on coming down in price they may negotiate on extras like a couple of free services.
I'd have thought trying for £1,500 off a £15,000 car isn't asking too much. They probably have a £3k margin in in if they bought / p/xed right.
I wouldn't say biased, more sensible. If you work off a 10% margin after costs, that would leave £1500 so you won't give it all away. Even if you have a larger margin than that, why would you give £1500 off when it's fresh in to stock?Try posting about bankers and their questionable activities and you'll get a similar response from the banking contingent.
My advice re haggling would be to make it clear you are ready to do a deal today but don't go down the 'whats your lowest for cash' route.
Be pleasant but point out areas where money will need to be spent eg tyres, brakes, near due service etc.
If the aren't keen on coming down in price they may negotiate on extras like a couple of free services.
I'd have thought trying for £1,500 off a £15,000 car isn't asking too much. They probably have a £3k margin in in if they bought / p/xed right.
That's not biased, that's common business sense!
RC1 said:
ive never bought from a dealer but im thinking of something that the dealer has taken in px. I don't have a px to offer. id be looking to get about 10% off the car its up for about 15k at the moment its only been up for about a week
Very unlikely, £1500 will be most, if not all their margin. Why would they want to give that away when they've only had it a week? If it was coming up to their stock limit (often 60 or 90 days) it might happen, but only if the car would cost them a lot to move on, through auction for example.RC1 said:
1. buy it through their finance package and settle finance. do I incur early settlement charges? id want to settle the finance asap
Possible but on a used car they will be structuring the finance themselves, through a finance house (Black Horse, GE Capital etc) where they will almost certainly have their fees clawed back if you settle early, unlike manufacturer finance which often doesn't have a claw back. As such if they get a sniff you're going to do that they'll not be keen.RC1 said:
2. wave him my debit card (better for them the merchant service charge is nil compared to cc)
Debit card or bank transfer is the best way to pay, as you say minimal fees compared to credit card.RC1 said:
3. wave him my credit card (better for me I get points and some protection)
Most dealers set a limit how much they'll take on a credit card, if you can imagine me taking £100k for a car, and getting 2.5% fees all of a sudden it would change a deal considerably. Most will let you pay more, as long as you pay the fees incurred.RC1 said:
4. offer to take it without their gtee ie sold as seen (not sure they do that?!)
Not a chance, the consumer is always protected, they could sell you it sold as seen and you still come back wanting stuff repairing and the law would be on your side.As such none of these options will help you, you need to be prepared to pay close to the asking price if required, if its the car for you, or gamble that they don't sell it in a hurry and go back with your low offer in a couple of months..
Most of the sales, margin and profit data for the large dealership groups is publicly available.
Gross margin on used cars (after direct costs, prep etc) is at best an average of 8%, (this is before all the overheads of rent, back office staff, utilities, head office etc etc) - this will be widely different for non run of the mill car dealerships, I.e sports cars etc
This margin can be boosted by service packs, insurance products and furthermore finance, and eroded by discounts (cars that stick around)
Most of the big dealers make around 2% to 3% net profit -
If you want a discount, just simply offer the price you are willing to pay, the decision is normally down to the business manager. A cash buyer looking to buy a popular car, new into stock and not take any extras is not a good prospect. On the other hand a cash buyer/ quick sale of a non popular car, after it's stuck around for months near the end of a reporting period could be a great prospect.
As potential customers we sometimes forget that one of the hardest parts of running a dealership is sourcing good cars, if you have a good popular car in stock the last thing you are going to do is discount it unnecessarily.
For the record - I work for a large dealership.
Gross margin on used cars (after direct costs, prep etc) is at best an average of 8%, (this is before all the overheads of rent, back office staff, utilities, head office etc etc) - this will be widely different for non run of the mill car dealerships, I.e sports cars etc
This margin can be boosted by service packs, insurance products and furthermore finance, and eroded by discounts (cars that stick around)
Most of the big dealers make around 2% to 3% net profit -
If you want a discount, just simply offer the price you are willing to pay, the decision is normally down to the business manager. A cash buyer looking to buy a popular car, new into stock and not take any extras is not a good prospect. On the other hand a cash buyer/ quick sale of a non popular car, after it's stuck around for months near the end of a reporting period could be a great prospect.
