just wondering how much people can negotiate we buying a used car before the offer becomes ridiculous. Say its a used corolla sx/zr hatch and its listed out $18-$21k driveaway, how much leeway would I have in negotiating? Could I get around $2-3k off?
cheers
How Much Can You Negotiate on a Used Car?
Ljayr99 on 18/09/2019 - 11:46
Comments
same year/make/model
I would add same transmission. Manuals are often cheaper than autos and many are much harder to sell.
How long is a piece of string? There's no definitive answer, and it totally depends on the person on the other end you're negotiating with. How desperate they are to sell, or play hardball if they can tell you really want the car.
It's a game, and the person who can play the game best will win.
Go and tell the seller that some guy on ozbargain reckons you can get $2156 off the price.
show this thread for an extra 10% off
Don't forget cashrewards
as much as you can…………
dealer or private?
if you going to negotiate a price you have to have reasons to support it. comparing it with other cars on the market with the same mileage/features/colour and condition is a good start. Also depends heavy on how desperate the seller is keen on getting rid of the car.
Have they listed the car for a while?
Yes, then it either priced too high or other potential buyers have founded something wrong with it
==> then you have to inspect the car thoughtfully and then try to bargain hard if you can't find anything wrong.No, is the prices reasonable in the same other cars in the market?
==> then the seller isn't going to move much on the price unless you can find a reason to.Definitely not that much but at least this much.
ok the car is black and has visible swirl marks and the left wheel has some curb rash. Would I point this out to the seller before making my offer or would I just make the offer based on these factors?
If you need to ask that question, you need to take someone with you who's more knowledgeable on bargaining
i think taking someone with you who has some experience in inspecting cars isn't going to hurt you.
Is it a dealer car?
if it's a non toyota based one it most likely to be an ex-rental purchased from an auction.true i'll probably do that since i have no experience in buying a car
Entirely depends on the car. I would say factor in 10% haggle-ability before imperfections, but also be realistic. If you lowball for the sake of it, youll be hit with a no.
If its a common car, haggling can be hard if its already on the lower end of the market
If the cars already priced using the redbook average, you might be able to get 5-10% off provided you dont kick the owners tyres.
If the cars outside the average, dont even waste your time as the seller is looking for a sucker.If the cars priced using the redbook average, instantly knock 15% off and haggle from there
If you were to trade a car, the dealer will devalue your car by commenting on anything they can, i.e, missed service, service by non manufacturer dealer, dents scratches, whatever.
You need to do the same.
If it was me and a car was at 20k, id easily offer 3k less and see where it ends up.Dealers will mostly talk turkey if you are there to buy and place deposit whilst you are there..
There could anywhere between 500 and 3+k margin. Dealers and private sellers can ask whatever, doesnt mean they will get it.
You may not get what you want, but you can feel good about the end price.
Also, dont be a smart arse d!ck with the salesperson.. you want to buy, they want to sell.
do you know that you can get a new 2019 corolla sedan for $23K,although this is a last gen model. given that your spending almost $21k why not go new?
Big difference between the Ascent and SX/ZR
For all we know OP is on a $16k budget and looking at $18-21k cars hoping to negotiate them down to their budget.
I recently got $1000 off a 2009 Ford LPG wagon listed for $6000 by telling the dealer the price was lower yesterday. I was replacing a 2005 LPG wagon that was written off, and that I'd insured for $8000 two month before. Sometimes you have a win
Dealer - your chances are very low. They almost never drop prices unless there's a very good reason. It's not worth the hassle IMO.
Private - 100% certain that they'll drop the price. No private sale has ever been done for the originally listed price.
Dealers will usually negotiate somewhat. As spackbace has noted there are lots of factors that will influence the discount. How much they want to get rid of the vehicle, how much they need a commission, your attitude, their attitude and heaps of others. Dealers know buyers want a discount and will usually mark a car up a bit so you think you are getting a bargain by cutting a bit off the price, just the same a private sellers. If they get full asking price then they’ve been lucky.
Odds are if you go to a dealership wanting to buy a certain car, someone else is too. Good cars sell themselves. You might be able to haggle down a few hundred bucks over little things but in my experience dealers are under a lot of pressure today (like every retail premise due to the rise of digital buying), so their prices are usually marked very fairly from the start to attract people.
Dealers can no longer afford to jack up the price and hope to get lucky in a negotiation. Dealership numbers are already dwindling so they need to bring online shoppers into their doors. The only way to do that is to put a fair price on cars.
Dealers low ball you on your trade ins, and sell with a huge mark up…
I 100% will haggle the price every time I will go to a dealership.
Just having a quick look on carsales.com.au gives you a good idea of how much they jack the price compared to private sales.@Nuclearvodka: Of course dealer listing are more expensive. That's because dealers are throwing in extra things which you don't get with private sales. There's the added security that the car is legit and not stolen. Plus they also usually throw in added warranties and a wash and polish. Then you have to factor in their operation costs like storage and staff. When you add all that up the difference between private and dealer ads is marginal.
Besides, do you really think private sellers aren't massively jacking up their prices as well?
@SlavOz: Private sellers check with dealers how much they can get as a trade in.
Dealer massively low balls them.
Private sellers then checks online for what it's worth and what others are selling for, which is more than the dealer's offer.
Private seller then advertises accordingly and is usually open to offers.If dealer manages to get a cheap as fuark trade in, the dealer will sell for a huge profit.
There's a reason nobody likes car dealerships
@Nuclearvodka: If dealers traded for the same price they'd sell for, they wouldn't stay in business would they?
It's a given that they'll have a profit margin in there, no different to any other second-hand store you can think of (cash converters, any pawn brokers, etc).
Common-sense really.
It's not difficult to find dealer cars for similar pricing to private sales. Dealers can open up more convenient avenues for some people (they want/have to trade their car, they want finance on the new car etc). Private sales can also offer good value for money if you can haggle and have cash in your hand, and of course do a PPSR.
@spackbace: Thanks Spackbace, I'm not completely stupid.
But there's a difference between profit margin, and ripping people off.
And in general, car dealers take the second option.Low trade in offer (well below what the car is worth)
Massive price jack comes resale time (and if you don't know how to haggle, you get royally fuarked)@Nuclearvodka: Depends on the value of the car, some cars don't have that much margin in them but they do have loads, which can account for $2-3k out of the margins to keep the business afloat.
But generic statements are always funny to read ;)
Look up cars in your state for the same year/make/model. Sort price: low-high. Find one around the same kms as yours. That's your lowest bargaining price, or thereabouts.
There's no magic figure. Some dealers have fixed price sales and leave a certain amount in there (lets say $1,000), others try to get a bigger profit to start with (let's say $3,000), and will mark the price down over the next 2 months.
As always, condition plays a big part as well. Cheapest car might still have all the scratches, a service or 2 missing etc, more expensive might appear better
Never try to fit a car to your budget, make sure your bargaining is reasonable