Among used-car buyers who attempted to negotiate, 83% succeeded in paying less than the asking price, with a median saving of $900 — roughly 8% off the sticker — according to a Consumer Reports survey of 1,006 US buyers. The group that did not negotiate accepted a higher price for no reason other than not asking. An Ipsos survey of 1,005 US adults found that 23% of car buyers named overpaying as their single worst mistake in the car-buying process, ranking it ahead of not doing enough research (20%), buying the wrong car (14%), and buying from an untrustworthy source (14%). The LendingTree car-regrets survey (n=1,919) separately found that 8% of recent buyers specifically regret not shopping around for a better deal — a narrower, more direct measure of negotiation regret.
The asymmetry tracks cleanly with the Gilovich-Medvec inaction-dominance pattern. Negotiating and failing costs nothing in price — you end up paying exactly what non-negotiators pay, and in most cases you still drive away with the car. Negotiating and succeeding saves hundreds to thousands of dollars. Not negotiating locks in the sticker price permanently. The expected value of asking is positive, the downside is minimal, and yet a large share of buyers accept the first number without countering. Edmunds data shows that by Q3 2024, the average US new-vehicle buyer was leaving with the car $1,744 below MSRP — a figure that reflects an entire population of buyers, including those who did not negotiate, being averaged against those who did. Individual negotiators likely fared better than the mean.
The caveats are real. Market conditions shift the leverage dramatically: during the 2021–2022 inventory shortage, used-car prices spiked well above pre-pandemic levels and dealers routinely added markups above MSRP, making negotiation nearly impossible for popular models. In a surplus market — the environment most buyers will encounter across their lifetime — the leverage returns to the buyer. The Ipsos regret figure (23%) almost certainly conflates depreciation disappointment with negotiation failure; buyers who timed their purchase during a price peak, negotiated well, and still watched the car lose value quickly would also report this regret. The CarGurus UK data shows 53% of buyers find negotiation uncomfortable — a real barrier that suppresses attempts — but discomfort during the process does not reliably translate into regret about having tried.