Anyone bought a VW Fox? Struggling to get a good deal

[bramley]

My sister is after a VW Fox 1.4 Urban.

List price is £9,100 and she is p/x'ing an 03 plate Picasso with 76k on the clock, owned by her from new. She's been offered £1,500 for her car and the Fox for £8,600, which to me isn't a great deal. The salesman had offered £1800 for the Picasso but I noticed a VW garage in Cirencester have £500 off the Fox at the moment and when she raised this with the sales guy he said ok but he's reduced the trade in price by £300!?!?

The Fox doesn't come with air con, that's another grand. Basically she wants aircon but is expecting (as am I) a bit more movement from them on price. She's a serious buyer and in a position to move fast.

Anyone bought one? Anyone got any suggestions? I think she should contact some other dealerships.

She's looking at PCP over 3 years at 7.4%, and this gives her free servicing.

[briSk]

I have a suggestion - go and find the best deal you can on a 107 or c1. take this to the toyota dealer and get the best deal i can on an aygo. buy that and be pleased i didn't end up with a Fox.

[bramley]

briSk said:

I have a suggestion - go and find the best deal you can on a 107 or c1. take this to the toyota dealer and get the best deal i can on an aygo. buy that and be pleased i didn't end up with a Fox.

I had a feeling I'd get some comments about avoiding the Fox. Thing is, she's pretty set on it, likes the badge, has two kids to ferry about and needs a bit of boot space, and is happy with something quite basic/slow/economical. Although I wouldn't buy one I can see her reasons for wanting one.

[james_tigerwoods]

bramley said:

Although I wouldn't buy one I can see her reasons for wanting one.

The badge.

For the same money, can she not consider a Polo? She'd get a larger car for the same money which might be more practical....

[Accelebrate]

10k for a Fox? Crumbs... There has got to be a better way to spend that. Out of interest why is she drawn to the Fox if the deal is far from favourable? How much is a Polo nowadays?

ETA - £10,495 for a Polo with AC on the VW site, I'm sure with some shopping around that'd come in under budget.

Edited by Accelebrate on Monday 2nd August 16:06

[briSk]

Have you considered approaching a dealer somewhere relatively easy to get to but in different (less affluent) area.. so if you're in say, bristol approach a dealer in..i don't know..swansea.. or the west midlands..?

[bramley]

james_tigerwoods said:

bramley said:

Although I wouldn't buy one I can see her reasons for wanting one.

The badge.

For the same money, can she not consider a Polo? She'd get a larger car for the same money which might be more practical....

On this very website is an 09 Polo with about 2k on it, with air con etc for the £8995! She likes the idea of a brand new car, fixed costs for 3 years, no servicing bills, all warrantied up etc. TBF the Fox is quite a bit bigger than C1/107/Aygo etc which is why they're ruled out, but yes, the Polo makes more sense to me, certainly.

[Deva Link]

bramley said:

...in a position to move fast.

What the availability like, especially with optional a/c?

Many VWs are on 5-6mth lead-times.

We went though crap from our local VW dealer a few years ago when looking at Polo for our daughter - Polo still had a cassette player and no central locking etc, but the dealer was unmoveable. Bought a SEAT Ibiza instead.

Is your sister thinking of keeping the car at 3years, or handing it back?

[james_tigerwoods]

bramley said:

james_tigerwoods said:

bramley said:

Although I wouldn't buy one I can see her reasons for wanting one.

The badge.

For the same money, can she not consider a Polo? She'd get a larger car for the same money which might be more practical....

On this very website is an 09 Polo with about 2k on it, with air con etc for the £8995! She likes the idea of a brand new car, fixed costs for 3 years, no servicing bills, all warrantied up etc. TBF the Fox is quite a bit bigger than C1/107/Aygo etc which is why they're ruled out, but yes, the Polo makes more sense to me, certainly.

Using her own logic, there's a good few cars out there that will be bigger, nicer, be better specd, have better value and just as pleasurable to own than a Fox - and that's brand new.

