Ask a car salesman anything...anything at all.
Discussion
Excellent!papa3 said:
Not that often for us, but we are a small rural business with lots of repeat custom. We do see them and in most cases we can get close enough to the price that the added value of the backup we provide is enough to bridge the financial gap.
That's pretty much what I did when I recently ordered a new car. Not a volume make or model so no mega discounts but one online broker and Carwow did offer a couple of thousand off so I went to my local dealer, told him what I had been offered and he managed to come within a couple of hundred so I did the deal with him. Very pleasant too, no hard sell. The hard part is waiting nearly four months for the car. No particular rush for me but I'm not surprised they don't sell more.papa3 said:
Carwow is a menace, but a largely unavoidable one now. Stupidly I can do a better deal direct to the customer than I can via CW as their fee of £360 is passed directly to the buyer.
You could do, but you wouldn't. Local VW dealer told me they were a DtD "preferred" dealer but wouldn't do the DtD price. But they responded to a CarWow enquiry and ended up only being marginally more expensive.Save Ferris said:
The dealer pays it. Carwow monitor the messages and calls to the dealer, and if a deal has been done they take their fee.
...and the customer doesn’t pay any money to carwow
For listed stock - I tell Carwow i am prepared to sell the car for £10,000. They offer to you will be £10,360. I am invoiced for £360....and the customer doesn’t pay any money to carwow
Edited by Save Ferris on Wednesday 25th October 20:42
For price list - I tell Carwow I am prepared to offer 5% discount from list. They offer car at 5% discount plus £360. I am invoiced for £360
If you walked in from the street I would sell it to you for £10,000 but, as mentioned above, once Carwow have been involved they relentlessly email you to ascertain if you bought the car from us, even offering you Amazon vouchers to reply. If you tell them yes, we get an invoice and our "score" is reduced for failing to report an order. Whilst the customer may not pay any money to CW, they do pay £360 more.
Consider a price led, range entry, base spec model. In many cases these pay the dealer a fixed margin of £500 and do not qualify for volume bonus. From that £500 the workshop will take £110 for a PDI. Our valeter needs to prep the car, we cost this as £45. Fuel £20. House charge (to cover marketing, admin fees, non attributable expenses etc) £240. That leaves us as a business with less than £100 and we still have a sales exec to pay. That car is sold at list price, you might manage to haggle a couple of hundred quid off but that would be it. There is no way I can then absorb £360.
At quarter end, if we are a few deals short of the top level target we do deals to secure the volume bonus, and these tend to be very "narrow" deals in terms of profit. If we're going to do a daft deal, we'd far rather do it on our doorstep than 500 miles away as we then have a chance to recover some money through our aftersales business or by repeat custom, neither of which we can expect for selling a car at a loss to the other end of the country.
All of this is from the perspective of a small franchised dealer and we trade on reputation and experience. I wouldn't fancy being a Peugeot/Vauxhall/Ford dealer in Birmingham/Manchester/London where you have half a dozen competing dealers on your door and price becomes everything, which is what CW and the like encourage.
Sheepshanks said:
You could do, but you wouldn't. Local VW dealer told me they were a DtD "preferred" dealer but wouldn't do the DtD price. But they responded to a CarWow enquiry and ended up only being marginally more expensive.
Why wouldn't I? If I'm prepared to offer it to a faceless web entity for that then I can assure you I am prepared to offer the same to someone that takes the time to call or visit us. I would far rather spend my day talking to one or two people and have a genuine opportunity to sell a car than churning out endless messages on CW to customers 400 miles away from us who are, in the main, never going to buy from us.
If the deal wasn't right for us I wouldn't offer it to CW any more than I would offer it to you.
When new cars are ordered, do you put together the specs on something like the manufacturer's website configuration and that order is sent through to the factory? How does the order get to the factory manufacturing process with accessories as well?
Who chooses the specs of cars in dealer showrooms, dealer stock and what's used by staff?
Who chooses the specs of cars in dealer showrooms, dealer stock and what's used by staff?
Blakewater said:
When new cars are ordered, do you put together the specs on something like the manufacturer's website configuration and that order is sent through to the factory?
Depends on the franchise and the circumstance.All manufacturers have some form of web portal that allows us to place an order for a specific car.
All volume manufacturers build certain quantities of certain models/specs/variants in line with their own forecasts and forward orders.
Most manufacturers carry some level of stock.
Some manufacturers (those with limited option listings) wholesale their stock. I.e. We will place a bulk order down to colour level 3-6 months in advance.
Blakewater said:
How does the order get to the factory manufacturing process with accessories as well?
Accessories tend to be dealer fitted. Options are factory fitted.Blakewater said:
Who chooses the specs of cars in dealer showrooms, dealer stock and what's used by staff?
Normally the sales manager working within a framework from the franchise. The manufacturer will insist in their standards requirements or campaign document that a dealer has a certain model mix on display and available as demonstrators. These requirements vary by brand and the size of the dealer or their territory. What's used by staff will be down to the sales manager or DP. Some dealerships allocate staff a personal vehicle, others it's a free for all at closing time. It used to be the case that the best sales exec got the best demo. Don't think it's as big a deal now.
papa3 said:
Sheepshanks said:
You could do, but you wouldn't. Local VW dealer told me they were a DtD "preferred" dealer but wouldn't do the DtD price. But they responded to a CarWow enquiry and ended up only being marginally more expensive.
