Ask a car salesman anything...anything at all (Vol. 2).

[Fast Bug]

Joey Deacon said:

I was toying with the idea of getting another car, but it has got to the point now where I just can't stomach the prices being asked.

I know we have a few Renault salesmen on this thread, how are sales of the new Dacia Sandero going? There must be a lot of people like me who think that spending £5K on a ten year old Astra is crazy so they might as well just get a brand new Sandero instead?

The Sandero Essential TCE for £9995 seems to offer the best value for money, what do you think this car will be worth after three years? I have this sneaky feeling that these list prices are going to increase soon and drag the second hand values up with them.

Essentially I am wondering if I could run one of these for say three or four years and it work out cheaper than buying a ten year old Astra for £5K instead.

I think my money would towards a new Dacia for £10k than a used £5k hatchback. When I was at Renault it was pretty cheap to extend the warranty out to 5 years, you know you'll not get anything other than service bills then. Without looking up the RV, I'd say it would work out cheaper than that used £5k Astra to buy and run over 5 years

[anonymous-user]

Fast Bug said:

I think my money would towards a new Dacia for £10k than a used £5k hatchback. When I was at Renault it was pretty cheap to extend the warranty out to 5 years, you know you'll not get anything other than service bills then. Without looking up the RV, I'd say it would work out cheaper than that used £5k Astra to buy and run over 5 years

Even with a 6.9% APR, if you put the £5K towards the deposit it would mean monthly payments of £33 a month.....

The optional payment after four years is £4,734 but I am certain the car would easily be worth more than that.

Currently the first service is free plus you have no MOT to worry about for three years and a warranty.

[alangla]

JimmyConwayNW said:

I sold over 80 used cars last month. I've disounted none. I chucked one tank of fuel in becuase of a paint shop delay for a customer.

If you don't want it someone else will. We are all paying fortunes for stock at the moment and if we sell and replace we are probably paying more as book is increasing which in all my trade years I have never seen.

If you want a car and it is a fair price not going to be any haggling. Sure lots of people ask for a discount but its politely explained as to why we cannot.

Did you inflate/increase any trade-in values though?

I bought a used car from a main dealer a couple of months ago. I know they low-balled a bit on the trade-in plus I got the usual try-on of an "admin fee" - when I pointed out that the cost to change wasn't at the level I was expecting to pay, we managed to negotiate a bit. When I got the final paperwork, the difference was that the trade-in value had been pushed up significantly.

TBH, how it's accounted for is their business - it's the same amount of my money in the end regardless of whether it's a discount or a larger trade in.

[talksthetorque]

alangla said:

Did you inflate/increase any trade-in values though?

I bought a used car from a main dealer a couple of months ago. I know they low-balled a bit on the trade-in plus I got the usual try-on of an "admin fee" - when I pointed out that the cost to change wasn't at the level I was expecting to pay, we managed to negotiate a bit. When I got the final paperwork, the difference was that the trade-in value had been pushed up significantly.

TBH, how it's accounted for is their business - it's the same amount of my money in the end regardless of whether it's a discount or a larger trade in.

That'll be so they don't get in trouble with HQ for discounting the car.

[theclutch]

talksthetorque said:

Is there a chance that as all car companies are all building to order rather than just filling airfields that most of them will make a profit for a change?

Yes, margins for OEMs and dealers have improved significantly.

[theclutch]

talksthetorque said:

That'll be so they don't get in trouble with HQ for discounting the car.

No it won't, it is not legally possible for an HQ to control a dealers discount as would be construed as price fixing.

Much more likely to do with where they wanted to show the profit/loss.

[talksthetorque]

theclutch said:

talksthetorque said:

That'll be so they don't get in trouble with HQ for discounting the car.

No it won't, it is not legally possible for an HQ to control a dealers discount as would be construed as price fixing.

Much more likely to do with where they wanted to show the profit/loss.

Sorry for not being clear, I meant the HQ in a network of dealers, e.g. Arnold Clark's head office, not the manufacturer HQ.

[lornemalvo]

Sheepshanks said:

JimmyConwayNW said:

Best technique here is just to keep making an offer and keep asking for discount even when told no. Dealers will eventually relent and give in, or turn their back and walk into their office and shut the door on you.

Or, like Barbers in Northwich did to me years ago when they were VW dealers - take me gently by the elbow and guide me towards the door! "I don't think we'll be able to do business today, sir!"

