[blackwasp]

Indians love deals & negotiation is an important part of the car buying process. Be it a used car or new, we always want to get the best discount possible. Negotiation can't be only for discounts though, as in some cases, there are no offers on newer cars, but you can always bargain for other stuff. There is scope for getting free accessories, reduced loan rates, better insurance quotes, bundled service packs and more. It all depends on certain conditions, but when they are met, you can get a sweet deal!



Here are some examples I have encountered both as a buyer and as a seller / salesperson (I have worked at a Maruti-Nexa dealership).

• Our 2009 Grande Punto - Managed to get the 1.2 Active variant with a bundled music system and speakers + mats and mudflats for less than a Swift VXi at that time. How did we get this done? The dealer had a stockyard car in the blue shade which wasn't moving. We managed to negotiate this on the condition that we would book the car then and there itself. The final price was just Rs. ~4.23 lakhs.

• A customer picked up a 2015 manufactured car in 2017 for a very sweet price. The car was initially booked by one customer and in 2016, and removed off the stock list. The customer didn't go with it due to some reasons and somehow, the car was not picked by other customers despite offers. One day, a prospect saw the 2-year-old car as an opportunity to get the best possible deal. He initially started with cash discounts and in the end, got Rs. 1.5 lakhs off the OTR price, free insurance, 4-year extended warranty and 20k worth of accessories. A quick calculation tells me all this is worth ~ Rs. 2.2 lakhs - over 20% off for a 14-month-old car (Dec '15 car sold in Feb '17).

• 2016 Abarth Punto - We got her for ~ Rs. 10.5 lakhs OTR. The main reason for picking up this car was the fact that the Fiat dealer offered us the best deal for our old Punto. We got ~ Rs. 1.3 lakhs for her. As the car was 2015 manufactured, we also got the ex-showroom price to under Rs. 10 lakhs to save on the road tax. Back then, cars over Rs. 10 lakhs had some 1-2% extra tax. Got the insurance from outside and registered the car myself to save some more.

• 2009 Chevy Spark - My uncle wanted to sell this car, but we got very poor quotes (Rs. 25,000 - 30,000). Decided to use the car, do some basic maintenance and then try again after a year. In less than a year, I got a quote for Rs. 60,000!!! Decided to sell it via Cars24. Also got an email from them after about 2 months that the car was transferred to the new owner.

• Another customer transferred his existing car on his wife's name and claimed the exchange bonus of Rs. 50,000 on his new Ciaz! Good jugaad (only in India).

• 2002 Palio 1.6 - A friend's friend was selling this decently maintained car. Landed up to check the car out. The place was quite far from Mumbai, so the seller realised I was serious. Told him about my car history and plans for the car in the future. As the insurance had expired and the car came in the highest slab of insurance (thanks to the 1.6L engine), I asked him to reduce the price by this amount as well as to factor in the cost of tyre replacements. I will not reveal the exact amount, but it was a 5-digit figure. Of course I spent an equal amount on getting her serviced, new tyres and some repairs here and there, but had I not negotiated, I would have had to pass this car. Picked her up in October 2019.

• A customer negotiated a deal on the 3-year service pack for his Ciaz (which had no cash discounts per se) when I was working in Nexa. Maruti has service plans and very few customers know about them at the time of buying. This is usually sold by the service advisor at the time of the first service or subsequently. While this may not be the best option for all, it is certainly worth considering if your usage matches the recommended service interval.

• Very few customers I interacted with would negotiate hard. Most of them would negotiate not for the price savings but for the moral victory of getting a deal no one else got. It could be as simple as giving free car mats, perfumes and a couple of those nice soft MGA pillows. But a very memorable one I remember, was a customer who first asked about a car for himself. We gave him a test drive and he booked it on the spot. He wanted a black Ciaz, which wasn't in stock. So we told him to wait for 4-6 weeks (the regular waiting period). After about 2 weeks, he brings in his colleague and we give her a test drive too. She wanted a diesel Ciaz in the white shade which we had in stock. We discussed the rates and finalised the deal. But this wasn't over yet. He got one more colleague the next week and now told us what is the best deal we could do for 3 cars billed to the same company. As the transaction amount was large, the owner was himself involved in the negotiation. In the end, the customer got a discount equivalent to old stock cars (e.g. 2019 cars sold in 2020) as fresh cars. He also got some accessories - but as all three cars were top variants, very few could be given.

Tips for negotiation on your next car purchase

• Pit dealers against each other. This is the best way to drive prices down.

