[matt_320d]

buying a factory order car, I believe APR is set by BMW finance.
These are pretty low at the moment.

For a pre-reg car on the forecourt, I believe it's set by the dealer.

Effectively just a way for the dealer to put an artificially low price in the windscreen as far as I can see, but what kind of range of %APR have people been going with in this scenario recently? What's a reasonable number?

[creepy coupe]

3.9% march this year

[DB118D]

Used cars will start at 11.9% and hope you're daft enough to bite

Realistic is 5.9% which seems to be their floor (unless they're running offers)

Cars under 90 days old may qualify for the new car campaign rates, although you will need to fight hard for it

[ByTheSea]

When I bought my AU 320i in March the dealer offered me 6.4%, which he said was a best-can-do from BMWFS. I got 3.4% from my bank. I could have got 2.8% from John Lewis, but as I detailed in another thread here that worked out more expensive than the 3.4%. Hidden charges a friend in the FS business explained. So beware of APR, look instead at monthly payment over the same period.

[335dJa]

My brother just got 0% on a pre-reg x5, picks it up next week.

[harvs43]

1.9 on a 335d touring in March

[genman39a]

5.9% apr last week

[ukbeemerboy]

I’m on 0% Oct last year...

[matt_320d]

So yeah, they tried me on 11.9% got them down to 6.9%...

then switched to working them on the price and got from from £43k to £39k

Which interestingly after the APR% puts the total price paid, if I take the balloon payment back pretty much to the starting price, so you could look at it as getting a 0% APR deal I suppose...

It's all smoke and mirrors.

At £42,995 I said "needs to come down to be interested", went to talk to manager....came back and offered £40k. Said "Is that the absolute best you can do?", salesman says "yup..no money left in the car for us at that..".

So I said "Hmm..shame, if you could have got below £40, say to £39k, You'd have had a deal, but I'll leave it.."

Quick dash off back to see the manager again..and suddenly £39k was doable!

The whole haggling thing I do find sort of irritating. when you have a complex deal with a trade in, an APR loan and a price, it's very hard to keep track of how good a deal you are getting.

My instinct is that it's very hard to squeeze them on "trade in price", as there seems a fairly well established "book" price for trade in. My instinct is they really don't give a monkeys how nice a condition or what options are on your car if it's anything over 3 years old.

Anyone got any thoughts on whether it's better to push them on price or APR? My suspicion is that since the loans are financed by outside agencies, they probably do have genuine "floors" on the APR%, whereas they can always give a little more on the price of the car? Or am I wrong?

[ByTheSea]

Originally Posted by matt_320d

...My instinct is that it's very hard to squeeze them on "trade in price", as there seems a fairly well established "book" price for trade in. My instinct is they really don't give a monkeys how nice a condition or what options are on your car if it's anything over 3 years old...

That's been my experience. Low mileage, pristine condition, a few desirable options, 3 year-old trade-in, an attitude of... that's the book price, Sales Manager is sticking on that... so more productive to screw them on the deal you are buying.

[DB118D]

Originally Posted by matt_320d

So yeah, they tried me on 11.9% got them down to 6.9%...

then switched to working them on the price and got from from £43k to £39k

Which interestingly after the APR% puts the total price paid, if I take the balloon payment back pretty much to the starting price, so you could look at it as getting a 0% APR deal I suppose...

It's all smoke and mirrors.

At £42,995 I said "needs to come down to be interested", went to talk to manager....came back and offered £40k. Said "Is that the absolute best you can do?", salesman says "yup..no money left in the car for us at that..".

So I said "Hmm..shame, if you could have got below £40, say to £39k, You'd have had a deal, but I'll leave it.."

Quick dash off back to see the manager again..and suddenly £39k was doable!

The whole haggling thing I do find sort of irritating. when you have a complex deal with a trade in, an APR loan and a price, it's very hard to keep track of how good a deal you are getting.

My instinct is that it's very hard to squeeze them on "trade in price", as there seems a fairly well established "book" price for trade in. My instinct is they really don't give a monkeys how nice a condition or what options are on your car if it's anything over 3 years old.

Anyone got any thoughts on whether it's better to push them on price or APR? My suspicion is that since the loans are financed by outside agencies, they probably do have genuine "floors" on the APR%, whereas they can always give a little more on the price of the car? Or am I wrong?

Step 1. Squeeze them as low as possible on screen price

Step 2. Squeeze them as hard as you can on APR

Step 3. Introduce your PX, being mindful that they'll value it at pretty much WBAC value

[NotGotABimmer23]

Originally Posted by matt_320d

So yeah, they tried me on 11.9% got them down to 6.9%...

then switched to working them on the price and got from from £43k to £39k

Which interestingly after the APR% puts the total price paid, if I take the balloon payment back pretty much to the starting price, so you could look at it as getting a 0% APR deal I suppose...

It's all smoke and mirrors.

At £42,995 I said "needs to come down to be interested", went to talk to manager....came back and offered £40k. Said "Is that the absolute best you can do?", salesman says "yup..no money left in the car for us at that..".

So I said "Hmm..shame, if you could have got below £40, say to £39k, You'd have had a deal, but I'll leave it.."

Quick dash off back to see the manager again..and suddenly £39k was doable!

The whole haggling thing I do find sort of irritating. when you have a complex deal with a trade in, an APR loan and a price, it's very hard to keep track of how good a deal you are getting.

My instinct is that it's very hard to squeeze them on "trade in price", as there seems a fairly well established "book" price for trade in. My instinct is they really don't give a monkeys how nice a condition or what options are on your car if it's anything over 3 years old.

Anyone got any thoughts on whether it's better to push them on price or APR? My suspicion is that since the loans are financed by outside agencies, they probably do have genuine "floors" on the APR%, whereas they can always give a little more on the price of the car? Or am I wrong?

Probably fair. APR will be genuinely capped id imagine, will be complex though depending on age of car etc. You arent going to get 3.9% on a 2015 car, might get it on one thats 6 months old though.