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Just curious here, my wife and I are look at a certified used Honda CRV. Its a 2010 ( mid grade model - nicely loaded ) with 20,000 miles. They are asking $20,995 at the honda dealership. what do you think would be a reasonable amount off the asking price. The price seems to be inline with most other dealers with this model and milage. Car is in beautiful condition. I would like about $1500 off, plus tax title and lisc. They said there are no BS prep fees, so its just tax, title and lisc. once a price is agreed upon.
Dealers, believe it or not, work on very low margins. I would hope to get $500 off at most, but would start with $1500 and hope to negotiate to $1000 off.
Just curious here, my wife and I are look at a certified used Honda CRV. Its a 2010 ( mid grade model - nicely loaded ) with 20,000 miles. They are asking $20,995 at the honda dealership. what do you think would be a reasonable amount off the asking price. The price seems to be inline with most other dealers with this model and milage. Car is in beautiful condition. I would like about $1500 off, plus tax title and lisc. They said there are no BS prep fees, so its just tax, title and lisc. once a price is agreed upon.
Thanks !
tough one - I go to edmunds.com, where you can get a pretty fair idea of the retail price of a certified used car ... the website is easy to follow .
One recommendation - get a carfax on the vehicle you are looking at - the dealer can provide one for you, or you can purchase online for a nominal price. It's always worth it .. the carfax gives a detailed history of the automobile - accidents, change of ownership, etc. Also notes if the car has been to the dealership for oil changes, service, etc.
Last year we looked at two similar certified used cars (2010) - Carfax indicated one had not been back to the dealer for scheduled maintenance vs one that had been back every 3500 mi for oil changes and a minor recall. The carfax said the first vehicle would have a resale approx. $500 less than expected, vs $1200 more for the better maintained vehicle. The two cars looked identical and had similar mileage but there was a $1700 gap between their actual book value.
Bottom line - make sure the car was well maintained. If you keep the car for a long time - and it's a Honda so you probably will - the $1500 becomes less significant over the years.
Good Luck !
If you go to Edmunds.com and do a little hunting, you can find make-and-model-specific forums where people discuss prices paid for new and used cars. There are also some folks on the forum who are in the car business and appear to give honest prices in response to queries.
You might also try truecar.com, which I believe now offers pricing on used cars (they started out with new cars). While all of these sites (Edmunds, KBB, NADA, etc.) appear to have been compromised by car dealers -- resulting in too-high retail sales prices when you want to buy and too-low trade-in prices when you want to sell -- truecar.com appears to have been corrupted less than the others. Good luck and bargain hard.
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The Automotive forum here on CD is actually pretty good for questions like this. I'd ask a mod to move it there for more helpful responses (not a slight to anything already posted here).
ALSO - go to eBay and do an ADVANCED search for the same make/model you are investigating and be sure to tick the option for "show completed listings only". Listings in RED have not sold - listings in GREEN have sold. Gives you an idea of the ACTUAL selling prices of similar vehicles - not just their ASKING price. A quick glance at completed listings on ebay shows MANY of this vehicle for sale but only ONE sold in the past few weeks for $16,900 in TX.
Last edited by SouthBound3; 01-10-2013 at 08:05 PM..
Dealers, believe it or not, work on very low margins. I #would hope to get $500 off at most, but would start with $1500 and hope to negotiate to $1000 off.
Not on preowned trade ins. They make a killing. You get raped on the trade in, then they detail it "certify" which is nothing more than an inspection, then it goes on the lot for a major profit. New cars on the other hand, they work on slim profits.
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