• We all know if we go into a dealer with no trade-in, there is always a cash discount
• This can be as much as 10% on some cars
• To give you an example, if you are buying a new Toyota, they’ll give you 10% off if you are a cash buyer (buying straight its also called) without too much hassle
• Some dealers will wait for you to ask for it but it is there
• If you aren’t getting it, move on to someone else
• Lets assume you don’t get the full discount and only get 5% off
• This would equate to €1,500 off the advertised price

€28,500 - is the retail price after cash discount

• The amount someone agrees to pay for your car is all about “buyer risk”
• This is what makes up the basic price hierarchy across all places you can buy from
• You don’t have to follow this but to achieve a price outside of it would require finding someone who didn’t understand it (a black swan event…!!)

• A main dealer is a dealer who represents a specific brand, like Toyota, VW, Audi etc
• This is different to a used car dealer who sells anything
• Buying from a main dealer is considered the safest
• Buying for a main dealer is also the most expensive
• A main dealer will likely have thousands of existing customers and have been in business for many years.
• Their customers are happy to pay the premium as they’ve deal with them before
• You also get a different level of service and standard of used car
• A main dealer will rarely sell a used car with more than 100,000km
• When it’s sold, it likely comes with the manufacture 50-70 point checks you’ll advertised
• The car will be fully services, fully NCT'd, valeted, good tyres and a significant warranty (which can be relied on in a crisis)

€28,500 - our main dealers price after cash discount

• This is you!
• The perceived risk is higher with no come back in a crisis
• The buyer is relying on the seller’s word and nothing else
• We’ve all head the stories of someone buying a lemon
• The car "could be" as good as main dealer but the level of risk is higher
• You also don't get the servicing or car prep you'd expect from a dealership
• We’ve inspected cars in a disgraceful state so we’ve seen this first hand
• A private sale will always trade at a discount to a used car dealer
• For this example, lets assume €1,000-€1,500 but it can be more
• Even using the conservative discounts, we are now €4,000 below the main dealer advertised price which is over 13%
• A more aggressive main dealer could discount more and a more aggressive used car dealer could discount more so the gap to private sale price gets wider

€25,500 - our private sale price after discounting €1,500

• Lets keep going and have a look at everything
• Buying at auction is perceived the highest risk
• The car is sold as seen and you’ve little or no come back
• You can’t test drive the car and any checks are when the car is moving through the auction
• However, you pay the least amount for the same car
• You can assume another €1,000-€1,500 off or 5% (or more in some cases)
• Its all down to whatever happens on the day

€24,000 - our auction price after discounting €1,500

• Yes there are more options
• Banks don’t advertise their repossessed stock but they do have it
• All car finance companies have hundreds of repossessed car every year
• These need to be sold on to settle the loans
• The chances are a bank is owed a lot less than the value of the car down to deposits or trade-in when the car was bought
• There main focus is get the loan cleared (whatever that is)
• Some of these are sold at auction, private auction or placed in dealerships
• You can assume another €1,000-€1,500 off or 5%
• From 2010 to 2014, car finance companies were screaming out for buyers
• Its not as busy today but cars are still being repossessed
• A crafty buyer looking for the best deal could ring around; you never know your luck

€22,500 - our repossessed price after discounting €1,500

• Car leasing company dump hundreds of 1-3 year old cars on the market every year
• Car hire company dump hundreds of 9-month-old cars on the market every year, their year is buy in Jan, rent for 8 months and sells them off in Sept
• Rise and repeat every year so their fleet is always new and requires no maintenance
• Hertz Car Rental has even opened a retail dealership to off load them!!!
• There are plenty of deals out there; you just need to know where to look

• You can now see the difference and how price hierarchy works
• Its your car and you can ask for whatever price you want
• 90% of people ask for the main dealer price, some even more!!!!!!!
• Its entirely up to you what you accept
• We understand people want the most money for their car
• The bottom line is unless you get a black swan event or someone really wants your car, its difficult to buck this trend.

• Tell him you accept his offer…
• Talk is cheap and it’s easy to value something when you’re not paying for it
• Remember whom you are talking to, why would he tell you anything different?
• He has to sell you another car

• Ireland has no credible used car book values
• All are done the same way, take the price new and take % depreciation per year
• There are 9,000 different cars in the current range for sale in Ireland
• Audi A4 has over 70 variations alone so its impossible to calculate used car values with anything other than a percentage depreciation
• By all means hold out for your price, it’s your car and your decision

• Have you ever notice how classified website put the most expensive cars first?
• There’s a very good reason for it
• Rebooked ads account for as much as 70% of a classified websites income
• Yes, you heard that correctly……70%+
• They know people look at the prices to gauge their own car value
• They know people are “a bit greedy” so they “chance their arm” at the higher level
• They also know if you don’t sell it, you’ll reduce the price and advertise again
• No one discounts much so the process could take 3 to 4 ads…easy money if you know what your doing
• Remember, unless its a black swan event, you’ll find it difficult to buck the trend detailed above

• You will always hear people saying the depreciation on cars is terrible and you lost 20% the day you drive it off the forecourt.
• As you can see from the above, this is not necessarily true
• It’s where you bought it from that dictates the depreciation
• If you buy from a main dealer and paid his premium (and got no cash discount) and now you are selling privately, you're going to be down the most, as you cannot achieve the same premium. 
• Even buying the car today from a main dealer and selling tomorrow, you'd still lose that same premium. 
• This is what's referred to as losing 20% of its value the moment it drives off the forecourt.

• For future reference, if you never want to lose money buying a car
• Buy a repossessed or 1-3 year old car at the auction
• The rules regarding warranties remain in place under European law regardless of who or where you bought it
• That means buying a used car in an auction is 100% covered by the same warranty if you bought from a main dealer (and at a 20%+ discount)
• This is something 99.9999% of people don't realize
• Downsides of buying like this is you don't get to test drive and you can't be as choosy on spec or model, as you never know what'll come up for sale
• But if you’re not fussy, its the slickest way to shop for cars
• You can always sell it in a few months when something better comes up