Why are car prices so high?

flyingscotno1

DaveMacD wrote: »

My little brother and I drove to Southampton to pick up a car once... from Glasgow... and it was well worth it

As an aside I did the same from Glasgow. One dealership was the only person selling the cars and the model I wanted wasn't in huge supply so something like £10,995+ for a 20,000 miler, but plenty other petrols and base models. I felt it was overpriced, went to London on Easyjet for £40 and got right model of car with 6K miles for £9995. So it cost me £100 on flights, £35 in diesel and £8 on Oyster but well worth it IMV.

Scotland can be a problem for car supply and pricing, simply the market is bigger and can be more competitive down south.

I wouldn't bank on prices coming down much either. I know people are blaming scrappage for price increase, and there may be an element in that, but other factors are at play too, indeed prices in the UK were fairly stable for a number of years on a range of cars so an increase was due if you will. In saying that my Aunt bought a Fiat Panda 1.1 on scrappage for £4900, which is a cracking deal for such a great small car. Salesman had sold 8 of them in 5 days!

Prudent

Hintza wrote: »

I think there will be a small window of opportunity once scrappage ceases purely from the fact some of the manufacturers are keeping production a little higher than is possibly sustainable (probably slightly contradicting myself). Cutting supply (production) is bit like trying to stop an oil tanker it takes a while.

If I were in your position OP I would be getting myself sorted out and noting trends in prices so you can spot the real bargains when they come round (they won't last long) try and have a few models on the short list (don't narrow it down too much at this stage)

One other thing keep an eye on HonestJohns best buys.

I am quite open about which car. My only criteria is I want a small car which has low mileage, is cheap to run and ok enough on the motorway for my daily commute (26 miles each way).

Thanks to everyone for the helpful replies

Hintza

Prudent wrote: »

I am quite open about which car. My only criteria is I want a small car which has low mileage,

Needless to say most of what I have said is truer for new cars. Second hand car prices seem to be all over the place with many being hardly any cheaper than the new one.

Secong hand prices have risen faster than at any other time recently

With luck AdrianHi will pop along soon with some good tips on the second hand market.

pinkneonmartini

if you like the clio then Renault are offering £2,500 off the list price for cash purchases, making a 1.2 Extreme (sorry i have no idea what spec that is, i don't speak renault) £8,250! http://www.renault.co.uk/cars/model/new-clio/offerdisplay.aspx

The same car on finance is £11,400 - £12,000 depending on how many years you want.

But if you like the Twingo for £6414, your saving £2,864 anyway coz it's list price is over £9k!!! http://www.renault.co.uk/cars/model/newtwingo/offerdisplay.aspx

If you just want a small car, then the twingo puts you in aygo/c1/107/fox/aveo territory, but also fiat panda http://www.fiat.co.uk/Content/?id=13689

vikingaero

flyingscotno1 wrote: »

As an aside I did the same from Glasgow. One dealership was the only person selling the cars and the model I wanted wasn't in huge supply so something like £10,995+ for a 20,000 miler, but plenty other petrols and base models. I felt it was overpriced, went to London on Easyjet for £40 and got right model of car with 6K miles for £9995. So it cost me £100 on flights, £35 in diesel and £8 on Oyster but well worth it IMV.

Scotland can be a problem for car supply and pricing, simply the market is bigger and can be more competitive down south.

I wouldn't bank on prices coming down much either. I know people are blaming scrappage for price increase, and there may be an element in that, but other factors are at play too, indeed prices in the UK were fairly stable for a number of years on a range of cars so an increase was due if you will. In saying that my Aunt bought a Fiat Panda 1.1 on scrappage for £4900, which is a cracking deal for such a great small car. Salesman had sold 8 of them in 5 days!

I did the same too! My local dealer offered £1.5k off, the deal online was £4k off, but once the salesman started his sleaze I walked off and ordered online.

I had to pick up the car from Stoke at 7.30am :eek: so one way car hire over the weekend + 1 extra day was £72 (for a Chevy Aveo which I got to use at the weekend too), £30 fuel, £30 diesel for the new car, Premier Inn £39 inc brekkie, and a night time meal of a £4 kebab because I was really late checking in.:D So all that reduced my £3.5k saving by £175.

matty17r

Try drive the deal. We could't find any local dealer to match their price on a new ford. Excellent service as well! We were apprehensive about this route but up-to-date certainly no regrets.

decsdad

I drove(in my trade-in) from Irvine(near Glasgow) to Truro in Cornwall for a car, well worth it.

casper_g

I'd agree with the posters who've said it's worth travelling for a good price. Never done anything like Glasgow to Southampton but for my last car I went up to Birmingham from the Thames Valley because there were a few dealers there with decent prices on what I wanted.

These days I wouldn't be too quick to rule out cars with a few more miles on them than ideal, if they have a decent service history. This goes especially for cars that are likely to have clocked up plenty of motorway miles -- I'd rather have a car that's done 100,000 miles of long motorway drives than one the same age that's done 75,000 miles of short stop-start city journeys from cold.

Millionaire

DaveMacD wrote: »

My little brother and I drove to Southampton to pick up a car once... from Glasgow... and it was well worth it

I flew to Glasgow once to pick up a car, couldn't be doing driving the 7 hours minimum up there.:D

Definitely worth travelling if your saving a few bob.

joolsybools

Why do you need to buy a new car every 3-4 years, is it broken?