I'm considering buying a new car - I've never bought a new car so thought I'd try and gain some QGL XP. I've worked out exactly what car and options I want but am yet to receive the price from the dealership. Of course I'm not paying what they offer, but was wondering if there's a general percentage that I should aim to get off from the starting price?

I've also found this site which could either be really good or a scam where sellers bid lower prices to get the sale: http://www.betterdeal.com.au/

Do dealers ever try and stiff you by increasing 'on-road costs' or are they fixed? Also, can you simply ring up other dealers and go for pricing with them or are they all in collusion?

Car in question is a Nissan Dualis.

I'm pretty sure it is now illegal for them to have hidden costs on cars, they have to list the drive away price, or maybe that's only for advertised prices.

when I bought a new car I looked at the RACQ/MRMA car of the year awards. In the price range I was looking they all looked lame (as in styling) so I went by value for money/safety/fuel.

After you pick your car they will offer you a whole bunch of add ons like spray on climate protector or some other bulls***. What ever you do, dont get talked into any of them. Trust me they will put the pressure on so be warned.

Get your floor mats for free. If they wont give em to you walk. you are about to spend 10s if thousands of $ they can spare a few $100

when a mate of mine bought a new mazda 6, after the slimey yard rats got him onto a price, he got taken into the office where some hottie tried to put all that super proof bs as extras

Nissan Dualis

You're buying it for your mrs am i correct? Cos no-one with testicles that aren't in someone's purse buys one of these.

I recently bought a brand new Mitsubishi Lancer RX Sportback, so can provide quite a lot from my experience. I was planning on actually writing it up at some point as a guide for anyone in a similar position, as it's bound to be helpful.
Before providing a detailed bucket of my experiences, I have to ask one extremely important question:
Have you test-driven it yet? (and preferably at least a few of its competitors). I ask this because if I hadn't test driven a few, on paper and looks I'd have bought a Mazda 3.

I'm pretty sure it is now illegal for them to have hidden costs on cars, they have to list the drive away price, or maybe that's only for advertised prices.

While I was working at Carsales this legislation came through, so we had to deal with all the changes.
Basically when advertising something as "Drive away", that price now needs to include all on road costs, taxes, stamp duty, etc etc - ie, you can hand over a cheque for that exact advertised amount, and drive away in a car of that spec.
POA prices are indeed different, but they still have to give you a quote that includes registration/taxes/duty etc on new cars. In fact, I'm pretty sure you can't sell an unregistered car, but check on that one, I could be wrong.

when a mate of mine bought a new mazda 6, after the slimey yard rats got him onto a price, he got taken into the office where some hottie tried to put all that super proof bs as extras

Exactly the same thing happened to me, though a few of the extras she was trying to sell were already on mine. But it meant I got hit up for a bit more on tinted windows.
The main difference in my experience was on the 'hottie' description.

last edited by Raven at 15:46:32 19/Dec/09

Cheers for info everyone.

Once I decide what I want I'm not swayed by greazy sales people for things I don't need so the main thing I'm interested in is how much you managed to knock off their initial offer.

you misspelled greasy.

Car in question is a Nissan Dualis.

I worked for Nissan. The LT is the only decent model. The car itself is pretty bulletproof though with no faults or problems. Servicing is straight forward. On the warranty side you must have a log book service done at 1000k (free, done at dealership), 10k, 20k, 30k, 40k etc and/or every six months from date of sale until warranty runs out. Rotate the tires every 10k, major services are 40k, 80k and 100k (timing belt). Don't bother with upsells like A/C service (deodorization), Injectors etc.

Whatever you do DO NOT BUY IT FROM METRO NISSAN in Windsor.

Once I decide what I want I'm not swayed by greazy sales people for things I don't need so the main thing I'm interested in is how much you managed to knock off their initial offer.

Find out the base price for the model and onroads, subtract the blue book price of your trade in. Then work with a figure of 1-3% off that.

LT? Do you mean Ti?

on paper and looks I'd have bought a Mazda 3.

Testing the mazda 3 next week, as well as holden captiva, rav4, crv, etc. Same questions apply though.

last edited by RockitMan at 16:22:53 19/Dec/09

LT? Do you mean Ti?

Doh yeah Ti....

internally it's called an LT....

1-3%!? Is that it!?

10-15% can be achievable with some decent bargaining.

