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

[Blakewater]

Petrolsniffed said:

Dimebars said:

So they should just give them away and not make any profit?

No

I have an Audi A3 with a PCP that comes to an end in June. The interest rates on new Audis do bother me, but if you think there's something special about the Audi which makes it more desirable than the BMW, they can get away with charging more.

The Q8 is also an X7 competitor while the Q7 competes with the X5, so it's not really comparing like for like.

I've found there's wiggle room in APR rates on used cars. BMW will come down from 10.9% to something like 6.9%.

[BGTROPHY]

There will be no wiggle room on new car Apr as it's set by the manufacturer

[HTP99]

Bloke drives 50 miles, takes him an hour, to see a used ZOE that we have for sale which is priced as it should be, he likes it we I agree to do a few minor scratches and the third service and MOT, he wants £800 off, the car is up for £9295 and is priced well, there are 6m older cars out there with more than double the miles for £8995.

We have a decent margin so I offer £9100.00, I don't have to but I could do with doing a deal, "but that is only 2% off?!" "that's not much wriggle room", he wasn't best pleased when I told him that was irrelevant as it was priced correctly in the first place and has to be otherwise it wouldn't get a look in.

He walked!!

[xjay1337]

What a weird man.

Nee bother, I'm sure a decent buyer will come soon.

[TheDrownedApe]

HTP99 said:

Bloke drives 50 miles, takes him an hour, to see a used ZOE that we have for sale which is priced as it should be, he likes it we I agree to do a few minor scratches and the third service and MOT, he wants £800 off, the car is up for £9295 and is priced well, there are 6m older cars out there with more than double the miles for £8995.

We have a decent margin so I offer £9100.00, I don't have to but I could do with doing a deal, "but that is only 2% off?!" "that's not much wriggle room", he wasn't best pleased when I told him that was irrelevant as it was priced correctly in the first place and has to be otherwise it wouldn't get a look in.

He walked!!

3 cases

I was trying to buy a BMW a few years ago. I drove the 40ish miles to the dealership (plus seeing a friend who had moved near there) and i didn't want to spend more than PX +1k. Dealer wanted mine +1250 for the car. I walked. I called the dealer later that week asking if they wanted the 1k and they still said no. Forgot about it and a couple of weeks later i get a call out of the blue offering me a "last chance" at 1250. I said no as i wasn't that bothered so he said we could do the deal at 1k. I said no (pushing my luck) and asked for PX +750; we settled at 850. I was happy, they met their targets.

I bought a new CX-5 at very short notice and negotiated a good deal on sitting stock (was Military so had good discounts). After we had agreed a price they left me for ages waiting for stuff to sign and i looked at their FB page, which offered an extra £500 off any new car purchase (never mentioned to me when negotiating and no obvious get out clauses for them). I asked for my additional £500 off and they got very very angry and said no. I stuck to my guns and started to get louder in a busy dealership when i was ushered into an office to speak with head of finance to be told that if they gave me the £500 off they would be losing money on that car and they desperately wanted to me reconsider. I asked for 2 free sevices instead, in writing, and i was happy. They were not at all happy.

Just bought a 19 plate 120d M sport. i wasn't planning on buying that new (was looking for 2017ish) but it came up under 19.4k and about 1500 less than all the other 120d's available with better options. Called the dealer, very quick PX value, i countered, they agreed (after the "going to talk to the manager") and i bought it. I was happy to pay the list withough any discount, they were happy.

Sometimes it pays to walk away and sometimes it pays to grab the deal. As a buyer we have no idea of your margin and how hard to push for money off. We never do a deal and know we have a good deal, only the dealer does.

[JimmyConwayNW]

Some people just want a a stupid price off the car and can't see if its already value. Current market less discount and wiggle room as we all have to price right anyway or they don't sell.

Had a total prick out today who reserved a car online with us yesterday. It was the cheapest 235i in the UK for age and miles. Explained drive away cover wouldn't cover him due to his postcode area so have insurance in place or a quote and we would do the rest.

Picked him up at the train station today in the car for him to test drive back, car was on fumes on route so I got our driver to chuck £20 in the car to ensure he could get on to a fuel station etc. Small gesture but we usually only pop £10 in stuff. Every penny counts etc.

Customer had asked yesterday if we could throw half a tank in, I said no I just simply didn't have the room. Unkown to him I was losing £500 on this car as I had it in stock for 90 days and just wanted money back. I have no idea why it wouldn't sell other than perhaps slightly basic spec. We get the odd strange one time to time.

Chap got really arsey with me in the office, said he felt I was arrogant and obstructive and as he had travelled a long way he wanted better treatment. I was 50/50 just to tell him to do one but wanted the car gone so bit my tongue and explained I had been honest and upfront about everything, take it or leave it. He kept going on and on about mis advertising driveaway insurance cover - Again if they won't cover you because you live in a high risk area of london its hardly my fault.

