Car I'm trading is broken, what to do?

[goose]

When my old man bought his new BA, he was offered $4500 trade for his ED. He asked what the best no trade deal they could do was. They took $3k off.
I've never bought a new car, or even traded one, but I always tell people it's worth asking for the no trade price.

[Cplus]

Yup. Ask for best price, then ask for trade and corporate / factory discounts.

[leothedrummer]

When is the most important thing to the customer never not get the car they have decided they want for the lowest possible price?

Examples I have encountered personally:

- Undriven demo, $8000 discount from RRP
- Wants to trade 300,000km EF Falcon for $4000, because "That's what I'd get selling it myself any day of the week"
- Ok, if you give me $700 for it
- Right, we'll give you $700, but the contract will show the vehicles true commercial value: $1
- Buys car
- Comes back a few days later throwing a tanty because we ripped him off by only paying him $1. "I called another place and they said they'd give me $2,000 for it!" Idiot.

That's probably the biggest example, but others include a guy literally telling me, in exact words that "I don't care about the cost of the new vehicle or the changeover, as long as you give me $7000 for my Territory, that's all I care about" and another bought the far more expensive competitors car over our heavily, heavily discounted car, because "Those guys gave me $17,000 for my 06 Mazda 3, you were only gonna give me $12,000!". Again, idiot.

And yeah, also talking new cars. Not all dealerships operate the same way when it comes to pricing/negotiating, but I do feel like the method we use is the best for everyone all round. "This is our car, this is your car, how much are you prepared to spend to purchase our car today?"

Edit: Also worth noting that my job is to sell cars, make money and create happy, satisfied customers - and that I'm very good at all three of those.

[Cplus]

Your comments baffle me but I guess there are dumb people out there.....

[Captain_Slow]

Honestly I didn't care how they divided up the discount and the trade in. My aim was to end up at no more than $20k changeover and I beat that. Whether they'd done it by giving me market value on the Vectra and a discount on the Cruze, or paid me a squillion dollars for the Vectra and no discount on the Cruze, I didn't care.

[Aaron]

Honestly I didn't care how they divided up the discount and the trade in. My aim was to end up at no more than $20k changeover and I beat that. Whether they'd done it by giving me market value on the Vectra and a discount on the Cruze, or paid me a squillion dollars for the Vectra and no discount on the Cruze, I didn't care.

This.

It's all funny money until it comes out of your bank balance or the loan etc.

The psychology of people and their sense of value is what you're juggling not the actual numbers. If there's $5k of negotiation in a price it doesn't matter how you sell it to the customer, they're not going to get $6k discount if the dealership can't/won't give it. But they may put it all against the trade to boost the perceived value of the used cars reinforcing a brand resale perception (Toyota & Mazda are good for this).

[leothedrummer]

But they may put it all against the trade to boost the perceived value of the used cars reinforcing a brand resale perception (Toyota & Mazda are good for this).

Holy fucking shit this. Most frustrating/punishing thing ever. Corolla/3 owners literally believe that $18,500 is a perfectly fair and respectable trade price for their 2010 with 30,000...even though you can get a brand new one for $20,000 :knock:

Edit: Also worth noting, Marco's goal of a specific changeover is the correct way to do things. As simple as that sounds, so many people still don't get it. In other words, "shopping for the 'best price' on the new car, then shopping for the 'best price' on the trade separately" is a really good way to make life really difficult for yourself.

[Mr Ed]

Its too easy for stupid people to get money. The ones that dont understand at all what theyre doing when they buy a car should be destined to drive a VN forever, like god intended.

[goose]

I would have thought the only time you care about change over price only is when you can't be bothered getting rid of the old car yourself.

When the old man's ED, was effectively valued at $1500, he could have almost given it away at the time and still reduced his changeover cost.
Which he basically did, I got a bargain priced ED at the time for $1500.

[irsa76]

I would have thought the only time you care about change over price only is when you can't be bothered getting rid of the old car yourself.

When the old man's ED, was effectively valued at $1500, he could have almost given it away at the time and still reduced his changeover cost.
Which he basically did, I got a bargain priced ED at the time for $1500.

Most people, like myself, couldn't be arsed selling a car privately so change over price is what we look at. At the end of the day I don't care what the breakdown of charges/payments etc look like, I just care about what my repayments are going to be as really that's all that matters.
I do admit I don't push too hard for a better deal, mainly due to being around the industry all my life.

[tim510]

then shopping for the 'best price' on the trade separately" is a really good way to make life really difficult for yourself.

its worked for me successfully more than once.

[Captain_Slow]

It remains unsold and has now dropped to $4999, after dropping to $5999 a couple of weeks ago (started at $6500). Turns out it's in a car yard at Fyshwick (the one next to Beetle Exchange behind Officeworks for the locals). There's not going to be a lot of profit left in it at this rate - what's the usual margin in a small time used car yard like that?

[seedyrom]

It's like checking up on an ex.

Move on mate. She was no good for you.

this

[Captain_Slow]

Haha, yeah. I dunno, I'm always interested to see what happens to my cars after I move them on.

[seedyrom]

I saw a VN Calais I used to own driving around Manly 6 months ago. I was with a bunch of non car people at the time, and they couldn't understand why I was so excited.

/csh