Buying a car - what % of the price is a realistic "low" offer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:instead of haggling on the total price of the car, tell them what you want your payment to be. If they can do it, great, if they can't then walk away. We have done this both times we bought our cars (husband literally took the keyboard and punched in his own numbers) and it worked perfectly.

This is the WORST possible method of buying a car. I really hope people aren't still doing this.

[Anonymous]

in case people don't understand why - it's because you will pay an astronomical rate of interest.

A dealership will happily let you pay less per month to lock you into a much longer lease They'll extract way more money out of you that way. Negotiating on payment vs price is the worst thing you can do

[Anonymous]

We use this

http://www.cargurus.com/Cars/instantMarketValue.action

...based on other comparable ads in the area and you can start 10% under. If someone is getting rid of their car 'cos they are moving out of the country or similar, do 20% lower......all depends on the situation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:instead of haggling on the total price of the car, tell them what you want your payment to be. If they can do it, great, if they can't then walk away. We have done this both times we bought our cars (husband literally took the keyboard and punched in his own numbers) and it worked perfectly.

That's idiotic

+1 all they will do is extend the term of the financing (3 years to 6 years). Yes your monthly payment will come down, but you will be paying more for the car (longer interest payments).

OP I purchased a 2011 crv exl last month in nova (25k miles). List price was $23k. I told them the high end of my budget was closer to 20k. The came down to 22.5. I offered 21k, we settled at 21.5. Based on comps in the area, I thought that was fair. In contrast, 4 years ago we bought a jeep liberty. List was $23 (15k miles) we purchased for $17.5. Long story short- I agree with pp that it dends on the type and style of car and how long the car has been sitting on the lot. I think 10% is fair for Honda/Toyota, but it really depends on where the specific car falls when compared to local listings of the same trim.

And, fwiw, I always negotiate via email. I'm very bad at face to face because I have a hard time processing numbers in my head. T

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I'm OK with haggling as long as I know I have decent solid footing, but my problem is that I don't know what "solid footing" means for car prices. Is 10% below asking price realistic? 20%? We're looking at the $15-20k range, so for example, would offering 18k on a 20k car be realistic, too much off, or not enough off?


TIA

Get the consumer report . Duh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:instead of haggling on the total price of the car, tell them what you want your payment to be. If they can do it, great, if they can't then walk away. We have done this both times we bought our cars (husband literally took the keyboard and punched in his own numbers) and it worked perfectly.

That's idiotic

+1