Used Car / Van Prices

DE_612183

I recently asked about a used van from a Ford Dealer - usual shat about the condition etc, I then asked if there was any movement on the price - I was told "No, the price is set by an outside company who use things like auto-trader etc to base the price on"

Does anyone know if this is a new thing? It's only a franchise, I can't see them paying for something that's easy enough to do yourself and I did suspect that it may be a way of stopping any negotiation.

Anyone know or come across similar?

MattMattMattUK

DE_612183 said:

I recently asked about a used van from a Ford Dealer - usual shat about the condition etc, I then asked if there was any movement on the price - I was told "No, the price is set by an outside company who use things like auto-trader etc to base the price on"

Does anyone know if this is a new thing? It's only a franchise, I can't see them paying for something that's easy enough to do yourself and I did suspect that it may be a way of stopping any negotiation.

Anyone know or come across similar?

It could be that whoever operates the parent of the franchise prices, it could be a way to make you go away. Some companies do not negotiate on price, that is their model, you either buy from them, or go elsewhere. 

Car_54

MattMattMattUK said:

DE_612183 said:

I recently asked about a used van from a Ford Dealer - usual shat about the condition etc, I then asked if there was any movement on the price - I was told "No, the price is set by an outside company who use things like auto-trader etc to base the price on"

Does anyone know if this is a new thing? It's only a franchise, I can't see them paying for something that's easy enough to do yourself and I did suspect that it may be a way of stopping any negotiation.

Anyone know or come across similar?

It could be that whoever operates the parent of the franchise prices, it could be a way to make you go away. Some companies do not negotiate on price, that is their model, you either buy from them, or go elsewhere. 

If it genuinely is a franchise, then the "parent" organisation cannot legally set the prices.

That is why any McDonalds' advert quoting prices says "at participating restaurants only".

Goudy

Dealerships will sign up so they can access industry data on the price of vehicles.
Services like CAP-HPi will show them what to pay/sell at based on thousands and thousands of similar sales.

Years ago all this data was in book form and updated and released monthly, this is where the term "book price" came from.
These days it's all live online data and if you are buying and selling more than the odd vehicle, it's a must.

There will be a margin in the screen price for profit, but perhaps your negotiation techniques might have let you down.

Just asking if the price is negotiable has obviously made it easy for the salesperson to give you the answer you got as your question doesn't suggest you are a serious buyer, they have just brushed you off with a simple remark.

Maybe you should have said you want the van and you'll sign for it today, then made an offer X amount below the screen price and see what the salesman says. 

WellKnownSid

Pretty much as Goudy says ^^^

You're not sounding like a serious buyer.  They are equipped with terabytes of used vehicle data so know what that price should be.  They are also fully aware of what they paid for it in part ex and how much work they've had to do to get it to retail standard.  They are also aware they are losing money every day it's on the forecourt.

I'd bring data.  "Here are the equivalent vans on AutoTrader, oh look here - this one, fewer miles, Ford dealer just 30 miles down the road, £500 less.  Can we do a deal on this now?  I reckon X..."

DE_612183

Thanks guys - I did something similar to what Sid  said - I said I was really interested in the van, but I've seen other on AT at a better price but further away...I'll see if they come back to me.

DE_612183

Ok, so I did a "motorway" valuation and that came out at £19125 ( presume that includes VAT ) , also the last mot has a mileage in Feb25 and the van has only done 230 miles since then - so I'm guessing they've had it a while. 

On auto trader when searching on the most recent it comes up on row 54 of 72 so three quarters of the way down.

The price on the ticket is 18500 ( plus VAT ) which puts it at £22,200.

I'm thinking of offering £20k ( inc VAT ) 

paul_c123

It would be simpler to buy the cheaper one albeit further away............let me guess its about 300 miles away?

DullGreyGuy

Car_54 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

DE_612183 said:

I recently asked about a used van from a Ford Dealer - usual shat about the condition etc, I then asked if there was any movement on the price - I was told "No, the price is set by an outside company who use things like auto-trader etc to base the price on"

Does anyone know if this is a new thing? It's only a franchise, I can't see them paying for something that's easy enough to do yourself and I did suspect that it may be a way of stopping any negotiation.

Anyone know or come across similar?

It could be that whoever operates the parent of the franchise prices, it could be a way to make you go away. Some companies do not negotiate on price, that is their model, you either buy from them, or go elsewhere. 

If it genuinely is a franchise, then the "parent" organisation cannot legally set the prices.

That is why any McDonalds' advert quoting prices says "at participating restaurants only".

The "parent" can if it's the parent of the franchisee rather than being the franchisor; if I own 5 McDonalds sites I can choose to set rules that apply to all of them. 

photome

DE_612183 said:

Ok, so I did a "motorway" valuation and that came out at £19125 ( presume that includes VAT ) , also the last mot has a mileage in Feb25 and the van has only done 230 miles since then - so I'm guessing they've had it a while. 

On auto trader when searching on the most recent it comes up on row 54 of 72 so three quarters of the way down.

The price on the ticket is 18500 ( plus VAT ) which puts it at £22,200.

I'm thinking of offering £20k ( inc VAT ) 

A valuation of just over 19k ( if it includes VaT) would suggest a retail price of around 22k inc VAT

Car_54

DullGreyGuy said:

Car_54 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

DE_612183 said:

I recently asked about a used van from a Ford Dealer - usual shat about the condition etc, I then asked if there was any movement on the price - I was told "No, the price is set by an outside company who use things like auto-trader etc to base the price on"

Does anyone know if this is a new thing? It's only a franchise, I can't see them paying for something that's easy enough to do yourself and I did suspect that it may be a way of stopping any negotiation.

Anyone know or come across similar?

It could be that whoever operates the parent of the franchise prices, it could be a way to make you go away. Some companies do not negotiate on price, that is their model, you either buy from them, or go elsewhere. 

If it genuinely is a franchise, then the "parent" organisation cannot legally set the prices.

That is why any McDonalds' advert quoting prices says "at participating restaurants only".

The "parent" can if it's the parent of the franchisee rather than being the franchisor; if I own 5 McDonalds sites I can choose to set rules that apply to all of them. 

If you own the sites then, by definition, they are not franchisees. You can indeed set the prices.