Why the silly prices?

[Ian J]

I'm still three months away from purchasing but am keeping an eye on what's out there. My last two cars have been bought new so it's been a few years since I checked out second hand prices in the likes of Autotrader but something weird has happened in the intervening years as dealers are quoting what I call silly prices.

HA Fox in Derby have a rather nice looking red coupe which has everything I need except for the wheels which I don't really like but it's priced at the rather odd £43,801. They aren't the only ones to do this as there are other F Types at £48,894 and £48,945

Any ideas why retailers are doing this?

https://www.inchcape.co.uk/jaguar/cars/ ... Id=3206755

[AL1]

What is it that you think is silly about the price? It's too expensive or because it's not a round number?

[Ian J]

In the past prices have always been round numbers or fairly close to, as in £19,999 but this one looks as if it has been plucked at random.

The actual price itself looks quite good for the car's spec

[Fez]

It's call psychological pricing! They are trying to make you think it cheaper than 44k. However off them 16% off the ticket price and when they ask why 16% say it better than 15% and less than 20% psychological buying!!!

[AL1]

A lot of the prices set these days are done by databases that use lots of data points, meaning they can be more accurate on pricing.

Also I'd argue that a round number is actually more illogical than a non-round number... for every £100 price point there are 99 other options.

[Perky33]

So the answer is really simple. And working in the industry, I maybe able to shed light on this.

It’s all about listings online...

If a competitor dealer lists a car at £37,999, then you price yours at £37,998 so that you are top of the list. So the first dealer then changes their price to £37,996 and so it goes on...

It sounds daft, but really that’s all it is.

[Deleted User 1088]

Hello

also a nice big fat 10.9% interest rate .....

[Senninha]

Whilst there is some merit in the listings ratings as Perky33 suggests, this style of pricing has been introduced by the large multi franchise dealers as a quick reference to the age of stock. For example, £xx,999 is fresh so you’ve got a new addition to the dealer stock ... working down from this £xx,989 ... 979 is advising the sales manager that he needs to focus on dealing the next punter through the door ... how far this continues depends on the dealer group ... my recent change of daily driver was 939 so good timing for me as they needed to deal or risk losing money (on top of the stocking charges) by sending off to auction ... the speed of which they drop varies from days/weeks/months so do your homework on dealer groups to find out their specific interpretation of the model ...

Hope this helps, rgds Paul

[Ian J]

Thanks all

[jimbobc]

Whilst there is some merit in the listings ratings as Perky33 suggests, this style of pricing has been introduced by the large multi franchise dealers as a quick reference to the age of stock. For example, £xx,999 is fresh so you’ve got a new addition to the dealer stock ... working down from this £xx,989 ... 979 is advising the sales manager that he needs to focus on dealing the next punter through the door ... how far this continues depends on the dealer group ... my recent change of daily driver was 939 so good timing for me as they needed to deal or risk losing money (on top of the stocking charges) by sending off to auction ... the speed of which they drop varies from days/weeks/months so do your homework on dealer groups to find out their specific interpretation of the model ...

Hope this helps, rgds Paul

Interesting didn't realise that thanks