Weird car finance deal

judygarland

I'm looking at changing the car and decided to check out the Bristol Street Motors deal that they are advertising on their website. Suprise suprise, the really cheap Ford Focus offer for a 2010 model priced at £7995 did not exist.

So, got them to look at other cars on offer and they came up with a Skoda Fabia which looked quite a nice car. After 30 minutes of sitting about, the young lad that I was dealing with, handed me over to "the manager". The hard sell then kicked in.

He then offered me this unusual car finance deal. The car was £7000 and he had worked out two figures. One over 2 years £127 per month and one over 3 years for £174. He crossed out the £174 and said that they would pay the difference of these two sums directly into my bank account by standing order! Most bizarre. When I kept asking about how I would repay the remainder (which is thousands of pounds differentce) he kept saying, we'll come to that a bit later. He then waffled on about what a good deal it was. I asked if you pay this for 2 years and then hand the car back, and no, this wasnt the deal. HE said it was like a "low cost mortage deal".

After 30 minutes of the hard sell I was losing the will to live and told him I just wasnt interested. He was most upset and couldnt wait to get rid of me.

Has anyone entered into one of these "deals"? I'm intrigued. Strangely their website doesnt mentioned anything about it and he wouldnt give me "the offer" paperwork. Probably because I said I used to work in finance (which I did, but not this kind of finance!)

MrRedundant

They probably receive more commission for selling a 3 year finance deal than a 2 year deal. If you are intending to hand it back at the end of the deal they make more in servicing etc.

Its simple economics in that they make more if you have the car for longer. Ive heard of similar deals before often involving large dealerships/franchies like evans halshaw as it bumps up their stats.

Are you figures tied round the wrong way though? Seems strange that the 2 year deal is less a month.

judygarland

MrRedundant wrote: »

They probably receive more commission for selling a 3 year finance deal than a 2 year deal. If you are intending to hand it back at the end of the deal they make more in servicing etc.

Its simple economics in that they make more if you have the car for longer. Ive heard of similar deals before often involving large dealerships/franchies like evans halshaw as it bumps up their stats.

Are you figures tied round the wrong way though? Seems strange that the 2 year deal is less a month.

I think I have got my head round it now. The monthly cost for 5 years was £176.00. He mentioned that I would get cashback of £46.00 per month from Bristol Street Motors paid directly into my bank for the first two years. The only thing is, what if they go out of business. After the two years, I would then pay £176.00 per month.

A really expensive way of financing a car!

Hammyman

judygarland wrote: »

I'm looking at changing the car and decided to check out the Bristol Street Motors deal that they are advertising on their website. Suprise suprise, the really cheap Ford Focus offer for a 2010 model priced at £7995 did not exist.

Bait and Switch has been illegal for some time. They cannot advertise that if they don't have it. Report them to Trading Standards.

frothey

They can if they did have 1 at the time of advertising......

Looking at the payment difference I bet it was a PCP - there would have been a balloon/residual payment at the end of the contract. I'm sure he told you about that :whistle:

They would've made loads of commision by upping the payment to £176, then paying some of it back to you.

albionrovers

Yip, and who can be bothered proving that they didn't, it's a pretty water tight lie.