Trading in a Vantage
Discussion
I know I've already posted a topic on values, but I thought I'd give a bit of detail on my experience today.
For various reasons, I'm looking to possibly trade in my car. It's an 07 4.3 Roadster with Sportshift, heated seats, nav, bluetooth, iPod, front & rear cameras, rear PDC, TPMS, serviced last week, black with black roof, red leather and less than 18,000 miles.
Rather similar to this one currently advertised down the road by Stratstones...
So, I went to see something today from a Pendragon member (same group as Stratstone) for about £16k.
The initial bid, after they spoke to the very same Stratstones selling the one above, was £32k. I'd have been upset at £36k, but thought I'd use that as a target. After a few hours, we were getting close, then they pulled out a gem.
Stratstones told the dealer I was with to go out to the car and check the door handles and wing mirror mounts for signs of bubbling!
They found a tiny tiny chip on the passenger handle, and bubbling on the part of the arm you can only see once the mirrors are folded back. So dropped their offer to £34,250.00 - so a mark up of £12,223.00. I understand the poor guys need to eat, as well as warrant the car, but am I being unrealistic expecting more? I understand they have the upper hand, I'm trading down, and it's not exactly cracking the flags out there...
This comes after reading a rather deceptively titled piece in Evo last night: The 21k Vantage. Looks like I'll be keeping her a while longer!
For various reasons, I'm looking to possibly trade in my car. It's an 07 4.3 Roadster with Sportshift, heated seats, nav, bluetooth, iPod, front & rear cameras, rear PDC, TPMS, serviced last week, black with black roof, red leather and less than 18,000 miles.
Rather similar to this one currently advertised down the road by Stratstones...
So, I went to see something today from a Pendragon member (same group as Stratstone) for about £16k.
The initial bid, after they spoke to the very same Stratstones selling the one above, was £32k. I'd have been upset at £36k, but thought I'd use that as a target. After a few hours, we were getting close, then they pulled out a gem.
Stratstones told the dealer I was with to go out to the car and check the door handles and wing mirror mounts for signs of bubbling!
They found a tiny tiny chip on the passenger handle, and bubbling on the part of the arm you can only see once the mirrors are folded back. So dropped their offer to £34,250.00 - so a mark up of £12,223.00. I understand the poor guys need to eat, as well as warrant the car, but am I being unrealistic expecting more? I understand they have the upper hand, I'm trading down, and it's not exactly cracking the flags out there...
This comes after reading a rather deceptively titled piece in Evo last night: The 21k Vantage. Looks like I'll be keeping her a while longer!
I looked at a Vantage 18 months ago - from a main dealer- 2007 car, 16 k miles manual silver /black leather.
Up for £40k, would deal at £38k. The salesman (a mate of mine) showed me the dealer cost breakdown, bought in for £24k, new clutch & minor cosmetics, it owed them just under £30k.
Your PX offer sounds pretty reasonable.
Up for £40k, would deal at £38k. The salesman (a mate of mine) showed me the dealer cost breakdown, bought in for £24k, new clutch & minor cosmetics, it owed them just under £30k.
Your PX offer sounds pretty reasonable.
Mc gurks are always looking for stock...might be worth a punt....but agree with you on value....too low in my opinion....I would have thought 35-38 k as reasonable.....all this crap about putting on warrenty etc.....when it costs them a fraction of the sell price....
Dealers of high end cars are in a win win situation when you wanna go down.....private sale is the route I would go down.....even if you get a couple of grand over the offer.....
Dealers of high end cars are in a win win situation when you wanna go down.....private sale is the route I would go down.....even if you get a couple of grand over the offer.....
darreni said:
I looked at a Vantage 18 months ago - from a main dealer- 2007 car, 16 k miles manual silver /black leather.
Up for £40k, would deal at £38k. The salesman (a mate of mine) showed me the dealer cost breakdown, bought in for £24k, new clutch & minor cosmetics, it owed them just under £30k.
Your PX offer sounds pretty reasonable.
Did you ask your salesman mate on what basis the 'costs breakdown' was valued? It might be actual cost, but it might equally be retail value of the work (which are, of course, completely different things).Up for £40k, would deal at £38k. The salesman (a mate of mine) showed me the dealer cost breakdown, bought in for £24k, new clutch & minor cosmetics, it owed them just under £30k.
Your PX offer sounds pretty reasonable.
A main dealer might well charge punter 'X' £2.8k for a full clutch change, but the cost to them will be the trade price of the parts (I doubt this would exceed £1k after the VAT has been deducted) then say £20 per hour to pay their fitter PAYE. 'Minor cosmetics' might mean a respray, or it might mean a quick trip round to the smart repairer, again at less than £100 per panel once the VAT's been deducted...
To be fair to the dealer prep' costs can be high and they have to include a warranty and room for PX, negotiation, VAT etc.
But as mentioned the key to achieving a good price is to do the legwork, punt it around the various group buyers and include the Aston specialists, plus good independants like Top555 and Romans etc. it may also be worth waiting a month until spring is in the air, or later still if you can so that March dealer PX stock is moved and summer is on its way. Meantime looks like you may have a private sale ... Best of luck
But as mentioned the key to achieving a good price is to do the legwork, punt it around the various group buyers and include the Aston specialists, plus good independants like Top555 and Romans etc. it may also be worth waiting a month until spring is in the air, or later still if you can so that March dealer PX stock is moved and summer is on its way. Meantime looks like you may have a private sale ... Best of luck
Grant3 said:
To be fair to the dealer prep' costs can be high and they have to include a warranty and room for PX, negotiation, VAT etc.
