Negotiating a discount on PCP settlement

[david.mt]

Wifey has an SLK on a 2 year flexible plan which expires soon - we have the option of either writing out a cheque for the optional purchase or throwing the keys back.

Now when we took out the contract we estimated 10k miles/annum but as it turns out she will probably have done around 5k miles over the 2 years (change of work circumstances) so the car is virtually new.

Now she likes the car and I am tempted to buy it but has anyone had any success in negotiating down the optional purchase price. With prices falling the optional purchase price (which is their "guaranteed" market price) is probably over the current market price for a 20k mile model (which they are expecting to be returned) and maybe even too rich for a 5k mile model.

If I return the car they are therefore looking at a "loss" so would expect some flexibility from MB to sell the car?

Any thoughts or previous success?

[christer]

I don't see how they would make a loss per se. The baloon or gfv was dialled in at the beginning. They will now just sell th ecar for more than they wre expecting. Goodluck with negotiations but I would walk away and buy your wife a better value SLK 2nd hand somewhere else.

[matc]

You won't have have any luck negotiating on the balloon price of the car; you will only have two options, pay it off and keep the car or hand it back. SLK's are going for silly money in the trade/auctions at the moment, so a nice low mileage one will be like gold-dust.

If you let me knwo the balloon I can give you an idea of if it's a good price for the car or not. If it's silly money then do as the poster above says and hand it back then buy a cheaper one!

[Deva Link]

I've always believed they weren't allowed to discount the GFV for some reason - but have never been clear why. Maybe tax or something to do with the Consumer Credit Act??

I did see suggestions (but nothing concrete) earlier in the year when market values were way under GFVs of BMW offering discounts to people to keep their cars.

Dealers are pretty short of decent used cars at the moment so they'd probably be glad to have yours back.

[david.mt]

matc said:

You won't have have any luck negotiating on the balloon price of the car; you will only have two options, pay it off and keep the car or hand it back. SLK's are going for silly money in the trade/auctions at the moment, so a nice low mileage one will be like gold-dust.

If you let me knwo the balloon I can give you an idea of if it's a good price for the car or not. If it's silly money then do as the poster above says and hand it back then buy a cheaper one!

Thanks - it's a SLK200 (Blue with Beige interior) with £5k of extras (but no command) which cost £33.5k OTR. After 2 years of payments we have an optional purchase price of £21.6k. The car will only have done 5k to 6k miles so probably not even broken in!

Any ideas on whether is is a reasonable price or not?

[matc]

david.mt said:

matc said:

You won't have have any luck negotiating on the balloon price of the car; you will only have two options, pay it off and keep the car or hand it back. SLK's are going for silly money in the trade/auctions at the moment, so a nice low mileage one will be like gold-dust.

If you let me knwo the balloon I can give you an idea of if it's a good price for the car or not. If it's silly money then do as the poster above says and hand it back then buy a cheaper one!

Thanks - it's a SLK200 (Blue with Beige interior) with £5k of extras (but no command) which cost £33.5k OTR. After 2 years of payments we have an optional purchase price of £21.6k. The car will only have done 5k to 6k miles so probably not even broken in!

Any ideas on whether is is a reasonable price or not?

If it's an auto I would say it's a very reasonable price. SLK's are making approx £2-3k over book at the moment, so I would imagine you would be paying about £25k for that car on the forecourt. If you like the car enough to keep it I would; if not and you plan on handing it back, I'll happily pay the balloon off for you and give you a bit on top to buy it off you!

[Olf]

From recent experience you won't have a prayer of getting a discount.

Your other option is to follow the car to auction... They prob won't mind telling you where it's going to go.

[HONEYMON57ER]

i was in this situation a couple of years ago with my wifes mini
almost the same mileage that you mention. I was offered privately
£2k more than the final value that mini wanted. So I borrowed the money
to pay them then sold the car and paid back the loan.