Haggling possible on new car PCP?

forgotmyname

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

When was the last time you saw a car on bricks at the roadside? Genuine question - as I don't believe alloy thefts are *that* common now.


I haven't seen or heard of a single theft of alloy wheels in more than five years. Steel wheels, on the other hand... I've heard of a couple of thefts of those locally within the last couple of years.

Im not on the wagons anymore so my mileage is small so i admit that i have not seen a car on bricks for a long time. But i still hate some mates that i see occasionally who work in the trade and still recover the occasional car. A lot of the time its high vehicles missing their CATs or spare wheels slung under the car.
But some of the sporty models have a habit of coming into the bodyshop with bits missing.

Undertrays/splitters for the bumpers, Washer jet and jacking / towing point covers and spoilers etc, stuff that pops off easily with no damage.

BeenThroughItAll

forgotmyname wrote: »

Im not on the wagons anymore so my mileage is small so i admit that i have not seen a car on bricks for a long time. But i still hate some mates that i see occasionally who work in the trade and still recover the occasional car. A lot of the time its high vehicles missing their CATs or spare wheels slung under the car.
But some of the sporty models have a habit of coming into the bodyshop with bits missing.

Undertrays/splitters for the bumpers, Washer jet and jacking / towing point covers and spoilers etc, stuff that pops off easily with no damage.

Agree with much of that - cats get stolen all the time, but that can happen with a 1.0L Micra just as much as with a V8 Range Rover, as can other bits and bobs.


My particular point was that alloy-wheels are almost never the subject of theft these days, it's just not worth the bother when they're so easily/cheaply available and they come fitted to almost everything anyway.


I think if it comes to nicking bits off Skodas, you'd need to live somewhere pretty awful for it to be anything more than extremely unlikely.

jlfrs

I'm not saying I know everything about PCP's and so forth but I've done a few in my time so here goes....
First off is getting the best deal. Another member has already mentioned Broadspeed, there's others out there - I used Orangewheels for my wife's Peugeot for example.
These guys deal with franchised dealers and send punters to them they wouldn't usually get. For the likes of joe public, it's the car equivalent of Groupon so an individual can take advantage of big discounts triggered by the Dealers' extra rebates they get from the manufacturers for achieving certain targets. After you make an enquiry to the brokers, they'll usually qualify your interest and send you off to the dealer for the vehicle you're interested in. They could be anywhere but they'll all be proper dealerships. When you speak to them, they will volunteer the discounted cost of the car you're interested in with these discounts off. You will then talk about finance (PCP or their equivalent products). If they ask for budgets, never, ever give them. Just say you're gathering figures at this stage.
So that's point 1 - get the cost of the car down.
Secondly, if you've a car to trade in, they usually have a range of prices they can offer based on what they assess the car to be worth. No point talking about colour, condition or any of that - it's a means to an end and a point of negotiation. All they care about is an MOT and no engine management lights as it will go straight off to auction. So, second tip is - get the most for your trade-in and use it as your deposit.
I see little point in putting extra money upfront for a car you may or may not buy at the end of the term so I wouldn't put in any extra cash but it's a personal choice.
Third, look at the maintenance - this is usually well good if you take out a plan when you purchase and it's extra peace of mind
Fourth, never, ever, take their GAP insurance - buy it from a broker if you must, it'll be hundreds of pounds cheaper
Fifth - don't take their "super-duper paint protection treatment" It will cost 400 quid and even though its guaranteed you can do it yourself for 40 by buying the stuff off eBay
Next, look at the extras you want on your car - they all add up, so negotiate to get them free or cheaper
Then as somebody has pointed out, get the APR down. Get the dealer's quote and then firstly, tart it around other dealers to see if they'll beat and then, check out 3rd party PCP and finance companies such as Hitachi. These guys have their own PCP products and buy cars at trade discount so can be very competitive.Get it the best you can, give everyone a last chance to bid and then give the cheapest your order.
One last thing is to do with mileage and exiting the agreement.
The higher the mileage, the higher the premium. Even if you do high mileage, worth signing up for the minimum as you'll have to pay if you hand the car back but you've kept the money for anything upto 4 years in the meantime. If you buy the car outright at the end, you'll never pay for excess mileage.
Not many people realize that when 50% of the term is up, they can do a "voluntary termination" and hand the car back. You'll have to pay for excess mileage and if it's not in reasonable condition but it's perfectly legal to just hand it back, end the agreement and start again, so you're not locked in indefinitely.
What I would do now if you like what I've written here is buy a copy of What Car and look at the brokers who advertise in the back to get the car you want at the cheapest price. As I said, that's the most pragmatic place to start!

MaximumFish

Thanks for the replies! Drive the Deal has given me a great quote for haggling so I'll get on that while I'm test driving the petrol version tomorrow. And I'll have a shop around for PCP on the used models and see what comes out on top.

jlfrs

Makes sense MF, remember though the usual term for a PCP is 4 years on a 4 year old car, so if you get a PCP on a 1 year car for example, the PCP term will be max 3 years, it's usually capped at 25k miles per annum too.


As other posters have said, buying a new car can be cheaper than an ex-demonstrator or 1 year old due to getting the manufacturer's contribution towards the costs, plus a better APR or the rate, but you'll have to get a few examples to compare I guess.


One manufacturer I know of which does 4 year PCP's on older cars is Mercedes. Mate of mine has just got a E250 Avantgarde, 4 years old, 44k miles on the clock, 4 new tyres, new MOT and just been serviced for 250 quid a month for 4 years, 9k miles per annum. They gave him a great price on his existing E class of around 5500 as trade in which formed his deposit. That's double what we would have got selling on Auto-Trader.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

jlfrs wrote: »

As other posters have said, buying a new car can be cheaper than an ex-demonstrator or 1 year old due to getting the manufacturer's contribution towards the costs, plus a better APR or the rate, but you'll have to get a few examples to compare I guess.
.

It's a minefield trying to work out best deals and comparisons. We got a manufacturer's contribution of £2000 on our 16 month old car by taking out a loan that we needed to keep going for 3 months and then could cancel with no penalty. I think it cost us about £150 in financing costs to get a £2000 discount (and a purchase price of around 40% off list on a 9,000 mile car).

Contributions are often nowhere near the 1st year depreciation and you also need to consider the total cost, not just monthly payments. An awful lot of people happily talk about their £299 a month leasing deals without any consideration of where they will be financially in 3 years time.