What are your car buying negotiation strategies?
- Do you tell the owner why your lowering your asking price?
- Do you just lowball and walk if they don't bite?
- What if you already had a PPI done?
I"m looking at a 944 that had a lot of maintenance done, and then sat for a while undriven. Some of the brand new stuff (brakes, tires) have basically shelf rotted and need to be replaced. It also needs a new timing belt. I have computed what the shop would charge to do this work, and what I could do it for in my garage. The shop would charge about $2500 which is half the asking price. I was planning on doing a lot of the work myself and saving the difference. So essentially, I wouldn't be negotiating down just for the hell of it.
I have not talked to him since the PPI this afternoon.
I know he is negotiable because he listed it in the local PCA magazine and actually couldn't recall what he'd listed it for.
I don't want the guy to feel cheated and shut down negotiations if I essentially offered him half what he was asking. However, he's the original owner (maybe attached to the car) and the things he listed (brakes, tires, belts) were selling points. So do I explain that it needs all this stuff and that's how I arrived at the price?
I lowballed the owner of my 911 (for no reason other than I knew he was desperate to sell) and we split the difference.
Any thoughts?