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Just wondering if dealerships have very much wiggle room to negotiate the sticker price on a used car. I know brand new ones have that and would never pay the sticker price, but do used cars the same?
Just wondering if dealerships have very much wiggle room to negotiate the sticker price on a used car. I know brand new ones have that and would never pay the sticker price, but do used cars the same?
Each used car is unique (mostly condition, availability, and how much it cost the dealer to acquire it) so there's no "standard" wiggle room like for new cars.
The wiggle room is the difference between asking and whatever they bought it for less anything the spent running it through the car wash and vacuum. In other words, it's a lot. There's usually way, way, way more profit in used cars than new, but that doesn't mean they're in any rush to sell. Selling a new car for next to no profit doesn't cost them anything, they can always get 10 more of the exact same car. Generally, the ones they're really willing to wiggle on they just send straight to auction. What's left, they plan on gouging someone on for an outlandish price. Not always, but that's been my experience... stuff like three-year-old Civics with 100k on them for $2,700 less than the MSRP of a brand-new one of the same trim level? Yeah. You know there's wiggle room there. Since they wouldn't budge off the outlandish price, I went and bought a Mazda. I still wonder who ended up buying that Civic...
"whatever they bought it for"
While you can talk about this for cars they bought at an auction, I am not sure this really applies to a trade-in. Part of the trade-in value they give is simply wiggle on the new car price.
I worked at a dealer when i was younger and sold new and used cars. Knowing what we gave people for their trades vs what they appeared on the lot for made me sick to my stomach.
We took in a 3 yr old Camry and gave the owner around $7500. It was on the used lot the next morning for $14500. Saw a similar deal on a Celica. Paid around $5000 for it and listed it for $9999
Our used car manager told me once that the rule of thumb for our dealer was 50% over the purchase price.
The obvious difference between used and new cars is that there is no rebates, dealer incentives, holdbacks and etc.
However, I am seeing about $5000 difference between retail and trade in prices in the ny metro area on the 2 cars I have traded-in in the last 2-3 years. Keep in mind that most dealers are paying interests on the cars they have on their lot. In my mind (and I am not speaking from experience), I think one should be able to negotiate around $3k on used cars.
Bleed em until they are ready to throw you outta the place, try to make them the loser in the deal!!!!!!
Never happens. Dealers don't lose on the cars they sell.
If anything there is more profit as a percentage of the asking price on used cars than new. New cars can be compared exactly from one to another. When appraising used cars there are so many variables that can affect the price, especially whatever value the dealer wants to apply to low miles, condition, etc. But it's all a game. A client who was a used car sales manager for a major dealership here told me that 11% of buyers pay the asking price. The rest of us have done our homework and aren't going to pay more than the car is worth, give or take a few bucks. For us the price on the used car sticker might as well not even be there.
That sounds about right. Whenever I have traded in a car and then watched to see it priced on the lot it's been about double.
Double would be 100% over the purchase price, not 50%.
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