[bramley]

Accelebrate said:

10k for a Fox? Crumbs... There has got to be a better way to spend that. Out of interest why is she drawn to the Fox if the deal is far from favourable? How much is a Polo nowadays?

ETA - £10,495 for a Polo with AC on the VW site, I'm sure with some shopping around that'd come in under budget.

Edited by Accelebrate on Monday 2nd August 16:06

I've never bought a brand new car but I'd always assumed there's a decent margin for negotiation. My sister, by her own admission, isn't great at the negotiation thing, and I'm annoyed at the salesman's lack of movement. Keen to know how this offer stacks up with others; surely the Fox isn't the sort of car to be available only on the tightest of price reductions? I thought dealerships were desperate to sell cars?

[bramley]

Deva Link said:

bramley said:

...in a position to move fast.

What the availability like, especially with optional a/c?

Many VWs are on 5-6mth lead-times.

We went though crap from our local VW dealer a few years ago when looking at Polo for our daughter - Polo still had a cassette player and no central locking etc, but the dealer was unmoveable. Bought a SEAT Ibiza instead.

Is your sister thinking of keeping the car at 3years, or handing it back?

Thanks. Handing it back and starting again is her current thinking.

[LC926]

i just bought a 1.2 Fox urban for £7330, no options.
The idea was as cheap new car as possible. With the money we save on petrol on her old car this fox is free motoring.
I kept haggling and they kept ringing with a lower price until i was happy, although i sold the old car privately as they just wouldn't give what i wanted.
I hear people talk about the Aygo, but she didn't like that and for the price of this Fox, 3 years servicing inc, couldn't see a better option

[briSk]

bramley said:

I thought dealerships were desperate to sell cars?

as i said further up i'd go somewhere 'poorer'. you're in proper 'middle england' trying to buy a vee dub.

it might even make sense to look east as well as north and west... i bet there's a few vw dealers all close to one another nr rdg and maidenhead and all around there.. might be some competition..???

[Accelebrate]

If she's set on a model I'd phone as many VW dealers as possible and see what sort of prices they come up with. If one seems particularly keen to do a deal start haggling with them until you're happy.

Edited by Accelebrate on Monday 2nd August 16:22

[CDP]

My parents looked at the Fox but bought the Fabia instead. A much better car for not a lot more money and it's got back doors too.

Surely 10K is well into Polo money?

Personally without the dreaded scrappage scheme to help out I'd take a look at nearly new too.

[Deva Link]

LC926 said:

i just bought a 1.2 Fox urban for £7330, no options.

According to the VW website, list is £7665 (maybe there's £500 off them all at the moment).

I've got a WhatCar from a few mths ago (May) and against a then list price of £9095 1.4 Urban "target" price is £8676, so only £400 or so.

You could try a broker like Carfile or even DriveTheDeal and see what price they come up with, but doesn't seem like there's going to be a chunky saving.

[Dunclane]

My mate works for Listers group, unfortunately for you they can't sell enough Fox's, hence the lack of discount forthcoming. Even on Drive the Deal its only £270.00 off!

[POORCARDEALER]

They have £500 upfront margin in them and can sell everyone they can get their hands on`.

[anonymous-user]

I would reccomend talking her out of getting a fox. If she is set on the VW badge get to to pick up a year old 1.2 polo, for the money you will get a far superior car which will also hold is value a lot better.

[Deva Link]

bramley said:

Thanks. Handing it back and starting again is her current thinking.

There's a couple of issues with that:
1) If she adds optional a/c then she'll be paying the full cost of it over the 3yrs, which makes it pretty expensive.
2) VAG finance are notorious for hammering people at handback time for every little thing wrong with the car.

I know it's a lot dearer, esp with a/c, but what about Honda Jazz? They have much better residual values so the monthly cost might not be much different to the Fox with a/c. Younger people seem to be driving them now (wierdly it's a young lads car in APAC countries). My missus is on her second and wouldn't even look at any other car when we changed it, and normally she always gets something different.

As mentioned before, is an Urban Fox with a/c actually available on shortish leadtime?