pinzo

I've been out looking for a car the last few days. I'm not experienced buying from a dealer (I've always bought private in Eng)
I know things work a bit differently here so I'm buying my first car from a dealer.

Found a car at a dealer in Burlington, price tag on the car was $8900. When I asked what the final price would be adding on tax, plates, sticker etc it was about $10,500, which is fine.
I was under the impression there is ALWAYS room for negotiation when buying a car, and everything I've read on the internet says you should haggle the price, which I was looking forward to doing!
When I told them I wasn't going to pay higher than 10k the salesman said they don't negotiate price!! I was a bit stunned!
I ended up walking away as I told him I had 10k in cash and would buy today if he met me at my price, and he wouldn't.

Considering the state of the car industry I was surprised they wouldn't take off $500 in order to make a sale.

Is it normal for a dealership NOT to haggle price anymore???
Your opinions/views are welcome......

Oakvillian

Not at all normal, in my (albeit somewhat limited) experience. You were right to walk away - the guy on the next lot will probably do a deal. Especially for $500 on a 10k deal.

pinzo

Thanks for your opinion, I thought it was odd. I was shocked when I tried to start a negotiation and he point blank refused. I'm sure it wasn't at the fault of the salesman but maybe company policy not to haggle.

Guess I'll keep looking.....maybe the guy will phone me tomorrow to do a deal.....I have $10,000 to burn here for god's sake!!!!!!!!!

montreal mike

at all costs don't bother calling him .. if he does, assuming he knows how to reach you, that gives you leverage .. he is not the only pebble on the beach .. in my experience the listed price is ALWAYS inflated and thus it is expected that you will haggle

minimeeze

Depends where you go. We had a similar experience in January when buying a car. The sales guy from one dealership wouldn't even budge $1 on the price so we walked away. We eventually went elsewhere and got about $2000 off the asking price.

4d32ftw

its not the same as the uk on haggling.

i'm usually good at getting money off cars and i could only manage $500 after lots of haggling

they just kept saying the car was origionally $22000 and i'm getting it at $15000. so i told them i don't care what it was listed at weeks ago the price on the car says $15500 ! they where convinced i was saving 7k ! so would go no further.

montreal mike

I am not in the market for a used car now but if I were to meet someone who refused to haggle I would walk away and be tempted to tell him he is lucky to still have a job.

pinzo

Glad I walked away from the dealership now after hearing your opinions.
I spoke to a reletive here today and he says that used car dealerships are going down this route of not negotiating prices.

I guess that they put the lowest price on the car and its final. I'm going to keep looking and see what happens elsewhere. If the salesman from the dealership yesterday calls me I'll be sure to post on here what happens!

pinzo

Maybe I got the same guy as you......he wouldn't even amuse me and haggle the price......and I was looking forward to it as well!

dingbat

I've always encountered this refusal to haggle every time I have bought a car here - except when buying brand new. The used car market needs a swift kick up the proverbial here, overpriced utter rubbish most of it is too.

Kirstine

Some of them don't haggle, they also don't particularly like when you pay by cash because apparently they can make more money when someone finances instead (heard that from a used car sales manager).

Shop around though as you have a pretty good budget there and plenty of other dealers will be more than happy to help you I'm sure.

pinzo

I believe you when you say that. I don't the idea of financing so they make more money out of me, I'd rather pay it off in one go and be done with it.

Going to shop around a bit more before I commit my money.

montreal mike

Actually I did NOT haggle when I bought my used Elantra 2004 recently.

I had already shopped around and found their price was in line. I also knew right 'up front' their policy was not to haggle and that the posted price was the only price. Take it or leave it. The dealer in question in very well known in the Montreal area, has a showroom at 2 locations, with 100 cards at least and has a tremendous turnover.

But to the run-of-the-mill used car dealer there is room for negotiation.

montreal mike

here is what you can get for your money in my area

http://www.mtlautoprix.com/english/main.asp

From their FAQ

Why is it not possible to negociate the prices of vehicles?
We already offer the lowest prices as it is.

snoopster

Sometimes they sniff that you are 'just off the boat' and try to take you for a fool. We had this experience when trying to buy my car at a local Chrysler dealership, but luckily had a good friend who was a sales manager at another dealership to turn to for advice as to whether it was a good price or not. Turns out he was trying to charge us around $5,000 over the appropriate price, and then came down $1000 making out like he was doing us a favour - after checking it out with our friend we walked away..... and our friend sourced us a vehicle from an auction for a much lower price, having thoroughly checked the vehicle over first before buying it.....not what you know but who you know.....shop around!