Inchcape Reading - just how hard is it to buy from them?
Discussion
People need to stop using WBAC valuations as their bench mark for purchasing a car, the market doesn't work like that generally, WBAC is a trade buyer selling back into other trade buyers, as a member of the public you won't have any easy access to that market.
You should base your value OP on what other similar cars are advertised at with other dealers and in the market generally.
The BMW market can be a weird one, i've owned a number of BMW's over the years and I have never known any other brand owners debate car specs like BMW owners seem to do and the specific spec of a car can affect values significantly with some optional extras.
not sure why you put a £99 deposit down on the car but if it was me i'd be looking at other options if you have seen the same car priced better elsewhere.
You should base your value OP on what other similar cars are advertised at with other dealers and in the market generally.
The BMW market can be a weird one, i've owned a number of BMW's over the years and I have never known any other brand owners debate car specs like BMW owners seem to do and the specific spec of a car can affect values significantly with some optional extras.
not sure why you put a £99 deposit down on the car but if it was me i'd be looking at other options if you have seen the same car priced better elsewhere.
PistonBust said:
Not using WBAC as any form of valuation, even though my Macan buyers tried to beat me with that stick. I guess my gripe is the blatant opportunism but then again Inchcape Reading have pretty grim customer satisfaction stats compared to many.
So just go get this straight, you want to buy a car from a dealer that you have said is a grand overpriced from anywhere else & you now say has grim customer satisfaction, yet you still want to purchase it???PistonBust said:
Not using WBAC as any form of valuation, even though my Macan buyers tried to beat me with that stick. I guess my gripe is the blatant opportunism but then again Inchcape Reading have pretty grim customer satisfaction stats compared to many.
Someone commented in another thread the other day that Reading is a nightmare place to buy a car - the suggestion was that there's so much money around the dealers don't need to bother to try.I suppose, also, if pricing is done by head office then you'll just seem like hard work - the salesguys may have been told not to even ask.
The other thing is dealers really only want to sell stuff on finance. The dealer group salesguys get penalised for cash sales. You might have got on better if you'd got the monthly cost then worked on getting that down.
I bought a £30K nearly new car from an independant franchise dealer recently - bit of discussion with the "business manager" and they knocked £2K off the price.
Yep, they're offering £500 off via finance after having added £500 in time for their "special offer". I've asked for a finance illustration to include that deal but nothing forthcoming.
I use an Autotrader price tracker and will continue my search whilst I believe Inchcape Reading call handlers would rather hold out for that £500 than inject another unit and £29k into their business this month/tax year.
Thank feck Virgin Media are easier to deal with as I negotiated their renewal down from £64 to £20 a month.
I use an Autotrader price tracker and will continue my search whilst I believe Inchcape Reading call handlers would rather hold out for that £500 than inject another unit and £29k into their business this month/tax year.
Thank feck Virgin Media are easier to deal with as I negotiated their renewal down from £64 to £20 a month.
PistonBust said:
I offered to pay in full today if deal can be done and collect car mid April when back from hols
Pay in full but wants a couple of weeks free parking thrown in too & you wonder why they're not rushing to phone you back when someone else might pay & drive away before then lol!!!Richard-390a0 said:
PistonBust said:
I offered to pay in full today if deal can be done and collect car mid April when back from hols
Pay in full but wants a couple of weeks free parking thrown in too & you wonder why they're not rushing to phone you back when someone else might pay & drive away before then lol!!!When I employed sales people, if I found out they'd let a ready, willing & able customer slip from their fingers, I'd have given them a warning or worse.
The issue is not about how cheeky I am with the initial offer but the lack of response and any effort to convert me. I remember when Porsche dealers used to turn their nose up if you went in with scruffy jeans but those days are gone and every lead should be followed up to convert phone calls to sales.
I've reached out to a couple of other sellers and the responses much better than Inchcape have been. Fingers crossed they're stuck with overpriced stock as the year end closes.
PistonBust said:
Richard-390a0 said:
PistonBust said:
I offered to pay in full today if deal can be done and collect car mid April when back from hols
Pay in full but wants a couple of weeks free parking thrown in too & you wonder why they're not rushing to phone you back when someone else might pay & drive away before then lol!!!When I employed sales people, if I found out they'd let a ready, willing & able customer slip from their fingers, I'd have given them a warning or worse.
The issue is not about how cheeky I am with the initial offer but the lack of response and any effort to convert me. I remember when Porsche dealers used to turn their nose up if you went in with scruffy jeans but those days are gone and every lead should be followed up to convert phone calls to sales.
I've reached out to a couple of other sellers and the responses much better than Inchcape have been. Fingers crossed they're stuck with overpriced stock as the year end closes.
If you want the car, you’ve already put a deposit down on it, just buy it. Better still go to the shop and haggle in person.
PistonBust said:
I don't think the market is buoyant enough for dealers to be complacent. New reg already gone out so I can't imagine they're stuck for space. If it were my business, if I had a customer that paid in full and the warranty clock was ticking, they could store it for as long as they liked.