For my RX, base was 24,990. I then specced about $8k of extras on to it, and it came out at $26,000. Staff discount for us at MA is ~15.5%, at Holden I think it's around 25%.
Also be careful of what they charge for extras. I know for fact the Mazda dealer I walked into charges over twice for some extras as what we put on the RRP listing sheet, for example.

rockitman, the mazda 3 isn't even remotely near the same category as a holden craptiva

(once you know what car to buy) you're guna wanna spend a few weekends doing this properly
Day #1 go to dealership #1 - probably somewhere 10-15+k's from your home, cause you aint guna buy it from them
then you take their price to a dealership closer to you, give them the price and say do better

you can do this over and over until you get the best price possible, right now there is HEAPS of margin for dealers to cut cars
GFC, not many cars selling, bad time to be buying a new car etc
personally I wouldn't buy a new car unless I knew I would be holding on to it for 5+ years but that's just me

when I was test driving for my ute I went to all the local dealerships and got prices, settled on a hilux dual cab and took that price to a few other dealers who knocked $5k off straight away
I rang a mate of mine who was a used car dealer to ask if he had any mates at Toyota, turns out he did - but I had to drive down to Ipswich

got down there and told the guy my story, he's like yep sweet I'll hook you up
drove out of there having saved just over $10k on my initial price
first price was just over $58k drive away and the final price I paid was 48k neat + because he's a friend of a friend he threw in a few little bits here and there

I gave him a bottle of Johny blue for his troubles

oh, NEVER ever get their tint/paint protection etc
you will pay 200-300% above retail

don't be afraid to try 'country' dealers, well, i mean dealers not in brisbane city proper. quite often they're more willing to bargain than city dealers.

don't f***ing buy paint protection, rust protection, or any of the other extras s*** they'll try you on for. you can get it all done at a fraction of the cost by a 3rd party later.

don't pay for the bs 'dealer delivery'. they can suck that one up.

get free car mats and if you're doing tints or towbar, try and get them thrown in too.

I've bought a few new cars and the latest is a VW Tiguan (got it yesterday).. walked in to one store, got a price. Went to the next one, got a price. Went to a third one, got a price. Found the best price went back and said "Do a deal and you win" and they did and I bought it.

Didn't get the extra stuff they send the pretty blonde over to sell you after you sign the contract as it's generally over priced like $600 for a tint job that any professional can do for $200.

Stick to your budget, don't get suckered in by sales talk and be happy with your new car purchase! Also check out things like novated leasing if your employer allows you to do that.

GFC, not many cars selling, bad time to be buying a new car etc

This is a lie they want people to believe. As I said, I used to work at carsales - the figures didn't show any evidence of this whatsoever. Used cars certainly dropped, but new cars did not.

oh, NEVER ever get their tint/paint protection etc
you will pay 200-300% above retail

As opposed to not knowing whether the job will be done any good, and not knowing whether you'll be able to take it back to scream at anyone in particular when it all starts to peel off and bubble?

just use tint-a-car?

you get warranty heh
I've never had any tint bubble or peel, ever

the reason I was told I could get mine so much below RRP was "just to make up the numbers for that month"
so yeah I'm pretty sure new car sales figures fell at some point in the last year or two

go here and check out avg prices
http://www.redbook.com.au/

then negotiate from there

redbook for new cars?

???

Get your floor mats for free. If they wont give em to you walk.

thats the big tip there...

anything you want that is an extra, hit em hard with it and walk if they hesitate or say no. wave money in their face to start em drooling.

rockitman, the mazda 3 isn't even remotely near the same category as a holden craptiva

Yeah I know, I'm in a fairly flexible position on what type of car to get and I also don't get emotional about cars so I don't really have any attachment to one over another. I don't do a lot of driving, and having lots of space in the back would be useful but at the same time not a daily essential, so I can go either way on a hatch or an SUV.

Good chat everyone.

Get a Tiguan! :)

try to aim for 10-15% off.

Get a Tiguan

a contraction of tiger-iguana, no joke

new cars are s***, u pretty much lose 5-10k+ as soon as u drive out the door. look for a near new car and u will save a fortune

It will be a business purchase though so 50% is claimable as an expense + depreciation of 18.75% in first year so it becomes a good deal. A 30k outlay I get $10.1k tax break first year. Can't get the incentive unless it's new though.

I was going to ask if it was for a business, since it is. Make sure you make it as expensive as possible (for tax reasons), I'm not saying pay sticker price, BUT to make the tax advantages as big as possible tack on ALL the extra's you want and then some.

It's easier to depreciate one expensive item, rather then 10 separate individual items i.e. pay the dealers price for tinting - it might be more expensive but it's better in terms of claiming again tax and the 50% rebate from govt, additionally it's all part of the factory warranty.

My brother just bought a brand new Hiace, Turbo disel fully spec'd out it was over 52K but he managed to get it for 42 flat. He went in there knowing exactly what he wanted and what extra's he wanted and just slammed a few different dealers until they could deliver a price he wanted - he was aiming for 40 flat but the amount of extra's he tapped on he settled for 42 flat.