How much do you expect to haggle off the price of a second-hand car?

SuprSi

I'm wondering what the norm is, or what's generally expected to be haggled off the price of a second-hand car. I know it would depend on the car, but is there a general percentage thing, or is it always a few grand below the list price? Are all list prices factoring in a price reduction based on a sale?

Dr.Millah

Depends on the sellers urge to sell, if you can sence they want a sell you will get a better price. i would start with finding any faults in the body work and or engine/interior etc. then ask him the price, lets assume he says €20`000 at this stage mention all the faults and ask him what the best price he could possibly do for you. At this stage he might say €19`500. Better than nothing but hold out. keep looking at the car etc. Then maybe say "so you said 19`000 yea?" he might say yea ok or could stick to his previous price.

Its pretty much just getting him to think that your not to bodered with the sale. If he feels your losing interest he will drop more off it.

Mention things like "19`500 for a car with 36`000miles and 3 years old is a bit too steep for me" and so on im sure you would get it to 19k pretty simple with a fairly solid seller. If its an inexperenced seller or someone who just wants rid of the car you out to make a killing practicaly.

SuprSi

Thanks - does this apply to both private sellers and car dealers?

Dr.Millah

yes. But you would exspect dealers to be more reluctant to drop prices. But when i bought my car from a dealers last year i got the price from 4500 to 3600 which wasnt no bad. best of luck

Henry Ford III

Both.

Dealers can offer a warranties though, and a private seller can only transfer the balance on the manufacturers warranty on a pretty new car.

Gurgle

SuprSi wrote:

I'm wondering what the norm is, or what's generally expected to be haggled off the price of a second-hand car. I know it would depend on the car, but is there a general percentage thing, or is it always a few grand below the list price? Are all list prices factoring in a price reduction based on a sale?

I'd consider 10% to be around the norm.

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Dealers can offer a warranties though.

Which often isn't worth the paper it's written on.

S.I.R

you dont haggle off a price when your buying a used car , you dont ask your local supermarket worker " this milk is 2.50 , ill give you 1.90 " do you ??

exactly


if you spot issues they will decresse the price , if you still dont like the price , walk away and hang your head in shame

bazz26

Depends on lots of factors, things like how realistic the asking price is to begin with, type and model of car, how much demand there is for the car, how urgent the owner wants to sell the car, etc.

I would image a dealer might have more scope for discount as they usually price the car above what they expect to get for it anyway leaving some room for haggling.

A private seller should price the car lower than that of a dealer as they probably offer no warranty and will most likely not accept a trade in. This will probably mean that if the price is realistic then there is less room for haggling. Again it can depend on the factors mentioned at the top.

bman

S.I.R wrote: »

you dont haggle off a price when your buying a used car , you dont ask your local supermarket worker " this milk is 2.50 , ill give you 1.90 " do you ??

exactly


if you spot issues they will decresse the price , if you still dont like the price , walk away and hang your head in shame

That's ridiculous. There's a big difference between buying something that's new and something that's second hand.

S.I.R

milk is bought from the dairy farmer then bought by a distrabouter from the factory ( or facotry sells straight to the shop either way ) though its never opened its second hand

Darren Lamb

S.I.R wrote: »

milk is bought from the dairy farmer then bought by a distrabouter from the factory ( or facotry sells straight to the shop either way ) though its never opened its second hand

Nothing to do with cars!!!

OP, Any car i have ever bought or sold has been negotiated from the original sale price. Iv never heard of someone just saying "Your looking for 8K, OK i'll pay that."

How much you get off the car is entirely dependant on the seller's hurry to get rid of it.

Wossack

S.I.R wrote: »

you dont haggle off a price when your buying a used car , you dont ask your local supermarket worker " this milk is 2.50 , ill give you 1.90 " do you ??

exactly


if you spot issues they will decresse the price , if you still dont like the price , walk away and hang your head in shame

:pac:

used car salesmans dream

yop

Wossack wrote: »

:pac:

used car salesmans dream

Ditto -

I have a pencil for sale for 20k euro, I presume you will give me 20k for it then.

BeardyGit

Wossack wrote: »

:pac:

used car salesmans dream

Never heard of one of those. I've heard of a wet dream, AKA a wankstain....Is that the same thing?

I've a nice cow for sale....One careful owner and made for milking. Any interest?

Only a muppet will pay the asking price unless it's already a cracking good deal.... I don't know anyone who'd actually expect to sell a car for the price they ask in their adverts. Even people who include 'no offers' and the like will deal if you're a serious buyer. Show them a grubby fist full of notes and they'll knock a few quid off 'for luck'.

Rowley Birkin QC

S.I.R wrote: »

you dont haggle off a price when your buying a used car , you dont ask your local supermarket worker " this milk is 2.50 , ill give you 1.90 " do you ??

exactly


if you spot issues they will decresse the price , if you still dont like the price , walk away and hang your head in shame

Ah cheers for that, had a sh!te enough morning and needed a laugh.

HJL

yop wrote: »

I have a pencil for sale for 20k euro, I presume you will give me 20k for it then.

mmm, is it the model with the eraser on top, because thats what im really after, i could give you 19k for it though, and ill need to have it sharpened at that price too!!

Paulzx

Throw the sharpener in aswell and we'll shake on it!!!!

kazul

In a way S.I.R. is right. Why do people assume that prices are negotiable? This seems to be a phenomenon peculiar to car trading.
Dr. Millah and Gurgle, are you both speaking from experience of buying and selling cars? Why would anyone assume that a 10% discount is "the norm".
Think about it, if the seller is willing to drop their price it means the original price is an attempt at a rip-off. Not everybody is comfortable with/competent at haggling. My advice would be to shop around.

