Buying a new S3. 'Ow much!?
Discussion
I have been discussing trading in my S3 for a new one with the two dealerships who know the car and am very disappointed with their offers. I am OK with paying something extra for the convenience of buying locally but feel this should be measured in 00s, not 000s. Obviously I can't discuss the specifics, but believe we can discuss dealers margins etc in general.
My starting point is the 8 to 10% discount brokers will get off list of the new car. Then I have taken the Parkers (adjusted) part exchange value, which gives a switching figure of around 16K. The local dealers want 20K or more.
Also, looking at what Audi would advertise my old car for, they seem to want a margin of 5-6K; I understand they will have to provision for a warranty and make a living, but this seems over the top.
So is my starting point for the switching cost reasonable?
How much should I expect to pay for the convenience of dealing with Audi locally?
All thoughts and advice welcome.
Chris
My starting point is the 8 to 10% discount brokers will get off list of the new car. Then I have taken the Parkers (adjusted) part exchange value, which gives a switching figure of around 16K. The local dealers want 20K or more.
Also, looking at what Audi would advertise my old car for, they seem to want a margin of 5-6K; I understand they will have to provision for a warranty and make a living, but this seems over the top.
So is my starting point for the switching cost reasonable?
How much should I expect to pay for the convenience of dealing with Audi locally?
All thoughts and advice welcome.
Chris
Thanks for your comments; I had not understood that Parkers was not well regarded.
I do understand the points about market price, and trade versus private sales, but would folks expect there to be a £6K margin on selling a decent S3 at Audi, or something more like £3K?
Any real examples anybody?
Chris
I do understand the points about market price, and trade versus private sales, but would folks expect there to be a £6K margin on selling a decent S3 at Audi, or something more like £3K?
Any real examples anybody?
Chris
chrisjs said:
Thanks for your comments; I had not understood that Parkers was not well regarded.
I do understand the points about market price, and trade versus private sales, but would folks expect there to be a £6K margin on selling a decent S3 at Audi, or something more like £3K?
Any real examples anybody?
Chris
A friend purchased a used approved TT in May from Derby Audi and traded it in in October at Hereford Audi and lost £5,000 on it. He had done less than 2000 miles! I do understand the points about market price, and trade versus private sales, but would folks expect there to be a £6K margin on selling a decent S3 at Audi, or something more like £3K?
Any real examples anybody?
Chris
I'm not Audi however I do work for a mainstream brand, I would expect with something like an S3 that Audi would want around a £5k margin, don't forget this is not all profit, they have to factor in prep, a decent warranty, a service, a bit of tidying up here and there, VAT and then it is a car that may hang around for while and it will depreciate, probably a lot; £500-£750 per month potentially, maybe more, so they will need to budget for that too.
Parkers in the trade is a joke by the way, it is a publication for the general public, the trade uses Glasses and CAP, you can purchase valuations for them online, however bear in mind they are a "guide", which is in their title, a dealer uses them as a guide to value a car, they aren't gospel.
If two dealers have come up with the same cost to change figure then it looks as though that is the figure you will be looking at, by all means go the broker route however you will then need to offload your current car yourself.
Parkers in the trade is a joke by the way, it is a publication for the general public, the trade uses Glasses and CAP, you can purchase valuations for them online, however bear in mind they are a "guide", which is in their title, a dealer uses them as a guide to value a car, they aren't gospel.
If two dealers have come up with the same cost to change figure then it looks as though that is the figure you will be looking at, by all means go the broker route however you will then need to offload your current car yourself.
Edited by HTP99 on Sunday 23 November 09:41
HTP99 used to give some useful advice in the now defunct car salesman thread so I would tend to go with that OP.
As someone else has said the cheapest option would be drive the deal and then just WBAC your car.
No point in valuing the local relationship if the local centres don't also value it.
As someone else has said the cheapest option would be drive the deal and then just WBAC your car.
No point in valuing the local relationship if the local centres don't also value it.
