Main dealer haggle unreasonable?

[RamJam258]

Hey all,

Yesterday went into my local vw dealer to test drive a golf gti I had placed a reserve on. Test drive went well and was keen to purchase. Car was priced at £20850. I made it clear I didn’t want any of the extras they push on you, I said straight up I’d pay £18000 plus my car which they valued as a p/x at £2000 which meant a total of £20000 in cash today. They said that they wouldn’t knock £850 off the price, so I asked for my deposit back and left.

Half expected to be called back into the dealership, I’m not bothered about waiting for another to appear. Just wondering if I made a fair offer? Car was over mileage slightly for a nearly 2 year old car going by 10000 miles a year being the average.

Any thoughts?

[Initforthemoney]

Yep, they’ll sell it to someone else.

[anonymous-user]

RamJam258 said:

Hey all,

Yesterday went into my local vw dealer to test drive a golf gti I had placed a reserve on. Test drive went well and was keen to purchase. Car was priced at £20850. I made it clear I didn’t want any of the extras they push on you, I said straight up I’d pay £18000 plus my car which they valued as a p/x at £2000 which meant a total of £20000 in cash today. They said that they wouldn’t knock £850 off the price, so I asked for my deposit back and left.

Half expected to be called back into the dealership, I’m not bothered about waiting for another to appear. Just wondering if I made a fair offer? Car was over mileage slightly for a nearly 2 year old car going by 10000 miles a year being the average.

Any thoughts?

You wanted to pay over £20,000 for a Golf GTI with over 20K miles? Are you drunk?

[vikingaero]

Fewer cars in the pool to choose from so less chance of a discount. Years ago I used to check Autotrader and there would be 7-800k cars for sale. Now there's 480k. I would wait and see if they call closer to the end of the month.

[anxious_ant]

I find that main dealerships rarely offer any discounts on used car, most I got was about £100.

P/X also seem unfavorable as I'm guessing it's more hassle for them to resell.

[PositronicRay]

New car averages are 12-15K per annum, maybe 100k over 10 yrs but tend to slow down as they get older. Shopping, school run, type cars will have a lower average than rep type cars. So average mileage is very fluid.

Obvs the dealer didn't consider your offer as reasonable, it's thier prerogative, as is yours not to buy.

Negotiation is about finding a win win situation.

[valiant]

How was it priced compared to the rest of the market? If is was the cheapest then it’s no wonder they said no plus they make most of their money from the add-ons like finance, gap, etc so they probably thought there’s a better prospect out there.

[carlove]

There seems to be plenty of choice at around £20k with less mileage, if you don't mind not going main dealer, this looks good.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Or this (I prefer the red one)

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

I think there's plenty more out there, and the one you viewed seemed slightly overpriced anyway.

[RamJam258]

Car was in no way the cheapest of its type in the dealership. Just surprised me that there was no movement from them at all. When I went to purchased the Mrs Jeep renegade which was up for 18k we got £1500 knocked off and wasn’t near the end of the month or quarter.

But like your guys have said I’ll keep looking at there’s always another around the corner

[Countdown]

RamJam258 said:

Hey all,

Yesterday went into my local vw dealer to test drive a golf gti I had placed a reserve on. Test drive went well and was keen to purchase. Car was priced at £20850. I made it clear I didn’t want any of the extras they push on you, I said straight up I’d pay £18000 plus my car which they valued as a p/x at £2000 which meant a total of £20000 in cash today. They said that they wouldn’t knock £850 off the price, so I asked for my deposit back and left.

Half expected to be called back into the dealership, I’m not bothered about waiting for another to appear. Just wondering if I made a fair offer? Car was over mileage slightly for a nearly 2 year old car going by 10000 miles a year being the average.

Any thoughts?

Just out of interest I thought the purpose of the "reserve" was that you effectively agreed to buy unless the car wasn't "as described". Is that not the case?

[RamJam258]

Car was in another branch of the vw franchise, the deposit was to allow them to transfer the car to my local branch. As a deal couldn’t be agreed deposit is refundable.

[Countdown]

RamJam258 said:

Car was in another branch of the vw franchise, the deposit was to allow them to transfer the car to my local branch. As a deal couldn’t be agreed deposit is refundable.