• Accessories are the highest margin products for the car dealer. So among all others, you have a higher chance of getting some freebies like mats, seat covers etc.

• In case of an exchange, many dealers have a target percentage of exchange cases every month. There is a lot of scope for negotiation on the old car's price. At times, the dealer will even take a small hit on the used car if it helps move his inventory.

• Pick a car from the dealer's ready stock, rather than ordering from the factory for better deals. A dealer's first preference is to get a sale from his inventory rather than order a fresh car. Usually, the dealer orders cars from the factory 1-2 times a month and has already given out his choice of variants / colours for a particular model. So, he would definitely want to sell a car from this verses place an additional order for just 1 car - the colour / variant choice is sent every 30 days for cars in the next 2 lots (one lot every 15 days).

• Except Maruti, you can even negotiate on the insurance quote. Just ask them to match or better any quote you get from outside. Like car exchange, insurance percentage is a target for many dealers.

• Take a look at service packages and extended warranty as well when negotiating. You can also work out a deal on these as they will help in the long run vs upfront price reduction.

So a question to all the BHPians - Are you good at negotiating? How much did you bargain off your new / old car?

[GTO]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

Voted for "No". I'm good with strategy (e.g. pitting one dealer against the other to drive down the price) and knowing a VFM deal when I see one, but I'm not a hard negotiator. If a deal ever needed to be done, I default to my kid brother who is crazy awesome (or my late father who was famous for his negotiating skills). I'm not price sensitive and once I like something, I have to buy it. Don't have much patience.

I buy pre-worshipped cars, so save a lot of money (vis a vis new). Yet, I cannot bargain off say 10 - 20% of the asking price with the ease that other people do. In fact, I usually say "if the car is really good, pay a premium for it".

My preference while shopping is "fixed price" shops.

[Reinhard]

I voted "NO". In my professional world, I'm trusted as a good negotiator. Have spent all my career so far in negotiating deals, facing client head honchos & have been fairly successful.

However - come on the personal side & buying things for myself - I'm not a negotiator at all; let alone a "good" negotiator. When I buy something, its only when I love it to the core or find it extremely useful for my needs. And in such cases I'm not looking for a compromise or cutting any corners at all. I don't mind paying for a product or service an amount I find justified & even a wee bit over. If I don't find the asking price suitable - I just don't go to ask. So there is no question of negotiation. I open the discussion only when I find the asking price correct. I find it a bit arrogant to ask someone to reduce price of their goods considering they are asking for what they feel is justified.

[pyrodrive]

Voted yes.
I have bargained for and bought used cars at very attractive prices. Back in 2014, I even sold a nano back to tata at 30k more than what I paid for it (bought used a year ago)

[karan0009]

Voted for NO.
I don't have good negotiation skills, but my better half is there to cover up my poor skills.
We acquired brand new Amaze V CVT (petrol) in December 2019. Honda guys quoted me 8.8 Lakhs after all the discounts (9.5 on road price) for a Nov manufactured vehicle. Visited the showroom again with my wife to lock the deal & guess what sales executive flipped and gave a revised quote of 8.9 Lakhs stating that he is not too worried as he got rid of almost all the vehicles in stock.My wife gave him a good lecture & ultimately we were able to seal the deal at 8.6 Lakhs on road, which is almost 90k discount

[karan85]

I work in procurement. 80% of my day goes in negotiations. I am good at it but then I also know how much time and energy I want to put in a negotiation.

There is another side to it as well - since I negotiate for a living, I don't want to spend a lot of time negotiating for things outside of work. But if the question is if I am good at negotiation, luckily yes I am but I may or may not apply my skills on the things I purchase for myself/family.
Case in point - when we bought the i20 a few years ago I bargained hard got a good discount both on the car and the accessories. On the other hand while I was buying the Polo Tsi I did not bargain much, got a cursory discount and no free accessories.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Voted no! I'm not good at negotiations and would prefer to just pay the amount and get out of an unpleasant bargaining situation. Haven't made any major purchase decisions till now, due to the discounts on offer either.

That said, I did manage to get a nice deal from TATA Motors on my Punto, back in 2012. The trick -

Originally Posted by blackwasp

• Pit dealers against each other. This is the best way to drive prices down.

This way, there is no need to even bargain, provided both the dealers are trying to compete for your sale. I had a choice of three dealers, of which one was eliminated due to reviews here on Team-Bhp.

Of the other two - I just took the quotes from both dealers and just kept the other one informed that I was taking up the best offer from the two. In that experience, I felt that the sales guys were also not offended, and they just asked for some extra time to discuss with their managers and get back if they can match/exceed the offer from their competitor.

