Buying from Arnold Clark

sd2310

Hi,

I am looking to buy a Vauxhall Insignia, I have been looking at ones that have around 20,000 miles, SRI model and they are coming in with a screen price of around £10,488.
I would be trading in a Punto that is a 55 plate, reg in 06 with 47,000 miles on the clock.
Online evaluations that I have done for my car comes in about £2,000.

What do you think would be the best way to play this, do I negotiate the trade in price, the screen price or both.

I am not sure if anyone would be able to help with this but thought it was maybe worth a try.

SD

Ebe_Scrooge

In a nutshell, Both.

Basically you need to look at the overall cost to do the deal. If the car you're buying has a screen price of 10,500, let's say for the sake of argument that you reckon 10,000 is what you want to pay for it. If your trade-in is genuinely worth 2000, then you pay the dealer 8000 + your car in exchange for the new one - so you've effectively paid 10,000 for the new one.

In practice, of course, there are negotiations to be had either way. The dealer may end up giving you quite a bit more than book value for your old car, but not knock anything off the price of the new one. Or conversely he'll give you less than your car is worth but give a good discount on the new one. The overall effect to you is the same.

Just be clear before you start negotiating as to what you want - what do you realistically want to pay for the new car, and what can you realistically expect for your old car. As long as you keep those figures in your mind, then negotiate the deal as a whole - I believe they call it "the price to swap".

sd2310

Thank you very much.

What do I do if they won't budge on the screen price and offer less than the 2000?

SD

Ebe_Scrooge

Walk away :-)

Assuming the screen price is slightly higher that they are expecting to actually sell it for, and that your car genuinely is worth 2000 ( that's trade-in value, not private sale value ), they should negotiate - if not, there's plenty of other dealers who will.

sd2310

Thank you very much.

KonkyWonky

Just been to Arnold Clark myself looking at buying a car and trading in a 04 1.6 Focus with 65k on the clock.

Arnold Clark use CAP (Car Auction Price) to value trade ins which is a bit of a rip off, I was offered only £1200 which in effect is really an offer of £1000 or so as I would be expecting to get £200 off the sticker price with no trade in. According to Glass's guide I should have been looking at approx £1750-£2100 as a PX.

pstuart

We went into Arnold Clark last week in Manchester to by an Insignia ST.

If you can find someone to 'serve' you then well done!

We ended up on Bolton where someone was both keen and grateful to put the best part of £20K in their till.

sd2310

That is never a problem in any Arnold Clark in glasgow that I have been in they don't leave you alone in there just to have a wee look around.

We are not in any hurry as there isn't anything wrong with our car so we would be able to walk away if the deal isn't right

SD

Kilty_2

I assume these Insignias are ex-hire so look at the big car supermarkets like Motorpoint etc too and compare deals

sd2310

From looking at Arnold Clark website they seem to be much better priced than motorpoint, but I will be doing my homework before signing on the dotted line.

SD