Ask a car salesman anything...anything at all.

[talksthetorque]

RRLover said:

kmpowell said:

Currently looking to downsize my car (both physical and £).

I have a Range Rover Sport (2016 car, FDSH, excellent condition, 25k miles) currently worth circa £52k and I'm looking to trade it in for a brand new & unregistered Golf GTi at circa £30k. I'm sticking with large VW main dealers who I also large know have a Land Rover franchises in their group, because I just want rid of the RRS without the hassle... but the treatment I am getting is quite mind boggling...

The frist VW dealer (Lookers) I visited last weekend wouldn't give me a ballpark figure on the RRS, it had to be underwritten formally, which took 3 senior sales managers AND the sales executive 30mins as they inspected the vehicle with a fine tooth comb all together outside. They then spent another 30mins in the office on the internet using CAP/HPI etc coming up with a figure. Eventually we got a figure and they gave me figures on the Golf, but it was excruciating.

The figures the Lookers dealer gave me were ok, but nothing special so I have carried on looking round. Today I spotted a pre-reg advertised at a Inchcape VW dealer. It's 100 miles away so I rang up and spoke to a salesman who again immediately started the "underwritten" routine as soon as he found out about the RRS. This time the sales man refused to even start talking about the Golf until they had the RRS "formally underwritten", his words were "it's not a six grand car you're part axing so we need to have it underwritten before we can continue"... for which he sent me a "remote vehicle appraisal form" form which he asked me to print, fill out myself and send to him!

I'm seriously thinking about binning the VW if I have to go through this each and every time I see a car that may suit. But before I do is this normal practice when trading down, or just a VW thing?!?

Maybe its my age .. but are you being serious ? Its a 50k asset you are asking them to purchase, of course they need to see it & get it underwritten if its not there usual marque

Shoe on the other foot but would you part with 50k without seeing what you are buying ?

Try thinking about it this way, because this deal is upside down:

You're trying to sell them a RR and you're taking a new Golf in part ex.

You'd want a good look round a second hand 50k car that you were swapping your car for - so do they.

ETA - There will be financial limits as to what can be signed off by which level of management. Corporate governance comes in to play as if the dealer has VW AND LR dealerships they are likely to be a PLC.

If you're taking a 5k car in as a PX, then maybe the salesman values, and the manager approves

Anything over 10k, maybe the DP values and approves.
25k and Regional Manager maybe needs to give the nod.
You're asking for over 50k, so their financial limits structure may say that it needs that level of approval.

Edited by talksthetorque on Thursday 19th April 12:05

[StescoG66]

talksthetorque said:

Try thinking about it this way, because this deal is upside down:

You're trying to sell them a RR and you're taking a new Golf in part ex.

You'd want a good look round a second hand 50k car that you were swapping your car for - so do they.

ETA - There will be financial limits as to what can be signed off by which level of management. Corporate governance comes in to play as if the dealer has VW AND LR dealerships they are likely to be a PLC.

If you're taking a 5k car in as a PX, then maybe the salesman values, and the manager approves

Anything over 10k, maybe the DP values and approves.
25k and Regional Manager maybe needs to give the nod.
You're asking for over 50k, so their financial limits structure may say that it needs that level of approval.

Edited by talksthetorque on Thursday 19th April 12:05

Or - and this is just me being cynical - OP trying to sell at top book and buy at bottom.

[Osinjak]

StescoG66 said:

Or - and this is just me being cynical - OP trying to sell at top book and buy at bottom.

Because of course car dealers never do that, do they?

[berlintaxi]

Osinjak said:

Because of course car dealers never do that, do they?

, business trying to make a profit shocker.

[Fox-]

berlintaxi said:

, business trying to make a profit shocker.

Cl

Customer trying to get best deal shocker?

[berlintaxi]

Except the customer doesn't appear willing to invest the time to get the best deal in this instance.

[Osinjak]

berlintaxi said:

Osinjak said:

Because of course car dealers never do that, do they?

, business trying to make a profit shocker.

Quite.

[Dimebars]

czerwiec said:

I was wondering if one of you gents in trade could help me out with car Glass valuation, please. It appears Glass's no longer provide one-off valuation or valuation for private individuals. My friend's car was written off last weekend and now she is trying to get a fair price for it from car insurance.
Many thanks in advance!

Trade value may not be the best aid to your friend here. It'll give a good idea, but I'd be inclined to look at values on Autotrader etc for similar and start negotiating North of the average on there

[S2r]

Perhaps one for the service thread, but meh.... anyway if an unsold car has a problem, would the manufacturer's warranty pay to get it fixed before it was sold or does the car need to belong to someone before the manufacturer would do anything? (Yep, I'm having fun with a recently acquired vehicle...)

[lord trumpton]

One for the use car buyer/retailer...

What cars are the 'kiss of death' in the trade; he ones that make you wince when one is offered in PX?

I'm referring to model really rather than owner/condition/mileage etc

[Dan W.]

lord trumpton said:

One for the use car buyer/retailer...

What cars are the 'kiss of death' in the trade; he ones that make you wince when one is offered in PX?

I'm referring to model really rather than owner/condition/mileage etc

Anything Land Rover, huge recon bills and forever coming back with warranty issues, refuse to retail them now all go on dealer auction.

