any tips on haggling price of a new car?

When I used to sell cars for a Vauxhall dealer the profit margin for the dealer was 5% on the net price of a new car, so say a 12k motor is approx 10k net so we had £500 to play with on the deal, by the time you'd over allowed on the part x there was very little left. Dealers make money on extras, finance, servicing etc, sometimes the manufacturers give dealers incentives to push certain models but usually used cars, particularly ex demo is where the best deal is. Just be sure it's a genuine demo that the dealer has used themselves not some sub 10k miles ex rental car that they've bought at auction!

 

Buy it upt North ita be litel bit cheeepa, swat i used to do when i wanted company motors , n dont buy n til theyve rung you twice

 

I went car shopping and got the dealership down quite a bit. I then said I needed to think about it and talk to the bank. I got the bank to give me the money as a bank draft for £500 LESS than the "rock bottom price". When I went back I simply told them I was ready to buy but the bank would only give me that amount. They could see straight up that I wasn't going to pay more than the bank draft so I got it at that price.

 

I bought my first car new in 2003 when I was 22. I went around 3 local dealers in the morning and got 'best' price and told them I would be buying by the end of the day on whoever could do it cheapest. I was wanting lowest monthly payment over 4 years no bells or whistles or any other extras just the model I wanted for the cheapest price. Got each price then phoned up and told them what the other dealers offered and kept ringing until 2 couldn't match the cheapest price.

 

^this. Our local guy has been a car salesman for 30 years. You're really not going to get one over on him by repeating stuff that's been on the telly. @Flakey also makes a good point: generally, dealers don't make half as much money on a car as you think. They want to shift metal, but why give it away if they can sell it to someone else for a bit more, if it's a desirable motor?

 

Thanks guys ...a deal has been done ......Skoda Fabia estate SE 1.6 diesel

I think your pretty spot on with the prices

I've put a deposit down on one of the 'specials'

They said they get 4 specials per 1/4, the estate 1.6 SE ....in the book/web site they retail for 14.5K ....+£500 extra for metallic paint which the 'specials' have

the specials were £10,999, and they wouldnt budge on price as they said there was no proift in it, Skoda let them have it and sell it at that price to boost their sales

The sales girl (makes a nice change!) was up front and said they get £500 to play with, £100 is her commission, £150 is registering fees etc ....leaving £250 for negotiation

got £850 for the dead Zarifa ...luckilly they didnt ask to start it

I had phoned other dealers who would throw in a tank of fuel, mats and first year servicing free .....so they matched that (but couldnt do any better) ....so a deal done

so roughly a 15K car for 11K ....I'm happy

 

Don't let on its your first new car. Don't drive there if you're in a banger, park up round the corner!

If you're looking at a Fabia for your wife or kids, have a good look around the Octavia and Superb with interest too, get a test drive, spin the line, 'quite like the look I this, if the Fabia works out I might swap my motor for a xxxx which I'm looking at doing in a couple of months'

Takes a few extra minutes but give the impression you're flush, may consider changing brands blah blah blah. Salesmen are canny at trying to sell you everything and make you open you're wallet, give them the impression you're going to do just that and they'll give a lot up

 

Oh, see you've done it. Well done.

 

Well done! And congrats on getting rid of the Zafira...

 

They're on basic plus a commission...the trader I used to valet for back in the day had his sales staff on a sale commission rather than a percentage

 

All you need to do now is buy a roof box, tow bar and trailer and then you can sell that camper van you never finished

 

lol!!!

 

Well done, sounds like you've got yourself a good deal.

 

well done , dealing is for dealers but only you know what is a good deal for you ,what someone else thinks doesnt matter a dot , its your money after all

 

As an ex senior sales consultant for a Volvo main dealer I feel the need to throw in my tuppence worth!

For most franchises, new car sales doesn't make much money unless there's a car everybody wants - I was lucky enough to work for Volvo when the XC90 came out, and selling it was a joke - we would take a grand deposit and the new owner got it a year later - no discount, full up with a 12% margin! Happy days! Although I didn't get paid until the car was delivered, when you finally did it was well worth the wait

But, all the other models didn't sell, so the discounts were massive.... A V70 was £25k, you could get one for £21k if you haggled, sometimes even less! Dealers would do a deal with the manufacturer to "pre register" cars and these could be really cheap. When I worked at Volvo we HAD to order stock to keep the factory busy, and although there was no need to pay for them until you'd had the cars a year, when the year was up everyone Marmite themselves! So, to avoid paying for them we would register 50 or so of the oldest stock and get a nice kick back from Volvo for registering so many in one go - the kickback was used to discount the cars so they would sell quickly.... that's why pre reg cars are so cheap, and a bargain!

The basic margin was 12%, which is a fair chunk when you are selling a 25k + motor, but dealer didn't always get that. Margin was paid in 3,2 and 1% blocks depending on targets - don't sell enough cars? Lose 2%, don't meet customer satisfaction targets? Lose 3%, don't meet Mystery shopper targets? Lose 1%.... Etc.

Generally a dealer would get 6%, but usually that was given away trying to match other dealers - the money is not in new cars, it's in used, servicing and parts sales! New car sales is simply a way of dragging in new customers for service and parts!

These days margins are so tight dealers have turned the attention to making money from the part exchanges - everyone knows the part ex price will be rubbish, but many new buyers still px as it's less hassle - when I left in 2006 we were still selling to traders, but now that's ended and most dealers use sites like dealer auction to get rid of them, and make good profits in the process. One dealer group I know has increased px profit by 250k in two years!!!

So, always sell your px yourself, or phone the trade to get the best px price and don't sell it to the dealer!

Sorry to rattle on!

 

Interesting insight, @Grazzer . Good stuff.

 

Cracking car, you said it's the 1.6 SE Diesel, which BHP does it have?

 

Hi Alex ...yes 1.6 SE diesel unfortunatly only the 75 BHP engines were available on the SE specials according to the sales girl ...although I think the brochure shows 90 and 105 BHP engines for the SE ....and not 75 ?

so possibly the 'specials are the SE trim but with the 75BHP engine ......I guess it could be mapped higher if I wanted to ??

My mate has all the VAG software on his lap top and reccons it would be quite easy to add cruise control pretty cheaply by just changing the indicator switch and a few lines of code ....would be good if it was that easy as they wouldnt add optional extras to the 'specials' even if I wanted to pay for them

 

We at heritage are now the REVO agent down here so can tune that 75bhp upto to 141bhp for about £500, I am seriously condeiring getting mine done even though it's 105bhp already. Revo are even in some Audi dealerships up and down the country so they are kind of approved as much as tuning goes. Have a look into it, on a 75bhp it's well worth it, practically it will be a 100% performance upgrade for £500.

http://www.vwheritage.com/blog/2014/01/17/revo-comes-to-vw-heritage/