Perthine

Hi all,

we are about to buy a new car here in Perth (Nissan XTrail) as the prices for decent used cars here seem to be quite high compared to the new car prices.
We are wondering what a good discount after a bit of haggling would be. Something around 10% off (drive-away, no sale, couple of extras)?
What are your experiences?

Cheers

Loch Lomond

Perthine, you should do a search on this. There have been many posts on this forum on buying new and used cars, and also links to car brokers.

POW148

Dealerships do not make that much profit on selling a new car so the prices are pretty much what they are asking so there is not much room for negotiating on that new car.

Where dealerships make their money is on all the "extas" that you buy with the vehicle. They also make their money on the future servicing of that vehicle.

Dont forget that if everyone drove the prices down, the dealerships would not make money, they would go bust and they would not be there next year for the next new car buyer. Everyone has to make money, they are not in it for love.

Barney

DrWho

You a car dealer...?

DrWho

The best way by far I think is to use a car broker... You don't have to do any of the leg work yourself, don't have to spend hours waiting in a dealers showroom while he 'see's if he can get you a better deal from the manager' or go along with any of the other time wasting games that get played...

We bought a Nissan Navara with a few bits 'n bobs extra and saved $7,000+ on list price... Our local dealer made out we were getting a great deal from him at only $2,500 off...

We used A1 Car Brokers and the whole thing from starting the reverse auction to getting the best price took just a matter of hours...

Good luck...

Perthine

Thanks a lot for your replies.

We got an offer for a brand new X-Trail for $36,500, drive away, incl a couple of extras like reverse parking sensors, tow bar (RRP $40,000).

And for a 2007 Demo car they are asking for $35,500, which isn't much difference to the new one anymore.

Nu-Shooz

When we bought our car, we got them down from $54,000 to $47,000. After 2 hours of haggling

rockpeblar

Anybody looking to buy a 2nd hand car should first take a trip to an auction. For the last few weeks I've been visiting Manheim Fowles site near Perth airport. The actual auction day is Wednesday morning but on Mondays they have a number of cars for sale at fixed prices which is a good opportunity to look around the cars, check service history etc but no chance of a test drive. A few sell on Mondays but most go to auction on Wed.
As an example of potential savings, I looked at a 2005 MY06 Outback Safety pack manual which had 59k and FSH. It was marked up on Monday for $25,300 + Stamp Duty + remaining licence fee. The redbook guide on this is as follows:-

Prices based on km 45,000 - 75,000
Trade in price guide* $23,700 - $26,200
National average price - private sale* $27,200 - $29,900
Price when new (RRP) $40,990

The car went through the auction this morning and sold (Yes the hammer did fall) for $23,300 which means someone got a bargain, ($23,650 after paying the auction house their fee). The car was in mint condition and included a tow bar, roo bar and window tints. Mint condition with 4 good tyres and 6 months Subaru warranty remaining.

Checking out equivalent cars for sale locally you're looking at around the $28k mark.
So now we've decided to sell our two cars privately and buy from auction.

worzel

As others say, for a new car where you know what you want try a discounter. Either way aim for in the region 10%. They are more likely to give you extras (roo bars etc that cost them 1/3rd what they sell to you for) than cash discount so that is one angle.

And watch out for the ploy after you buy where they try and screw you out of another grand for window tinting, paint protection and fabric protection. $400 or so gets your windows tinted and a good wax and spray with Scotchguard takes care of the rest. Ask them "So you just sold me a car that can't cope with the Australian climate???" and watch them squirm.