Imagine walking into someones business who has been honest and straight with you about everything, offered fair service and fair price and its still not enough so you don't get your own way and have a little tantrum.

[JimmyConwayNW]

lornemalvo said:

Having walked away from some nearly new cars this weekend, I have a couple of questions for dealers.
1. Are dealers finding it harder to sell cars that attract the "supertax" having exceeded toe £40,000 threshold?
2. Do you volunteer to customers the fact that a particular car exceeds the threshold and incurs the extra tax or do you leave it to customers to do their own research?

What is supertax? Its only payable brand new right? After that how much do you pay?

[TheDrownedApe]

JimmyConwayNW said:

Imagine walking into someones business who has been honest and straight with you about everything, offered fair service and fair price and its still not enough so you don't get your own way and have a little tantrum.

I feel your frustration but as a customer we have no clue if you are being honest and the horror stories are the only ones that we ever read (even though 95% end in happy, but silent, customers). Most of us still feel the dealer will try anything to get an extra £, and so you should, but this always makes customers wary.

Have dealers ever tried successfully to not discount cars and be transparant with costs/overheads etc?

[anonymous-user]

JimmyConwayNW said:

What is supertax? Its only payable brand new right? After that how much do you pay?

Osbourne’s luxury tax is payable in years two to five if the purchase price exceeded £40k:

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables

And the great news is no doubt the 40k threshold won’t ever be revised (despite annual increases to th other rates) and so will eventually catch most ordinary cars too!

[Jimmy Recard]

Speed addicted said:

Butter Face said:

First 5 years.

‘ Vehicles with a list price of more than £40,000
You have to pay an extra £320 a year if you have a car or motorhome with a ‘list price’ (the published price before any discounts) of more than £40,000.

You only have to pay this rate for 5 years (from the second time the vehicle is taxed).’

Ah, that's not ideal. Another luxury tax from the communist overlords I suppose.

Announced by George Osborne, I seem to recall

[Court_S]

JimmyConwayNW said:

Some people just want a a stupid price off the car and can't see if its already value. Current market less discount and wiggle room as we all have to price right anyway or they don't sell.

Had a total prick out today who reserved a car online with us yesterday. It was the cheapest 235i in the UK for age and miles. Explained drive away cover wouldn't cover him due to his postcode area so have insurance in place or a quote and we would do the rest.

Picked him up at the train station today in the car for him to test drive back, car was on fumes on route so I got our driver to chuck £20 in the car to ensure he could get on to a fuel station etc. Small gesture but we usually only pop £10 in stuff. Every penny counts etc.

Customer had asked yesterday if we could throw half a tank in, I said no I just simply didn't have the room. Unkown to him I was losing £500 on this car as I had it in stock for 90 days and just wanted money back. I have no idea why it wouldn't sell other than perhaps slightly basic spec. We get the odd strange one time to time.

Chap got really arsey with me in the office, said he felt I was arrogant and obstructive and as he had travelled a long way he wanted better treatment. I was 50/50 just to tell him to do one but wanted the car gone so bit my tongue and explained I had been honest and upfront about everything, take it or leave it. He kept going on and on about mis advertising driveaway insurance cover - Again if they won't cover you because you live in a high risk area of london its hardly my fault.

Imagine walking into someones business who has been honest and straight with you about everything, offered fair service and fair price and its still not enough so you don't get your own way and have a little tantrum.

Does sound like a bit of a chopper.

When I bought my car the dealer didn’t mention the free insurance so I asked and they said it was because BMW have been a bit funny about the free cover on M140’s recently. Didn’t really bother me in the slightest...it’s only a week.

[OddCat]

Court_S said:

Does sound like a bit of a chopper.

When I bought my car the dealer didn’t mention the free insurance so I asked and they said it was because BMW have been a bit funny about the free cover on M140’s recently. Didn’t really bother me in the slightest...it’s only a week.

Have never really understood 'driveaway' insurance. Whenever I've changed cars I've simply arranged with my insurer for cover to swap over at the point of pick up. Anything else feels like a ball ache ?

To those on here selling cars - you have my admiration for being able to keep your cool. There seems to be more and more unreasonable 'mental' out there. I'm sure it's the whole Facebook / PPI / Martin Lewis / Entitled world we live in !

[HTP99]

OddCat said:

Have never really understood 'driveaway' insurance. Whenever I've changed cars I've simply arranged with my insurer for cover to swap over at the point of pick up. Anything else feels like a ball ache ?

It was useful in the days of having to provide an insurance covernote to register a new car, now it is largely pointless as with most people they ring up their insurance, tell them they are picking up a new car on x date at x time, can you swap me over please.

