Car buying?

[MaidenMad]

Hi everyone. I have a painful question for you all about buying a new car. If you walked into a dealer (any dealer or brand) with cash in hand and no trade in, what would you expect to get as a discount (if any) off the price of a new car? I know this is a hard question to answer due to lots of variables but I was hoping for a ball park %. Any advice would be marvi.

Cheers.

[Kieron]

There really is no answer to this due to so many variables -

Brand, model, stock available, time of year, dealers sales cycle etc

A car broker will be able to shop around for you but even then, your highly likely to get a better deal but it would give you a reasonable base to work from.

[cheap]

My experience for most everyday models, cash brings approx 10% discount, don't be fooled or shy, literally wave a wod of cash under his nose

Exceptions would be already promoted models, limited editions e.g. GT-F. cars where demand exceeds supply and some companies do not discount

Also it pays to shop near end of month, end of quarter, end of the manufacturers financial year.

[danzvtil]

Others have said about 10% which is average for whichever payment method you negotiate, I think some people overplay how excited a car dealer will get if you walk in 20k CASH money.
All you have to do is let the dealer know you are ready to do the deal NOW if they come to the party.

[Yellow_Festiva]

My last 2 purchases were around 15-20% off RRP.

[Express]

The last one I bought with cash was a mid life model and I got 14% off the advertised drive away price.

The 5 before that were all new release placed on order vehicles and I had to pay full RRP.

[HULK_I6T]

it shouldnt matter really.

Car dealers want you to take out finance as they make money from it. Cash can be a let down for dealers if anything.

[MercurySilver]

Lol...

[Spinner77]

end of the manufacturers financial year

At the risk of asking a dumb question, what is the end of a manufacturer's financial year?

Does it vary among manufacturers? How do you find out?

What is the typical end of a dealer's financial year, i.e. when are the sales books closed?

[MaidenMad]

I'm thinking more about not having a trade-in rather than the cash side of things. When you trade in you have to argue about the trade-in price. I just wondered about if you get a discounted price if you don't have a trade-in to argue over.

Also just wondering what MercurySilver is Lol'ing at?

[danzvtil]

Without trade makes it simple for the dealer, but it depends how much your trade is worth relative to the new car. If you are trying to trade a 17k car on a 20k one, theyre gonna lowball you because they need to make money somewhere.
Golden rule on trading, NEVER,NEVER,NEVER get in a back and forth about your trade value being low, they are professionals at talking its value down, you need to talk only what the change over value will be.
I once overheard a dealer yelling across his forecourt at an elderly gentleman who had just been given a low trade price on a EB Falc "Of course its not worth what you paid 10 years ago, cars DEPRECIATE!"

[Kieron]

Originally Posted by Spinner77

At the risk of asking a dumb question, what is the end of a manufacturer's financial year?

Does it vary among manufacturers? How do you find out?

What is the typical end of a dealer's financial year, i.e. when are the sales books closed?

Towards the end of a calendar year, manufacturers will offer incentives to unload that years plated stock so you will see sales around November.
They will get progressively desperate to get rid of last years stock Jan, Feb, Mar. Sneaky thing here though is this 'MY' (Model Year) concept, you can buy a car in Dec 14 that's built in Nov 14 but is a MY15, looks good when you buy it but when you sell it, it's a Nov 2014 model.

End of the usual financial year sales so they will be coming up soon.

End of model runouts.

Note though, the 'sales' won't always be $$'s off, it could be in the form of say $1K worth of accessories, extended warranties, 2% finance, fixed $$ factory cash backs etc If you had cash and there was a 2% finance deal, it may be worth taking that finance and sticking your cash into a mortgage offset - pay 2% interest but save you maybe 5% interest on your mortgage.

If a car is sitting in the dealers holding yard burning a hole in his wallet, they may be more willing to discount compared to a factory order*

End of the individual dealers sales cycle*, ie sales guy needs to make quota.


I suspect this is related to when payment is due for the dealers floorplan (ie his loan repayment).


Merc's LOLing is almost certainly aimed at Hulks response as Hulk has a reputation on this site. But what Hulk said is not wrong, dealers take a kick back from the financing companies which muddies the waters as it potentially gives the sales person more room to move, ie the sales person will typically want to know how your financing the car very early in the piece, if you say their finance, they may receive as an eg, $500 kickback therefore, there is another $500 to play with when giving you a price.

I've dribbled too much here and it may not all be 100% right

[FG50T]

I got exactly 10% off one with cash and with my 50th anniversary zero

[98TLS]

Originally Posted by Spinner77

At the risk of asking a dumb question, what is the end of a manufacturer's financial year?

Does it vary among manufacturers? How do you find out?

What is the typical end of a dealer's financial year, i.e. when are the sales books closed?