As potential customers we sometimes forget that one of the hardest parts of running a dealership is sourcing good cars, if you have a good popular car in stock the last thing you are going to do is discount it unnecessarily.
For the record - I work for a large dealership.
sandman77 said:
RC1 said:
you've assumed that 15k is a fair price haven't you
I have now.RC1 said:
all academic now... another salesman sold the car
With good used stock so hard to get, "its a buyers market" just doesnt always ring true any more.
TA14 said:
RC1 said:
sandman77 said:
If you want to buy a car for £13500 why are you going to look at one that costs £15000? Unless there is something very wrong with the car that you can haggle over then I guess getting a £1500 discount is not going to happen.
you've assumed that 15k is a fair price haven't youtrickywoo said:
I'd have thought trying for £1,500 off a £15,000 car isn't asking too much. They probably have a £3k margin in in if they bought / p/xed right.
They'll have a £3K gross margin, yes, but they've probably got an easy £2K+ of overheads per car. Net profit on a car at that price is typically £500-800.
If you were in business, how long would you think you would remain in business if you werent making any money?
Car dealers are very susceptible to Jedi persuasion techniques.
It's actually quite easy once you get the hang of it. All you have to do is wave your hand in front of them in a smooth, swift, single motion and say 'You will sell me this car for 10% less than the screen price'.
It's all in the wrist.
It's actually quite easy once you get the hang of it. All you have to do is wave your hand in front of them in a smooth, swift, single motion and say 'You will sell me this car for 10% less than the screen price'.
It's all in the wrist.
trickywoo said:
There are a high number of motor trade on here so you can get a biased view at times.
Not biased IMO. Lots of people got a lot out of the old car salesmen thread. Funny enough those of us who are on PH from the trade actually have a decent interest in cars as well, and are simply offered advise based on our own experiences. Take it or leave it.HTP99 said:
RC1 said:
I know the fact its been up for just a few days is against me but im not sure if I can play a long game as they don't come up very often and production volumes for this particular variant are v low... the last one that came up privately went within hours...
I think from what you have written above; and assuming it is correctly priced, then you have no chance getting any kind of discount.
SonicShadow said:
Car dealers are very susceptible to Jedi persuasion techniques.
It's actually quite easy once you get the hang of it. All you have to do is wave your hand in front of them in a smooth, swift, single motion and say 'You will sell me this car for 10% less than the screen price'.
It's all in the wrist.
Patience you must have, young padawan. At 89 days in stock buy the car you might. Otherwise hand in your pocket you must place, and serious offer you must make.It's actually quite easy once you get the hang of it. All you have to do is wave your hand in front of them in a smooth, swift, single motion and say 'You will sell me this car for 10% less than the screen price'.
It's all in the wrist.
thanks to everyone that offered genuine insight and advice and ill be armed and deadly should I need to buy through a dealer but moral of the story is move quick
I really thought in this case that the car would move slow as the marque is not usually held by the dealer that took it in px but I was wrong and by the looks of it the car im looking for seems to be wanted by more people than me who are happy to pay up
they had already discounted a similar model albeit a newer diesel one by over 1k so I thought I might have a chance
I am quite surprised to learn that net margins can be as low as whats been mentioned above but I guess all dealers are different
I really thought in this case that the car would move slow as the marque is not usually held by the dealer that took it in px but I was wrong and by the looks of it the car im looking for seems to be wanted by more people than me who are happy to pay up
they had already discounted a similar model albeit a newer diesel one by over 1k so I thought I might have a chance
I am quite surprised to learn that net margins can be as low as whats been mentioned above but I guess all dealers are different
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