No trade-in .. Discount buying from dealer.. ?

[scotjimland]

Just wondering what % discount you should haggle for when buying a second hand van with no trade in.. ?

For a figure, lets say £30k on the windscreen..

How successful have you been and what did you save or gain by haggling ?

 

[Tea Bag]

Hi.
What you have to be careful of, is if you agree a price and there is NO warranty. The wife does all the haggling,i just stand back watching in admiration..... Go girl go,keep this up and they will give us the item and.............. Money to clear OFF !

 

[scotjimland]

be careful of, is if you agree a price and there is NO warranty.

indeed.. . no point in haggling away the warranty ..

Ts & Cs have to be the same.

 

[Snowbird]

In my experience with dealers of anything, if they ask 30 then you are better haggling with a private seller and pay 20. Dealers have overheads, private sellers dont. Dealers get a kicker from the finance company, so prefer you to have something on finance than pay cash. If I was buying anything if it be a wheelbarrow or a motorhome and it was second hand, the last place I would be looking would be at a dealers. Whatever they give in one hand, they take away with the other. There are genuine private sellers out there that for whatever reason wish to sell there vehicles privately. If I was a cash buyer, thats where I would be looking.

 

[Lenny HB]

10-20% start low & work up, offer a too higher price difficult to go down, where as you can always increase an offer. Don't see why it should effect any warranty, bear in mind UK dealers work on very high margins for S/H vans.

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[UK Pete]

Yes you have to bear in mind a van with 30k price on screen was probably traded in for 20k, most dealers only give a brief conditional warranty on second hand stuff, which half the time they dont honor anyway read some of the posts on hear that crop up weekly, i would personally buy private, i was after a tigano tribute a couple of years back , dealer price for the year i wanted 23k, private price for lower mileage better condition private buy 18k, that gave me 5k to play with
enough said

 

[Puddleduck]

We knew the people who had our van before we did. They traded up and we paid the dealer £500 more than the trade-in allowance although we didn't have the numbers at the time....... think we did okay. The service guy at the dealer said the salesman (his son) sells the first van and the after sales sells every van afterwards.

Okay we probably could have bought cheaper by going private but didn't see the model we wanted for sale except at two different dealers and the dealer might not be the cheapest but the warranty was honoured and their after sales has been excellent.

 

[DiggerJon]

Bought one van on eBay and traded it in two years later for what I paid for it! It was a good ebay deal!

 

[GJH]

10-20% start low & work up, offer a too higher price difficult to go down, where as you can always increase an offer. Don't see why it should effect any warranty, bear in mind UK dealers work on very high margins for S/H vans.

That's what I was thinking as well

 

[scotjimland]

10-20% start low & work up, offer a too higher price difficult to go down, where as you can always increase an offer. Don't see why it should effect any warranty, bear in mind UK dealers work on very high margins for S/H vans.

that is also my thinking..

so on a £30k price.. offer £24 k

dealer falls over laughing.. .. and makes a counter offer of £28k

you say.. meet me half way.. and offer £26k

shake hands ..you have saved £4k which is nearly 14%

ha ha .. that's a great theory

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[Judge Mental]

Buy German and save all the BS and a ton of money.....Can be there and back in a day. Or as Snowbird said buy private...,UK dealers the pits!lol

 

[Puddleduck]

Remember the dealer has to make a profit or he will soon be out of business.

If we want a dealer network and backup we should be prepared to pay for it.

 

[Scout]

The thing is you should never ever WANT the van so much you cant walk away from it if the offer is not met

 

[Puddleduck]

Buy German and save all the BS and a ton of money.....Can be there and back in a day. Or as Snowbird said buy private...,UK dealers the pits!lol

Bit of a sweeping statement there. There are good along with the bad. Experiences can vary even within the same dealership.

 

[scotjimland]

Buy German and save all the BS and a ton of money.....Can be there and back in a day. Or as Snowbird said buy private...,UK dealers the pits!lol

Yes, I've looked into that and decided against.., don't want the hassle .. . and besides.. once you import there is no dealer to go back to.. so whether he is good or bad is of no consequence..

UK dealers are not all bad..

Private Buy.. happy with that up to a certain limit .. but .. £30k is a lot of brass to hand over with no warranty or come-back if it all goes tits up..

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[Puddleduck]

Like most things in life your attitude to risk governs your actions.

 

[Judge Mental]

Sorry. No way, uk fealer mois operate a cartel, what with the prices they charge, treating UK customers like its treasure island, learnt early on buying here for what you gets for mugs.

So what will 30 k buy you here? A 10+ 0ld van? With all the associated problems

And I know all about risk, made a good living in risk assessment for many years.....it's all on the head.

 

[UK Pete]

Yes, I've looked into that and decided against.., don't want the hassle .. . and besides.. once you import there is no dealer to go back to.. so whether he is good or bad is of no consequence..

