Holding your own with the sales people

[OctaviaJo]

OK, I am not a person to be easily swayed by salespeople.  I guess everyone is aware of the current dealer 'offers', but I just wondered how folks felt about them.  In my opinion he sensible decisions probably are:  Not to bother with the autoglymm, not to bother with the Gap insurance, but taking the £3K one year finance at an interest cost of £180 is probably cash in hand if you get an major and a minor service with it?  What do you think?

[StevesTruck]

Have another quote on a peice of paper, make it clear you've got it, but don't show it them until they're champing for it. Make it clear you're aware there's any number of dealers and brokers you could buy a car from.

 

Make it clear you know how they make their money (commission on PCP for example is the far side of £100 normally as I understand it) and ask them what's in it for you to help them get it?

 

Don't fall for the silent trick, they go quiet to make you uncomfortable to the point you say something.

 

Don't fall for the sales manager's first intervention, that's part of the script. They haven't been working on getting the best deal for you while they've been in the office and you've been sat out in the showroom, they've been sussing out how much you want the car.

 

Bear in mind the RRP of a service in no way reflects what it costs them to do it.

Edited 3 March, 2016 by StevesTruck

[OctaviaJo]

Well luckily I'm not a PCP customer, I can easily be a total cash customer.  I was just wondering if it was worth taking the £3K finance for a year to get the servicing.  My last service was 'minor' time and distance service with a pollen filter change and I was stung for £169 by the local dealer.  Of course it doesn't cost them that, but it doesn't stop them charging it so you get the right stamp in your service history.  Against this the £180 interest cost may make the £3K loan worth doing even if I can afford not to.  What's the catch apart from not totally owning the car for a year?

[999pooch]

I'm not sure of the exact deal your striking, but most of the finance deals that come with the free servicing can be paid immediately afterwards. Leaving you with free servicing but no cost of the finance

[OctaviaJo]

999pooch, that might be worth looking into - I'll see if I can find out if there is any penalty to an early repayment and even if there is it might still be less than the cost of the interest on the full loan.  Thanks for the thought.

[Robjon]

Never do the deal on the first visit.  Ask the dealer to note down the various ways in which you could pay for the car (loan, PCP, cash etc.) and what is included with each (free servicing, enhanced part-ex, extended warranty etc.).  Then tell the dealer you want to take away this information to study in your own time.  Then let the dealer stew for a few days in the hope he will contact you with a better deal.  It worked for me.

[James@RRG_Skoda_Rochdale]

You might find that the most important thing is to just be a nice person when shopping for cars. Use casual and confident body language and don't turn up and act like you help designed the car and they should owe you.

I don't agree with some sales tactics but I do know for a fact that a salesperson is much more likely to want to provide a nice customer with a good deal with minimum fuss rather than be wrung out by a ball breaker.

[7oaksoda]

You might find that the most important thing is to just be a nice person when shopping for cars. Use casual and confident body language and don't turn up and act like you help designed the car and they should owe you.

I don't agree with some sales tactics but I do know for a fact that a salesperson is much more likely to want to provide a nice customer with a good deal with minimum fuss rather than be wrung out by a ball breaker.

This.

The whole process was very painless for me as I went in looking for a deal on a specific spec without taking the mick. Left it a couple of days then asked to include another cost option at a discount (think it added £1 per month) and got it so paid my order deposit there and then.

[OctaviaJo]

_{Its IS nice be nice, but I am always a little wary, particularly as a single lady, that I might be taken advantage of when I go to select a car.  I tend to try and get low mileage second-hand (no purchase tax to pay) and do seem to get on very well by selecting the car I want from an advert - online or otherwise and then just arriving to negotiate the deal to buy it.  What makes me a little annoyed is when I walk into a show room knowing what I want and how I want to pay for it, saying so and then having a salesman try to sell me all sorts of extras that I haven't determined that I need and trying to get me to finance the car in a way that I haven't determined I want to do.} 

 

_{It is a bit like cold callers on the phones, when I decide I want something - a home improvement, IT assistance, to claim on a Government scheme, to grab back missold PPI insurance etc. I will find  supplier or the means to resolve what I need and action it myself.  I don't need someone invading my private organised world on the phone and suggesting I want something before I decide I need it.}

 

_{When I walk into a show-room if I know what I want and how I want to pay for it (and I usually do) I expect to have it demonstrated to me to the best of the salespersons abilities and then be left to make a purchase decision. If I don't know what I want I WILL tell a salesperson and THEN give them a chance to suggest what might be suitable.  There is a subtle difference in the two approaches.  With the second I know that I am leaving myself open to the full sales pitch, but the advantage is mine as I know to expect it and am therefore set up to avoid it.  I am not naïve -  I know a salesperson won't resist temptation to throw me off balance even if I only want the first approach, but it doesn't make it any less annoying and tbh. it doesn't endear me to the dealership concerned.  However, in this instance I am glad I held out, I now know that it will be No Autoglymm, No finance (even if I do get the servicing, I still want to own the car and stuff the service costs), and I solved Gap insurance (that I do see through the possible sense of if I can get it cheap enough) by already organising a much cheaper policy :-D  In return I have not haggled over the cost of the new car or the trade-in on the old one - I feel comfortable with those decisions.  :-D}

[maffyou]

I found carwow to be brilliant for this. Not face to face, so hard for them to play games and I was able to get my local dealership to take another grand off their already discounted price because a dealer in Lincoln made a much better offer to me, and I had it in black and white.

It was also great that you can just make new car builds, adding different options and seeing what comes back to you. I'd thoroughly recommend carwow.co.uk, but I guess by now you may already have purchased.