Cheeky Dealers...

[johnpeat]

Trawling the Trader for interesting tat I chanced across this

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

Jaguar XJ LWB (they all are?) Sovereign 4.0 - previously Cat C (2004) - less than a bag of sand...

What really leapt out at me was this tho...

"can tax for you, cost of tax + 25 pounds"

£25 for doing their job - basically - that makes me feel really good about them - that said, they seem to specialist in selling cars to people who've never seen them so...

[andy665]

Its not their job though is it - its untaxed, asking for £25 to tax the car is not unreasonable, if people don't want to pay it they can simply tax it themselves.

Not necessarily the way i'd operate but time is money

[750turbo]

andy665 said:

Its not their job though is it - its untaxed, asking for £25 to tax the car is not unreasonable, if people don't want to pay it they can simply tax it themselves.

Not necessarily the way i'd operate but time is money

Sorry, totally disagree, it is a part of the buying experience that they do the legwork.

In my old job it was made clear to the sales guys that the running to the tax office/dropping banking off/even local collections & deliveries were all part of their daily routine.

[johnpeat]

It takes time to wash it, inspect it, sell it, handle the paperwork too - do they charge for that?

Just strikes me as mean and suggests someone you'd not want to deal with (not that buying a Cat C Jag from anywhere which calls it's a 'supermarket' is wise anyway!)

[robsti]

The tax thing is probably for the type of people who like to drive without insurance!

[al1991]

A couple of additional charges I've seen dealers trying to apply recently:

£99 - for a HPI check. Which is part of their buying process anyway, surely? Most cars are bought on finance and the finance institutions run HPIs as a matter of course anyway.

£20 - for fuel. The customer on this occasion simply said, "Don't bother with the fuel charge, we'll just siphon it out of the part ex."

A family member was trying to buy a second hand Passat CC a week or so ago, and the dealer refused to sell him it unless he took out at least £5K with VW finance. I know it's all tied in with stocking facilities and commissions etc., but actually refusing a cash sale!

[johnpeat]

al1991 said:

£99 - for a HPI check. Which is part of their buying process anyway, surely? Most cars are bought on finance and the finance institutions run HPIs as a matter of course anyway.

That's such a stupid idea - whoever came up with that failed the 'blocks and holes' test at Primary School

What it actually says is "We don't check our cars for write-off/credit history" - except that they probably DO do this so they're really just charging £99 to see the paperwork...

It's a bit like companies who charge to do "dead pixel checks" on laptops/monitors - you NEVER use them because you KNOW that if you don't pay their 'tax', you're much more likely to get dead pixels (as the faulty units will go back into the pile for people who don't pay for the check) - e.g. it's a way of driving AWAY custom

[robsco]

al1991 said:

A couple of additional charges I've seen dealers trying to apply recently:

£99 - for a HPI check. Which is part of their buying process anyway, surely? Most cars are bought on finance and the finance institutions run HPIs as a matter of course anyway.

£20 - for fuel. The customer on this occasion simply said, "Don't bother with the fuel charge, we'll just siphon it out of the part ex."

Evans Halshaw, by chance?

[chard]

al1991 said:

A family member was trying to buy a second hand Passat CC a week or so ago, and the dealer refused to sell him it unless he took out at least £5K with VW finance. I know it's all tied in with stocking facilities and commissions etc., but actually refusing a cash sale!

Actually I don't believe you, it's the customers is the customers choice cash/finance/loan etc. Supposing they didn't pass the credit check?

[Deva Link]

johnpeat said:

£25 for doing their job - basically - that makes me feel really good about them - that said, they seem to specialist in selling cars to people who've never seen them so...

They charge 85p/mile if they deliver it - I bought Merc from 100miles away and the dealer offered to deliver it free. Perhaps I was paying too much for the car?

[Deva Link]

chard said:

al1991 said:

A family member was trying to buy a second hand Passat CC a week or so ago, and the dealer refused to sell him it unless he took out at least £5K with VW finance. I know it's all tied in with stocking facilities and commissions etc., but actually refusing a cash sale!

Actually I don't believe you, it's the customers is the customers choice cash/finance/loan etc. Supposing they didn't pass the credit check?

