I wanna ... Buy a car (Carsupermarkets)

[Spread_The_Word]

Looking to buy a new car and would appreciate any advice / personal experiences on getting the price down at a 'Car Supermarket' when the price is already competitive.

I've been told that they won't bring the price down.

I'm looking to buy a nearly new car.

(I will be paying cash, but nowadays that doesn't seem to help as they want you to have credit!)

Cheers

[paul4798]

Looking to buy a new car and would appreciate any advice / personal experiences on getting the price down at a 'Car Supermarket' when the price is already competitive.

I've been told that they won't bring the price down.

I'm looking to buy a nearly new car.

(I will be paying cash, but nowadays that doesn't seem to help as they want you to have credit!)

Cheers
Well I bought my car from motorpoint about 3 years ago found them very competative.

I would suggest as we did go for a model that has just bought a new one out ie i went for Renault Magane but old style not one with the big !!!! the older specs are cheaper but I got a top of the range one for £7999 and diesel too 1.9.

No they will not budge on price but they were a lot cheaper there!!

Hope this helps

Paul.

[burbs]

Hi

I worked for a nationwide car supermarket in the Midlands for 6 months as a gap job from Uni. I can only tell you how it worked in this particular branch but basically the fact that you are paying cash will make you an instant let down for the sales men. Finance is all that they care about nowadays, we got commision for each car sold and if we could get you to take out finance our commision rocketed.

Next the price on the vehicles is set and we are given a certain percentage that we will lower the car by. When i worked there a print off was given every morning with every single car that was stocked, then next to it was the percentage and the value of that percentage in sterling. 9 days out of 10 there was no room for a price drop, the reason being there will always be a buyer who will be willing to pay for the car at the price that they are asking.

If you were taking finance on the car then the chance of you getting a slight reduction is a bit better but even then we used to bang on payment protection, warranty cover for an extra year, etc etc, just to make sure that you thought you get a good deal with the price drop but we recouped the money through little extras you dont even think about.

[marnstars]

http://www.broker4cars.co.uk/

Try this company out, I used them last year to buy a brand new Zafira. Very competitive for me on this and he purchase actually is made from a UK delaership and is therefore not classified as an "import"

Sell other makes too - not just vauxhall. I was very impressed.

[wolvesinwales]

Lots of useful advice and links on here :

www.honestjohn.co.uk

[Ted_Hutchinson]

This link was posted a while back with a recommendation.

http://www.trade-sales.co.uk/

I haven't checked how they compare with others.

[Davidboy]

I bought my Laguna from Trade-sales. To buy from Dealer 19,000 quid, from Trade sales 12,500. No problems. They are based in Slough.

[joshm]

I reckon it depends on how comfortable you are with buying cars and knowing what to look for. The only advantage that I see to supermarkets are that it's a convenient place where you are likely to find a car that you like the look of.

However, the prices are not competitive in my opinion - in fact my experience would have them down a rip-off compared to what you could pay for a similar car if you 'went private'.

The warranty you would expect on a car from a place like this is not included in the sticker price. Nor do the warranties come cheap - there will be different levels (drivetrain only, drivetrain and electricals, etc) and the salesmen, as someone said earlier, will try to bully you into paying a lot for a warranty and to buy the car on the never-never.

Most of the cars I saw were high mileage examples at inflated prices, especially when you take into consideration the cost of the warranty.

I think a far better deal can be had from spending a little time and effort looking for a privately owned vehicle with a decent service history, and then bying a warranty from someone like the AA o RAC (presume they do this sort of thing in addition to their inspections?).

All in all there are lots of factors - do you have anything to trade in? If so would you in fact get a better price for it if you sold it privately? How new are you wanting the vehicle to be? etc

JoshM

Sorry,seen that you are after a nearly new example. So perhaps there is still some manufacturer warranty left on the car? If so then fair enough - my experience was with an older car with no warranty...

[mda160]

Trade sales: Try to find a UK sourced car. My car came with the manufactures 3 year warranty already in place ( I had to check with the manufacture)
The price I paid was £1800.00 below the best price offered by the local franchised dealer. The only down side I found was the sales staff had no room for negotiating, they just quoted the prices of the web.
These guys work on the principle of stack them high sell them cheap

Check out http://www.honestjohn.co.uk for more details on check cars.

Hope this helps!

MDA160.

[Viz]

If you in or around London have a look at www.cargiant.co.uk
Have known a few people bought from here with no problem.
Avoid all the insurances etc... and you should pay a good price compared to a main dealer.

[vansboy]

Do your homework, on the www - THEN, try your local dealer.

See what you can get NEW, rather than pre registered.

Get them to price match/beat - or see if they can include some extras, to make the deal.

Then you'll build up a relationship for service/warranty work, in the future.

Leave the method of paymebnt as your last option. let them offer their finance, imply you'd be prepared to consider it.

Sometimes you'll get offered hefty discounts or cashback, so could be worth taking, for a short period, then paying it off.

