So I've never bought a car from a dealer before and would love a little advice on bargaining tactics etc. Is it similar to lowballing desperados on Gumtree? Or do I need more tact?
The vehicle is a 2008 Prado VX V6 petrol with under 150k for around $27K. I have cash.
How hard can I realistically push the dealer? The price seems fairly reasonable after researching on Carsales.
Oh and I probably won't involve bikies in this one…
Hey, thanks for your input Spackbace. Yes, being stuck in Tassie does affect car availability, but the price does still seem fairly competitive even when comparing with interstate prices or considering time and effort going interstate to bring one back.
It is with a major dealer, Mazda. I will have a friend who also has a Prado and is fairly knowledgeable look over it.
Would most major dealers have some kind of warranty on used cars, unless otherwise stated? I can already see one issue that may be present being the front suspension seems to be sagging compared to the rear.
Haha, I will try and push for a full tank then for sure!
If you can see issues with the car before purchase make sure to get them to look at it before paying for the car or have it in the contract. Cause once you have handed over the cash and need to claim for anything under warranty it can become a huge PITA.
EDIT: and also if suspension wear and tear is the issue, rather than catastrophic failure, then they may be able to just wash their hands of it by saying that this is to come with a car with 150k kms and buyer beware.
It may be that it's got more stiff rear springs for towing. I'm not sure.
If it is already a good price, they might not leave much wiggle room, knowing that someone will buy it fairly quickly at close to list price.
That's what I was thinking, but the price could always be lower :P
When I bought recently I knew the going value of the model. I stated my price I would pay and said that's my limit, which it was. We did 15 mins of him saying its not enough and me saying it's all I have. After we did that, then he said ok. I think no matter what offer you put in, you will still get the "not enough/not realistic" pressure to try and extract all you really have.
Other thing I learnt during the process to be aware of are claims about value of warranty - most of the time very useless if you look into the detail.
Location I'm guessing will have an effect on car availability (Tasmania), but if the price is already competitive then there might not be much room left.
Is it a major dealer or wholesaler? This might affect how much they've spent on recon.
Make sure you have someone mechanically minded look over it.
Get it for a price that you're happy with at the end of the day. If the dealer has profit left then good on them, but you want to feel you had a win too :)
Oh and get a full tank of juice on the contract… Those cars have a hellova fuel tank to fill!