Bargaining with a car dealer

shnaek

I test drove a 2003 car the other day. The asking price is €12,950. How much bargaining room is there on the asking price? Or is that a 'how long is a piece of string' question?

smcgiff

shnaek wrote:

I test drove a 2003 car the other day. The asking price is €12,950. How much bargaining room is there on the asking price? Or is that a 'how long is a piece of string' question?

Have you a trade in or is it cash only purchase? Oh, and tell us the make and model.

Evil Phil

Does a cash only purchase give you more barganing power?

cold_filter

Indeed it does, if you pay in cash they won't declare it, so they don't have to pay VAT on the sale.

bazz26

A "cash" or "straight" sale means you have no car to trade in. This is an advantage to a dealer as they do not have hassel of selling your old car.

How much discount you get off the car depends on what model car it is, how common or rare it is or how much demand there is this model. Usually from a €13k asking price I would expect to get at least €1k off for a straight sale.

As usual shop around for the best deal.

oleras

shnaek wrote:

'how long is a piece of string'

usually the lenght from one end to the other.....:D

And i would offer 11.5k cash, expect to pay closer to the 12k mark

colm_mcm

cold_filter wrote:

Indeed it does, if you pay in cash they won't declare it, so they don't have to pay VAT on the sale.

Not in the real world. Most garages use intricate accounting and stock systems, and all order books and invoices are audited.

Altreab

shnaek wrote:

I test drove a 2003 car the other day. The asking price is €12,950. How much bargaining room is there on the asking price? Or is that a 'how long is a piece of string' question?

Why not ring a garage and ask them the book value of the car your looking to buy? expect to pay €1000-€1500 above that for a car in a main dealer. If the car was traded in then they got it for around "book value" minus €1000

colm_mcm

would have to disagree, book value (presuming you mean trade book) is what a main dealer generally makes for a car, and rarely makes over book. The book is actually based on what main dealers reckon the cars make second hand. Cars rarely make over book, especially not bread-and-butter cars.
I rarely put the book price into a car, generally a few grand below.

macnab

"Cash is King" is still a common phrase in car dealing circles. I presume they are using the cash to pay for the intricate accounting and stock systems that most of them use... Actually, no, thats a joke. But cash is King.

colm_mcm

cash deal in the motor trade means no trade in.

shnaek

Thanks for all the advice. The car is a Rover 75 TD. Being a rover I assume there is room for bargaining!