[MGirl]

I tend to find it’s how you are with the dealers which can get you a decent deal. I always like a good chat about cars in general and then we go to the figures. I don’t give them what I want to pay, I let them tell me what’s the best they can do and take it from there. I’m never eager to buy, I’ve got cash but no rush mainly because I have other cars and don’t do enough mile to justify a change. If they do push then I will give them a reasonable figure and let them go away and see what they can do.

Being able to basically take it off their hands there and then can help but mind the new reg is due on the 1st and they will have people lined up to buy pre reg, used and then those buying for the 1st and with them will probably come an increase in part exchanges so they’ve maybe made their target so not too fussy with a few other sales. If they also feel they’ve priced the car well they’ll know that someone will pay what they want.

Do you know how long they’ve had it?

[Mexman]

Reserves car with deposit, knowing the price beforehand, test drives and then goes for the heavy chip, with no add one, finance etc, and a non retailable shed p/x.
Expects dealer to run down the road after him.
No wonder the answer was no.

[RamJam258]

MGirl said:

I tend to find it’s how you are with the dealers which can get you a decent deal. I always like a good chat about cars in general and then we go to the figures. I don’t give them what I want to pay, I let them tell me what’s the best they can do and take it from there. I’m never eager to buy, I’ve got cash but no rush mainly because I have other cars and don’t do enough mile to justify a change. If they do push then I will give them a reasonable figure and let them go away and see what they can do.

Being able to basically take it off their hands there and then can help but mind the new reg is due on the 1st and they will have people lined up to buy pre reg, used and then those buying for the 1st and with them will probably come an increase in part exchanges so they’ve maybe made their target so not too fussy with a few other sales. If they also feel they’ve priced the car well they’ll know that someone will pay what they want.

Do you know how long they’ve had it?

Fair amount chat went on, was polite as not really in my nature to not be, believe the car has been within the franchise for a month or so. I may get a call in the week as I know every time he went away he had to ring his manager as there wasn’t one in branch that day. So things may change when the managers coming into branch tomorrow.

Little glad to be honest as with the new plate coming out may be some good ones coming in for p/x

[Drive Blind]

I've recently changed car, also purchasing a Golf.

All I can advise is view as many as you can, visit as many dealers as you can.
You'll soon learn how to read who wants to reach a deal and those who won't budge.

[HTP99]

As has been said many times prior; due to the internet making the UK and the world a far smaller place, cars have to be priced competitively and correctly at the outset otherwise you won't even get a sniff, sure you can get the odd stonking deal but this will only be on a car that they are sick of the sight of and want/need shifting to get it gone, like a Jeep Renegade!

If that Golf was priced correctly relative to its age and mileage vs other main dealers, then why should they knock a pretty hefty amount off it?!

Edited by HTP99 on Monday 26th August 18:55

[andymc]

Mexman said:

Reserves car with deposit, knowing the price beforehand, test drives and then goes for the heavy chip, with no add one, finance etc, and a non retailable shed p/x.
Expects dealer to run down the road after him.
No wonder the answer was no.

they should have kept his deposit

[RamJam258]

Mexman said:

Reserves car with deposit, knowing the price beforehand, test drives and then goes for the heavy chip, with no add one, finance etc, and a non retailable shed p/x.
Expects dealer to run down the road after him.
No wonder the answer was no.

Who doesn’t haggle let’s be honest if you go in and pay the asking price your pretty dim. I had £1500 knock off her renegade. The mark up on a used car is around 15%. As for the add ons, again if you lay out £300 for autoglym and extended warranty when all vw cars come with warranty as per the das auto used car program. And as it’s been stated above the deposit was for the car to be brought to the local dealer, why would you spend money on petrol traveling 160 miles when you can put a refundable deposit down and have the car brought to you? Again dim if you wouldn’t take advantage.

[RamJam258]

HTP99 said:

As has been said many times prior; due to the internet making the UK and the world a far smaller place, cars have to be priced competitively and correctly at the outset otherwise you won't even get a sniff, sure you can get the odd deal but this will only be on a car that they are sick of the sight of and want shifting to get it gone, like a Jeep Renegade!

If that Golf was priced correctly relative to its age and mileage vs other main dealers, then why should they knock a pretty hefty amount off it?!

Every car has its perks, the renegade is far more suited and cost effective for the Mrs to go to the stables to sort the horse, as opposed to paying over the odds for a land rover