Tigger

every thing is negotaible

we love to haggle:here's how they say a price, you say thats too much whats your mionimum price then shut up
whatever discount he comes out with say nothing for at least as long as he took to come out with the best price then take that much off again and offer it back what ever he says shut up say nothing then buy the car for 1.5 times the discount he gave from advertised to minimum price

so it the car was 20 and he dropped to 18 pay 17 this is how to buy stuff

3 tips
1 don't talk much, look like you are thinking and uncomfortable silences are your friend (where i said shut up shut up)
2 be prepared to walk away
3 this works don't fold don't listen to people who say it dosen't if you don't feel comfy haggeling thats whatv you have friends for let them do it

kazul

rbd wrote: »

every thing is negotaible

we love to haggle:

Really? And who exactly is "we"

then buy the car for 1.5 times the discount he gave from advertised to minimum price

Why do you assume that there is an advertised price and a minimum price?

so it the car was 20 and he dropped to 18 pay 17 this is how to buy stuff

Stuff, as in every high-end consumer product you buy? Forget the silly examples of milk and pencils, do you haggle for other products?

3 tips
1 don't talk much, look like you are thinking and uncomfortable silences are your friend (where i said shut up shut up)
2 be prepared to walk away
3 this works don't fold don't listen to people who say it dosen't if you don't feel comfy haggeling thats whatv you have friends for let them do it

Any proof that this works, examples?

Cionád

kazul wrote: »

Any proof that this works, examples?

Everybody I know, that has evere bought a car, new or second hand, has haggled over the price.

People haggle over house prices too.

It's common sense, how much you want the car verses how much they want to sell it.

Rowley Birkin QC

kazul wrote: »

Any proof that this works, examples?

I haggled €250 off the price of this laptop that I'm typing on now and could have had a 4 year extended warranty for about 1/3 of the advertised price. Bought gear in the Munster shop lately, advertised price was €135, I paid €115 simply by asking if that was their best price, so so simple. I'm still a student so it's handy to know theres nearly always some leeway on whatever you are buying.

And an example to do with cars....
My dad negotiated a 10% dicount on the price of his car last December, never ever pay full price for anything if there is a discount to be had.

Toots

It also depends on how much you are spending on the car. When I was buying my first car one of the dealers told me that you could pretty much haggle up to 10% of the value, and some will go lower than that again. They tend to be flexible on the price too if you're paying cash (as in not trading in). I just bough a used car last week, the asking price was 7.5k. I was offered 900 for my old car (00 Daewoo Matiz), which would have left me with a balance of 6400 to pay. I offered to pay cash and haggled down to 6300. Then I sold my old car privately for 1500. (interestingly enough that was the asking price I advertised it for )
I suppose it all depends on whether they are overstocked, or how long the particular car you're looking at has been on the lot. In my experience though, they seem to be more flexible if you're paying cash cos it's less hassle for them.

Bulmers

everything is negotiable..seller will always have a minimum they will accept, i.e. we recently sold the wifes car, bottom line was 2k, advertised for 2.5k, got 2250..

wife then bought new car, we negotiated the insterest rate on the loan, had 3 banks playing off each other, highest one was 7.9% per annum, rang them all saying one was giving me this, got the one offering 7.9 to give it to us for 6.4% so if you bargain with them, can get stuff off...not major thing but proves a point and at the end of the day, it's money in our pockets.

Bought her car then, asking 17.5k from garage, got it for 16k..

It's a buyers market at the moment, especially for cars, i think it's an irish thing not to ask for discounts etc but no harm, nothing to lose.

Tigger

kazul wrote: »

Any proof that this works, examples?

i run my own company
i import and sell both to business and the retail sector

not cars but i purchase about 30k per week every week so yes i haggle on everything all the time an i ex[pect it from my customers

we is the irish

yes i bought the top of the range sony bravia high lcd with def upscaling dvd and active surround sound system the other week and i had to go to 3 shops to get the price i had decided i should be able to get
saved 40% on the dearest quoted price albeit witha different shop

i bring every car and bikle i own and many for my mates in from the north or the uk and i bloody well haggle there i get 20% off on shoes and 15% on clothes as standard

and the reason i thing there is a quoted price and a minimum price iis because there is

DemonOfTheFall

S.I.R wrote: »

milk is bought from the dairy farmer then bought by a distrabouter from the factory ( or facotry sells straight to the shop either way ) though its never opened its second hand

I think everyone could have ignored his point right after he says this. Anyone with even the most tenuous grasp of economics/business/common sense should have laughed him out of the thread after this comment...

Gurgle

kazul wrote: »

Dr. Millah and Gurgle, are you both speaking from experience of buying and selling cars? Why would anyone assume that a 10% discount is "the norm".

Yes, from experience.

Haggling in Ireland isn't a long drawn out process, usually takes less than 3 minutes. Its not like buying off a street trader in Luxor, now that takes time and you can expect to eventually get 80% off the joke they start with.

My current car was privately advertised for €4,600, deal went like this:

'Seems good, is the price negotiable'
'A little, can't come down much'
'4?'
'Not that far, could knock a couple of hundred off it. How about €4,400?'
'Split the difference, €4,200?'
'OK'
'Done'

peasant

always room for a bit of Monty Python's

http://www.mwscomp.com/movies/brian/brian-14.htm

E92

Only a fool wouldn't try and get something off the price of a car. Everyone knows that you always haggle on the price of a car.

I nearly pissed my pants re the you don't negotiate the price of a carton of milk comment! 2 completely different things. You don't negotiate with a taxi driver either about the fare, you pay the price and if they're any good you give them a tip too. By that logic a good car salesman should get a tip because of the service he provided me:rolleyes:.