Ask a car salesman anything...anything at all (Vol. 2).

[Milner993]

V12GT said:

One for the used car salesmen out there...

I'm helping our son buy his first car as he's starting a job in September and needs one. When he first asked me a couple of months ago, there was very little at <£5k that wasn't over 10 years old and high mileage.

There seems to me to be much more when I looked again today with him - budget of £5k, post 2015/16 and small petrol hatchback, but bigger than a city car. There are also a reasonable number of Dacias, which seem good value.

So my question is: are used car prices coming down a bit now at this end of the market?

From experience I would say things are leveling off, rather than used prices reducing significantly. Theres always the exceptions.
hold off buying until September, when the new plate change arrives you will find more vehicles to choose from.

[21st Century Man]

Milner993 said:

hold off buying until September, when the new plate change arrives you will find more vehicles to choose from.

Christ! Do people still do that? When there are three plates per year and hardly any difference between them at that.

I could understand it when it was August 1st and something of significance, but now?

[Dan W.]

21st Century Man said:

Milner993 said:

hold off buying until September, when the new plate change arrives you will find more vehicles to choose from.

Christ! Do people still do that? When there are three plates per year and hardly any difference between them at that.

I could understand it when it was August 1st and something of significance, but now?

Personally for our garage September wont be a big deal because we cant really get the new cars here to sell so it wont make much diff re part exchanges.

Most people we deal with these days as well dont care about the plate changes for sep or march, Cars just come when they come now and get registered pretty steady through the year with part ex's spread out,

[Ari]

21st Century Man said:

Christ! Do people still do that? When there are three plates per year and hardly any difference between them at that.

I could understand it when it was August 1st and something of significance, but now?

March and September, when is the third?

[LastPoster]

Ari said:

21st Century Man said:

Christ! Do people still do that? When there are three plates per year and hardly any difference between them at that.

I could understand it when it was August 1st and something of significance, but now?

March and September, when is the third?

Three plates, not three new plates

2023 = 72, 23, 73

[Sheepshanks]

LastPoster said:

Three plates, not three new plates

2023 = 72, 23, 73

It took me a moment to figure out how it was three!

I think personal plates are a bit cringy but must admit I do prefer the 7x regsitrations as it's not so in your face what age the car is - non-car people can't immediately figure them out.

I did used to think that the new car market would collapse here if dated plates were done away with, but maybe it has all levelled out now?

[HTP99]

Dan W. said:

21st Century Man said:

Milner993 said:

hold off buying until September, when the new plate change arrives you will find more vehicles to choose from.

Christ! Do people still do that? When there are three plates per year and hardly any difference between them at that.

I could understand it when it was August 1st and something of significance, but now?

Personally for our garage September wont be a big deal because we cant really get the new cars here to sell so it wont make much diff re part exchanges.

Most people we deal with these days as well dont care about the plate changes for sep or march, Cars just come when they come now and get registered pretty steady through the year with part ex's spread out,

Yep same here, you get the odd 1 or 2 who still want the "new plate", many though now just want their car ASAP, the new plate system is confusing and many don't undertstand it, which helps.

[spreadsheet monkey]

Dan W. said:

Personally for our garage September wont be a big deal because we cant really get the new cars here to sell so it wont make much diff re part exchanges.

Didn't realise this was still a thing. What brand is this, out of interest?

More general question for all the salespeople on here, what's the market like now?

From my outsiders perspective, it seems like:

• Covid (and working from home) not really a thing any more. Do we still have all the restricted supply shenanigans? On the used market, there must be a big gap in supply of 2020 and 2021 cars. Are used car values still strong?
• Electric cars are not really capturing people's interest, unless there are company car tax incentives to make them worthwhile.
• Increases in interest rates must be hammering PCP and making the monthly figures look much less attractive.
• But old people are the ones who actually buy new cars, and they've still got their fat pensions, so presumably they're still buying?

[cjb44]

spreadsheet monkey said:

Didn't realise this was still a thing. What brand is this, out of interest?

More general question for all the salespeople on here, what's the market like now?

From my outsiders perspective, it seems like:

• Covid (and working from home) not really a thing any more. Do we still have all the restricted supply shenanigans? On the used market, there must be a big gap in supply of 2020 and 2021 cars. Are used car values still strong?
• Electric cars are not really capturing people's interest, unless there are company car tax incentives to make them worthwhile.
• Increases in interest rates must be hammering PCP and making the monthly figures look much less attractive.
• But old people are the ones who actually buy new cars, and they've still got their fat pensions, so presumably they're still buying?

I hope you do not think that all old people have got fat pensions, if so you need a reality check.

[spreadsheet monkey]

cjb44 said:

spreadsheet monkey said:

Didn't realise this was still a thing. What brand is this, out of interest?

More general question for all the salespeople on here, what's the market like now?

From my outsiders perspective, it seems like:

• Covid (and working from home) not really a thing any more. Do we still have all the restricted supply shenanigans? On the used market, there must be a big gap in supply of 2020 and 2021 cars. Are used car values still strong?
• Electric cars are not really capturing people's interest, unless there are company car tax incentives to make them worthwhile.
• Increases in interest rates must be hammering PCP and making the monthly figures look much less attractive.
• But old people are the ones who actually buy new cars, and they've still got their fat pensions, so presumably they're still buying?

I hope you do not think that all old people have got fat pensions, if so you need a reality check.

