Buying a car can either be a fun or a gruelling experience, depending on your outlook on the subject. It’s fun because you get to check out all sorts of different models in the hunt for the perfect “dream” car for you, but it can also be a stressful time for many car buyers.
If you are considering buying a used car soon, there are a few secrets that car dealers and other car sellers don’t really want you to know about! By following this handy guide, you will be able to get the best bang for your buck!
Do your research first
Car dealers love people that enter a showroom “blind”; not literally blind, of course, but devoid of any facts or information about the cars that they are interested in. The thing about car salespeople is that, contrary to popular belief, they are not experts in the cars that they sell!
They are just salespeople and they only need to know the basics of what they are selling, as they can rely on their charm and powers of persuasion to do the rest. It’s actually quite shocking how little some car salespeople know about the automotive industry.
For example, I remember some guy trying to sell me a car that was “turbocharged” when I knew it obviously wasn’t. I asked him to tell me where the turbocharger was, and his rather cocky reply was “in the engine bay”.
It was on that basis that I decided I wanted to buy from a car dealership that had better-trained staff (pinetreecarsuperstore.co.uk was where I eventually bought a car from, in case you wondered).
You should also be looking at cars that depreciate the least. It’s a well-known fact that all cars depreciate in value, and so you want to be buying a car that offers the best features as well as having the best resale value when you decide to upgrade in a few year’s time.
Show your poker face
Car salespeople love to play psychologist and will do what they can to extract as much information about you without making it obvious.
When you go to a dealership, you should never let them know that you have a car to trade in (they can make even more money out of you this way), nor should you tell them how you want to pay – at least, not until you have negotiated on the price of the car beforehand.
And if you go to a car dealership with your significant other, don’t argue with them about the type of car you want to buy – this is gold for a salesperson, because they can play you off against each other in a subtle way in order to get you to buy a more expensive car that whichever one of you two wants more than the car you originally came to look at.
Compare finance options before you go car shopping
Car dealers make a lot of their revenue not from the cars they sell, but from the finance products they sell with those cars. Unless the dealership is offering an amazing 0% finance deal on the car you want to buy, you need to shop around for a low interest rate loan beforehand.
I would recommend approaching your bank first of all, as they will be best placed to offer you money rather than other financial institutions that aren’t aware of your financial history or track record.