My recent purchasing a new car experience

StripeyMiata

Going on from my Paint Protection thread, I thought I’d write about my recent new car purchasing experience as a few things happened with the salesman I felt were off & I had some tactics that I think might help other people save money in the same position. I’m not in the motor trade but I have a friend who sells second hand cars who helped me out.

Some of this might be complete !!!!!!!! so feel free to correct me.

First of all I feel it’s important if you are trading in to get a realistic value for your car and stick to it. I know this isn’t easy, I used a few online sites that valued my car at £2400 if it was in perfect condition. I asked my friend for advice and he used his magic salesman book (think he used the GAP value) and valued the trade in price at £2000. The car had a ripped seat; two parking dents and was due a big 60000 mile service. As it turned out it was completely correct. But shenanigans still occurred. The car was a 2007 FIAT Panda with 57000 miles.

One of the dealers offered me £1300 trade in, but said that he dealership was doing a deal that month were they offering at least £2000 trade in for any car. While it’s quite possible that was the case, I am somewhat reluctant to believe that (seemed hell of a coincidence) and it was a physiological ploy for me to like the dealer as it would seem they were doing me a good deal that wouldn’t be repeated elsewhere. Another dealer offered me £2000 trade in although my car was worth £1500 he though as a “goodwill gesture.” Again I thought it was mind games.

Two dealers valued my car at £1700 & £1500 respectively as they were knocking £300 and £500 off the trade in value of my car because of the parking dents. Both said the door would have to be resprayed and repaired. However once I pointed out that the paint wasn’t broken and I was quoted £120 to fix the door by an independent dent master bloke and I had already knocked that off the £2400 I felt the car was worth as perfect they soon backed down. This had happened about 3 or 4 time in the last 20 years to me so isn’t a new thing.

All dealers added paint protection to the quote, covered in another post which I can’t link to but basically it’s a £50 they charge £320 to £2000 car depending on car so bit of a con.

All dealers added GAP Insurance to the quote, I’m sure all of you guys are aware of this, obviously with a new car some may argue it’s a good idea. Gap Insurance for the car we did buy was £320 from Ford, we got quoted £80 for the same car from an online seller.

The most important thing I think to take away from my experience is WALK AWAY ON THE DAY!

All salesmen pressurized us to sign for the car the day of the test drive, you know I don’t have a problem with that; it’s their job.

But by walking away we started getting phone calls/emails a few days later from all the dealers with tweaking of the deal, we ended up knocking 2% APR off the car we purchased and a full tank of petrol with it.

I bought a Ford Fiesta; the interesting thing is it came with free driveway insurance for 7 days. Never came across anything like this before so not sure if it’s a common thing. When the 7 days was up they quoted us £640 a year, with my insurance company it was £230 a year, so it seemed a bit of a con to me as well.

I would also (in hindsight) recommend using the trip computer during the test drive to see what MPG the car is getting. My car is the EcoBoost model, which is meant to get 65MOPG. At the minute getting 35MPG, apparently the new EU testing is a load of !!!!!!!!.

fivetide

The insurance seems to be common now. Happened with me and I got mine from Arnold Clark (cheapest going). They said something about having to make sure the car was road legal at point of sale/collection.


the old EU testing was also a load of XXX as it is basically in a lab with the engine on a bench.


You should be doing better than 35mpg though unless you spend all your time in traffic. Still, could improve as the engine loosens up a bit too (I am assuming the car is a brand spanker)

OddballJamie

Sounds to me like you got more hung up on the part ex value than the new car value.

Cost to change is the most important figure, if a garage offers you £500 less part ex but knocks £1000 off the new one, then your quids in.

If you have bought a brand new one, then an online broker would've yielded better results, then possibly a Sainsburys loan to fund it.

Although your posts do remind me of a certain M3 fanboy.

StripeyMiata

I do like M3's but never owned one

Fair point about the new car value, I didn't really mention it as all the dealers where discounting the car to some extent, two I can remember was Ford doing £1000 off the Fiesta and an extra £500 for the ecoboost engined cars for a total of £1500. Suzuki were knocking £2000 off list on a Swift but we felt the Fiesta was the better car.

Online brokers are a bit tricker to use as I live in Northern Ireland.

@Fivetide according to the Ford forums I should be averaging 45MPG when she's run in a bit and it's the summer, but I'll never break 50MPG. There are loads of !!!!ed off EcoBoost owners on the forum.

It's actually a cracking wee engine and a hoot to drive.

OddballJamie

StripeyMiata wrote: »

I do like M3's but never owned one

Neither did he.

JonathanA

As with all these things, the value of your old car is subjective. From a dealer perspective, the trade price guides are exactly that, a guide. Did you have a look at the current advertised prices of similar cars to yours to get a feel for their current value? From that you then need to deduct the cost of the repairs, service, any warranty a dealer might offer and their profit margin, so it may be that the prices they were quoting were about right.

Remember, they are all in it to make a living at the end of the day, and as someone else has said, it is the cost to change that is important. Many but not all dealers add extras in, which I do think is wrong, but that is the world we live in, you just have to be firm! It also helps if you can get a cost to change from more than one dealer on the same type of car, so you know broadly whether you're getting good value.