Things may have changed since my time ie 5 years selling Toyotas 3 selling Fords but back then it was all about 1/4s,if sales were down a franchised dealer would if need be sell you a new car at a loss to get another number out the door.Nissan at one time were shocking for it,no idea if they re-couped the loss from the factory or not but they would do anything to sell cars..or as they were called then units come the end of a quarter.Fwiw if i was buying a new car at such a time i would simply make an offer i knew would be refused then leave my phone number,chances are your phone will ring with something in the middle.

[Beastie]

Originally Posted by MaidenMad

Hi everyone. I have a painful question for you all about buying a new car. If you walked into a dealer (any dealer or brand) with cash in hand and no trade in, what would you expect to get as a discount (if any) off the price of a new car? I know this is a hard question to answer due to lots of variables but I was hoping for a ball park %. Any advice would be marvi.

Cheers.

With no trade in, it will come down to what you are willing to pay for the car v's what the dealer is willing to sell the car for....

If you say X and the dealer will say Y, then it comes down to a battle of the wills;

How much do you want the car for v's how much the dealer is willing to sell the car for.

Buying is an emotional decision on your part - the dealer will take it or leave it.

You can't put a % value on your own emotion.

Having a trade in is a whole different story!

Cheers Tom

PS - Always offer the ridiculous - you don't know the sellers situation!

[cheap]

Originally Posted by Spinner77

At the risk of asking a dumb question, what is the end of a manufacturer's financial year?

Does it vary among manufacturers? How do you find out?

What is the typical end of a dealer's financial year, i.e. when are the sales books closed?

I think Mazda is March/April. Yes it does vary from company to company, best thing is to google the car company end of financial year month.

[Spurious]

I shop for customer service, not a discount.

At the end of the day, you know what car you want, & if you've done your homework, you'll know what price you can expect to pay. That's a given.

I am however, far more impressed with good customer service as opposed to receiving a discount.
Any car will get old & depreciate, but good customer service will always bring you back.

[MaidenMad]

The worst customer service I got was at a Kia dealer only about a month ago. I asked about the Optima. Said I didn't know anything about them. The salesman said "Go home and research them on the internet and come back when you know what you want." I didn't do either and will never go back.

[Spurious]

I wasn't trying to with my previous post, nor veer away from the OP's idea.

My point was that good service is what will sell me a car, not a discount.
As I said, by the time you approach a yard, you already know what car you want. The service I receive will depict a sale being made.

EXAMPLE: when the new Monaro came out, I wandered into a Holden showroom to look one over. I must have been there for 20 minutes, I looked at every corner of the car, inside & out.
I wasn't overly impressed with the demo vehicle they had & not one sales rep approached me in the time I was there. I can image how difficult it might have been for a rep to walk some 12 metres to me to offer "service".

At that same time, I had a mate who'd just bought a Lexus LS300. 2'nd hand, but a very nice car.
So, with the Lexus dealer basically next door to the Holden dealer (same day as Monaro examination), I went straight there.

I had barely got inside the door when a salesman pounced, showed me all their cars, sat me in a few, sat me at a desk & shoved brochures at me.
So I did him the courtesy of informing him that I was just looking at options at that moment, not looking to jump in to a sale. Even with that info in his pocket he was still very helpful & insisted I come back if I wanted more info.

Service wins a customer, not sales or products!

[Craig@AUDI]

Originally Posted by MaidenMad

The worst customer service I got was at a Kia dealer only about a month ago. I asked about the Optima. Said I didn't know anything about them. The salesman said "Go home and research them on the internet and come back when you know what you want." I didn't do either and will never go back.

What might help is if you tell the guys n gals what make & model you're looking at...or at least a style of car...i.e. SUV, small hatch, sedan or XR8?

Also tell them what state your located in so they can help with dealers they have potentially dealt in the past that were good, and also which ones to avoid.

If you're in NSW and want a Ford...I'm always here!

[Craig@AUDI]

Originally Posted by FlivverFord

My point was that good service is what will sell me a car, not a discount. Service wins a customer, not sales or products!

I've been selling cars for 8 years now, and as much as the above is how you personally buy cars (and for the record I totally respect the way you do business and wish more people valued good service like you do), people will sell you out for 100-200 bucks after meeting the bloke at the next dealership and telling him your agreed best price after having spent 1-2 hours with you and negotiating and test driving. Next bloke in-line spend 10 mins and gets the deal.

It sucks balls, but hell I've gotten a few deals myself by beating the last bloke, so what goes around comes around in the long run.

[Kieron]

Originally Posted by The Beast

Buying is an emotional decision on your part - the dealer will take it or leave it.

You can't put a % value on your own emotion.

Quite true. Easy enough to make it a cold decision though, buying a new car a few months ago I was being given the good sales blurb from the salesperson (great service etc) but the hard words was immediately put on me, I told them buying a car is like buying a whitegood to me, he was mildly offended but all he is doing is selling a whitegood to me.

I really couldn't care less about pre sales service, its all just marketing technique to make you feel happy and buy from them. It's very easy to do your homework online nowadays re make/model, ballpark drive away price etc
so all I need is a sniff around the product, a test drive and final price, just like a fridge ;)