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

[DSLiverpool]

Credit query - one of my guys has a £550 a month pcp on a A4 2.0d tech pack from Audi finance. Ive told him to VT it as we are over 70% through but questions are.

It has some minor damage - under a VT does he have to get it fixed?
Its slightly over pro rata miles but not contract miles - issue?
His credit score isnt brilliant but he has never missed a car payment does that help him get a more competitive deal?

Basically he is in a stupidly high pcp on a poorly cared for car and I want to get him into a better deal.

Anything else I need to know?

[Dan W.]

DSLiverpool said:

Credit query - one of my guys has a £550 a month pcp on a A4 2.0d tech pack from Audi finance. Ive told him to VT it as we are over 70% through but questions are.

It has some minor damage - under a VT does he have to get it fixed?
Its slightly over pro rata miles but not contract miles - issue?
His credit score isnt brilliant but he has never missed a car payment does that help him get a more competitive deal?

Basically he is in a stupidly high pcp on a poorly cared for car and I want to get him into a better deal.

Anything else I need to know?

He would prob be charged for the minor issue depending how minor it is.
if not over contract miles its fine.
no it doesn't help or hinder him

He can vt his can, it doesn't go against his credit score but a note is made he has done.

Good Luck to him

[TheLordJohn]

People spend £550 a month to drive an Audi A4!?

Jesus H Christ.
Was it a big window? When they saw this fellow coming.

[JimmyConwayNW]

MCLARENSLR said:

. Why is it when you go to an auction prices are close to retail money but you don't get close to that for part ex?

Car dealer here - I will be honest - At the moment if you have a PX that I actually want and that I will retail I will give you good strong money for it. Bought a few cars off the public this way. The auction fee plus delivery regularly costs me 300/400 on top of me paying £500/£800/£1k over cap clean.

I am buying cars in and offering surprisingly strong money where I have to, obviously I want to buy at the lowest price possible and sell at the highest but I won't lose deals because of an inaccurate guide.

[StescoG66]

TheLordJohn said:

People spend £550 a month to drive an Audi A4!?

Like the man with the glass willy. Saw him coming....

[SWoll]

TheLordJohn said:

People spend £550 a month to drive an Audi A4!?

Jesus H Christ.
Was it a big window? When they saw this fellow coming.

Sounds expensive but it depends on the details. If he's covering significant mileage a year (25k+), there was little or no deposit and it also includes a full maintenance package with tyres then I wouldn't say that's all that OTT in the scheme of things.

My company car is leased via Lex and costs about £650 a month with maintenance and tyres. At 6 months old and 17k miles it's just had a service (£200) and 2 new tyres (£400) and by the time it's 12 months old will need another service (£300) and 4 more tyres (£800).

How much less is a 3 year old car that was £40k new with 100k on the clock worth next to an identical car with 30K?

Doing big miles in a new car is an expensive game.

[Stick Legs]

Fajitas or Tacos?


You did say anything at all.

[Butter Face]

Tacos, with extra sour cream.

[Countdown]

Apologies if this has been asked before....

What do salesmen think of people who get company cars and use the dealerships to test drive the cars knowing full well they are not going to buy from them? Is it best to be up front with the salesman? is it fair/reasonable to ask for a test drive? Or is it taking the pee?

Also how do dealerships feel about warranty repairs on cars that have been purchased over the internet?

[itcaptainslow]

Countdown said:

Also how do dealerships feel about warranty repairs on cars that have been purchased over the internet?

I’ll take that one-manufacturer’s warranty, please come on down and fill your boots. The dealership gets paid by the manufacturer for the repair so we’re all good as far as the service manager is concerned, indeed it’s a good opportunity to build a relationship with you!

[S11Steve]

SWoll said:

My company car is leased via Lex and costs about £650 a month with maintenance and tyres. At 6 months old and 17k miles it's just had a service (£200) and 2 new tyres (£400) and by the time it's 12 months old will need another service (£300) and 4 more tyres (£800).

Did you work out the total cost of having M&T added to the monthly cost compared to paying even retail price at a main dealer and premium brand tyres?
To give you an idea, it's not unusual to earn 50-75% margin on people who take M&T packages on contracts, but spread out over 3 years, it's not quite as unpalatable.

[Janluke]

Countdown said:

Also how do dealerships feel about warranty repairs on cars that have been purchased over the internet?

My local dealer refused to do a recall on my internet sourced new car. Well to be exact the service desk said they was fully booked up for 6 weeks, didnt taking bookings past six weeks and if I called again there was a good chance they would be still be booked up. I chased it up with the manufacturer but nothing came of it. I ended up going to the next nearest dealer.

[JimmyConwayNW]

Janluke said:

My local dealer refused to do a recall on my internet sourced new car. Well to be exact the service desk said they was fully booked up for 6 weeks, didnt taking bookings past six weeks and if I called again there was a good chance they would be still be booked up. I chased it up with the manufacturer but nothing came of it. I ended up going to the next nearest dealer.