They might indeed be high...but should we automatically assume this, and that they won't force down their PX price accordingly? I can't see the warranty costing them that much, and VAT is only a component of the purchase/sale margin. It would be good to see some comment from someone who actually works at a dealer (although I guess that would be unlikely as it might be a career risk issue).
I'm thinking of selling my coupe this spring. I will be sampling the same experience you guys talk about so I'm now prepared for the low hitting prices! Mine still has the remainder of main dealer extended warranty on it, does that make any difference to their pricing do you think?
I also have a set of winter wheels & tyres and other nice extras., but by the sounds of things I would be better selling everything separately and privately?
Where do you all think the prices will bottom out and stabilise? Or start to rise? If at all?
I also have a set of winter wheels & tyres and other nice extras., but by the sounds of things I would be better selling everything separately and privately?
Where do you all think the prices will bottom out and stabilise? Or start to rise? If at all?
darreni said:
I looked at a Vantage 18 months ago - from a main dealer- 2007 car, 16 k miles manual silver /black leather.
Up for £40k, would deal at £38k. The salesman (a mate of mine) showed me the dealer cost breakdown, bought in for £24k, new clutch & minor cosmetics, it owed them just under £30k.
Your PX offer sounds pretty reasonable.
sounds about right …..who do you think pays for the dealers showrooms …..YOU DO ! Up for £40k, would deal at £38k. The salesman (a mate of mine) showed me the dealer cost breakdown, bought in for £24k, new clutch & minor cosmetics, it owed them just under £30k.
Your PX offer sounds pretty reasonable.
Well I thought it may be worth sharing my experience of selling my AMV8 Roadster.
Initially, I was looking at trading it in through the Stratstone network at £34,250.00, when they were selling them for £46-47,000. I just couldn't stomach that.
So after receiving advice from people on here, I contact McGurks, an AM specialist, and was contacted directly by Tom at Hippo Prestige, a prestige specialist in Blackburn.
They both made similar bids to take the car outright, however I was more interested in a sale-or-return deal. They both came in at roughly the same amount.
My final decision was based on thinking that, if a buyer walked into McGurks and was faced with a room full of AM's, my car would be just another AM. However with Hippo, it would be the only AM. I went with Hippo.
As you can imagine, I made the most of my drive there as it may have been my final one. Sunday morning, sun out, roof down, I had a pretty clean run all the way.
I literally arrived, handed over the keys, and hopped the train home.
We'd already discussed price as I'd done a little research of what was available at the time:
And we agreed to price mine at £44,490. There were some bits that they wanted doing to fit with the level of quality of their stock, which was fair enough as these had been picked up on the service:
—2 x rear tyres
—2 x rear brake pads
—N/S door-paint blistering around door handle
We agreed on the first 2 and decided to play the third by ear.
Just over a week later, a guy from London made a bid over the phone of £42,500, and we settled on £43,500. He came, viewed the car, we agreed on the paint being done, and a deal was done!
I walked away with a whisker under £40,000 and the process took about 3 weeks total. This was before the heatwave too...
Have to say I was very impressed with Tom at Hippo. Kept me in the loop throughout, and I never once felt I was being fleeced despite my girlfriend saying things like 'how do you know they weren't offered more?'. Ever the sceptic.
So, aside from memories and a video or two, the only remains of my AM ownership are a pair of over-matts and this...
Initially, I was looking at trading it in through the Stratstone network at £34,250.00, when they were selling them for £46-47,000. I just couldn't stomach that.
So after receiving advice from people on here, I contact McGurks, an AM specialist, and was contacted directly by Tom at Hippo Prestige, a prestige specialist in Blackburn.
They both made similar bids to take the car outright, however I was more interested in a sale-or-return deal. They both came in at roughly the same amount.
My final decision was based on thinking that, if a buyer walked into McGurks and was faced with a room full of AM's, my car would be just another AM. However with Hippo, it would be the only AM. I went with Hippo.
As you can imagine, I made the most of my drive there as it may have been my final one. Sunday morning, sun out, roof down, I had a pretty clean run all the way.
I literally arrived, handed over the keys, and hopped the train home.
We'd already discussed price as I'd done a little research of what was available at the time:
And we agreed to price mine at £44,490. There were some bits that they wanted doing to fit with the level of quality of their stock, which was fair enough as these had been picked up on the service:
—2 x rear tyres
—2 x rear brake pads
—N/S door-paint blistering around door handle
We agreed on the first 2 and decided to play the third by ear.
Just over a week later, a guy from London made a bid over the phone of £42,500, and we settled on £43,500. He came, viewed the car, we agreed on the paint being done, and a deal was done!
I walked away with a whisker under £40,000 and the process took about 3 weeks total. This was before the heatwave too...
Have to say I was very impressed with Tom at Hippo. Kept me in the loop throughout, and I never once felt I was being fleeced despite my girlfriend saying things like 'how do you know they weren't offered more?'. Ever the sceptic.
So, aside from memories and a video or two, the only remains of my AM ownership are a pair of over-matts and this...
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