When I employed sales people, if I found out they'd let a ready, willing & able customer slip from their fingers, I'd have given them a warning or worse.
The issue is not about how cheeky I am with the initial offer but the lack of response and any effort to convert me. I remember when Porsche dealers used to turn their nose up if you went in with scruffy jeans but those days are gone and every lead should be followed up to convert phone calls to sales.
I've reached out to a couple of other sellers and the responses much better than Inchcape have been. Fingers crossed they're stuck with overpriced stock as the year end closes.
This is a rather naive view. It assumes that every tyre kicker and test pilot is a serious enquiry. Which they are obviously not. To treat everyone as serious would soon close the dealership down because of wasted hours not earning any money.When I employed sales people, if I found out they'd let a ready, willing & able customer slip from their fingers, I'd have given them a warning or worse.
The issue is not about how cheeky I am with the initial offer but the lack of response and any effort to convert me. I remember when Porsche dealers used to turn their nose up if you went in with scruffy jeans but those days are gone and every lead should be followed up to convert phone calls to sales.
I've reached out to a couple of other sellers and the responses much better than Inchcape have been. Fingers crossed they're stuck with overpriced stock as the year end closes.
PistonBust said:
I don't think the market is buoyant enough for dealers to be complacent. New reg already gone out so I can't imagine they're stuck for space. If it were my business, if I had a customer that paid in full and the warranty clock was ticking, they could store it for as long as they liked.
When I employed sales people, if I found out they'd let a ready, willing & able customer slip from their fingers, I'd have given them a warning or worse.
The issue is not about how cheeky I am with the initial offer but the lack of response and any effort to convert me. I remember when Porsche dealers used to turn their nose up if you went in with scruffy jeans but those days are gone and every lead should be followed up to convert phone calls to sales.
I've reached out to a couple of other sellers and the responses much better than Inchcape have been. Fingers crossed they're stuck with overpriced stock as the year end closes.
You'll be in a stronger position if you take it straight away.When I employed sales people, if I found out they'd let a ready, willing & able customer slip from their fingers, I'd have given them a warning or worse.
The issue is not about how cheeky I am with the initial offer but the lack of response and any effort to convert me. I remember when Porsche dealers used to turn their nose up if you went in with scruffy jeans but those days are gone and every lead should be followed up to convert phone calls to sales.
I've reached out to a couple of other sellers and the responses much better than Inchcape have been. Fingers crossed they're stuck with overpriced stock as the year end closes.
They won't be able to count it as a sale for the current financial year unless invoiced, paid, and delivered. If they're audited and the car's onsite, knuckles will be rapped and sale pulled and reinvoiced into 24/25. Occasionally we used to hide cars in offsite storage, risky and breaking the rules.
Jordie Barretts sock said:
This is a rather naive view. It assumes that every tyre kicker and test pilot is a serious enquiry. Which they are obviously not. To treat everyone as serious would soon close the dealership down because of wasted hours not earning any money.
You can still deal with all enquiries professionally I'd have thought.Its always amusing how we excuse such poor service for what is usually, after a house purchase, our biggest spend.
If you had that service for a £100 meal in a restaurant you would never go back, but for some reason getting treated like dirt on a £20k or more spend is justified because dealers have (apparently) tight margins (ignoring the woeful px values they give bcoz black book says cap clean blah blah)
Ironically if the OP holds on it wont be long before the “central valuations team” finds £1k they can trim off the asking price (and still make a profit). At that point despite the numbers being where the OP needs to be, the local salesperson will still not come back to him of course.
Agree with the poster above, European manufacturers and dealers need to up their game very soon.
If you had that service for a £100 meal in a restaurant you would never go back, but for some reason getting treated like dirt on a £20k or more spend is justified because dealers have (apparently) tight margins (ignoring the woeful px values they give bcoz black book says cap clean blah blah)
Ironically if the OP holds on it wont be long before the “central valuations team” finds £1k they can trim off the asking price (and still make a profit). At that point despite the numbers being where the OP needs to be, the local salesperson will still not come back to him of course.
Agree with the poster above, European manufacturers and dealers need to up their game very soon.
menousername said:
Its always amusing how we excuse such poor service for what is usually, after a house purchase, our biggest spend.
If you had that service for a £100 meal in a restaurant you would never go back, but for some reason getting treated like dirt on a £20k or more spend is justified because dealers have (apparently) tight margins (ignoring the woeful px values they give bcoz black book says cap clean blah blah)
Ironically if the OP holds on it wont be long before the “central valuations team” finds £1k they can trim off the asking price (and still make a profit). At that point despite the numbers being where the OP needs to be, the local salesperson will still not come back to him of course.
Agree with the poster above, European manufacturers and dealers need to up their game very soon.
I've compared it before to the service you typically get in jewelers - even on fairly low cost items.If you had that service for a £100 meal in a restaurant you would never go back, but for some reason getting treated like dirt on a £20k or more spend is justified because dealers have (apparently) tight margins (ignoring the woeful px values they give bcoz black book says cap clean blah blah)
Ironically if the OP holds on it wont be long before the “central valuations team” finds £1k they can trim off the asking price (and still make a profit). At that point despite the numbers being where the OP needs to be, the local salesperson will still not come back to him of course.
