Negotiating the price of a car with a dealer

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steph_s2, Oct 21, 9:05pm
As a lone female I need to buy a car. I have up to $10,000 cash to buy a 2007/2008 Toyota Corolla Japanese import. I find dealing with car salesmen intimiating but have to do it

If the price on the car is $9000 and I offer cash. can anyone advise how much should they take off the purchase price. Someone said try $500

Thank you
tgray, Oct 21, 9:11pm
After doing your own due diligence on the model, year and asking prices, I would offer the amount you are willing to pay, regardless of the dealers asking price.
richardmayes, Oct 21, 9:17pm
You can try to play jedi mind tricks over arbitrary dollar amounts like $500, but that is only going to work if you're better at playing that game than the professional salesman you're dealing with.

Whereas your greatest real power as a purchaser, is your ability to walk away and buy someone else's car instead.

So you need to find at least two similar cars at different dealerships, either of which you'd be happy to own.

Then you can tell the red dealer you're sorry, but you won't be buying his red car because there's a blue one across town that's ($xxx cheaper).

It's relatively easy to do this, if what you're saying is completely true, and there really IS an acceptable blue car that's $500 cheaper.

Good luck!
utwo, Oct 21, 11:13pm
False advertising as that's not even a Corolla - it's a Yaris sedan (called something else in Japan as per the badge on the boot).
skull, Oct 22, 8:00am
I'd certainly be looking at this one and be trying to knock at least the $850 off the sticker price and not be sucked into any on road extra add on items. Be a nice drive from the Shore to Pukekohe.
nz_stacie, Oct 22, 9:18am
Carjam
andyb2, Oct 22, 9:30am
You must be prepared to "walk away". There are many dealers.
vtecintegra, Oct 22, 9:45am
Something to note is the Japanese market Corolla is much smaller than the one we got here (except the wagon which was the Japanese model). What we call the Corolla sedan was the American/South East Asian model, what we call the Corolla hatch was the Auris in the rest of the world (including Japan).
vtecintegra, Oct 22, 10:01am
One thing that seems to confuse dealers is Toyota Corolla is one of Toyota's four or five 'stores' in Japan so often a little 'Toyota Corolla' sticker somewhere on the vehicle means it was sold through the store/sales channel
rsr72, Oct 22, 10:07am
#1- Anything under $10,000 the dealer would be pleased to clear off his floor. $9,000 straight cash deal off a $10,000 sticker would be the way.
-Corolla's are a good reliable buy, and above advice from others is good.
seadubya, Oct 22, 10:14am
$10k Corolla;
2008 > 40,000km
2010 > 100,000km
1800cc > 1500cc
Manual > Auto.
With so many to choose from, narrow down your preferred body shape, gearbox, colour etc to get a list of cars to choose from. In that model and price range your options are huge.
supernova2, Oct 22, 2:46pm
So does the OP try to negotiate the price of her groceries at the store? What's the difference?
tgray, Oct 22, 3:17pm
You may find that $1000 you want off, is the margin the dealer is trying for.
m16d, Oct 22, 3:23pm
Some dealers will make out they've had a heart attack if you try to knock them down.
Just ask him how much for cash. if you don't like it. walk away.
. there's plenty of dealers around.
mals69, Oct 22, 3:32pm
Bugger paying anywhere near close to 10K for that, got
the "slug" look.

Nicer looking Corolla's out there for same money or less.

What is stopping you OP buying privately ?
nice_lady, Oct 22, 3:33pm
You're kidding right ?
nice_lady, Oct 22, 3:35pm
Last car we got from a dealer was a civic about 8 years ago. Priced at $13999 Hubby told the guy $11,000 and that's what they took. If you don't ask you don't get.
sw20, Oct 22, 3:39pm
Irrelevant really. At $11,000 it could have still been overpriced.
kazbanz, Oct 22, 4:23pm
No its not--the bloody idiot that loaded the pictures used the wrong picture of the boot.
ACTUALLY--much worse they used the whole set of pictures from the wrong car
vtecintegra, Oct 22, 4:25pm
Are you saying the vehicle in that link is a Corolla?
kazbanz, Oct 22, 4:29pm
YEP--but the pictures are TOTALLY wrong--think the picture guy needs to be fired
kazbanz, Oct 22, 4:43pm
Steph-This is the advice I give to anyone out there looking.
First of all in your price range not all cars are equal. Say you are looking at 5 Corolla sedans.
They will vary in mechanical and cosmetic condition.
What is part of the deal will vary--so at one dealer for example the 10k might buy you a car - WITH rego/wof,oil changed and ready to drive away. At another dealer there might be none of that done for the 10k.
But allowing you wade through that then you need to work out what is a top price a mid price and an already low price for that make/model/year.
Then you will have a pretty good idea what to offer the dealer.
kazbanz, Oct 22, 4:59pm
Look again
nice_lady, Oct 22, 5:00pm
It wasn't we did a bit of comparison research at the time of course.
The relevance is simple: Take a good bite off the sticker price don't be shy. They'll either come to the party or they might try to negotiate a bit but as I said "You don't ask - you don't get"
kazbanz, Oct 22, 5:05pm
The only difference there is that the japs don't use the name "corolla" on that model.
That model is called Toyota Allion in japan. The mechanically identical version is the Premio. The Allion has a sportier look The premio was aimed at the more mature market.