Car brokers: cross post

hiann

Who has bought a car via a car broke like drivethedeal etc? Did everything go ok? Esp want to hear from NI people

Looking a new Ford Cmax and was in showroom earlier and the staff said they couldnt come anywhere near the broker prices and they are aware of the online prices but Ford the company cant stop the brokers doing the discounts.

Drivethedeal has to have car registered at English address. Do any of the others do? A few places will deliver anywhere in GB so as I live in NI so would be looking at getting ferry to Stranraer or flying to Glasgow and then return via the boat.

Also, what happens if a car has GB plates on it and is registered to the BB drivers and licensing dept (or whatever it is called there) and I live in NI that has our own DLV dept? Do I have to reregister the car in NI?

Thanks!

1jim

Hi
Dont really know if I can help much as dont live in NI, have used drive the deal for one of our cars and broadspeed for the other, transaction really smooth and fairly trouble free.

Dont listen to what the dealers tell you about Ford not being able to stop the brokers,,,, Ford dont really want to stop them and neither do the dealers that they sell through, the dealers use these brokers to reach sales targets and get large bonuses, for example, we bought a brand new Ford Ka for less than what it costs the dealers to buy! this is because if they sell X amount Ford gives them a bonus which covers the loss from each sale and then some extra to make it worthwile.

You could try these brokers....
http://www.dealdrivers.co.uk/
http://www.broadspeed.com/

or have a look at http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/home/index.htm as these will be able to help you more (have a great forum)

When you contacted drive the deal did you speak to the actual dealer? is it actually the registration that is a problem or the delivery?

Have also found this, may be worth contacting them for advice
http://www.dvlni.gov.uk/vehicles/import.htm

good luck with it
Jim

hiann

Jim, Thanks for your reply.

Hubby has ordered the car from drivethedeal as it was best value including collection options: collecting from Newcastle airport (cheap to get to from Belfast) and coming home via Stranraer boat: costs abt 100 quid max. Car is 4600 less from list price. Other brokers are more expensive

Hubby hasnt spoken to delaer yet: will ask him to ask abt registration and will look at the DLVNI website.

Thanks again.

Will post how we get on for other people to read. So far, contact hubby has had with driethedeal has been via email and website and all responses have been superquick.

Will see if we can buy car via credit card and then get personal loan to pay card off in one go so we then have monthly payments to loan comp. Hopefully, credit card will give us some protection if have problems. Dont know if dealer will take credit card or if there'll be a surcharge.

1jim

when we bought our picasso a couple of years ago through drive the deal, citroen were doing 0% finance and as the deal is with a dealership we could take advantage of this so it might be worth asking the dealer about any special offers re finance.
I thing generally they will take a deposit with credit card but you have to pay the rest by debit card (this may be dependent upon the dealer though) so you would need funance in place before definatly ordering the car from the dealer
Jim

hiann

got loan thru alliance and leicester and quidco cashback. I dont believe in these zero percent finance deals for cars: experience is that they only offer them if you pay full retail price and i refuse to do that 4 a car as it works out more expensive than haggling and then paying a personal loan off.

1jim

thats fair enougth, but I bought a citroen through drivethedeal, it was well below retail price and was much cheaper than buying directly in the showroom and still got 0% finance with the citroen dealer so its worth not excluding these carte blanche and working out the deals on an individual basis, why pay interest when you dont need to?