22 May 08
Don't stop haggling
Round about now the salesman is likely to mention finance. You might be considering a dealer loan, but you absolutely don't want the haggling to revolve around monthly payments. Do that and, rather than drop the price of the car, the salesman can lower the monthly fee simply by lengthening the finance term.
Nudge the conversation back to the list price by saying something like 'how can we discuss monthly payments if we haven't agreed on the price of the car?'.
Stick to your guns
Same goes for the trade-in. If you have one, deny it until the very end. That way it won't get tangled up with the list-price discount. Check with a price guide like Parkers.co.uk to find out roughly what price to expect for it.
If you're sticking to your discount guns, the salesman will now point to a cheaper model, or a demonstrator or even a second-hand version. Don't be fobbed off. You'll have researched this model online or in magazines and you'll know what you want.
Some manufacturers will throw in a discount as a matter of course. At a Citroen or Ford dealership for example, a healthy price cut is practically the first thing on the salesman's lips. Don't stop haggling. There's still the dealer's profit margin to erode, and if your visit coincides with the end of a financial quarter (end of March, June etc), the dealer's desperation to meet sales targets could see the price drop even further.
You can tell the pips are squeaking when the salesman's obvious anxiousness to sell you a car doesn't yield any more discounts.
