Tips and techniques for haggling with Dealers

As most of you have probably guessed by now, I'm hopefully going to be in the market for a used SV in the very near future (provided the money monster and tax man don't scupper the plan).

I've not made up my mind as to whether to use a dealer or go for a private sale -there's pro's and cons with both. But as I've only ever bought from new, or used bikes that I've known the history of in the past, I'm a bit green when it comes to using a dealer - so a few tips would be helpful.

My instinct is that the price on the sticker is for suckers - but the question is - how do you best take the shine off the salesperson's shoes, and get the price down to something you are willing to pay?

Obvious ones would be to pick on every little potential flaw - no matter how small - but what if there aren't many?

Does paying pound notes make a difference to using a debit / credit card?

Does the time of the month help ? (i.e end of the month salesman wants to hit target, or reach next bonus level etc)

Does waving a copy of Parkers in front of him with the book price help?

what bullsh1t is he likely to try to throw at me to justify his price (like "look at all the extras that have been added")

I'll give you a real life example - local dealer has a 1999 model - great nick, low mileage - parkers says £1575 dealer price - dealers sticker says £2k - I dunno about you but I EXPECT low milage and great nick from a dealer -so that doesn't win any extra points (and what do points make?) from me - apart from a full fairing, its not got many extras or mods - not that they seem to make much difference anyway.
So................what would YOU do?

ps - feel free to ignore my questions and give other general tips and advice on this subject - you never know it might even earn a sticky

Hey, the dealer that sold me my bike was wanting £4K and he was saying "thats what they are worth". I simply asked him to show me his parkers price guide to prove it. After all, he is a dealer with nothing to hide right. No, after that statement he went from £4k to £3.5k and then I hassled him about the condition of bike, i.e. scratches etc. The price then dropped to £3k. I don't think this time of year it will matter when you try to get a bargain but Fridays and Saturdays are busy times and Tuesdays and Wednesdays are less busy. Only Bulls**t I think the dealer will say is that they aren't in any rush to sell. If you think they are asking that little bit too much and you cannot point out anymore faults, get them to throw in some free stuff.

[yorkie_chris]

Get on biketrader and buy one private? Dealers aren't worth talking to.

[timwilky]

Dealers /stealers/joe public. It don't matter. Show the cash and walk away.

Of course, if your are going to wave 5/6 grand around. Be confident you are not going to loose it.

Originally Posted by SV PILOT

Hey, the dealer that sold me my bike was wanting £4K and he was saying "thats what they are worth". I simply asked him to show me his parkers price guide to prove it. After all, he is a dealer with nothing to hide right. No, after that statement he went from £4k to £3.5k and then I hassled him about the condition of bike, i.e. scratches etc. The price then dropped to £3k. I don't think this time of year it will matter when you try to get a bargain but Fridays and Saturdays are busy times and Tuesdays and Wednesdays are less busy. Only Bulls**t I think the dealer will say is that they aren't in any rush to sell. If you think they are asking that little bit too much and you cannot point out anymore faults, get them to throw in some free stuff.

A scottish biker haggling with a scottish dealer? - now we know who would win in the old "unstoppable force vs immoveable object" argument

just kidding - thanks for that seriously - my instinct was that getting a dealer to drop much more than 10% would be difficult - seems I was wrong on that, and provided I stick to my guns as to what I think a bike is worth, act picky and pay cash, I could get a decent deal

[STRAMASHER]

Unfortunately we have "Scottish " prices here.

West coast dealers are the worst. No competition = Comedy prices!

This is an easy one -

Decide what the bike is worth to you. If it's the perfect bike and it's fairly priced and the dealer won't budge then no harm in paying sticker price. If the bike is less than your perfect bike then tell them how much you will go to and walk away if they say no.

Cash makes no difference. They would rather take a debit card payment, saves counting it out!

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by nick_1871

This is an easy one -

Decide what the bike is worth to you. If it's the perfect bike and it's fairly priced and the dealer won't budge then no harm in paying sticker price. If the bike is less than your perfect bike then tell them how much you will go to and walk away if they say no.

Cash makes no difference. They would rather take a debit card payment, saves counting it out!

Cash above a certain value will probably be refused in favour of a debit card due to money laundering regulations! However, a "cash" deal is viewed as one where no finance is involved. Also consider that the dealer may well make a bigger mark up on accessories/servicing/finance than on the sale of a new bike. Used bikes however will have a larger margin.

Originally Posted by nick_1871

Cash makes no difference. They would rather take a debit card payment, saves counting it out!

You sure - I thought card companies charged a fee ( a % ? ) for each transaction?

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by Malfunctioning-eddie

You sure - I thought card companies charged a fee ( a % ? ) for each transaction?

Yes they do charge a fee, it's a fixed rate of around 25p for a debit card, so negligable really. Credit cards however are likely to be refused however for that very reason, unless you offer to pay the card transaction fees on top (usually 1.5%-3% ish).