Buying at "Car-Supermarket"

happywarmgun

Am in the market for a new car for my Mrs after her old one was stolen. Insurance has paid up so am a cash buyer with no part-ex to worry about. Know the car I want and the price I am willing to pay.

Saw one advertised in a Car Supermarket - priced only a couple of hundred above the price I had in mind (i.e the price parkers quotes for it at an independent dealer and the amount we got from the insurance). Never been to a car supermarket before - twas absolutley what I expecteted until the end... had a test drive - car was fine. Said to the chap I would have it that day and pay by switch there and then if he could come down another couple of hundred. He said the price on the sticker was the price it is - and that is just how car supermarkets work. I walked away (OK Drove away - all 45 miles home).

My question is this:

- Was the salesman doing as bluff?- was he figuring that we are a car down and so need it and that we had driven all that way we wouldn't want to go home empty handed, and would therefore stump up to get ourselves sorted. e.g. did he just call my bluff and lose...

OR

- Do they genuinely not negotiate on sticker price at Car Supermarkets? And it was me being an !!!?

Will probably buy privately now - but would like to know for future reference.

Kilty_2

Car supermarkets pile them high and sell them cheap so there's little room for negotiation. Should still be some room though depending on the car and the price....

owitemisermusa

Motorpoint flatly refused to negotiate, said price was fixed.

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

They buy lots of cars in and they sell a lot of cars, so they can afford to keep their profit margins smaller on each car they sell. This means there's usually very little negotiation in the price (if any).

When I picked up my car from Motorpoint, there were still another dozen or so cars behind mine ready to go out that day and mine certainly wasn't the first that had gone.

Just beware of any little extras they might try on you. Motorpoint wanted to charge £25 for changing the plates to Europlates.

Hintza

Phantom_Flan_Flinger wrote: »

Motorpoint wanted to charge £25 for changing the plates to Europlates.

Well that is a cost to them, Im not surprised.

Kilty_2

Hintza wrote: »

Well that is a cost to them, Im not surprised.

Doesn't cost anything like £25 though :rotfl:

Inner_Zone

Kilty wrote: »

Doesn't cost anything like £25 though :rotfl:

You obviously have not bought a number plate or a pair recently.

withabix

Inner_Zone wrote: »

You obviously have not bought a number plate or a pair recently.

I paid £8 for a pair of legal number plates two weeks ago.

They will cost Motorpoint approx £3 per plate at the most.

Inactive

withabix wrote: »

I paid £8 for a pair of legal number plates two weeks ago.

They will cost Motorpoint approx £3 per plate at the most.

More likely a quid each, I can buy them for £2 each legally.

Kilty_2

Inner_Zone wrote: »

You obviously have not bought a number plate or a pair recently.

I've bought about 6 pairs in the past year, all for ~£8 a pair delivered.

Fully legal Euro GB plates.

ukjoel

These guys sell on volume and the sales teams generally dont have time to do test drives, or negotiate.
There job is identify what you want, match it with what they have that meets those requirements, sell the car, sell up finance, gap, warranty, etc (if they dont pass you over to a specialist) and get you to pick up ASAP so they can get a new car on site.

Its not a nice job and I give them credit for doing it. Their office is a cold , wet lot full of cars. They wont know much more about the cars than you do.

Well done for sticking to your guns but my advice would be if you really want it leave it 24 hours - if they dont buckle then go back and offer the money if you think its right.