How to Buy a Used Car

Car Buying Negotiations
For Non-Negotiators

This car buying tip on how to buy a used car with an easy discount was written with the sole intention of helping consumers that hate to negotiate, don't know how to negotiate, and/or don't want to spend countless hours researching the entire web for bundles of information.

Warning! This car buying tip is not for the hardcore negotiators that enjoy four hour negotiations and grinding every last penny of profit out of the deal.

That being said, it will certainly show non-negotiators how to save hundreds, or more likely, thousands in the shortest amount of time.

This is a very simple car buying tip on how to negotiate a car, but this will show you the benefits of always asking for a discount, how to do it without getting into a long drawn out negotiation and it will get you out of the dealership faster.

How to Buy a Used Car
With an Easy Discount

I'll be using Kelley Blue Book for this example, because they offer free used car values from their site and they are the guide I am most familiar with.

In order to learn how to buy a used car with an easy discount, you'll need to know these two values:

1. Kelley Blue Book retail value.
2. The selling price of the car you're buying.

Now head over to KBB.com and get the retail value. For this example, let's assume the Kelley Blue Book retail value is $25,570.

What you'll want to do now is compare the retail value to the asking price of the car you're considering buying. Lets say the dealership is asking full retail for your "new" used car.

Assuming a $25,570 asking price, you'll then make an offer of $23,000 for the car. What you've done here is simply use a 10% discount and rounded it the nearest whole dollar.

This 10% discount should be something any dealer asking full retail for a car should be able to easily absorb and should not put up too much of a fight.

Expect for there to be some: "Well I don't know if we can do that..." (they can), but this is not an unreasonable offer and if you stick to your guns you should have a deal.

This 10% discount is an excellent approach on how to negotiate a car with very little haggling or hassles. It's also a nice round figure and keeps the math simple for you in case you might be a little nervous or excited.

Want to be more aggressive?
If you want to know how to buy a used car a little more aggressively, then simple raise the % of the discount. You could try for 15-20%, but prepare for some negotiation.

I'd say 20% would probably be the max that you could ask for and still possibly have deal without an all out negotiation beginning, but it's unlikely, because 20% is a pretty aggressive offer.

A key factor to keep in mind...
An essential aspect of this entire car buying tip is to focus solely on them lowering the sale price of the car you are buying and to not get caught up in the other numbers on the four square, like down payment, trade in value and monthly payments. You can focus on these numbers after the sale price is where you want it to be.

A Few Things
to Keep in Mind

1. If a dealer is asking over retail for the car, then figure your discount off of the retail value and not their asking price.

2. If they are asking less than retail, I'd use the 10% discount off of the asking price and not retail.

3. They may be asking way less than retail and in fact they may be using this unit as a price leader (advertise unit with a very low price). So sometimes even the 10% will be more than they are willing to accept, but this is rare.

There you have it, now you know how to buy a used car with little haggling, yet still saving yourself money in the process.

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