[slipstream 1985]

lord trumpton said:

One for the use car buyer/retailer...

What cars are the 'kiss of death' in the trade; he ones that make you wince when one is offered in PX?

I'm referring to model really rather than owner/condition/mileage etc

Back in 2006 when i was working in used we used to get the early fiat puntos in as a trade in. They were worthless rot boxes even at years old with 40k on the clock they really were worth a token £50. Every customer of course wanted £1500 for it.

[itcaptainslow]

S2r said:

Perhaps one for the service thread, but meh.... anyway if an unsold car has a problem, would the manufacturer's warranty pay to get it fixed before it was sold or does the car need to belong to someone before the manufacturer would do anything? (Yep, I'm having fun with a recently acquired vehicle...)

If it’s still under manfacturer’s warranty then that should cover it, indeed most approved used programs insist faults are dealt with before the car is retailed.

You just need a signature from the sales manager on the service jobcard and to ensure all that all the warranty protocols are followed from a service point of view.

[HTP99]

slipstream 1985 said:

lord trumpton said:

One for the use car buyer/retailer...

What cars are the 'kiss of death' in the trade; he ones that make you wince when one is offered in PX?

I'm referring to model really rather than owner/condition/mileage etc

Back in 2006 when i was working in used we used to get the early fiat puntos in as a trade in. They were worthless rot boxes even at years old with 40k on the clock they really were worth a token £50. Every customer of course wanted £1500 for it.

Kiss of death is generally a big chunky 4x4; Jeep and Range Rover, they are just a moment away from a massive bill and the owners think they are worth far more than they are actually worth, fortunately we don't get many.

Back in the day it was Rover when Rover folded, as every Rover owner was of a certain age and their car had immaculate service history's, yet the cars were worthless.

Similar with Daewoo; the cars were bad enough when the company existed but when it disappeared they were worth even less.

I've always had an issue with Peugeot 3008 owners (original ones), they always want top money for them.

[czerwiec]

valiant said:

czerwiec said:

I was wondering if one of you gents in trade could help me out with car Glass valuation, please. It appears Glass's no longer provide one-off valuation or valuation for private individuals. My friend's car was written off last weekend and now she is trying to get a fair price for it from car insurance.
Many thanks in advance!

I use this site. Run by Ford and gives CAP values.

https://www.capconnect.co.uk/ConsumerValues/Ford.a...


Seems pretty on the money.

Great! Thanks for the link!

[jamoor]

Wooda80 said:

jamoor said:

Wooda80 said:

Whilst payments by card can be considered as a guaranteed payment the funds often don't clear into the retailer's account for 3 days or so. Consider a dealer registering 10 cars at £30k each on the last day of the month and getting debited £3m upon registration by the manufacturer.

Compared to having payment by transfer the dealer has to allow for an extra £3 million overdraft at the bank while he waits for the customers' card purchases to appear.

dafuq.

I'm wondering if you are just making stuff up for the lols.

Which bit are you struggling to accept?

Do dealers get invoiced upon the cars registration?
Do dealers have credit terms of 0 days?
Both sound like you just made it up and have no idea how businesses work.

[The Moose]

jamoor said:

Wooda80 said:

jamoor said:

Wooda80 said:

Whilst payments by card can be considered as a guaranteed payment the funds often don't clear into the retailer's account for 3 days or so. Consider a dealer registering 10 cars at £30k each on the last day of the month and getting debited £3m upon registration by the manufacturer.

Compared to having payment by transfer the dealer has to allow for an extra £3 million overdraft at the bank while he waits for the customers' card purchases to appear.

dafuq.

I'm wondering if you are just making stuff up for the lols.

Which bit are you struggling to accept?

Do dealers get invoiced upon the cars registration?
Do dealers have credit terms of 0 days?
Both sound like you just made it up and have no idea how businesses work.

Also when did £30k x 10 = £3 million?
Also when did they retail cars for what they paid for them?

Or am I missing something?

[daemon]

Probably answered already, but 24hr test drives promoted by the manufacturer - whats typically the dealer / sales peoples feelings regarding these? I see BMW were / are running a BMW for 24 hrs promotion and there seems to be various outcomes from various dealers when people ring - ranging from "no we're not doing it", to "we only offer 1/2 an hour accompanied" to the odd one actually doing it.

[Dan W.]

daemon said:

Probably answered already, but 24hr test drives promoted by the manufacturer - whats typically the dealer / sales peoples feelings regarding these? I see BMW were / are running a BMW for 24 hrs promotion and there seems to be various outcomes from various dealers when people ring - ranging from "no we're not doing it", to "we only offer 1/2 an hour accompanied" to the odd one actually doing it.

I think its quite a common thing in the high end dealerships merc bmw that sort of stuff.

lower down I don't think its that common, certainly never really made any sales from we and usually in my experience 24 -48 hr test drives tend to be people wanting a free car for the weekend.

Edited by Dan W. on Sunday 22 April 11:01

[Sa Calobra]

Are Smart fortwo's seasonal?

My other half says I enjoy buying and selling cars why don't I do it more often than recreational, I'm thinking buy something that dips and rises depending on time of year. Buy it, use it for a few months then sell