I bought a new VW recently and we really weren't very far away from that. Took about 3hrs and 2.5hrs was trying to get me to take finance. Even after we'd shaken hands and signed, the sales manager offered me £300 back if I took finance. They were *really* pissed when I still said no.

[chard]

Deva Link said:

I bought a new VW recently and we really weren't very far away from that. Took about 3hrs and 2.5hrs was trying to get me to take finance. Even after we'd shaken hands and signed, the sales manager offered me £300 back if I took finance. They were *really* pissed when I still said no.

Exactly they tried to persuade you, they didn't refuse to sell you the car.

[johnpeat]

Deva Link said:

I bought a new VW recently and we really weren't very far away from that. Took about 3hrs and 2.5hrs was trying to get me to take finance. Even after we'd shaken hands and signed, the sales manager offered me £300 back if I took finance. They were *really* pissed when I still said no.

You missed a trick

Ask them what they make on the finance - they should admit to a figure (probably a bit low) - then ask them for 50% of it off the car.

Then sign-up, do the deal and cancel the credit/pay-off the car the following week

[Deva Link]

chard said:

Exactly they tried to persuade you, they didn't refuse to sell you the car.

I felt they weren't far away from it.

And thinking about it they did refuse to sell us the car we'd seen and test driven, even when I made a bit of a fuss as it's pretty unusual to be able to test drive the actual new car that you're thinking of buying and I knew that one was OK. They got one in from another branch.

[johnpeat]

chard said:

Actually I don't believe you, it's the customers is the customers choice cash/finance/loan etc. Supposing they didn't pass the credit check?

Dealers do press credit quite hard because they make a LOT of money from each deal and they get bonuses for passing certain amounts of credit (and they're sometimes obliged to sell a certain amount by franchise agreements too)

Refusing to sell a car unless someone takes finance is moody tho - they can offer incentives to take the finance (or to take cash or cards or lima beans or whatever) but refusing to sell unless someone takes credit is almost certainly illegal.

Not sure what you could do about it but a written complaint to Trading Standards would be the place to start.

[V6Alfisti]

al1991 said:

A couple of additional charges I've seen dealers trying to apply recently:

£99 - for a HPI check. Which is part of their buying process anyway, surely? Most cars are bought on finance and the finance institutions run HPIs as a matter of course anyway.

£20 - for fuel. The customer on this occasion simply said, "Don't bother with the fuel charge, we'll just siphon it out of the part ex."

A family member was trying to buy a second hand Passat CC a week or so ago, and the dealer refused to sell him it unless he took out at least £5K with VW finance. I know it's all tied in with stocking facilities and commissions etc., but actually refusing a cash sale!

I had something similar from Wessex Garages (as they had a used Elise I was interested in).

Charge for HPI check

Charge for checking over the car

Charge for seemingly everything...

Walked out

[Deva Link]

johnpeat said:

You missed a trick

Ask them what they make on the finance - they should admit to a figure (probably a bit low) - then ask them for 50% of it off the car.

Then sign-up, do the deal and cancel the credit/pay-off the car the following week

With the APR being what it was, even £300 would be going some to be half.

I was tempted, but was buying car for my daughter and just wanted to get it done. Also he wouldn't produce a proper quote (as it was the weekend) and stuff like the front and back-end doc fees were being ignored. They make a significant dent in £300.

[al1991]

robsco said:

Evans Halshaw, by chance?

I couldn't possibly say

[al1991]

chard said:

al1991 said:

A family member was trying to buy a second hand Passat CC a week or so ago, and the dealer refused to sell him it unless he took out at least £5K with VW finance. I know it's all tied in with stocking facilities and commissions etc., but actually refusing a cash sale!

Actually I don't believe you, it's the customers is the customers choice cash/finance/loan etc. Supposing they didn't pass the credit check?

I have no reason to make it up!

Said family member would definitely pass the credit check.

[robsco]

al1991 said:

I couldn't possibly say

Aah, the dizzy heights of working for them. Trying to get over the 99 quid obstacle was an absolute nightmare - the powers that be wouldn't sell a car without it either. Madness.