Reputable online car dealers (new car)

OddballJamie

I'm wondering if they do a WBAC when they finally see the part-ex and knock 100s off for stone chips and kerbed alloys.

sniperpenguin

Is it only me that finds Drivethedeal a little bit inflexible?

I know from previous haggling with the SEAT dealers that they can only offer whats coming into stock (Custom orders take longer).

When you ask for a quote, you need to specify options exactly - I assume that once you get put in touch with the dealer, you can edit the quote slightly to see what discounts can be hand on potential extras? (say, getting larger wheels for 400 rather than 700 for example)

neilmcl

I don't see why DTD are "inflexible". They can only arrange a quote based on the options provided to them by the main dealers. Remember it's not DTD that are quoting, they are simply passing on the deal & options as offered by their chosen dealers. There's nothing to stop you from trying to get a better deal once you've been put in contact with the main dealer but I'd doubt you'd get anywhere.

By the price you mention, and your previous thread, I'm guessing you're trying to get the machined performance alloys that come as part of the Titanium pack but only want to pay the standard price for the 18" alloy upgrade. Good luck with that!

artichi

Before finally striking a deal with a main dealer directly, I spent a lot of time on the Autoebid site, as you could get an instant quote and see discounts on options. There were always some doubts in my mind whether the discounts were achievable but it formed a good starting point.

hollie.weimeraner

artichi wrote: »

Before finally striking a deal with a main dealer directly, I spent a lot of time on the Autoebid site, as you could get an instant quote and see discounts on options. There were always some doubts in my mind whether the discounts were achievable but it formed a good starting point.

Yes and you can also use What Car "Target Price" to try and barter the dealers down. It's not always a good idea to concentrate on the price you're paying for your new car as they can always reduce your p/ex if you have one. I always focus on the actual price required to change, in other words how much I need to put to the deal to get my new car. I set a range on which I'm happy after researching new car prices and what I believe my car to be worth (also using research on Autotrader and Parkers etc) and then try and get dealers to quote me. A lot of them don't like this approach as they prefer to be in control but stick to your guns and they will come up with a deal on your terms.

TradePro

hollie.weimeraner wrote: »

It's not always a good idea to concentrate on the price you're paying for your new car as they can always reduce your p/ex if you have one. I always focus on the actual price required to change, in other words how much I need to put to the deal to get my new car.

You are totally spot on here, but it doesn't really 'add up' with your previous comments about getting the lowest price on the new car AND a fortune for yours...

As you know I had my doubts about what you claimed, and now you have pretty much confirmed my thinking.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you have researched well and got yourself a great deal, but you did make it sound a bit too good to be true.

hollie.weimeraner

TradePro wrote: »

You are totally spot on here, but it doesn't really 'add up' with your previous comments about getting the lowest price on the new car AND a fortune for yours...

As you know I had my doubts about what you claimed, and now you have pretty much confirmed my thinking.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you have researched well and got yourself a great deal, but you did make it sound a bit too good to be true.

They actually came in at the cheapest to supply and provided the best p/ex so how does that not add up?

TradePro

hollie.weimeraner wrote: »

They actually came in at the cheapest to supply and provided the best p/ex so how does that not add up?

hollie.weimeraner wrote: »

ended up doing a deal over the phone with a small rural dealership in Lincolnshire that offered me a price for the Focus that even the brokers couldn't match plus they offered me a p/ex price on my own car that was £1700 better than anyone else had offered

Because you simply CAN'T get a deal that's £2,000 or so better than the likes of Drivethedeal.

treacle

semi_artificial wrote: »

Firstly sorry if this is an old chestnut, but I checked the stickies and ran a quick search but didn’t see any obvious results in the first five pages.

The last time I bought a car (new) was 8 years ago – a Toyota Verso. At that time I found a couple of online car dealers that seemed to have a good reputation. I was prepared to buy from them but in the end the quote I got helped to drive a good price from a local dealer (several hundred pounds cheaper than first quoted).

My wife’s car needs to be replaced in the near future. I don’t know if we can afford or want to buy new, or even what make/model yet but I would like to check out online dealers, preferable those that are reasonably accessible from the North West (e.g. north down to midlands ok, south east not so good).

Any advice as to how beneficial it is to buy online these days and/or recommendations for reputable sites would be very welcome. Thanks.

Back to the original post, I bought my new Q5 from http://www.newregcars.co.uk a broker based in Hull. They took my part exchange after I was required to provide them with a paper appraisal (I live 250 miles away). DTD prob lose out on quite a bit of business because of this. I tried to buy locally but Audi dealer would not budge on price at all, most likely as I live in cash rich area. Anyway I saved nearly 12% off list price and the vehicle was delivered to my door on time. Brilliant service.

hollie.weimeraner

TradePro wrote: »

Because you simply CAN'T get a deal that's £2,000 or so better than the likes of Drivethedeal.

I haven't got nor ever claimed to get a deal thats £2000 better than drive the deal. If you check my first post I said they don't do p/ex any more. They actually come in £300 cheaper for the car but as they don't do p/ex I didn't go with them.
What I said was the garage got me a better deal than the online brokers I had tried but they were a mixed bunch with p/ex.
In the end I ended up being offered £1700 more for my p/ex than other garages offered me so went with them.
The car I ordered was a Focus Titanium 124ps (1.0 ecoboost) in Candy Red with a city pack. Drivethedeal comes in at 14,873 I've paid 15200 but the p/ex (£12,200 made the deal better than anything else I could get hence the "cost to change" post).