Just find one in a different group. Thats a joke.

We get quite a few warranty jobs done on cars and have not bought them from the dealer.

[papa3]

DSLiverpool said:

Credit query - one of my guys has a £550 a month pcp on a A4 2.0d tech pack from Audi finance. Ive told him to VT it as we are over 70% through but questions are.

It has some minor damage - under a VT does he have to get it fixed?
Its slightly over pro rata miles but not contract miles - issue?
His credit score isnt brilliant but he has never missed a car payment does that help him get a more competitive deal?

Basically he is in a stupidly high pcp on a poorly cared for car and I want to get him into a better deal.

Anything else I need to know?

Before he VT's make sure he has been accepted for finance on his next car. I've seen it before when customer bins the current vehicle and then discovers his credit score precludes him from borrowing a pen, much less £20k.

Damage - he will need to fix it
Mileage - depends on the lender, many pro rata it.

[papa3]

Countdown said:

Apologies if this has been asked before....

What do salesmen think of people who get company cars and use the dealerships to test drive the cars knowing full well they are not going to buy from them? Is it best to be up front with the salesman? is it fair/reasonable to ask for a test drive? Or is it taking the pee?

For us we're happy to let you drive your little legs off providing you are upfront about us not getting the chance to supply. We have got lots of business from friends and family after letting a fleet buyer test drive and treating them properly. If you are not upfront you are guaranteed to piss the sales exec off. It takes him 5 mins to complete a TD form and throw you the keys but he will lose hours if you lead him on.

Countdown said:

how do dealerships feel about warranty repairs on cars that have been purchased over the internet?

Delighted. We get paid by the manufacturer.

What we don't love, and see a lot more of recently, is large groups securing the same franchises in the next town/city who have zero experience with the marque sending the crappy work our way. They are quite happy to take the highly profitable work but shy away from the time consuming and badly paid fault diagnostics and recalls.

[Dan W.]

Countdown said:

Apologies if this has been asked before....

What do salesmen think of people who get company cars and use the dealerships to test drive the cars knowing full well they are not going to buy from them? Is it best to be up front with the salesman? is it fair/reasonable to ask for a test drive? Or is it taking the pee?

Also how do dealerships feel about warranty repairs on cars that have been purchased over the internet?

This can be an annoying subject, Sometimes I don't mind them as long as their polite and want a quick drive and are upfront. Its when they expect an hours drive to spend hours with you asking all the questions knowing we get nothing from it.

Personally If I have the time I don't mind going on a ten minute drive with them to help and it is best to be upfront.

[HTP99]

I'm finding that fleet company, car buyers have declined significantly over the years, most seem to either take the money and choose their own car, or the company actually purchases the car outright.

Or maybe Renault isn't on the fleet company's list anymore, fine by me as I hate dealing with people who have a company car that we have absolutely zero chance of supplying, well actually I don't mind having a quick chat about the car, if I'm not busy, but if I know they are a company car driver which I know we have zero chance of providing, I won't demo them.

[Sheepshanks]

[quote=HTP99]
Or maybe Renault isn't on the fleet company's list anymore, fine by me as I hate dealing with people who have a company car that we have absolutely zero chance of supplying, well actually I don't mind having a quick chat about the car, if I'm not busy, but if I know they are a company car driver which I know we have zero chance of providing, I won't demo them.[/quote

When we had Peugeot 405's added to our list the GTX model was spec'd way above the equivalent Sierra and Cavalier so I went to the local old-school dealer for a look and he offered that I could take the car "down the road and back". I ordered one, and was so impressed with it I ordered a 106 from that dealer for my missus.

[Tankrizzo]

With the news about Pendragon today, have you sales folks seen the slowdown in new and used business that they're talking about? I'm in fleet operations at one of their major competitors, and the news caught us by surprise as we haven't seen anywhere near as massive a slowdown as they're talking about, but we are in fleet so sheltered a little from the sharp end of the new car biz.

Part of me thinks Pendragon have ballsed up majorly on their forecasting and left it far too late to come clean about it.

[SWoll]

S11Steve said:

SWoll said:

My company car is leased via Lex and costs about £650 a month with maintenance and tyres. At 6 months old and 17k miles it's just had a service (£200) and 2 new tyres (£400) and by the time it's 12 months old will need another service (£300) and 4 more tyres (£800).

Did you work out the total cost of having M&T added to the monthly cost compared to paying even retail price at a main dealer and premium brand tyres?
To give you an idea, it's not unusual to earn 50-75% margin on people who take M&T packages on contracts, but spread out over 3 years, it's not quite as unpalatable.

It's a company car so maintenance isn't optional, although the car in reality costs me about half of that monthly figure in BIK .

I did look at the figures when I ordered and the maint package came to just under £2k a year, which based on 6 tyres at £1200 (camskill prices) and 2 services (£500+) doesn't seem that excessive to me?