new car - what sort of sdiscount should I aim for

Wife wants a new car. She's had her corolla from new since 98 so she probably deserves one (and a car as well boom boom!) Probably get another corolla, I30 or mazda3, all of which retail for $19990 I think...

anyhoo thinking of doing my research online, deciding on car and then walking in at the end of each month to the manager of whatever dealership and saying if you do me an eg corolla for $x you can add another car to your monthly numbers and I'll pay right now in cash. (sometimes they are short on their monthly goal)

Just wondering what I should be aiming for on a 20k car. what sort of margin is there, what constitutes a good discount?

Purely my opinion but I think the Toyota will hold its value the best, followed by the Mazda and the Hyundai will be worth 2/5 of farc all after a month or so.

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kiteboy dave said..

That's the traditional view but times are changing rapidly. NEW Korean cars are now same quality as jap. only downside is that you pay the same.

The i30 seems to have caught up on the quality gap but one thing is true of ALL brands, unless the paint is a base colour (white ) it will fall off under the Australian sun.

Is there a logical reason why anybody in Aus would own a black car?? Even undertakers don't have black vehicles any more.

I believe Toyotas still stand out for quality of build, reliability and resale value with Corollas being exceptional. You have to pay more for a second hand Corolla than a second hand Camry.

Good luck with getting a discount. I've always bought locally and been able to get great deals on cars in the past. The 2 major car dealerships in town closed last year so i had to look toward Melbourne to find the exact car I wanted.

I did my best negotiating but pulled up short as it was a specific ute with a customised tray/canopy that I had spotted. When trying to negotiate price, the answer I kept getting was "no worries - we'll have another car that suits your budget." (I didn't want 'another' one - I wanted 'that' one!!!)

Paid advertised price in the end... plus on-roads.

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myusernam said..

Wife wants a new car. She's had her corolla from new since 98 so she probably deserves one (and a car as well boom boom!) Probably get another corolla, I30 or mazda3, all of which retail for $19990 I think...

anyhoo thinking of doing my research online, deciding on car and then walking in at the end of each month to the manager of whatever dealership and saying if you do me an eg corolla for $x you can add another car to your monthly numbers and I'll pay right now in cash. (sometimes they are short on their monthly goal)

Just wondering what I should be aiming for on a 20k car. what sort of margin is there, what constitutes a good discount?

Reality is on a new car that there's a very small amount between the very best and worst you can pay unless it's a run out or on promo and the car company is helping the dealer with some cash back on discounts etc. These cars make profit on volume and servicing not profit per sale. Get the Corolla, #1 selling car of all time not by accident. Built in Japan still also.

Best deal you can get is to not trade in, sell the trade for cash. Find a competitive finance deal you'd be happy to pay unless you can get the 1% or the like.

Do your research on price, carsales etc. Speak to a few dealers around the place and ask for quotations. Take the actual quotes to the actual dealer you want to deal with in the end with a wad of cash and be ready to sign the contract. Get the sales guy excited, he needs to sell a few cars to live, be realistic and be stoked with the new car.

It's amazing how often the satisfaction rating of people buying cars is lower when they pay less. Everyone thinks you're getting ripped off, tuth is with a brand new Toyota or Mazda you don't need to be tricked into buying it and it will be looked after by warranty, now with ficed price service, low rate finance, great cars etc there are no losers. Be stoked with it and pay a fair price...

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Sailhack said..

Good luck with getting a discount. I've always bought locally and been able to get great deals on cars in the past. The 2 major car dealerships in town closed last year so i had to look toward Melbourne to find the exact car I wanted.

I did my best negotiating but pulled up short as it was a specific ute with a customised tray/canopy that I had spotted. When trying to negotiate price, the answer I kept getting was "no worries - we'll have another car that suits your budget." (I didn't want 'another' one - I wanted 'that' one!!!)

Paid advertised price in the end... plus on-roads.

I can understand that, I mean no disrespect to MUN, you gotta ask the question, but I would imagine more than half your new car punters expect a substantial discount on the sticker price for no other reason than they're entitled. Meanwhile thanks to internet they can compare sticker prices, so your sticker price has to be close to what you need to make on the car.

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kiteboy dave said..

Sailhack said..

Good luck with getting a discount. I've always bought locally and been able to get great deals on cars in the past. The 2 major car dealerships in town closed last year so i had to look toward Melbourne to find the exact car I wanted.

I did my best negotiating but pulled up short as it was a specific ute with a customised tray/canopy that I had spotted. When trying to negotiate price, the answer I kept getting was "no worries - we'll have another car that suits your budget." (I didn't want 'another' one - I wanted 'that' one!!!)

Paid advertised price in the end... plus on-roads.

I can understand that, I mean no disrespect to MUN, you gotta ask the question, but I would imagine more than half your new car punters expect a substantial discount on the sticker price for no other reason than they're entitled. Meanwhile thanks to internet they can compare sticker prices, so your sticker price has to be close to what you need to make on the car.

I don't see anything wrong with using the internet to compare prices and play one dealer off against another. You can't mail order a new car and very few will bother buying interstate because of the price, which leaves you comparing dealers in your area. So using the internet saves you trudging all over the city whilst still comparing apples to apples.

Last new car I bought was a Ford Focus from a dealer in the Perth metro area, I shopped around on the net and had a print out of a few different prices advertised on carsales.com.au from different dealers then went into my nearest dealer (90km away). I test drove the car I wanted and started negotiating. The dealer started at $28k, I started at $26k, but somehow because I had proof of competitors pricing in my hands we ended up at $24k with optional extras and 12 months rego instead of 6.

I was kinda stuck as the dealers had plenty of the same model utes that I was after, at varying prices and if I hadn't found the exact model with the exact canopy (camping & carrying toys around in - also sleeping in), I would have shopped closer to home or at least negotiated a bit harder. Several people were interested in the one I wanted so I had to just suck it up and pay the man.