It is actually a ball ache for us to do and invariably a ball ache for the customer; if done properly, as they have to give over all of their details details anyway, the application process is exactly the same as if applying for a years worth of insurance, if someone says "oh yeah, I picked up my car and the dealer had arranged 7 days free insurance cover for me", most likely the dealer made everything up so you wouldn't be covered anyway.

From a dealer level we are just data collecting for the insurance company for them to have the chance to offer insurance to new customers, we are doing the job of the person that you would normally speak to on the end of the phone or, you inputting your data if you were to look online, we have refused to actively offer it as it is one more thing for a) us to do, along with all the other bks that we have to do when processing a car order and we don't get anything for it and b) it is one more thing for a customer to have to hear us prattle on about and try to sell them.

If we are asked about it we generally say we don't offer it.

[captain grimes]

OddCat said:

To those on here selling cars - you have my admiration for being able to keep your cool. There seems to be more and more unreasonable 'mental' out there. I'm sure it's the whole Facebook / PPI / Martin Lewis / Entitled world we live in !

Yup, seconded.

[StescoG66]

captain grimes said:

OddCat said:

To those on here selling cars - you have my admiration for being able to keep your cool. There seems to be more and more unreasonable 'mental' out there. I'm sure it's the whole Facebook / PPI / Martin Lewis / Entitled world we live in !

Yup, seconded.

Yup. Thirded. Not only applicable to the car trade, across all service sectors I think. Folk seem to know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

[Sheepshanks]

OddCat said:

Have never really understood 'driveaway' insurance. Whenever I've changed cars I've simply arranged with my insurer for cover to swap over at the point of pick up. Anything else feels like a ball ache ?

It was handy for us on wife’s last car as her old one was being passed on within the family and it took the pressure off the timing. Dealer gave us a code and we called the insurer - don’t recall any great faff. I was bit worried about £500 excess - we normally have £100 and only because that’s mandatory.

[Little Pete]

JimmyConwayNW said:

Some people just want a a stupid price off the car and can't see if its already value. Current market less discount and wiggle room as we all have to price right anyway or they don't sell.

Had a total prick out today who reserved a car online with us yesterday. It was the cheapest 235i in the UK for age and miles. Explained drive away cover wouldn't cover him due to his postcode area so have insurance in place or a quote and we would do the rest.

Picked him up at the train station today in the car for him to test drive back, car was on fumes on route so I got our driver to chuck £20 in the car to ensure he could get on to a fuel station etc. Small gesture but we usually only pop £10 in stuff. Every penny counts etc.

Customer had asked yesterday if we could throw half a tank in, I said no I just simply didn't have the room. Unkown to him I was losing £500 on this car as I had it in stock for 90 days and just wanted money back. I have no idea why it wouldn't sell other than perhaps slightly basic spec. We get the odd strange one time to time.

Chap got really arsey with me in the office, said he felt I was arrogant and obstructive and as he had travelled a long way he wanted better treatment. I was 50/50 just to tell him to do one but wanted the car gone so bit my tongue and explained I had been honest and upfront about everything, take it or leave it. He kept going on and on about mis advertising driveaway insurance cover - Again if they won't cover you because you live in a high risk area of london its hardly my fault.

Imagine walking into someones business who has been honest and straight with you about everything, offered fair service and fair price and its still not enough so you don't get your own way and have a little tantrum.

I take it he didn’t buy it.

[HTP99]

TheDrownedApe said:

Have dealers ever tried successfully to not discount cars and be transparant with costs/overheads etc?

People just won't care if you put all costs infront of them, it's not their problem and they won't believe you anyway and why should we do this, it is our business not theirs.

We do this day in and day out and many have done it for decades and yet one person who buys 1 car every 3 or 4 years thinks that they know better.

Take my guy on the ZOE, he has done a 100 mile round trip and spent 3 hours of his day to see a car which he found on Autotrader, the car has come up on his search so one would assume it is priced well, he told me that he had seen similar cars for £8500, ours is £9300, so why is he on my doorstep then, because he's lieing, we do it of research when pricing cars as do other dealers, it is priced well, I've looked and the only cars that are £8500 are older with bigger miles.

I have just looked on Autotrader and ours is the only 2017 22kw ZOE in the UK, everything else is 2016, double the miles and circa £300 cheaper, ours potentially should be more expensive.

He was chancing his arm, lied and lost!

[BrabusMog]

That beemer buyer sounds like a self entitled cock.

[loofer]

Schmed said:

Osbourne’s luxury tax is payable in years two to five if the purchase price exceeded £40k:

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables

And the great news is no doubt the 40k threshold won’t ever be revised (despite annual increases to th other rates) and so will eventually catch most ordinary cars too!

‘Purchase’ price or List/OTR/P11D?
Purchase price can always be circumvented in ingenious ways