my old man's looking for a car at the moment and ended up going holden (i know...that's bad) because they weren't too shy to advertise the discounted prices.

I can understand the strategy, Stuart of not putting the discounted prices up as you get more money this way (if you slash a car from $30k to $20k people will still want to get that price lower, however if you leave it at $30k and ask people to offer what they think is a reasonable price...some will say $10k (crackpipe) but some will say $25k or $20k).

Personally I hate dealing with car salesmen, and no offence here...it's your job. It's not an uncommon thing to buy a brand new car for less than 15% or 20% off the standard - walk through the door price. I hate wasting my time (and your time) by having to argue only to receive some BS stories.

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Member of the 18-35 club and proud of it! (For another 5 years...getting old)

New toy has arrived, 1/4 mile in 11.2 sec and only 114hp!

In the comment section of the vehicles you will more than likely notice it says the following:

"HAIL DAMAGED VEHICLE.. This vehicle has been hail damaged since photographed and has cosmetic damage. Our insurance assessors are currently valuing the vehicles and will soon be offered for sale at a drastically reduced price. All offers are invited subject to insurance assessors valuations. Enquire today to be in the running for a bargain"

I am not about to get in a slinging match over who is right or wrong. I merely thought I would provide something I thought the members on here might appreciate (seeing as though this forum has helped me over the last few years).

Unfortunately a phone call or email asking to buy an STi for $5k is neither serious or worth acknowledgeing and defeats the purpose of what I set out to achieve.

Once again I apologise for any misconceptions some may have had in regards to what a "reasonable offer" was and my thanks again to those who actually showed some support.

It sucks doing a good turn sometimes Goose. I was in the industry for a short while and could not handle car sales. The amount of tyre kickers, time wasters and eddie the experts pissed me right off.

Goodluck with selling the damaged cars and don't stress too much about the forum "advisers".

i don't mean to hijack the thread and go off topic, but is it really taking the assessors that long to get around to you? its already been 2 weeks since the storm and of the other yards i've been to (incl other subaru yards) they have been showing 'hail sale' prices on damaged vehicles since early last week... and i'm talking about yards in Myaree etc where there is very minimal hail damage. some cars probably had 2-3 minor bumps in the bonnet etc and the prices had been slashed by about $4k off the pre hail sticker price...

Yup $5k...you will get some crack pipe owners, however I still stand by what i've said. It's a known salesman strategy of asking people to offer something as most people don't want to be ridiculed they will most likely offer more than the car's worth.

I personally didn't even enquire with SOB because of the above mentioned fact.

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Member of the 18-35 club and proud of it! (For another 5 years...getting old)

New toy has arrived, 1/4 mile in 11.2 sec and only 114hp!

^^ They'd be the yards that had no insurance for Hail damage.

We've had the assesors through our yard twice now and they're still processing the claims / deciding what to write off or repair.

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[CENTER][SIGPIC][/SIGPIC][/CENTER]
[CENTER][COLOR=#ff0000]Built Ej207: Semi-closed RA Cases - Wiseco Forgies - Manley rods - BC 272 cams - GDA Heads - billet f/whl - Vi-pec - WbO2 - 800cc Yellow tops - TD05-20G - 409Hp ath @ 1.75bar on E85[/COLOR][/CENTER]

I'll be pretty honest about car sales here (and this isn't a stab at anyone)...

Why on earth does every car salesman do the 'put in your best offer' crap (also regardless of hail or regular sale)? Put a price on the car that you are happy to sell it at, then if a person comes in asking for the best deal, work out a deal not this formal offer and acceptance crap.

Subaru Osbourne Park missed out on the sales of 2 x 08 STi's the other year because of this. BMW missed out on sales for the same crap too.

I truly think that if the sales people just said new STi in the lot for $60k, hail damaged price $50k more people will look at them or at least know they are in the ball park to purchase and not waste peoples time. Being told car is for $60k and damaged, make your best offer, 99% of people will put in a very low offer (I would offer $5k and be dead serious about it).

(Just using STi as an example as I like them).

It's great that you have let people know and had I been in the market for a car, it would definately be worth checking out.

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[COLOR="Gray"]550Nm off a 2L... Just wish it was in the dak dak...[/COLOR]

That's the way you and I think John, but half of the tards that come to yards see that you have the pinky as $50K instead of the $60K so they still try and low ball you another $10K because the "Stealership" will still be making money.

If you get pen to paper then you know they are serious. When I bought our Prado, they wanted $60K for it, he filled out the Offer to Purchase at $60K, got me to sign, before I did, I scribbled out the $60K and wrote $50K and signed, the negotiations began because he knew I was buying if we could reach a deal.

I ended up paying $54K and got $3K more trade for the CX7 so it was a good deal in my book.

Or just rock up with a blank signed cheque.. money talks.

Thats how I got both of our WRX's for cheap cheap (thousands less than the new "drive away" price).

I'd say the reason they are taking "offers" on these before they are assessed is so they have a nice stack from Joe public to,
A, chose the highest sucker bid
B, hound those new potential customers whom they know are in the market for a car
I'd let them keep their poxy cars and either repair them or put them out to auction........see what prices they get for them then.
Having sat for the car salesman's certificate (but never used it) I have even less respect for them than I did before, you walk into that classroom and throw any ethics you had out the window, we had some slimy little Nissan dealer teach our group & all we got was how good he was at ripping people off.

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Beaten up old 98 Gen 2 Liberty, 13.0, stock V3 STI running gear.
07 Transit motor home
69 VF & 70 VG Valiants needing full restoration
Yamaha Zooma 50cc rocket hopefully going with the Transit.