Hopefully the dealer selling you the new car didn't guarantee you'd get the published mpg figures! I've driven a 1.0Ecoboost with the Powershift gearbox and got 48 mpg overall, but that didn't include a high degree of stop / start or round town driving. Might also be worth double checking the tyres are inflated to their correct levels as that can impact mpg figures. I agree, the 1.0 ecoboost is a great engine, but rev it a lot, and drive it like it wants to be driven and the fuel economy will suffer. Also, how are you measuring fuel consumption? The trip computers aren't always accurate, so for best results work out the figures when you full the car up and see what it works out at.

Enjoy your new car!

saverbuyer

StripeyMiata wrote: »

I do like M3's but never owned one

Fair point about the new car value, I didn't really mention it as all the dealers where discounting the car to some extent, two I can remember was Ford doing £1000 off the Fiesta and an extra £500 for the ecoboost engined cars for a total of £1500. Suzuki were knocking £2000 off list on a Swift but we felt the Fiesta was the better car.

Online brokers are a bit tricker to use as I live in Northern Ireland.

@Fivetide according to the Ford forums I should be averaging 45MPG when she's run in a bit and it's the summer, but I'll never break 50MPG. There are loads of !!!!ed off EcoBoost owners on the forum.

It's actually a cracking wee engine and a hoot to drive.

No problems getting 2 N.I. dealers to match the drive the deal price for me.

nidO

I guess this just comes down to the individual dealer (and manufacture?) - Our new Volvo purchase at the end of last year was a decidedly different experience:

Two test drives in slightly different car specs on different weekends, absolutely no pressure to sit down and get a deal done there and then, and no follow-up pestering from the dealer at all.

When we did go back in to do a deal they ended up matching the best carwow quote we had in about 10 minutes.

No GAP insurance added to any quote at any time, this was only even brought up by the dealer, verbally, on the day we went in to collect the car and he started into a very clear explanation of what it was before we told him we'd get it sorted cheaper elsewhere sorry, and he dropped it immediately.

No paint protection added to any quote at any time until we requested it (a couple of weeks after ordering the car and paying a deposit), and even then when he already had our money for the car we got him to agree to do it at cost (we're familiar with the detailing firm the dealer sends their cars to to have the protection applied).

Full tank of fuel in the car, didn't even ask for that one, when we got the paperwork done on the day of picking it up the dealer just said "lets hop in and get round to the garage to fill it up"

Heavily discounted dealer accessories we wanted such as spare wheel kit, with no pressure or even requests to consider other accessories we didn't already know we wanted.

Driveaway insurance was available if we wanted it but we just brought in our own insurance cert when picking up the car and the dealer was perfectly happy with that, never had any sales calls or even heard from whoever their driveaway insurance provider was.

All told, from the experience of everything surrounding the purchase and their willingness to be helpful even after parting with our deposit I would have said we must have got utterly shafted on the price of the car itself, if it weren't for the fact that we got it for 23% off list, at the same price as the best carwow quote and within a hair of the DtD quote which could have been the other end of the country for all we knew.

InsideInsurance

I have to say I had a really odd experience with my car buying experience 20 months ago.

Wanted a car, knew make/model I wanted, a couple of optional extras/ colours that it had to have but fairly flexible if it had other bits and pieces etc. Had a call from one dealership who had a young wide boy of salesman saying he'd spotted the car had just been built and was still at the factory and he could do it for £Y if I buy today. I asked what other things it had and he said he didnt know but he guaranteed it had all I wanted and it'd be £Y but only for today.

Believing a car existed that matched my needs I spoke to the local company I'd been dealing with was able to do a good price on it but then the sales manager went on holiday and no one was willing to pick it up in his absence.

Spoke to a third dealership and they came up with a much higher price. I said no, if you can match the price I've been quoted I'm happy to pay the deposit and sign today. They came back an hour later saying they'd be able to beat the price slightly so I said ok. As it was now late in the day he said he'd get the business manager to contact me on Monday to take the deposit etc.

Monday comes but the salesman himself calls and says he'd spoken to the sales director and they can knock off some more so its now £X. Never had a salesman reduce the price after someone has already agreed it.

Was a very soft sell on GAP, Key, Tyre insurance but then he knew what I did for a living so probably thought I knew better.

motorguy

StripeyMiata wrote: »

I know this isn’t easy, I used a few online sites that valued my car at £2400 if it was in perfect condition. I asked my friend for advice and he used his magic salesman book (think he used the GAP value) and valued the trade in price at £2000. The car had a ripped seat; two parking dents and was due a big 60000 mile service. As it turned out it was completely correct. But shenanigans still occurred. The car was a 2007 FIAT Panda with 57000 miles.

Speaking with my trader hat on and even before i read on my gut feeling was your car was £1500 tops.

Anyone giving you £2,000+ for it was merely adding on discount they would otherwise have given you.

mad_rich

StripeyMiata wrote: »

I would also (in hindsight) recommend using the trip computer during the test drive to see what MPG the car is getting. My car is the EcoBoost model, which is meant to get 65MOPG. At the minute getting 35MPG, apparently the new EU testing is a load of !!!!!!!!.

No idea on the new car buying, other than to agree with the others - don't get too hung up on PX value. The net cost is the only figuire that matters.

MPG - bear in mind the quoted mpg figures are under very favourable test conditions and very rarely achievable (although oddly, my Fabia comes out very well).

Have a look on Fuelly or Honest John's Real MPG to see what people are getting in the real world for your car and engine.

Also, it may take some time for your engine to bed in - during the first few thousand miles you should expect lower efficiency.

Finally, ensure you're driving efficiently - and not trying to achieve the highway figure on short trips around town!