Used car buying advice needed

motorguy

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

I've heard salespeople telling people that it will enhance resale value. I've had salespeople tell ME that.

That very much surprises me.

Selling a car with no stains on the seats may well enhance resale value slightly (and thus by applying the product you "prevent" stains), but i'm very surprised anyone is actually saying merely applying the product makes your car worth more.

dannyrst

The problem is if you have 2 identical cars at two garages, one may have it listed at £10,000 and one at £11,000. You go see the £10,000 one because why would you buy one for £1,000 more? The guy says it's the cheapest available and he's not dropping the price, so you buy and go away happy that you bought the cheapest. However, the second garage were willing to do a deal and knock the price down to £9,500.

You think you got the best deal but you didn't.

It's impossible to check all cars and make deals with all sellers. Just find a car that you like and are happy with, check you're not getting totally ripped off and make the best deal you possibly can. If you aren't happy with the deal, just walk away. Just because you aren't getting anything knocked off the price doesn't mean you should walk away.

BeenThroughItAll

motorguy wrote: »

That very much surprises me.

Selling a car with no stains on the seats may well enhance resale value slightly (and thus by applying the product you "prevent" stains), but i'm very surprised anyone is actually saying merely applying the product makes your car worth more.

Well, that's the clever bit, isn't it... they're not saying 'it IS going to make your car worth £500 more' - they're effectively saying it WON'T be worth £500 less, by telling people that with the protecto-bodge the car will be more minty after n years, and therefore value protected vs. a car of same age without protecto-bodge.


To the consumer, that translates in the excited 'ooh, shiny' buyer's mind as 'it'll be worth more with this on'.

motorguy

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

Well, that's the clever bit, isn't it... they're not saying 'it IS going to make your car worth £500 more' - they're effectively saying it WON'T be worth £500 less, by telling people that with the protecto-bodge the car will be more minty after n years, and therefore value protected vs. a car of same age without protecto-bodge.


To the consumer, that translates in the excited 'ooh, shiny' buyer's mind as 'it'll be worth more with this on'.

Ah - but thats not what you said - you said that you had been told that applying the product enhanced resale value.

Now you're changing that.

motorguy

dannyrst wrote: »

The problem is if you have 2 identical cars at two garages, one may have it listed at £10,000 and one at £11,000. You go see the £10,000 one because why would you buy one for £1,000 more? The guy says it's the cheapest available and he's not dropping the price, so you buy and go away happy that you bought the cheapest. However, the second garage were willing to do a deal and knock the price down to £9,500.

You think you got the best deal but you didn't.

Its statistically highly unlikely that the one up at £11,000 will be happy to discount to £9,500. The market rarely works like that any more.

I personally find the cheapest in the condition / spec that i want, then negotiate from there.

BeenThroughItAll

motorguy wrote: »

Ah - but thats not what you said - you said that you had been told that applying the product enhanced resale value.

Now you're changing that.

No, that's not quite what I was trying to get at with my second post.




I have heard dealers telling people exactly what I said; but what I'm also saying is that maybe the reason you haven't is that the products are sold (and indeed their 'sale presentation' POS cards and applications back this up - you can download Supagard's one - http://www.supagard.co.uk/car-care) as 'protecting resale value'. Sold properly, the salesman won't say anything as blunt as 'car worth more'; but it all depends on the individual salesperson on the individual day. I'm sure they're not trained to say it, but I've heard it said.