[arindambasu13]

Surprisingly, while I had always considered myself to be a poor bargainer - when the time came to pick up a new car last year, I spent an inordinately long amount of time bargaining, and pitting various dealers against one another till I got what I considered to be a sweet deal. Managed around INR 1.6 lakhs off the list price of the Honda City, along with 5 years of extended warranty and 4 years of RSA thrown in to sweeten the deal.

Also, timed myself to ensure that I started and ended the bargaining process in March, and took delivery of the car in late March. This is the time when dealers are desperate to meet year end targets, so that definitely helped in getting this kind of deal. IN the process, ended up with upgraded bargaining skills

[The Rationalist]

I’m an impatient guy and a very poor one at haggling, not street smart. Strangely I can haggle if I’m not the buyer, don’t know if anyone of you are like me! Anyway I have bought only one car till now and that was bought new and that too a rare model, left with no much options to bargain. Will be a liability if I decide to sell also!

I have a good friend who is astute when it comes to finding value and he knows at what level the other person would settle. I think that’s some skill one acquires through lot of effort and patience, not my cup of tea. When it comes to buying things other than cars, I take the help of others who know about the stuff. I haven’t got that talent of finding the value for money things.

[aniyo]

Voted Yes.
When I got Nexon Diesel top end, I managed to get 25K off cash discount, foot mats free, Insurance from Dealer at 2K more than from Tata AIG directly and corporate discount as well over the cash discount. This was last March.

When I was selling Brio, I managed to sell SMT variant for 2L. I already bought it second hand and it was 6.5 years old when I was selling. So I believe I got a good deal. Mind you Brio was discontinued by this time

[Amey Kulkarni]

Voted Yes.
When we got the Ertiga ZDI+, my dad didn’t want to go beyond the ZDI version. But the dealerships didn’t have that coming anytime soon being 2017 end. The car was around Rs 11 Lakhs on road where in we fetched about Rs 50k off the ZDI+ variant and some 50% off on accessories. Insurance was self so saved few bucks there too.

Did a buy-back of Swift Dzire VDI 2011, 90k kms run in December 2017 for Rs 4 Lakhs. Retained the JBL sub and Sony Amp which are now carried forward to the Ertiga.

All in All, I would say a good deal considering Ertiga’s a hot cake in the market.

Being into the world of Procurement, I guess my profession does let me pull some tricks out of the hat.

Cheers
Amey

[INJAXN]

Voted No.
I try to bargain, but have not been successful most of the times.
when it comes to Cars, I have been part of 2 car purchases
- i10 for Dad, here mom-dad bargained hard and got some discounts ( don't remember the exact amount).
- Swift for myself, no bargaining here. the dealer said, this is the hottest selling car hence no discount. I did not try much. I did manage some %off on accessories though, but nothing on car prize.

[sv97]

Voted Yes.
While buying my Creta I was able to get a 40,000 cash discount as well as a cool 35,000 waived off on the insurance premium but this was when i got the pre-facelift one when the facelift had already been launched.

In addition to this, when negotiating a deal for someone for a TUV300 in December I was able to get almost 1 Lac discount on the OTR and a sony music system from the dealer.

[MegaWhat]

Voted 'No'

Terrible at bargaining and sometimes even in determining the fair price. But I'm relatively smarter when it comes to selling. Whenever I do try to bargain, I believe I have done well, only to find out later that the price I bought the item at is what was paid by almost everybody else. I bring in my father for really tough bargains.

[kraken]

Voted No.

I pit dealers against each other and try to negotiate. But I'm very impatient and once I make up my mind to buy something, I've to have it. It is something I can't get rid of.
Maruti Suzuki cars are an exception because one of dealer principals is a very close family friend and employs my cousin. He takes care of that stuff. Plus my better half is very persuasive in getting a good deals so I kinda just let things happen. Also I am very shy and non persuasive if certain things happen in a way that I don't wish to. Mostly because the day when cars are delivered is supposed to be happy and should not leave a sour taste. A lot of SA's do take advantage of this.

A small anecdote from my recent Skoda Rapid purchase, we were promised some rubber floor mats by the dealer. On delivery day we noticed that it was not present. Even though I was furious I just mentioned this to my SA and he promised he would home deliver it the next day. Let it slip as I did not want to sour up the occasion. But my better half wasn't having it. She calmly asked me if she could speak to the SA. She whispered to that him we're not leaving without the mats and might as well get us a cappuccino while we wait. Mats turned up in 15 mins and we were on our way .