When it comes to buying a new car, there are so many things to look into. Does it fit the family’s lifestyle, how much does it cost to service or how much should I pay? Another thing worth looking at is how dealers price their cars and why some dealers will sell you the same car a lot cheaper. It requires a bit of research (nothing too hard) but it will help you save quite a bit on your next new family car.
Many factors decide a car’s price
There are many factors that impact the prices that car buyers pay at the dealerships. These can include:
- Popularity of the Car
- Dealer Stock
- Dealer Incentives
- Location of Dealer
Popularity of the Car
Like many other things we buy, cars which are popular can come with at a higher price than others. Other similar cars might even have more features and cost less but not being popular means that many buyers are unaware that they even exist.
Mazda CX-5 for example is a really popular family car in Australia. Mazda has done a great job at getting it out there to car buyers. In 2017, Mazda CX-5 was the best selling family SUV in the country.
Nissan X-Trail on the other hand is a very popular family SUV – in-fact its the world’s best selling SUV. It’s got a lot of the features that Australian families are after but just doesn’t sell as well as the CX-5. The X-Trail was 5th best selling SUV.
Which car is better value for money – Mazda CX-5 vs Nissan X-Trail?
You can definitely negotiate a lot harder for a car which is less popular. In the Mazda CX-5 comparison with the Nissan X-Trail above, you’d be able to do a much better deal than the recently updated Mazda CX-5.
If you would like to save time and money on either of these new cars, check out the free sold price reports on the Mazda CX-5 and X-Trail.
Dealer Stock
If there is more of something, it is usually a lot cheaper – just look at the apartment prices when compared to a house (nearly unaffordable in Melbourne and Sydney). Cars are exactly the same.
If a car dealership is overstocked with a particular car, they are more than likely to sell it at a better price. Car dealerships are there to sell cars and if there are cars sitting at the dealerships or at their car holding yard, they have to sell them.
It costs dealers money to have the car just sitting in the dealership so they don’t want to keep it for too long. That’s a great opportunity for buyers and many Aussies can save a lot of money in the buying process.
How to work out which dealership is over-stocked and save money?
It is actually quite easy to find out which dealerships has excessive stock. In many cases, its as easy as visiting their website. Most dealers will have their stock on their website.
Nissan X-Trail stock on a dealers website
If a dealer has several listings of the car you are after on their website, you can visit them and negotiate a good deal. This also saves you visiting multiple dealers.
Dealer Incentives
Dealer incentives are manufacturer to dealer incentives that lower the price of the car for the dealer to buy from the car manufacturer (sometimes also called “the factory”). Car manufacturer offer these incentives to the dealers to sell more of a certain type of car. Some incentives come in after a certain amount of cars are sold with any cars sold after that gives the dealer a higher rebate from the car manufacturer.
How do dealer incentives help me buy?
Dealer incentives are there to sell more of a less popular car. If you are aware that a car is not selling as well by checking out car sales figures from previous months, you can use it to your advantage to negotiate a better price.
The difficulty is that these incentives are not advertised publicly and the dealers do not have to tell you about them either. It’s best to be well researched before walking into the dealership. This doesn’t have to be a long task – something as simple as checking the dealer’s website for stock as shown above can help you.
Location of Dealer
Many regular owners in the past have purchased cars from dealers that are in regional towns. Some of the regional dealers can do a better deal due to lower foot traffic. They will also in some cases, deliver to the cities for a small fee.
It is worth exploring their website and if the car you are after is there, good idea to head down and do a deal. You could save a few hundreds or at others, the difference could be in thousands.
There are several ways to save when you get down to buying a car. It’s always good to be in the know-how and understanding why car prices are so different at dealers could help you save time and money.
If you would like to know more about how you can save time and money when buying, check out carloop’s free sold price reports.