VB

[frizz_head]

I am on my 3rd car from Trade Sales - they really cannot be beaten on price - hence they will not budge on the prices set. I always make sure that the car I buy is sourced from the UK (I only ever buy nearly new - 6 months old) so that the original warranty is in place, and that all features come as standard.

Their attitude really is 'take it or leave it' which I prefer as I can't stand smarmy salesmen.

[vk2003]

Here is a copy and post I made to another (Hexus) forum in response to a question about Cargiant....

I have bought/helped buy 3 cars from Cargiant (used to be called Great Trade Centre.)

Huge selection. They claim that all cars sold there have no negative history (accidents, outstanding credit etc.) The selection is predominantly used cars, although a few brand new cars are available. The used cars are no more than 3-4 years old at most. However, many of the cars (esp VW) can be imports, so you need to ask them for the history of the vehicle. Also look out for cars that have little or no documentation, as the resale on these may be affected. That being said, I bought a 4 month old golf with 2000 miles on the clock, and there was no service book. I contacted the company that imported it as they had kept from new until its sale, and they sent on all the documentation to me FOC!

You can search, and in many cases view a picture of the vehicle at Cargiant

The whole process was very slow. If you have a car to trade in, I would recommend NOT going at the weekend, as they are incredibly busy. You need to get a trade in value on your car from their trade in section, before you start browsing cars - When I went at a weekend, and they were stacked, I was offered £500 less than when I went later in the week and they had some time.

OK, so you have a trade in value... So you have to trek around the site which is huge and view cars that you are interested in. Similar cars are all grouped together (eg all VW Golfs are in one 'hangar'.) I would recommend having a pretty clear idea of what you want to buy, and most importantly how much you want to spend, as the "If I spend just £*** more, I can get..." syndrome is particularily pernicious here. This combined with the slight sense of urgency imparted by the atmosphere there ('Must buy quickly, or the deal will go', or maybe thats just me ) can make for unwise decisions! Whilst looking at cars, no salesmen will hassle you. You need a PEN and PAPER with you, as there may be a few cars on which you would like to view the interior - you simply write down the reg plate, and car type, and when you go to the desk, they will give you the keys.

If you decide that you want to buy a particular car, you can test drive on the road infront of the centre, although this only gives opportunity to prove that the car starts, and the steering wheel/peddles work.... They do not budge on price at all, unless there is some new damage to the car. They will also try pretty hard to sell you some finance deal, or policy that 'protects' against devaluation (yeah right...)

To buy, you pay a deposit there and then at the desk. This is non refundable, and can instead be used to reserve the car for 24 hrs. Then go to another building, and complete the trade in on your vehicle (so you need to have all documentation with you.) Meanwhile they 'prepare' the car. If you have spotted anything awry with the car (damged trim, light not working etc) you must point these out in advance, so they repair them before giving you the car. This whole process can take ages (and I mean ages - allot a whole day to this), although to be fair, you can pick up the car the following day.

I have gone on enough (did not mean to write an essay...) but will just give you one further example....

My brother decided to buy a car there. He bought a diesel auto Golf, couple of years old, and the price was relatively good. However, there were a load of scratches on the bodywork, and as a result they reduced the price by £400. He managed to get the paintwork fixed for half that. Also, there was something wrong with the stereo, and damaged internal trim. He let them know as he was buying the car, and they promised to repair it, which they did not. As a result, he contacted them the following day, and in the end they asked him to get his local VW garage to deal with the couple of outstanding problems, and bill them They were pretty good about it, but be sure to get it written down, so it cannot be refuted later!! They are not one of the most profitable private companies in UK for nothing.

Finally, do shop around a little. I bought a car from another garage which was cheaper by approx £800 than similar vehicles being sold at Cargiant. To be fair, this seems to apply more to sought after sportier cars, but JFYI


Hope this helps. Let me if you need any more info.

VK

[cookiemonster25]

so just what is the difference as an owner between imports and uk sources cars..,apart from the odvious? I have heard garages are more reluctant to service imports is this true?

[boots_babe]

I can't comment generally, but we bought a second hand Alfa which was an import, and we've had no problems getting serviced at Alfa dealers. Insurers always ask if you car in an import, but in our case this hasn't actually affected our premiums.

Only difference we've found, is that the warranty on an import is usually for a shorter period. On our car, it was 3 yrs instead of 5yrs. Make sure that if it's an import it is fully to UK specification. I think it it's an import and NOT full UK spec, then that's a different kettle of fish altogether.

[rockpeblar]

For new cars it is worth checking out www.drivethedeal.com

For nearly new cars it is possible to buy cars direct from Hertz, an example of the cars and prices (which are fixed) can be found from a link on their website www.hertz.co.uk
I purchased a 5 month old Focus from them a few years ago for £2k less than the local dealer. It was perfect and we had no problems with it at all.
A friend purchased a Mondeo TDCi from them about 6 months ago and there was a problem with it. When he phoned them they said no problem, bring it back and we'll give you another one, same colour and spec. The list price of the car was over £19k and he paid £12.5k. They don't just stock Fords but lots of other brands as well although certain brands such as Jaguar have to go back to main dealers.