Originally Posted by Dayze
sorry, I didn't mean to come off in a negative way. (I probably typed too fast)
What I’ve done a few times when thinking of making an offer on a vehicle, was I looked up the same year/make/model with roughly the same mileage and ideally the same options (this part is difficult on the used market). But if you can get the year, mileage, trim etc, then you’re nearly there. I would then search about 75-100 mile radius of my location (or the general location of the dealer that has the car you’re interested in) on Autotrader, or something of the like.
I then logged the vehicles I would be interested in, into a spreadsheet, with all the information, location, price etc. Essentially just to get an average price, give or take. When I made my offer, I felt confident in what I was offering – so (if need be) I could demonstrate ‘how’ I was coming up with my offer. In the case of my wifes Xterra, they were pretty much within a few hundred bucks of the average – maybe a few hundred higher if I recall. But, it was a fair price, so I offered them a round number very near their price. And didn’t feel bad about it. Could I have spent all day haggling over $200? Sure. But my time is worth more to me than that. As long as I’m paying market value, or thereabouts, I feel good about deals and don’t lose any sleep about possibly saving a few hundred bucks on a vehicle north of $20k etc
shady memory here, butI think market value at the time was something like $21k and they wanted like $21.7 or just north of #22kk. I offered $21.5k and the deal was done. Even explained how I came up with the figure, showing them the other listings etc. My experience with car dealers is; - if you make a fair offer, they’ll take it 9 times out of 10. I showed them the comparables, and what I was willing to pay, and it’s really as simple as that. A lot of folks get hung up on the idea that the dealer shouldn’t make a dime – somehow thinking they should get a $30k car for $18k or something as equally unrealistic.
Once you find market value – you then know roughly what you should pay. Or rather, what they will likely accept as an offer. How much beyond market price you want to pay, is up to you (based on options, condition, etc). But I certainly wouldn’t go in there (not saying you are, but just as an example; I’ve had friends and relatives do this) pounding your chest saying “KBB says it’s $17k!!!!!! I’ll buy it at $17k”. They could really give a shit what KBB says.
New car offers are a breeze.
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