Negotiating your next car purchase

Negotiating car purchases

Negotiating with the dealer when buying a new car can be stressful but the experience can be a lot more satisfying by following a few simple tips.

CTV Calgary’s Consumer Specialist Lea Williams-Doherty has some advice to make your vehicle purchase more pleasant.

Most buyers don't know how much wiggle room the dealer actually has on the price and find it hard to tell if they got the best price or if they left something on the table.

Dealers buy the vehicles from the manufacturers at the wholesale price and then try to sell them for the manufacturer's suggested retail price or MSRP.

The dealer's profit is the difference between the MSRP and the wholesale price, plus any incentives the manufacturer will pay the dealer for a sale.

On most cars, that works out to between 5 and 8 percent of the price or a few thousand dollars.

Negotiations on the price are easier from the get-go if the purchaser knows what that profit margin is when they walk in the door.

CarCost Canada is an on online company that sells consumers wholesale price reports on new vehicles to give this inside information.

It is the same report that dealers use when they are negotiating vehicle sales with outside dealerships.

“It provides the costing information and it gives you a level playing ground with being able to interact with the dealer and therefore you’re able to drive a better deal knowing what the bottom is and knowing what the top is so you have that particular range as to what you can negotiate with when it comes to a selling price ,” said Ben Spatafora from CarCost Canada.

Lea has a few insider tips on new car buying:

“It narrows it right down from a financial point of view as to here’s the cost, here’s the MSRP so where do we have to be in order to get a deal?” said Spatafora.

Spatafora says the savings can range between $2000 to $10000 in savings depending on the model and the time of the year.