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Private party used car sales negotiation tactics?

4K views 74 replies 41 participants last post by  HI SPEED 
#1 ·
We've had at least one thread lately about squeezing dealers for every last dollar of profit in new car purchases, but I'm curious how the TCL dealmasters approach used sales from private parties.

So how do you guys negotiate the price when dealing with individuals? Do you start off by offering X% or $Y below asking, regardless of what the asking price is? Do you initially offer what you think the car is worth/your max price and tell the seller to take it or leave it? Bring a pocket full of cash to entice the seller to take less for a quick sale? Offer some cash plus "interesting trades" and/or personal services?

I'm in the market for an old(er) domestic POS and plan to look at one I believe is priced about $1000 (or 15%) too high and would like to negotiate the price down without angering the seller, who I expect will have multiple tattoos, a mullet and possibly a concealed weapon. ;):D
 
#53 ·
If it's a fairly common car (lots of inventory/competition) you just throw a lot of darts. Have financing/cash lined up and ready to go. The fewer hoops the seller has to jump through, the more willing they will be to accept your offer. I can't count how many "your price plus $X, but I only have half right now," offers I've passed up over the years. Now, If it's a one of a kind car, you just have to decide what it's worth to you. My BMW was a rare spec car (manual, sport, not black/white/silver, low miles, well sorted, OEM+ parts) so I brushed off the lowball offers and waited for a buyer that was willing to give me close to my asking price. It worked.

When buying, I wanted a unicorn, so I cast a really wide net, and when I found the car for me, I jumped on it. Full asking. The seller was more than reasonable with the pricing though, so more than anything I wanted to lock it down. I offered to come pick up the car, meet him wherever and whenever, and let him pick the payment method. I'm sure my attitude helped me get the sale over whatever other clowns were kicking his door down.
 
#54 · (Edited)
Above all, my best tactic is to be nice and genuine with people.

Whether you are a seller or a buyer being nice costs nothing and usually entices people to close deals faster.

I listed my MR2 for sale a few months ago and had a dad/son dynamic duo show up. Spent over an hour with the car. They absolutely loved it.
Son was the nicest guy ready to hand over the cash, dad was coming off as a slimy pimp from Atlantic City. His attitude and snide remarks about "indians living in my neighborhood" made me stone wall all his offers and they left. If dad wasn't acting like that I would have taken one of their ever increasing offers.
 
#55 ·
Above all, my best tactic is to be nice and genuine with people.

Whether you are a seller or a buyer being nice costs nothing and usually entices people to close deals faster.

I listed my MR2 for sale a few months ago and had a dad/son dynamic duo show up. Spent over an hour with the car. They absolutely loved it.
Son was the nicest guy ready to hand over the cash, dad was coming off as a slimy pimp from Atlantic City. His attitude made pretty much stone wall all his offers and they left. If dad wasn't acting like that I would probably take one of their ever increasing offers.
Amen to this. It's how I made my name selling cars. :beer::thumbup:
 
#58 ·
The guy I know that does this would be tickled his tactics are causing such raucous​ on here.

Let's flip this the other way around- how many of you as sellers have told buyer's you have multiple people interested in the cars or "I already have another offer that's higher" as a negotiation tactic? Is that unethical?

Plenty of people do this, and I'm pretty sure they're not always telling the truth.

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#59 ·
Let's flip this the other way around- how many of you as sellers have told buyer's you have multiple people interested in the cars or "I already have another offer that's higher" as a negotiation tactic? Is that unethical?

Plenty of people do this, and I'm pretty sure they're not always telling the truth.
As I already covered, yep. Same hazy ethical area, you're lying to exert influence.
 
#60 ·
This thread TL: DR: Everybody lies. Moral ambiguity aplenty. Welcome to why sales people hate the general public. Your tactics are trite, obvious, and your social IQ sucks. People here complaining about Craigslist or private party tactics fail to realize that's everyday in the life of someone in sales.

Salesmen suck, buyers suck, everyone sucks.
 
#61 ·
This thread TL: DR: Everybody lies. Moral ambiguity aplenty. Welcome to why sales people hate the general public. Your tactics are trite, obvious, and your social IQ sucks. People here complaining about Craigslist or private party tactics fail to realize that's everyday in the life of someone in sales.
Who cares what car salesmen think about the general public? Not like they have a stellar reputation themselves.
 
#64 ·
With private sales,even if i'm in love with the car, I don't make an offer in person - if it sells, it sells.

i'll call or email the seller a few days later with an offer; I was serious enough to make a visit, and with the weight of that, a fair offer holds more weight.

It also helps against impulse buys :D
 
#69 ·
When I sell anything locally, and people email asking "will you take $xxx?", my response is always "You don't get to negotiate unless you're standing in front of me with cash". And I practice the same tactic. If I want something my first job is to get in front of the seller with money. End of story. When you deal like this it makes the dreamers and time wasters disappear. And I always find that sellers appreciate people that keep it simple, and you can often get a discount just for not wasting their time.
 
#75 ·
One thing I haven't seen mentioned is timing. I generally what'd make, and model car I want at least a month before I start shopping. Then I watch the market checking CL every day or so.

There are 2 reasons why I never end up paying anywhere close to market value. Eventually someone will post a car they need gone now, and put it up for less then anything else out there, or sometimes a car has been languishing on cl for weeks. In both cases coming into that persons life at the right time will save you bank.

For my last purchase I had been watching pathfinders for a month, and a guy put one up for $2000 under anyone else. I spotted it, was the first to see it, and ultimately drove it home for another $500 off.

I personally don't go for the jugular or do hardball tactics on CL people. I want some off, but I plan to get maybe 20% off unless they are being ridiculous. When I post things I put them up for a good price, and people try to chip me down by huge margins. I have walked away from people trying to pull all kinds of crap like shaking on a deal and then showing up with less money, sob stories, nit picking everything and demanding 50% off etc.

Not how I Treat people, or want to be treated


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