Just a wee thought, most of my previous cars have been purchased for already really low prices through friends of the familly so I've never really needed to start haggling.

What kind of percentage would you usually expect to be able to haggle down an ONO price by? I'm looking at a couple of acrs around the 5k mark and was wondering if it would be fairly commonplace to get someone down as much as 10%? Also, anyone in the motor trade know how much traders will expect to give up in haggling over the price of a car? I'm guessing it will vary but any rough ideas from experience would be good.

We had the wifes Fiesta up for £4995 in the trader and got some silly offers, £3500 a straight £4000, eventually settled on £4600 for it.

Thanks mate, I was of the assumption that most people would drop by around 10% give or take, just wanted to confirm if this is so.

Start really low like 3500 at the end of the day you can allways raise it, and you never know when someone is desparate and you wave pound notes under there nose, i have had quite a few over using this method over the years, its a buyers market!!!!

Be polite but remember they're not your friends.

When I was looking for the octy I had a figure in mind for my old car and I said to them give me £X and I'll buy it now. If they didn't I thanked them and walked away. I spoke to 3 dealers before I got what wanted and I bought the car.

I've no patience to p|ss around the way some salesmen are taught to (Arnold Clark I'm looking at you). Some other salesmen (usually the older guys who have been around a while) don't mind talking straight.

One Skoda dealer phoned me up after I'd spoken to him (sorry sir NO WAY we can give you that price) and swore at me and hung up when I said bought the care somewhere else. I didn't give him a chance apparently.

Edited 18 October, 201015 yr by Aspman

Thanks its always good to hear other peoples' experiences. I have the horrendous affliction of being pathologically polite which doesn't help in these situations as I don'y like making people feel uncomfortable but hey... f%^k it as you say start low and see what happens i guess I'll give it a go with a few and see how it flies.