Not all of them, sure. But I'm talking specifically about the ones that are buying new cars.The first paragraph of this Times article states that the average age of new car buyers in the UK is 56 for Ford, 54 for VW, and 63 for Toyota. I suspect that retired people with a paid-off house and a decent final salary pension make up a good chunk of the new car buying demographic.

They're one of the few sections of the UK car-buying public that aren't materially affected by the recent rises in interest rates.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/car-adverts-app...

Edited by spreadsheet monkey on Monday 21st August 13:10

[Sheepshanks]

spreadsheet monkey said:

Not all of them, sure. But the ones that trundle down to their local dealer to buy a brand new car every three years, I’m pretty sure they’re doing OK.

The only model specific forum that I look at daily is a Tiguan one, and there a few retired people on there who are pretty pleased with themselves as they got a new Tiguan in 2019, ordered another in 2021 so they could change at three years, but are only about now getting them and are able to sell their 2019 cars for about what they paid for them.

One or two are a bit pissed as, although VW has held the discounted price they ordered at (low £30K) the list price if they've added a couple of options has broken through £40K.

[Dan W.]

spreadsheet monkey said:

Dan W. said:

Personally for our garage September wont be a big deal because we cant really get the new cars here to sell so it wont make much diff re part exchanges.

Didn't realise this was still a thing. What brand is this, out of interest?

More general question for all the salespeople on here, what's the market like now?

From my outsiders perspective, it seems like:

• Covid (and working from home) not really a thing any more. Do we still have all the restricted supply shenanigans? On the used market, there must be a big gap in supply of 2020 and 2021 cars. Are used car values still strong?
• Electric cars are not really capturing people's interest, unless there are company car tax incentives to make them worthwhile.
• Increases in interest rates must be hammering PCP and making the monthly figures look much less attractive.
• But old people are the ones who actually buy new cars, and they've still got their fat pensions, so presumably they're still buying?

Suzuki Pretty limited to be honest.

And most automatics are 6 to 8 months delivery.

Yes mainly the retired folk buying the new cars to be honest.

Used is manic lots selling at high prices still.

[thelostboy]

V12GT said:

One for the used car salesmen out there...

I'm helping our son buy his first car as he's starting a job in September and needs one. When he first asked me a couple of months ago, there was very little at <£5k that wasn't over 10 years old and high mileage.

There seems to me to be much more when I looked again today with him - budget of £5k, post 2015/16 and small petrol hatchback, but bigger than a city car. There are also a reasonable number of Dacias, which seem good value.

So my question is: are used car prices coming down a bit now at this end of the market?

I would say its been the worst July on record for a lot of car dealers, so it's a great time to buy.

[123DWA]

spreadsheet monkey said:

• Electric cars are not really capturing people's interest, unless there are company car tax incentives to make them worthwhile.

They are still selling if you get the price right. I sold a 21 plate Corsa-E last month, cheapest one on AT was £17995 so we put ours up for £15995 and sold it within 48hrs

• Increases in interest rates must be hammering PCP and making the monthly figures look much less attractive.

I'm finding that, bizarrely, people are less rate conscious now. Before covid it felt like people were very rate conscious and even when things were down at 5.9/6.9% people were shopping round to get 4.5% on a bank loan. Whereas now everything is 10.9/12% and people don't even wince when they sign up, its strange.

[Square Leg]

I assume salesmen have to deal with wrong HPi reports from time to time?

Currently looking to trade my van in for another, but Hpi says there’s a mileage discrepancy.
Turns out they’ve recorded the mileage from my old reg no that I sold which is now on a car that’s done 74k miles, and my van that has only done 14k miles.

How the fk do I fix this?

[Save Ferris]

Square Leg said:

I assume salesmen have to deal with wrong HPi reports from time to time?

Currently looking to trade my van in for another, but Hpi says there’s a mileage discrepancy.
Turns out they’ve recorded the mileage from my old reg no that I sold which is now on a car that’s done 74k miles, and my van that has only done 14k miles.

How the fk do I fix this?

I normally call them with mileage discrepancies, they’ll probably need some supporting evidence.

,

[Square Leg]

I’ve emailed them but there’s no phone number for the general public.

[nismocat]

Do dealers/sale people prefer you buy on credit or are they not bothered if you pay cash?

Like the opposite of buying a house, cash better than mortgage.

[Save Ferris]

nismocat said:

Do dealers/sale people prefer you buy on credit or are they not bothered if you pay cash?

Like the opposite of buying a house, cash better than mortgage.

They would much rather you took the finance option, it’s another source of income.

We tend to find the majority of normal/average car buyers will fund the purchase with us, main dealer rates are normally subsidised, and can often have a deposit allowance or free servicing included.

Cash is fine obviously, but not as common as you might think.

[nismocat]

Save Ferris said:

nismocat said:

Do dealers/sale people prefer you buy on credit or are they not bothered if you pay cash?

Like the opposite of buying a house, cash better than mortgage.

They would much rather you took the finance option, it’s another source of income.

We tend to find the majority of normal/average car buyers will fund the purchase with us, main dealer rates are normally subsidised, and can often have a deposit allowance or free servicing included.

Cash is fine obviously, but not as common as you might think.

I bought a Merc in about 2008 I think and the % was something like 2.5%. Be silly to use your own cash! (I doubt you could get that deal now)

Whilst I was there a guy was buying a C63 and he mentioned, whilst we were getting free coffee, that the salesman had “gone to speak to the manager” as he wanted to pay cash. He was a little surprised that it was such an issue.

To cut a long story short, they offered him a fantastic credit deal he couldn’t turn down.
I just found it odd they’d rather the credit than cold hard cash.