As above, plug the details into webuyanycar or similar search results for the same type of setup - that's your absolute bottom figure for its value. You may do a little better at auction (since many of these outfits will just move stock on through their parent companies, who are the likes of BCA and Mannheim) but that's a risk. If you can afford to be without the car for a while, or to end up with 2, then list it privately. Most dealers will happily give you a price now for trade in and don't care if you sell it privately in the meantime.
THere's quite a few S3s on the market at any one time, but an awful lot are poor spec or poor condition/history, or all of the above. If you've got a genuinely decent one with good spec then the specialists like Fontain are likely to offer you a better price than the generic trade outlets because they're struggling to buy good stock
THere's quite a few S3s on the market at any one time, but an awful lot are poor spec or poor condition/history, or all of the above. If you've got a genuinely decent one with good spec then the specialists like Fontain are likely to offer you a better price than the generic trade outlets because they're struggling to buy good stock
I've just sold my wife's Mini to SellCar, they gave me £1400 more than wbac and were a pleasure to deal with. My last few cars have sold to traders after advertising them on here or Autotrader, I'm sure you'd get a few trade bids if you advertised your S3. My local VW dealer matched the Drive the Deal price for the Golf R we are buying, so after getting that discount and more for the Mini, the cost to change narrowed significantly.
Thanks again for lots of good comments.
I'm new to posting here but the forum rules seem pretty clear that I can't seek a valuation, so I will steer clear of that. However, the car is high spec, FAudiSH, in good condition and fully up to date on services. I had completely forgotten that vat would kick in for a dealer, but had assumed £1000 cost for preparation and warranty; maybe not enough though. Anybody like to give a different estimate for warranty and prep?
The higher dealer offer included a deduction of £500 for further depreciation in the four months delivery time for the new car, which looks fine to me.
The good news is that I can stand to have two cars for a time, if that's going to get me a significantly better result. I think I will check out some independent dealers too then see what I think.
Chris
I'm new to posting here but the forum rules seem pretty clear that I can't seek a valuation, so I will steer clear of that. However, the car is high spec, FAudiSH, in good condition and fully up to date on services. I had completely forgotten that vat would kick in for a dealer, but had assumed £1000 cost for preparation and warranty; maybe not enough though. Anybody like to give a different estimate for warranty and prep?
The higher dealer offer included a deduction of £500 for further depreciation in the four months delivery time for the new car, which looks fine to me.
The good news is that I can stand to have two cars for a time, if that's going to get me a significantly better result. I think I will check out some independent dealers too then see what I think.
Chris
Use that as your absolute bottom idea of value and add extra for it to be worth hassle of a private sale, then compare to similar cars on AT and here and see if it looks likely to achieve that. Look to see if any similar cars are actually selling - I bought in July and some of the same adverts are still up!
I'm certainly glad I came here to get some advice; even if it just confirms 'ow much running a decent car costs!
Mr Glass says trade in average for my car is £13.7 while excellent is £15.2, dealer retail is £17.8 and private is £16.8. The dealer retail number seems in line with similar cars on the Audi web sites, after some discount. I guess I will talk to the more realistic dealer about why the car is not significantly closer to excellent, but at least we are in conversation distance on the current S3.
However, the dealer with the "realistic" trade in valuation is only offering 4-5% discount rather than the 8-10% via brokers; looks like I could be having some interesting discussions this week.
Meanwhile, seen a couple of ex-demos that might be interesting.
Still happy to read any more thoughts and thanks to everybody again.
Chris
Mr Glass says trade in average for my car is £13.7 while excellent is £15.2, dealer retail is £17.8 and private is £16.8. The dealer retail number seems in line with similar cars on the Audi web sites, after some discount. I guess I will talk to the more realistic dealer about why the car is not significantly closer to excellent, but at least we are in conversation distance on the current S3.
However, the dealer with the "realistic" trade in valuation is only offering 4-5% discount rather than the 8-10% via brokers; looks like I could be having some interesting discussions this week.
Meanwhile, seen a couple of ex-demos that might be interesting.
Still happy to read any more thoughts and thanks to everybody again.
Chris
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