Agree with the poster above, European manufacturers and dealers need to up their game very soon.
As for the manufacturer / dealer point - most manufacturers seem keen to take dealers out of the purchasing process. If dealers aren't going to provide good service and negotiation, and they continue to price PX's using WBAC, then what is the point of them?
Whilst I agree that the OP should buy elsewhere, I'm surprised how many posters think it's fine to simply ignore anyone who doesn't come across as an easy sale. The OPs initial offer was perfectly reasonable. It only takes a minute to email or phone and say "sorry, there is no discount available on this car". They then remain a potential future customer.
I booked to view and test drive what, to my mind, was an expensive 3 year old m car at a BMW dealer recently. After being kept waiting about 10 minutes I watched a girl enter the building and have a 5 minute chat with a member of staff. She then introduced herself as the salesperson I had booked with and no apology was offered for keeping me waiting. That did not put me in the right frame of mind for buying from that dealer and I won't be returning.
I booked to view and test drive what, to my mind, was an expensive 3 year old m car at a BMW dealer recently. After being kept waiting about 10 minutes I watched a girl enter the building and have a 5 minute chat with a member of staff. She then introduced herself as the salesperson I had booked with and no apology was offered for keeping me waiting. That did not put me in the right frame of mind for buying from that dealer and I won't be returning.
SFTWend said:
Whilst I agree that the OP should buy elsewhere, I'm surprised how many posters think it's fine to simply ignore anyone who doesn't come across as an easy sale. The OPs initial offer was perfectly reasonable. It only takes a minute to email or phone and say "sorry, there is no discount available on this car". They then remain a potential future customer.
I booked to view and test drive what, to my mind, was an expensive 3 year old m car at a BMW dealer recently. After being kept waiting about 10 minutes I watched a girl enter the building and have a 5 minute chat with a member of staff. She then introduced herself as the salesperson I had booked with and no apology was offered for keeping me waiting. That did not put me in the right frame of mind for buying from that dealer and I won't be returning.
This. Ultimately this is about the quality of your customer service. It’s not about WBAC, low ball offers. It’s about courtesy and respecting your customer. The process is so simple you would have to be deliberately avoiding it not to adhere to it. If it was my business I would insist on responses to all enquiries. If I don’t want to haggle on price I would make that very clear in my response. I would set clear timelines for responding to queries and I would expect this to happen. Clarity in communication and not ignoring potential customers because that is what I am in business for. Surprisingly enough if you have an excellent reputation for customer service then guess what… You sell more product. Lazy attitudes to this deserve no business in my opinion. The customer should go elsewhere.I booked to view and test drive what, to my mind, was an expensive 3 year old m car at a BMW dealer recently. After being kept waiting about 10 minutes I watched a girl enter the building and have a 5 minute chat with a member of staff. She then introduced herself as the salesperson I had booked with and no apology was offered for keeping me waiting. That did not put me in the right frame of mind for buying from that dealer and I won't be returning.
I really appreciate the contrasting views, as a retired commercial pilot I was taught to consider all options then make a decision based on all viewpoints. Inchcape could have possibly squeezed full asking from me but to ignore calls had me looking elsewhere and I'm talking to Sytner, Arnold Clarke a Ford dealer with a trade in and a respected independent about 4 other cars. One of them will get my business, Inchcape won't.
You seem to be under some impression car sales people have a lot of time. They don't. They aren't on commission any more, usually it's a target. They have no room to manoeuvre and that's the price. If you want to come in, talk around the subject, have a twenty minute test drive and then talk figures, it doesn't work like that any more.
Someone will show up, agree to buy the car and that's it. If you don't want it at the price, well it's no skin off the salesman's nose, he's still going to get paid and hasn't wasted over an hour on someone who's going to fanny around.
Someone will show up, agree to buy the car and that's it. If you don't want it at the price, well it's no skin off the salesman's nose, he's still going to get paid and hasn't wasted over an hour on someone who's going to fanny around.
Jordie Barretts sock said:
You seem to be under some impression car sales people have a lot of time. They don't. They aren't on commission any more, usually it's a target. They have no room to manoeuvre and that's the price. If you want to come in, talk around the subject, have a twenty minute test drive and then talk figures, it doesn't work like that any more.
Someone will show up, agree to buy the car and that's it. If you don't want it at the price, well it's no skin off the salesman's nose, he's still going to get paid and hasn't wasted over an hour on someone who's going to fanny around.
My car buying history has been different from the model described above. Mostly salesmen I have encountered were tolerant, professional and polite. Not all to be fair, I found one dealership was offhand and didn't want to let me in an M5, so I went next door and bought an AMG. Surely the whole point of being a 'salesman' is to sell something and the more effort then the more likely you are to sell. Maybe I'm old fashioned lol.Someone will show up, agree to buy the car and that's it. If you don't want it at the price, well it's no skin off the salesman's nose, he's still going to get paid and hasn't wasted over an hour on someone who's going to fanny around.
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