The Yosser Hughes approach to buying a car

[loskie]

Car salespeople on here saying stock is low:

I have a March 2020 Q5 leased till March 2023.

I'd like to get out of it as I'm not using it and to be quite honest it's too nice for me. I prefer a shed.

Audi's penalties to get out are steep in my view.


Can a dealer but the car from Audi Finance mid lease?

Can and does this happen?

Just to confirm it's a lease NOT PCP.

Thanks

[talksthetorque]

loskie said:

Car salespeople on here saying stock is low:

I have a March 2020 Q5 leased till March 2023.

I'd like to get out of it as I'm not using it and to be quite honest it's too nice for me. I prefer a shed.

Audi's penalties to get out are steep in my view.


Can a dealer but the car from Audi Finance mid lease?

Can and does this happen?

Just to confirm it's a lease NOT PCP.

Thanks

You have two options with leasing generally, send it back and take the hit, or transfer the lease.

You will need to check if you can do the latter, and to whom - some finance companies say they will only transfer to a business.

[Fast Bug]

If its VWFS I think you can only transfer to a business user. Leases can be great, unless you need to bail from one...

[loskie]

Thanks both you kind of confirmed what I thought. It's not the end of the world to keep it, but it is largely an expensive ornament! Maybe my experience can be a lesson to others to only go into a lease if:

1: it's cheap
2: You are 100% certain your circumstances will not change and keep the period low. eg 24 months.

[talksthetorque]

loskie said:

Thanks both you kind of confirmed what I thought. It's not the end of the world to keep it, but it is largely an expensive ornament! Maybe my experience can be a lesson to others to only go into a lease if:

1: it's cheap
2: You are 100% certain your circumstances will not change and keep the period low. eg 24 months.

go on the leasing thread, with deals at the moment you might find someone to take it off your hands.

[BrabusMog]

loskie said:

Thanks both you kind of confirmed what I thought. It's not the end of the world to keep it, but it is largely an expensive ornament! Maybe my experience can be a lesson to others to only go into a lease if:

1: it's cheap
2: You are 100% certain your circumstances will not change and keep the period low. eg 24 months.

24 months deffo the sweet spot for a lease. I’d imagine that leasing must have taken a real whack over the COVID period, no need to use your car allowance if you’re wfh.

[BGTROPHY]

Cars are like houses at the moment, the only good deals to be had are on new ones, never in my time have I had to raise the price of so many cars by such an amount, if you see a used car you like at a price you can manage just buy it. No one is discounting cars for a reason we can't get the stock to replace them, some cars we have sold are costing us 2k more at auction than what we sold them for, for the exact same car, it's just mental.

[sutoka]

Went to see a motor yesterday. High spec and lovely condition and mileage, servicing was all up to date, ask about timing belt, 90k or 6 years "I haven't got a clue if it's been done".

Then he decided it would be in the best to get one on it for "peace of mind". But wanted to add that cost onto the price of the car. So that's about £500 on top for something that should have been done when the car was serviced by him. Lost the sale for pulling that move I'm afraid.

[blue_haddock]

sutoka said:

Went to see a motor yesterday. High spec and lovely condition and mileage, servicing was all up to date, ask about timing belt, 90k or 6 years "I haven't got a clue if it's been done".

Then he decided it would be in the best to get one on it for "peace of mind". But wanted to add that cost onto the price of the car. So that's about £500 on top for something that should have been done when the car was serviced by him. Lost the sale for pulling that move I'm afraid.

Would you prefer for him to say yes it's has been done even if he doesn't know?

And as for passing on the cost on, as stock is so hard to get hold of why would they want to effectively give a £500 discounts on it?

[Fast Bug]

I probably would have replaced it and priced the car accordingly. Agree that if you don't know that it's been done, you can't say it has

[spreadsheet monkey]

Fast Bug said:

If its VWFS I think you can only transfer to a business user. Leases can be great, unless you need to bail from one...

But in this current strange world of high used car prices, they might be willing to take the car back early, given that it's a newish Q5 that can easily be resold on an Audi forecourt for a good price.

Has to be worth phoning up and asking, right?

[loskie]

I'll need to try that. The forecourt price for my used car(15 months 13000m) is around £34k. I could have bought it discounted BRAND NEW last Feb for £32k.
I would happily trade into a Caddy Maxi Life or Combi