Thread: Negotiating skills, prices

Originally Posted by af3556

I'

Any tips and techniques for negotiating a price substantially lower than the advertised price?

Ben

Be prepared to walk away

Know what your prepared to pay

Make an off below that, work your way to the max you'd be willing to pay, be decided on thie BEFORE hand, if its not accepted, simply leave your number and walk away

Originally Posted by justinc

.... but you get these idiots turn up to look at your car spouting out rubbish like 'Red book says its only worth this much ' bla bla bla .....

This is starting to spread into realestate with the availability
(on-line without fees) of sales history to buyers.Selling anything
to the public is a pita.

I made a "fishing expedition" (silly, but only slightly so) offer on the 2007 SE diesel I used as an example to kick off this thread - asking 57k (which is nuts I reckon), I put it to the dealer that I was prepared to negotiate around the mid to high 40's. i.e. knock 10 grand off and we can talk. Got a phone call back today to say the best they could do was 55k. This, on a vehicle I believe was listed in early August, no options but low mileage (which is possibly not a good thing - 51,000 k's in 4 years is often via a lot of short trips / city driving).

Ah well, keep on fishin'.

Ben

Ben,
Have you been looking to buy privately or only through a dealer?
I have only ever bought privately when buying second hand. This way you get to meet the owner and learn more about the vehicle.
Best if you go to their home to view the vehicle. This way, you get to look at their second vehicle and how IT is kept. Best if is near to the area that you live.
I believe that someone that lives Close by and knows where you live, is not going to sell you a did.
This theory has worked well for me in the past.
Likewise when you sell. I sold my well kept 80 Series Cruiser with 400K on It, to someone that I bump into at least once a week. It now has 600K on It and the owners are still smiling.

Cheers, Craig

Dealer vs. private: I'm fine either way - with a given that I really don't like car dealers. (I'm reminded of the lawyer joke: they're not all bad, it's only 97% of 'em that give the rest a bad name). i.e. I'm not going to pass up a good deal at a dealers, but I'm not expecting to see one either.

Another benefit of the private sale is that hopefully the car's true history will come out - I've had more than one dealer claim/feign ignorance/outright lie regarding a car's prior history (our other car's a Tarago, when looking for that one "stealer" claimed "one private owner, well looked after, not ex-lease" and only fessed up when I found shreds of a Hertz hire car agreement under the seats!). Hopefully someone selling a car from their own home is less likely to bare-face lie. Of course, I don't expect brutal honesty either :-).

Good tip re. checking on the seller's other vehicle(s)!

A couple of years ago I had a D2 listed at a reasonable price, slightly lower than most of the others of similar age and condition. was listed in March and didnt get anything except silly offers until the weather warmed up in September when I recieved several offers in a week or so. My conclusion was that no one was buying over winter. At the moment with the current economic climate I don't think there are many buyers.
I am selling a vehicle at the moment and am only getting the same silly offers ie asking price 9.5K, happy to negotiate to 8K but getting offers of 4k. For that money I am happy to hold on to the vehicle.

D3's do seem to hold their value well at the moment and as a seller unless you are desperate to sell you can only base you selling price on the other vehicles you are seeing listed. Might be a case of waiting until there are desperate sellers or revising what you are willing to pay. Redbook is not often a reliable guide anyway I find particularly with non mainstream vehicles like Land Rovers. Might be more accurate for falcadores due to a larger sample pool.

Regards,
Tote

Originally Posted by af3556

Good tip re. checking on the seller's other vehicle(s)!

I NEVER let anyone see anything else , and I'll lie through my teeth.
I'm average , so I've discovered

Originally Posted by Neil P

I NEVER let anyone see anything else , and I'll lie through my teeth.
I'm average , so I've discovered

Neil P, not sure that I agree with you being average.
If people are genuine and honest about their vehicle, It tends to show through. After all, what have you got to hide (unless you are a car salesman)

Cheers, Craig