Ah, yes of course I should have worded that slightly differently. What did they offer you in px, I'm guessing 14k? I was in a BMW dealers this morning looking at swapping out my 330xd touring for an X5 and they were going to make around 25% on the deal plus whatever their mark up was on the X5.
Sorry, I couldn't resist it.
It was contracted as £16,500 but I got an unexpected and very pleasant bonus yesterday when they refunded my deposit and got an extra £200 as they had to do so little preparation to put it on the forecourt. So £16,700. I reckon I would have got £18k in a private sale, but it's a lot of hassle and the adverts don't come cheap.
However, and I appreciate this is likely to be 'sucking eggs'.......it's pretty irrelevant when doing part exchange - it's the difference in price that is important...I got quite a few extra bits chucked into my deal - for instance they covered £200 Labour for installing the dash cam and supplied a spare wheel and tyre - if you don't ask you don't get!! Also if you ask for things that aren't going to,cost them much but would cost you a lot (such as parts and labour where there is a massive mark up) you are pushing against an open door.
The biggie is taking the car on finance - that's where they make their money. I got the price to exchange reduced by £1000 by taking the finance...which I cancelled within the fourteen days cooling off period at a cost of around £20. The dealer doesn't care - the way it works is that BMW Finance buy the car off them and then finance the buyer. They are also keen to sell wheel and tyre insurance, gap insurance, etc. Bmw are a bit expensive on these - maybe about £100 on each policy - but again you can cancel these within 30 days without penalty. The dealer loves selling this stuff and it's easy to get a reduction in the exchange price using them as bartering tools.
Don't ask me how I know......As a point of interest, bmw spend on average £1800 on preparing px's for,sale - £700 to BMW for a twelve month warranty if it's over two years old, the rest on valet, replacing tyres and usually refinishing the wheels. Also their sales quarters finish at the end of October and every following three months - if they aren't hitting targets you should get a cracking deal, if they are then their ambivalence can be staggering - as it was at my local dealer.
My advice is to shop around dealers - my intention was to order a new car and there was a massive difference in what dealers offered both in terms of discount off list (highest I got on carwow (thanks
@Pow-Lo) was 18.8% and I bet there was still a bit to be squeezed when sitting eye to eye with the dealer) and px on mine - but, as I say, the only important number is the cost to exchange. That applies to buying used as much as new.
I don't have a problem with dealers making a buck....but............People are generally scared to negotiate a tough deal - as long as you are nice in the way you do it they really don't have a problem with it - they usually want your business. The worst thing that can happen is they say 'no'! Move on to the next dealer.....
One of the dealers I visited had a gorgeous perfect couldn't be nicer 850 Grand Coupe in their showroom...the salesman mentioned in passing while I dribbled over it that they would be able to knock £25000 off the showroom price without batting an eyelid.....