UK dealers are not all bad..

Private Buy.. happy with that up to a certain limit .. but .. £30k is a lot of brass to hand over with no warranty or come-back if it all goes tits up..

Agreed 30k is a hell of a lot to risk on private sale, i suppose a proper inspection like AA or something and take a couple of motor home savy friends would cut down the risks , you do pay for peace of mind from a dealer and it does suit alot of people to do so, thats what makes us all different, so like your post started off getting the discount from the dealer can be satisfactory compromise
pete

 

[Moodybrook]

wanted 23k, private price for lower mileage better condition private buy 18k,

Yep did very similar sums, condition, mileage, etc. and saved about 20% on forecourt ticket prices that I was pushing dealers to get less than 10% off, I was delighted and asked if they were happy and they said yes, more than best dealers offers. So drove away kicking myself should have gone lower but today I am still delighted about the deal. Does everyone fall in love with their first van ?

 

[mitzimad]

basicly every dealer buys private sale vans all the time the markup covers the lemons they buy as well as profit every dealers night mare is a sticker for some reason they all get a van no one seems to want every now and again it gets shunted round the yard for 18months and then stuck back into an auction somewhere

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[GWAYGWAY]

What about new ones? I wanted a chausson 610 the local said, full list plus £1800 for Delivery and PDI. With absolutely nothing on it not even a gas bottle It seems he thinks he can sell every one that he gets in.
I would pay cash. sell mine privately to a loving home. Best wait until next season end when the started and didn't like it, brigade, sell up It will have all the bells and whistles they though they wanted and paid extra for. What would you do buying new as a bargaining point.

 

[scotjimland]

So what will 30 k buy you here? A 10+ 0ld van? With all the associated problems

a 10 year van from Germany is still a 10 yo van .. and no warranty.. so they should be cheaper.

there are thousands of 10+ yo vans on the road without problems... indeed many 25+ and still going strong.. and new does not mean free from problems.. if you think that, just read the forums.. a lot of the older vans are much better built..

anyway.. this is off topic.. as I said earlier.. I'm not interested in buying in Germany..

I asked about deals people had negotiated with UK dealers with no trade in..

 

[Geordie and the Dragon]

As a buyer with no part-ex you have the upper hand especially if you are paying cash, just remember how hard you worked to earn that amount and offer what YOU want to pay, if it doesn't work walk away his loss there are plenty of other vans to look at it depends how soon you need it. Best time for a good deal is Oct/Nov or Jan/Feb because most folk are short of cash at that time so stock turn-around is quite slow. But what do I know I'm past my sell by date anyway.

 

[Bertie Bassett]

Yep did very similar sums, condition, mileage, etc. and saved about 20% on forecourt ticket prices that I was pushing dealers to get less than 10% off, I was delighted and asked if they were happy and they said yes, more than best dealers offers. So drove away kicking myself should have gone lower but today I am still delighted about the deal. Does everyone fall in love with their first van ?

YES!

 

[Bertie Bassett]

a 10 year van from Germany is still a 10 yo van .. and no warranty.. so they should be cheaper.
there are thousands of 10+ yo vans on the road without problems... indeed many 25+ and still going strong.. and new does not mean free from problems.. if you think that, just read the forums.. a lot of the older vans are much better built..
anyway.. this is off topic.. as I said earlier.. I'm not interested in buying in Germany..
I asked about deals people had negotiated with UK dealers with no trade in..

We've bought 3 second hand vans at about the same or less than the quoted £30k Jim. The most we got off worked out at roughly 12-12.5% of the screen price. However we also asked for deal breakers such as fitted bike rack, mudflaps, high security door locks etc. We got these without to much gurning and in the six vans we've owned (seventh and last in build) apart from the Laika from Lowdhams we don't think we've done too badly. Good luck, there's some sound advice on here from a number of posters but #13 from SC05 out is the one I agree with one hundred percent.

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[gus-lopez]

I was surprised the interest my friend had when he put his Hymer tag,lhd, up for sale privately @ a tad under 50k & sold it without any problems .

 

[wizzer59]

Private here, dunno about dealers, got £500 off our old Pescara when we bought it private, 10,000miles and 3 years later we sold it for the exactly the same money, it had 23,000 miles on it when we bought it and we paid £14,500, doing a little research then I reckon it would have cost anywhere between £18,000 and £22,000 to buy from a dealer. we never had any problems with it and all I did was put solar on it oh and I also replaced the rusted out front radiator sub frame

 

[scotjimland]

Postman has just dropped Jim's publication.. Motorhome Buyer's Guide through the letter box.. some good reading.. not read all yet.

thanks @Jim

now looking forward to getting at least 30% discount..

 

[Judge Mental]

Well this the right time to buy, leave it and once weather improves prices firm up......