Guide
How to negotiate when you sell a car privately
You do not need to get good at haggling. You need to have decided three things before anybody calls, because every bad outcome in a private sale comes from deciding one of them while a stranger is standing next to your car.
The asking price
Public. A little above what you expect to take
Your floor
Private. Written down, kept to yourself
Your walk away date
Private. What stops this running for months
Before anybody calls
Three numbers, and only one of them is public.
Write them down. A number you decided in advance is a position. The same number reached under pressure is a concession you have already started making.
The asking price
What the listing says. Slightly above what you expect to take, because most buyers open by asking whether it moves and a sale where they moved you feels to both of you like an agreement rather than a surrender.
Your floor
The number below which you keep the car. Decided at a desk, on the basis of what the car is worth and what a fast certain offer would pay, kept to yourself, and not hinted at. The moment a buyer knows it, the negotiation is over and it ended there.
Your walk away date
How long you are willing to do this before you take a certain offer or reduce properly. It is a number too, and it is the one that stops a sale drifting into its third month.
All three come out of pricing the car honestly, which takes about an hour and is described in how to price a used car. A seller who has done that hour negotiates from information. A seller who has not is negotiating from hope, and buyers can tell the difference within about two sentences.
Position
Why saying what is wrong helps you here.
This part sounds backwards. Telling a buyer what is wrong before they arrive is what stops it being used against you when they do.
The standard negotiating move in a private car sale is to find something, name it, and ask for money off. It works because the seller is surprised, because they are now on the back foot about honesty as well as price, and because there is a stranger standing in front of them expecting an answer.
None of that is available if the scratch, the worn tires and the warning light were in the listing, in your words, before they drove over. The move becomes a repeat of something both of you already knew, and the answer is one sentence: the price already reflects that, which is why it is what it is.
It also changes who turns up. People who could not accept those things did not come, so everybody standing in front of you already decided the car was worth seeing with its faults attached. That is a materially different conversation from one with somebody discovering them.
The opening move
What to do with the message that only contains a number.
These arrive in most private sales. Often they are a test rather than a position, and how you answer decides which.
Answer briefly, without insult
Repeat the price, give one true reason it is that price, and say they are welcome to come and see the car. That is the whole reply. It costs you nothing, it does not reward the tactic, and a surprising share of people who opened well below the asking price end up buying at something reasonable.
What not to do is take it personally. An offended reply gives away that the number matters to you emotionally, which is exactly the information a practiced buyer is looking for.
Do not negotiate before they see it
The most common mistake is agreeing a discount over text to get somebody to come. Whatever you agree there becomes the new ceiling, and the negotiation then starts again from that number once they are standing next to the car.
The right answer to a discount request before a viewing is that the price is the price, they are welcome to see the car, and you are happy to talk once they have. Most serious buyers expect exactly that.
In person
What to do while an offer is being made.
Everything else on this page is preparation. This is the part that happens with the other person standing there.
When a buyer names a number, the instinct is to fill the pause, and the thing that comes out of a filled pause is usually a concession you did not mean to make. Let it sit. Three seconds of quiet is uncomfortable for both of you, and the person who is uncomfortable about their own offer is the one who speaks next.
When you do reply, reply to the car and not to the person. What it is worth, what has been done to it, what you already said was wrong with it. A negotiation about the car is one you can win with facts you gathered at a desk. A negotiation about whether you are being reasonable is one with no winner in it.
And be willing to say no and mean it. The sentence is: that is below what I am willing to take, thanks for coming out. Sellers who can say that calmly get offered more, not less, because a buyer who believes the floor is real stops testing it.
The traps
Four ways sellers give away money without meaning to.
The deposit that holds the car
Somebody asks you to take the listing down while they arrange money. Weeks pass, they stop replying, and the car has been off the market the whole time. If you agree to hold it, agree the date it stops being held, and say so when you take the money.
The inspection that finds everything
A buyer wanting their own mechanic to look is entirely reasonable and worth agreeing to. What is not reasonable is a list of every item of normal wear presented as a renegotiation. Answer the genuine findings, decline the rest, and remember that you already priced in what you disclosed.
The second person on the phone
A buyer who keeps stepping away to call somebody with authority is running a negotiation with two of them against one of you. There is nothing wrong with it, and the answer is to hold your number rather than bid against an absent third party.
The offer that arrives at the end
Everything is agreed, the paperwork is out, and the number changes by a few hundred dollars because of something just noticed. This one works on sunk cost: you have spent two hours and you want it over. Be ready to put the pen down, because a buyer this far in rarely walks.
Read next
What decides the negotiation before it starts.
The conversation itself is short. These are the parts that set it up.
The whole process, in order: how to sell a car privately.
Private sale, trade-in or instant offer
The three ways out of a car, what each one really pays, the tax rule that can close the gap, and how to work out which is worth it for the car you have.
How to sell a leased car
You cannot sell a car you do not own, so a lease sale is really a buyout followed by a sale. How the numbers work, and why your lender may not allow it.
How to sell a car that does not run
A car that will not start still has three kinds of buyer and a real price. What to find out first, what to disclose, and how the handover works without a test drive.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I expect to come down on a used car?
Enough that the buyer feels they moved you, which on most private cars is a few hundred dollars rather than a few thousand. That is the argument for building that much room into the asking price rather than pricing at exactly what you want and then having nowhere to go.
How do I respond to a lowball offer?
Briefly and without insult. Repeat your price, say one true thing about why it is that, and leave the door open. Most lowballs are a test rather than a position, and a seller who answers calmly rather than being offended is the one who ends up selling at a sensible number.
Should I say the price is firm?
Only if it is. A firm price is a legitimate position and it works, because it removes the dance for buyers who dislike it as much as you do. What does not work is saying it and then negotiating anyway, because everybody you told is watching and it teaches them that nothing you say is load bearing.
What if the buyer finds a fault and wants money off?
If it is a genuine fault you did not disclose, that is a fair renegotiation and the amount should be roughly what it costs to put right. If it is something already in your listing, it is a tactic, and the answer is that the price already reflects it. That distinction is why disclosing everything up front is the strongest negotiating position available.
Should I take the first offer on my car?
If it is at or near your number and the person is standing there with the money, yes. Sellers who hold out for a better offer that has not yet appeared usually get one weeks later at less than the first, because by then the listing is stale and the confidence has gone out of their own asking price.
A page that already answered the questions.
What was replaced, what is still wrong and what the price reflects, in writing, before anybody arrives. 10 days free.