How do you approach the "cost to change"?

[paddyhasneeds]

How do you approach the "cost to change" when changing cars?

By that I mean, let's say you're buying a car which costs £10k and the dealer offers you £5k for your p/x - cost to change of £5k.

Let's say you're buying the same car and the dealer offers you £1k for your p/x but will sell you the new car for £6k - cost to change still £5k.

I was speaking to a dealer the other day and we were both discussing how many people seem to get very hung up on the p/x value assigned to their car and the invoiced vs. list price of the new car etc. whilst my view whilst negotiating was "I don't care how you balance the books so long as the figure that is left for me to find is £x".

Have I missed something, or are some people a little too focussed on numbers with no significant meaning?

[whoami]

Yes, folk do get hung up on the wrong numbers.

What did you buy?

[kambites]

I tend to buy and sell privately, so it's never been an issue.

[FreezerWeasel]

sell privately and buy privately, but yes, if i was doing a deal all i'd be in is the net difference to cost.

[Deerfoot]

paddyhasneeds said:

Whilst my view whilst negotiating was "I don't care how you balance the books so long as the figure that is left for me to find is £x".

This. I`ve done deals where the figures on the paperwork are a work of fiction compared to what has previously been discussed......apart from the balance figure. And that figure is all that matters to me.

[speedking31]

If you don't like the new car and take it back. The dealer says sorry we have sold your trade-in, but here is the cash equivalent. Would you rather he gave you £1k or £5k?

[Matt UK]

speedking31 said:

If you don't like the new car and take it back. The dealer says sorry we have sold your trade-in, but here is the cash equivalent. Would you rather he gave you £1k or £5k?

Sorry, are dealers offering 'try before you buy' now?

[BoRED S2upid]

Exactly the same last time we px'd we wanted a £10k car and had £7k cash. The dealer tried to hammer us on px value so I tried to knock the equivalent off the car we were buying I told him straight how much cash we had and he sorted the figures out however he wanted.