First of all: Thank you, Mr. Paulsen, for putting your ideas on the internet. I've read a bunch of your articles, and they've been a huge sanity check.

I'm presently in the market for a used vehicle for the first time since the mid-nineties, and I have a specific question about making an offer on sub- $10000 used cars. I don't have a clue what profit margin dealers put on used cars, nor do I have a clue what minimum profit margin they'll grudgingly accept to stay in business, and therefore don't know exactly where to start.

Real-world example: A local franchise dealer is advertising a used Jeep at $6900 CDN, and I'm interested in it due to its combination of age, mileage, condition, and price. I don't want to give them a thousand bucks more than I need to, though. What factors affect how a dealer calculates a list price on used cars, and what percentage of that list price should I reasonably expect them to at least consider accepting?

Basically looking for an order of magnitude, like, "You'd be nuts to start by offering more than 85% of list, and you might get it an 90%", or something.

So, is there a rule of thumb about this? And again, thanks for the articles and the forum.

When you mentioned CDN - what is the name of the dealership in Canada,,, I will take your Q from there and provide an answer ?

Very kind of you! Here's a link to the specific ad:

http://www.hebdo.net/result/detailinfo.aspx?ID=1071082&pgno=1&srt=1&r=quebec

I cannot open the link you provided, did you read the web page " how do you determine a fair price for a used car ? "