New Car Discount Negotiation Guide : An Article

Good write up Mr. Banwari,

But i have just one doubt, if a seller is passing out all his profits to the buyer, then what will he earn. All human in this earth is working & doing business to earn money. If they are not getting that, then whats the meaning of doing business. Or esle they should be entitled with social welfare group. Unfortunately which they are not.

Its good that discounts, reduces the burden of bearing huge amount. But at the same time, it also eating up the genuine sale. There are lots of products available in market other than car, for how many products do we bargain for discounts?

For daily consumables like milk, foods & beverages, habitual products likes smoking, drinking etc, we had spend lots of money, and in future also we will be spending lots of money. In how many cases we had asked for discount there? After having food in a restaurant, or having tea or soft drinks, do we ask for discount or bargaining?

I m not saying discount is bad, it good, but the purchase shouldn't be made based on discounts only. For e.g, in the process of marriage, one family is offering dowry of 1 crore & other family offering dowry of only 10 lacs, but more than dowry we value the person whom we are marrying, money is secondary, primary comes the girl and her family. As i said earlier also, a car is dream for many of us, like a marriage and having a family. So when we are in a process of fulfilling our dream, we should value the people involved in fulfilling our dreams.

I agree that there are dealers who take us for a ride and cheat us for their own benefits. So we should be more aware about their presence in markets, and sometimes these discounts play as a trap.

I have got experience of working in a automobile dealership in sales and also in mobile industry in both sales and customer care. I have dealt with the emotions of the buyer. Now i m running my own business in garments. In all these professional and business life, i have learned a major lesson that its relationship which is more valuable in life, which helps in doing business where both buyer & seller are having profits.

Pls dont consider this as criticism, i am just sharing my experience, as the product called car holds lots and lots of emotions and value in life. We shouldn't be burdened by the our own dreams when it gets fulfilled.

Sam,

That's a very nice point-of-view there. I'm touched at the fact somebody cares to look beyond his/her personal interest also.

Most of the discount I've mentioned are coming from manufacturer directly and a dealer just has to pass it on (no personal loss for the dealer). Some of the discount I've mentioned are definitely going from dealer's pocket but dealer doesn't really deserve them. Dealer already gets a good margin from car manufacturer and there are several other schemes such as volume incentive, quality incentive etc. And, even if he is passing on some margin from something he doesn't deserve (such as insurance or finance) to the customer, there are very high chances that he is still making a very good margin on it. Autos is the only sector in India which gives the seller (dealer) to earn on more than ten fronts!

Yes, I am aware of the fact that there are several dealers in the country today who are selling new cars on net loss (yes, that's right). But then they have currency-printing machine called "Authorized Service Center". Most of the loss-making showrooms cover up the loss (and make huge margins) from workshops. Most of the dealers (exceptions are there) in India  are far from being a social-welfare-organization. Consumer in India is still at receiving end, we are just trying to make him the king at the time of car purchase at least.

CarWale's intetion is not to exploit the dealer, but our aim is to bring a perfect balance. Without dealer's support, a consumer cannot enjoy a wonderful car buying and owning experience. CarWale too needs dealers' support in order to help car consumers but it doesn't stop us from trying to bring that balance. Our aim is to educate the Indian car consumer so that he can go to a car showroom with confidence and not scared!

At the end of the day, my friend, it's survival of the fittest.

Thanks a lot for the article.... very informative.

My mom had bought an alto lxi from Sai Cochin couple of months ago, i wish i should have gone through the article then..... yeah missed it!

Thanks

NIk!

the guide is really helpful. thanks a lot !!!

Nice Article...Very informitive.

The only barrier here is that most of this doesnt apply to cars which are high on demand and very popular having a waiting period..like Swift. The policy is simple is.." Take it or Leave it"

The only discount that I can pounce on is the corporate disccount.

No sire,

Unless you are in a very small city, you can still negotiate on most of the discounts (except dealer/OEM discount). The trick is to call the dealer and tell him that I wish to book the car on a term that I will arrange Insurance and finance myself. Getting in touch with more than one dealer helps.

Dealers have low margins on fast-moving cars but they get good deal from manufacturer in terms of volume incentive!