Dealing with used Car Yards

[Scubasteve]

Any tips or tricks to help get a good deal when dealing with a used car yard. My Sis has a Dihatsu Copen she wants to trade in as she is looking at starting a family (it only has 2 seats) she'd be better off selling and buying privately but dosen't have the time or patience.

 

[Tom]

I went in a couple of weekends ago acting as an interested buyer, and they were all very very pushy to get me to sign stuff and go with them.. I said "I'm in no rush" and they were prying to find out why I wasn't hurried and why I wouldn't be happy "going home in a new car today"..

Another dealership I went to was more relaxed but was persistant on checking out my "current car" to see what it'd be worth as a trade in, even after saying I'd rather sell privately and stuff..

I suppose most would be pretty much the same! Just my only suggestion I reckon would be to stay strong in your stance, and be detailed and firm in what you'd want otherwise they'd try to push to something that'd "be close enough, but a BARGAIN!" but most likely SHIT..

One dealership said "we've had this car since new, it's a 2007 model, good price!" makes you wonder why it hasn't been sold yet?

 

[Kristian]

I can think of a few thousand reasons why she SHOULD have the time and patience to sell it privately...

 

[knickers]

I can think of a few thousand reasons why she SHOULD have the time and patience to sell it privately...

+1 Couldnt agree more.

As if the few hours it may take to sell the car isnt worth the extra couple of grand in her pocket. Shit just find out the dealers offer and put it on carsales for ~15%-25% more (depending on how long she wants to wait), be willing to drop it by a few hundred $$ and voila... shouldnt take more than a week unless she lives in whoopwhoop or wastes peoples time.

 

[Tom]

+1 Couldnt agree more.

As if the few hours it may take to sell the car isnt worth the extra couple of grand in her pocket. Shit just find out the dealers offer and put it on carsales for ~15%-25% more (depending on how long she wants to wait), be willing to drop it by a few hundred $$ and voila... shouldnt take more than a week unless she lives in whoopwhoop or wastes peoples time.

Good plan

 

[SaViOr]

All the ones i've dealt with in the passt were pushy and full of crap except for one who was the opposite and honest, i was sure there was something wrong with him as all the other sales staff looked at him in discuss.
I showed him a car in his yard i was looking at with itnterest and he said "no mate i don;t want to sell you this car it's shit". He asked a bunch of questions to find out what i like and what i do, ect , ect all personal questions whiich had little to do with putting me in a car then gave me the keys to two cars which he thought were perfect for me and said take them for a drive for a hour or something like that, talk to you when you get back.
I didn;t end up getting a car from him because that wasn;t my intension, i simply wanted to test drive a few cars then choose one and buy from a private seller but i did ring his boss and tell him how good i thought this guy was.

 

[fieldy107]

Its so hard to sell a car privately at the moment, you guys should know that by now just from what we have seen in the for sale section here. You really do need a lot of patience.

My advice would be to see what you can get the dealer to drop off the price of the car you want to buy and then tell him you cant buy it until you sell your car, by this time he will have the taste of a deal in his mouth and will offer you a trade in price. You should walk out of there at least once and tell them your not happy with the trade in value. This will give you time to think about the deal and possibly get you a better trade in. I love playing games with dealers

 

[Tom]

All the ones i've dealt with in the passt were pushy and full of crap except for one who was the opposite and honest, i was sure there was something wrong with him as all the other sales staff looked at him in discuss.
I showed him a car in his yard i was looking at with itnterest and he said "no mate i don;t want to sell you this car it's shit". He asked a bunch of questions to find out what i like and what i do, ect , ect all personal questions whiich had little to do with putting me in a car then gave me the keys to two cars which he thought were perfect for me and said take them for a drive for a hour or something like that, talk to you when you get back.
I didn;t end up getting a car from him because that wasn;t my intension, i simply wanted to test drive a few cars then choose one and buy from a private seller but i did ring his boss and tell him how good i thought this guy was.

Unfortunately there aren't enough dealers out there like that, because they probably all go out of business When sales people get too caring, unfortunately they just don't seem to do as well as the pushy ones!

I hope that guy does well however, need more people like him out there!

 

[SaViOr]

I've also found that going to buy a car at the end of the month, sales guys are more willing to do a real good deal because most of the time they've already met their quota.

 

[knickers]

You can definitely bargain in price at a dealer, I saved $3000. I also recently sold a used car, and my mate recently sold his '06 impreza at a reasonable price, and I don't remember it being listed that long. This was in October last year, but things have actually
gotten better..