VERY dodgy Vauxhall offer - Help!

jack_spratt_2

Cazza wrote: »

FYI, main dealers generally prefer you not to pay with cash, they're too large to need / want to do anything "clever" with VAT and, as most people want to pick up cars at the weekend, they've got to find somewhere safe to put the cash until the admin people are back in on Monday morning because no one in the sales office will have a clue where the keys for the safe are kept (for experience...... :rolleyes:)

I think when the term paying in cash most people mean taking a bankers draft or pre clear a personal cheque.
I do not think many people would walk into a dealer with £10,000 plus in readies and under the money laundering regulations would cause problems

Lemonade_Pockets

mikey72 wrote: »

Hope you got that in writing, and they don't want the finance deposit back as well.

Irrelevant once you've driven off in the car you have completed you contract with the dealer! Then just ring the finance company. They are obliged by law to let you settle immediately.

Lemonade_Pockets

jack_spratt wrote: »

I think when the term paying in cash most people mean taking a bankers draft or pre clear a personal cheque.
I do not think many people would walk into a dealer with £10,000 plus in readies and under the money laundering regulations would cause problems

:rotfl:I'm glad someone pointed that out.

Cazza

jack_spratt wrote: »

I think when the term paying in cash most people mean taking a bankers draft or pre clear a personal cheque.
I do not think many people would walk into a dealer with £10,000 plus in readies and under the money laundering regulations would cause problems

I agree with you completely and I think the idea of carrying that much money around is nuts, but you'd be surprised what some people will do, and not knowing the OP (and who else might read this thread in the future!) I thught it might be helpful to clarify

mikey72

Lemonade_Pockets wrote: »

Irrelevant once you've driven off in the car you have completed you contract with the dealer! Then just ring the finance company. They are obliged by law to let you settle immediately.

Erm, no, not irrelevant really, not if it says repayment is required in the terms and conditions of the contract if you pay the loan off early.
I don't know what it says, I haven't read it myself.
Don't you think there is a possibility a large worldwide company that provided the car, the dealer, and the loan may have thought of this trick, not just yourself?
They haven't said you can't repay early either, in fact it'll cost a fee of £250.

Lemonade_Pockets

The deposit contribution will be listed as coming from the dealer.

I can pretty much guarantee that it won't be listed in the T+C's. But i will glady be proved wrong.

I'm not saying they haven't thought of it but i have never come across a dealer or a finance company that has protected themselves from it. Dixon's pretty much went under for exactly this reason.

I can only assume the reason they haven't is because legally they can't, although i can't place the specific reason, probably because it infringes on CCA.

You maybe interested to know that he would have to pay this £250 regardless of when he paid the finance off, if it came to it would be ontop of his last payment. He can repay when ever he choses!

So to summise irrelevant, if he produces a contract that says otherwise i'll eat my hat (and apologise to you)!

mikey72

Apologise the OP instead.
(and don't eat your hat, send it to the OP, he'll have blown his budget for one).
The other option was part finance, the GMAC deal depands on £1500 minimum, from the link above.
Weren't Dixons a part of DSG International, who are still trading, mainly as Currys and PCWorld, but Dixons suffered as they were high street shops mainly, with no way to pick anything up by car, whereas the other two are mainly out of town?
Dixons still trades online as well.

Lemonade_Pockets

mikey72 wrote: »

Apologise the OP instead.
(and don't eat your hat, send it to the OP, he'll have blown his budget for one).
The other option was part finance, the GMAC deal depands on £1500 minimum, from the link above.
Weren't Dixons a part of DSG International, who are still trading, mainly as Currys and PCWorld, but Dixons suffered as they were high street shops mainly, with no way to pick anything up by car, whereas the other two are mainly out of town?
Dixons still trades online as well.

I like your humour!

With regards to the finance you are adding two and two together and making 5. GMAC will pay vauxhall dealers a £1500 (or whatever it is) commision every time they sell a finance package. This commision is then passed onto the customer as a deposit contribution by the dealer. It forms part of the contract between the dealer and the customer (i.e. the order form).
If i was a betting man i'd bet a large amount of money that there will be no T+C's on either the Dealers or GMAC's standard form contracts which require the deposit contribution to repaid in the case of early settlement! Should the dealer be switched on (it doesn't sound as if they are) about what your about to do they may try and hand write a T+C in which case you obviously refuse to sign.

Dixons the car retailers (which is now no more) has nothing to do with DSG.

My job used to be business manager of new car sales. So i dealt with these packages every day for over 4years. Now if something has changed i'll apologise to you the OP and anyone else that cares but i'm pretty confident that it hasn't. However i would of never sold a car in this way, because the finance companies normally (GMAC maybe different) claw back any commision paid if the balance is settled within three months to prevent this activity. Now that is the dealers problem so silly them if they sell you a car on this basis knowing what you are going to do.

jimpix12

Mikey/Lemonade, thanks for input. I checked with the dealer and can confirm that it does NOT need to be paid back if I settle early. But best to check these things, he again said the only thing I need to pay is the early settlement fee and remaining interest, which will come to £250-£300. He said he sold one of these exact cars a few days before and knows the ins and outs. Of course, never trust a car dealer! But I'm happy that I put my money where my mouth is, and went for it, as I still think it's a great offer.

For anyone who's interested, the car is an Astra VXR so the deals on these vehicles are NOT that great compared to other more readily available models or editions, such as the SXi Astra.


PS: lemonade, purely out of interest, how much commission would the dealership (and indeed the individual) expect to make on a £1500 loan ? (Plus £300)?

Lemonade_Pockets

In general it Depends on the rate (compared to finance companies base rate, which will not be 0.5%) term and volume bonus paid. The dealers sometimes get a portion of the documentation fees too. In short there's too many variables to give you a accurate answer.

With finance companies that are linked to MFR's they sometimes ignore these and they pay commision according to what particular sales objectives they have. That way the can push sales of VXR's or whatever.

It sounds like GMAC in this instance have just agreed to pay a flat rate based on the car sold rather than the actual finance package. This is probably equal to what they have given you as a deposit contribution. There is no way they'd earn £1500 commision on £1500 finance if it was calculated in the normal manner. The only reason £1500 is given is because that is the minimum amount you can generally do on HP (don't ask me why).

N.b This is why they seperate it out from 0% as the dealer won't be paid a comission for finance sold in this way. Infact it will be the opposite they will probably have to pay a subsidy to the finance co.
Low rate PCP's also normally don't pay comission unless the Finance Company is linked to the MFR in which case they might pay a smaller (usually less than £500) flat rate commision.

When you sign the finance documents take note of the documentation fee's and the option to purchase fee. It is these that you will have to pay when you settle + a amount of interest.