New Car , Order from Internet?

Ant1974

My young lady is going to buy a new car, anyone ordered over the net. Anyone dealt with broadspeed or any other recommendations.

Thankyou

stevebananer

Broadspeed may be ok but I tried twice to order a Fiat from them and got no reply at all, so maybe bear that in mind.

Ant1974

stevebananer wrote:

Broadspeed may be ok but I tried twice to order a Fiat from them and got no reply at all, so maybe bear that in mind.

Thats what she is buying, did you try elsewhere?

DealDrivers_company_representative

Fiat is a brand that not too many brokers (online or otherwise) do well with...which is why there may not be much interest unfortunately (altho' its no excuse for a company not replying to you and at least offering helpful advice or alternatives!).

A lot of brokers , inc' ourselves, utilise relationships with large volume retailers...which by definition are often large motor groups. The main UK motor groups took Fiat out of their brand ranges over the last few years for various reasons so most remaining Fiat retailers are either independent dealers or belong to smaller motor groups who don't do high-volume discounts...hence the problem for brokers getting decent deals on them. There's also a high number of Fiats which go into the UK rental market, and pop right back out again after a few months at heavily reduced prices, which further reduces the chances of a decent deal on a brand new one other than direct from a Fiat dealership.

There will be exceptions to this, but like many brokers, we do not offer Fiat as we a) can't get the pricing right, and b) can't find a dealer with the appetite to do volume sales through a brokerage and offer consistent customer service at the moment (any interested Fiat dealers...this way please!). The last dealer (of many!) we approached (about 2 wks ago) felt they couldn't help us themselves with discounts so are getting Fiat UK to contact us..it hasn't happened yet!

Poppy9

I bought a second hand car from Carselect. It arrived a few days ago and is perfect. Would definetely use again.

suzieq

I bought a brand new Renault Megane from Virgincars.com in Jan 05, and got a great deal - far cheaper than our local dealership. It was classed as pre-owned, but only had delivery mileage. The procedure was very easy, including the part-ex of our old car, and I'd definitely recommend them!

plane_boy2000

Virgincars no longer exist - website states that they are taking no more orders for cars.

Haggis_n_Neeps

I bought a new Toyota Rav4 over 2 years ago via carfile.net. Deal was so good that I have recommended them to friends who have also bought via them. The most hassle free purchase I have ever made for a car. Check out there website here. When Mrs Haggis car is due for renewal I intend to check them out again and would not hesitate to use them again.

Not all cars and models are listed on the website, but if what you want isn't listed give them a phone for a price. I found them to be very knowledgible and Pat Lawless of carfile also gave me some hints & tips for buying cars via brokers in general (dos & donts) in case I decided to go elsewhere. Infact he encouraged me to shop around, but no one could beat his price. Once carfile put you intouch with the car supplier, you deal directly with the franchise dealer (no money is sent to the broker). This way you control your money and the broker does not pay for your car (some brokers who have your deposit or whole amount mysteriously go bust when you are due to pick your car up and there are cases of repossesions as the broker has not paid the dealer; therefore the car does not belong to you, its still the dealers until they (the dealer) have been paid).

Only downside is you may have to travel to pick up your new car, but I made my journey from Scotland to East Anglia via low cost airlines and cheap train fares into a short break to see a bit more of our wonderful neighbours country. Even taking the cost of this travel etc into account, it still worked out cheaper than what my local dealer was willing to sell for. I did try to haggle my local dealer down a bit more from what I had haggled him down to previously, but he was unwilling to budge from the previous haggled price - his loss my gain!

Remember with cars, never never ever pay the screen or manufactureres list price. Do shop around and let us know how much you eventually end up saving.

Poppy9

Lloydstsb arrange for a company to bring my to my house for me. Cost was £100

MSE_Martin

You'll find a full article in the Travel and Transport Section

stevebananer

Thanks to Dealdrivers for explaining the Fiat problems, that explains something. A bit frustrating for some companies to advertise what they can't actually find!
To reply to earlier posting, in the end I got a reasonable deal at my local Hyundai dealership who seemed keen to get my business - a lot keener than the local Fiat dealership - so went down that route.
Still can't look at a Fiat without wondering 'What if..?' though...