Why wouldn't I? If I'm prepared to offer it to a faceless web entity for that then I can assure you I am prepared to offer the same to someone that takes the time to call or visit us.
Sheepshanks said:
papa3 said:
Sheepshanks said:
You could do, but you wouldn't. Local VW dealer told me they were a DtD "preferred" dealer but wouldn't do the DtD price. But they responded to a CarWow enquiry and ended up only being marginally more expensive.
Why wouldn't I? If I'm prepared to offer it to a faceless web entity for that then I can assure you I am prepared to offer the same to someone that takes the time to call or visit us.
I had a CarWow quote presented to me last week, the quote was £95 lower that we could achieve with using all margin and advertised offers, plus the dealer in question would deliver the car to anywhere in the UK for that price, plus the dealer will have to pay CarWow their fee (£360 according to someone earlier), so potentially they are looking at a £650 loss and they are crossing their fingers, hoping they will hit target.
HTP99 said:
The problem with the likes of CarWow is they piss it all away; literally everything and the dealers on there tend to be the type who just trade on back end money and it becomes a vicious circle for them;
When I used them I was surprised how amenable the local dealer (who quoted) was. He still negotiated face-to-face even below the CarWow quote and did things like half-price protection pack (mats/flaps/bootliner) which I couldn't get near the price of any other way, and fitting flaps on a Tiguan is not a trivial job. He also never batted an eye when I asked about a tank of fuel (last VW we bought they said "no").I refused all the add-ons but he intimated paint protection was important to him so I took that and he lost most of the cost in the deal.
We got the full reveal in the showroom, bottle of champagne etc.
If their pips were squeaking, they didn't show it.
Sheepshanks said:
HTP99 said:
The problem with the likes of CarWow is they piss it all away; literally everything and the dealers on there tend to be the type who just trade on back end money and it becomes a vicious circle for them;
When I used them I was surprised how amenable the local dealer (who quoted) was. He still negotiated face-to-face even below the CarWow quote and did things like half-price protection pack (mats/flaps/bootliner) which I couldn't get near the price of any other way, and fitting flaps on a Tiguan is not a trivial job. He also never batted an eye when I asked about a tank of fuel (last VW we bought they said "no").I refused all the add-ons but he intimated paint protection was important to him so I took that and he lost most of the cost in the deal.
We got the full reveal in the showroom, bottle of champagne etc.
If their pips were squeaking, they didn't show it.
We don't even go near carwow deals. we sometimes get customers come in and show us the silly quotes they have had..... we just say go on then snap their arm off its a great deal.
End of the day we are a smaller garage and we need to make upfront chassis profit and we tell customers this most understand and will buy from us.
we have lost a few deals where they get cheaper cars 100 miles away fair enough its their choice.
End of the day we are a smaller garage and we need to make upfront chassis profit and we tell customers this most understand and will buy from us.
we have lost a few deals where they get cheaper cars 100 miles away fair enough its their choice.
HTP99 said:
The problem with the likes of CarWow is they piss it all away; literally everything and the dealers on there tend to be the type who just trade on back end money and it becomes a vicious circle for them; they hit target, the next target is higher because they have shown they can easily hit their target so given that their target is higher they have to be more aggressive and use money that they will only get if their target is met; ultimately it isn't great business sense and dealers have shut operating like that.
I had a CarWow quote presented to me last week, the quote was £95 lower that we could achieve with using all margin and advertised offers, plus the dealer in question would deliver the car to anywhere in the UK for that price, plus the dealer will have to pay CarWow their fee (£360 according to someone earlier), so potentially they are looking at a £650 loss and they are crossing their fingers, hoping they will hit target.
We had a right argument with a customer last week. months ago we nearly dealt her... turns out she dealt on carwow to a garage 100 miles away for £300 less then we have offered her a new one for..........she has the car delivered at her cost as well... anyway couple of weeks later car is towed in some issue with it..... we tell her we cant offer her a courtesy car as she isn't a customer of ours..... and then she tries to collar me and says can you show me around the car there are still some things I don't understand how it works !! I had a CarWow quote presented to me last week, the quote was £95 lower that we could achieve with using all margin and advertised offers, plus the dealer in question would deliver the car to anywhere in the UK for that price, plus the dealer will have to pay CarWow their fee (£360 according to someone earlier), so potentially they are looking at a £650 loss and they are crossing their fingers, hoping they will hit target.
er no sorry I cant I would recommend you take it back to the garage you bought it from I am sure they can show you around the car.
Little victory after a lost sale.
papa3 said:
Some manufacturers (those with limited option listings) wholesale their stock. I.e. We will place a bulk order down to colour level 3-6 months in advance.
Is this "PAC" cars - what does PAC mean?Twice I've bought cars (Mitsubishi Colt and VW Golf) where the dealer has bought a load of cars and is selling them cheap.
Deerfoot said:
Dan W. said:
Little victory after a lost sale.
I understand your frustration.I can also imagine they will be telling all their friends and family etc that your franchise is to be avoided at all costs...
Sheepshanks said:
Is this "PAC" cars - what does PAC mean?
Twice I've bought cars (Mitsubishi Colt and VW Golf) where the dealer has bought a load of cars and is selling them cheap.
Vauxhall used to have PACK cars, maybe still do, which was a discount level applied for ordering a PACK i.e. 6 x corsa, 5 x astra and an Insignia. Twice I've bought cars (Mitsubishi Colt and VW Golf) where the dealer has bought a load of cars and is selling them cheap.
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