Preparation Costs??

[bomberh]

As I have said in a previous thread, I am looking for a 2007 V8 Vantage and quite possibly will be using an Aston dealership like Stratstone. However, I then saw this in another thread regarding a new owner of a DB9 having purchased their vehicle from Stratstone, saying, “the bill for preparation reached a staggering £7000 including a service, new tyres, disks, pads etc.”
So not only will I be paying around £40,000, but I may have to find a few thousand more to get the car ready/prepared before I actually get to own the vehicle due to preparation costs. Is this normal, should I put aside even more money to pay for things that I would have thought would have been sorted, like tyres, disk and pads?? I do appreciate that it may require a service which would be appropriate to pay for, but not items that would need to make the vehicle road worthy before I have even owned it.
Or have I got the complete wrong end of the stick, can someone enlighten me please?

[krisdelta]

Prep costs are those incurred by the dealership preparing it for sale. Not additional costs you have to bear.

[bomberh]

Thanks for putting my mind at rest, that comment from the other thread, made me feel very uneasy.
Thanks for your help.

[mikey k]

Part of the haggle
My first roadster had prep/snag list of 23 items!

[MaverickV12]

bomberh said:

should I put aside even more money to pay for things that I would have thought would have been sorted, like tyres, disk and pads??

When I bought my 9 a while back I gave the car a good look over, the dealer showed me a fully stamped FAMSH, everything added up. Did it fk ......!

He sold me the car with AirCon that was not working right, I had to claim on the aftermarket warranty, guess what ..... the dealer said they would help me as best they can, and they did, that was because they bloody knew they sold the car with AirCon that did not work properly.

Then within about 4 weeks or more I had the Emissions light come on, again the Dealer, "would help me as best they could", and they did. Because they bloody knew the problems.

I was lucky the warranty company paid the cost. BUT I PAID THE WARRANTY PREMIUM.

So was it free ? No, I paid the warranty premium, ok, I had two and half years of warranty left, but.

But after about 3 months of ownership, I had to change the 4 discs and 12 pads. When I took the system apart, the discs were in a terrible state, looking at it, I should have changed them on day 1. OR the dealer should have changed them. But that would have cost them money and so why do it .....?

The handbrake pads, "FELL", out of the calipers. The friction part of the pad had come apart from steel part.

DO NOT TRUST YOUR DEALER, they want to make money, why else are they there .. to make you coffee ?

No matter who they are. Take someone with you who knows WTF they are talking about. Say you want the car taking to an Inspection. If the dealer has nothing to hide, it won't be a problem, if they don't want someone to have a look, ask why ....!

It cost me £3,500.00 for a 3 year warranty, which I have had back. BUT I STILL SPENT IT. Also about £1,400.00 for brakes (which I did myself - at least I know it was done). I then changed the engine oil, gear box oil and diff oil. This is important. The manual says sealed for life, bks.

AM say change every 2 years. I did and I watched treacle come out, the oil was, "burnt".

So lets go back to my rant about dealers. Do I trust them, opps, sorry ....No.

Make your own checks, ask when the oils were changed, get someone to look.

Alternatively set aside £5 - £7k for odds and ends.

To be honest its my fault, I trusted a large dealership, its my fault.

[yeti]

Well if the car needs 7k worth of work, then it'll cost 7k. If it doesn't, then it doesn't.

That car needed a service, discs, pads and likely some corrective paintwork, wheel refurb and so on, it's common to sell a car or part-ex at a dealer when it needs work and that's where dealers make their margin; parts and labour are at cost, so to you the bill is 7k, to them it's 2k but they hammered the seller on part-ex. And you get a reassuringly expensive bill taken care of by the garage

Maverick - what a shame, I think you were very unlucky. Good job you had the warranty!!

[Bravo73]

bomberh said:

I do appreciate that it may require a service which would be appropriate to pay for, but not items that would need to make the vehicle road worthy before I have even owned it.
Or have I got the complete wrong end of the stick, can someone enlighten me please?

Added to all of the above, if I had ended up buying my car from an AM franchised dealer (I didn't in the end, BTW), I was going to insist on certain things. Unless it had recently been completed, I was going to insist that the next service was done. There would also have to be plenty of life left in the brakes and tyres (certainly more than the legal minimum of 1.6mm tread depth on the tyres). I was also going to ask for a battery conditioner, indoor car cover and an umbrella! (if they weren't already included with the car).

Franchised dealers (especially the Stratstone group) are often unwilling to negotiate on price. They can, however, offer things which essentially cost them significantly less than would cost you as the end user. Added to all of the above, AM dealers have also recently offered a second year of extended warranty. Remember, they still want to make a sale, especially at this time of the year. And different dealers in the same group can and will offer you a different deal on the same vehicle (as long as the car is in 'group stock').

The bottom line is that there are lots of cars available out there. If you don't get the deal that you want, then just walk.

[theno23]

I got my V8V N400 from a Stratstone. They were great, sorted loads of things and haven't quibbled about anything being done on the warranty for free (not even charging for collection and delivery).

Their sales people were also great, I was quite specific about what I was looking for!

Depending on what part of the country you're in, the quality of the dealers caries though. Best to ask someone that's local to you.

- Steve

[ripley500]

MaverickV12 said:

To be honest its my fault, I trusted a large dealership, its my fault.

Sorry to hear that you had a less than ideal level of service from a large dealership but I wouldn't tar them all with the same brush.

I've bought twice from two different large AM dealers - most recently, after doing the deal I found out that the dealer changed all four tyres because the tyres fitted when i viewed the car were not actually AM approved tyres - they informed me that they could not sell the car without fully approved AM tyres. There was no need for them to tell me this or indeed make the switch but I was pleased that they were acting as the dealer sho

[jeremydb9]

Hi. It was me who quoted the 7 k and as commented above they are taken by the dealer. They produce an internal bill. Schedules parts an labour. Won't cost them 7 k, 3 k gross maybe.

Starts tone gave me - on haggle 2 years warranty. They woul bring it to London for viewing but not move it to another dealer. As such the car is now back in Manchester. They drive it so this is 400 miles odd which I am not wild about tbh. Especially as the west London branch is 10 mins away.

I would however agree that even from Aston pay someone a few hundred quid to check it out. My initial inspection gave them a 10 or so point list and after 3 days of ownership has another list of 15 They are fixing it all but basic quality control seems dreadful and quite what a 140 point check covers is a bit of a mystery. . You would assume this covers things like does the car lock should be covered. I think I was lulled into its an Aston dealer plus we have a 12 year old boxter and a 6 year old BMW with no faults on them ever ( ie not picky servicing) so I suppose so things on a modern car I did not think to check. This was a mistake.

Get the definitive guide to Aston, read it and then buy. It will save a load of agro. Just my very recent and ongoing experience. Very happy with the car, just don't see why it has a load of minor issues. If I did that to my customers they would be quoting sale of goods act, fit for purpose and lord only knows what else. I am in software and one obscure bug can enrage some ( the smaller customers lets be honest ) but 20 odd in the bleeding obvious catagory would have then demanding a refund. That last happened about 7 years ago which is why we employ test team!

Good luck, and all the above aside buy from a main dealer. I would still buy from stratstone, big name etc and they will sort issues which is reassuring.