Car "Supermarkets"-a rip off?

motorguy

fivetide wrote: »

I would say we see a few complaints about Evans Halshaw. Main ones being - they don't haggle and they always stick on fees for admin and their laughable £99 HPI check so no difference to Motorpoint

Except being £700 cheaper and being a main Ford Dealer.

fivetide wrote: »

Bristol Street Motors sounds a lot more local and much more likely to deal. (Although I know nothing about them)

Yes. Was just throwing out a couple of examples.

Custard_Pie

Daveinlincoln wrote: »

Hi all i just wanted to gauge peoples opinions on these places.

I've been looking for a used car for the last month and so i've been doing the rounds of the car supermarkets in the Midlands and i'm not impressed.

I'm amazed by the number of cars that won't start when i ask to look at them or if they do start they all seem to have some warning light come on.

9 times out of 10 the cars have very high millage and stink to high heaven once you open the door.

The other thing that stands out is how so many of these places have cars on their forecourt that have body damage ranging from serious damage to heavy scratching.They all seem to have a note in the window saying "Awaiting Preparation" and the salesman assures me they will be sorted when i pick up the car if i could only put down a deposit today.

I nearly bought one the other day ,it was up for £6212 a strange price but the salesman said this is because its the lowest possible price for this car anywhere in the country-methinks they are just trying to be cleaver and a quick check on autotrader will yield the same car with less miles for considerably less.

So, are car supermarkets just trying to dupe us with this "Supermarket" tag? are we being conned into buying high millage/damaged cars for a top price?

People who sell these type of cars have over heads. It costs money to buy, sell, advertise, house any vehicle, so they will want to get the biggest price possible when selling them. Unless of course, they are relying on quantity of shifting units.

motorguy

Custard_Pie wrote: »

People who sell these type of cars have over heads. It costs money to buy, sell, advertise, house any vehicle, so they will want to get the biggest price possible when selling them. Unless of course, they are relying on quantity of shifting units.

Which would be the primary principle of a supermarket - stack em high and sell em cheap?

fivetide

motorguy wrote: »

Yes. Was just throwing out a couple of examples.

No worries. I just felt if you were going to add +fees to Motorpoint for fairness you should have done the same with EH and I am sure they don't haggle as was suggested.

Carry on!

deanos

Robwiz wrote: »

You can pick up the occasional bargain but the car superstores sell the ex-lease and contract hire fleet cars that the franchised dealers wouldn't want on their forecourts.

When i was looking for a Insignia or Astra last year the vast majority of them at main dealers were ex fleet or ex hire cars (mainly Enterprise) , that's where the vast majority of nearly new cars come from, although they all were said to be ex management cars , bit of a lie there me thinks by the dealers

Rick_

It's not just car supermarkets offering that experience in my recent experience, however I have to say I've been shocked by the quality of some of the cars I've seen on the forecourts. We've been car hunting over the last few weeks and I've seen so many cars with terrible condition bodywork, heavily scratched wheels and a couple that simply didn't start, in fact not even enough battery juice to even work the central locking! And what are 'admin fees' all about!? Certainly didn't expect to be scammed for another ~£150 on top of the asking price.

We eventually found a lovely car at a small garage who still had their priorities in order. The car was spotless on the forecourt and came with full MOT, Service etc without me having to ask... I didn't realise that this sort of customer service was a luxury nowadays.

force_ten

car supermarkets can be good but they can be very bad as well

I bought a couple of cars from motorhouse cannock back in the late 90,s but then they lost the plot and became to expensive so i started to buy from and recommend fords of windsford

in 2003 i bought a brand new ford mondeo zetec from motorpoint derby three grand cheaper than any ford dealer could do it 2 miles on the clock at collection, it was one of the parallel imports that came in from Belgium and i got fords full three year warranty on it, that must be my car supermarket best buy

2007 when i changed again I got a much better deal from TC Harrison in derby ford main dealer and they knocked spots off anything that motorpoint could do

so it is horses for courses do your home work stick with the big players and play the main dealers off against the supermarkets

I tend to avoid the trade sales places and a couple of the bigger car supermarkets because of the bad reviews, in the days of the internet just do your homework compare prices and read reviews

Herzlos

arcon5 wrote: »

What's the alternative though without telling the customer they cannot look at the car running?

Ask the customer to leave it running for a few minutes to avoid knackering the battery?

Having the sales guy fire it up for a few minutes when they are done?

Have someone go round the 'looked at' cars with a battery charger? They presumably check the keys in/out, so it's presumably trivial to track which ones need attention.

All 3 solutions look better than having to run off and get the battery charger to show a customer a car.

nobbysn*ts

My last three came from supermarkets, after a lot of searching. All less than one year old, and all about half the price of new. Average mileage, all with mean dealer warranty left. In fact the first one came from a batch of three they were selling. I had one, took it in to the local dealers for a few bits and pieces w2hile still under under warranty, and found he had snapped up the other two, and they were on his forecourt for sale, a couple of thousand dearer than I had paid the week before.

bigjl

Inch_High wrote: »

Since when has Cheshire been in the midlands?

Where did i mention Chesire and the Midlands?

Don't think i did.

Many people travel to get a better deal.

Maybe you wouldn't.