Buying a brand new car

nightsong

Rave wrote:

More to the point though, I genuinely think that it just ain't moneysaving to buy a new or nearly new car. Nowadays cars are so well made that they should have at least 15 years/ 200,000 miles of life in them- and yet after 3 years/ 40,000 miles they'll have shed 50% of their value on average- up to 60% for larger/ less popular cars.

My car was built in 1988 and has 120,000 miles on the clock- and yet the engine will still rip round to 7500 RPM with little provocation::D.

I used to think this, but I've changed my mind. Firstly, if you buy a small economical car such as the Ford Fiesta I got 2 years ago, they hold their value so well that the second-hand price does not compare at all well with the new price, if you shop around. I bought from drivethedeal, got an absolute bargain, and paid little more than I would have done for a two-year-old car. I think this applies particularly to cars in very low insurance groups which are insurable for learners, since the second-hand demand for these is very strong.

Second, I can really appreciate that your 1988 car is still going strong - we've just said goodbye to our 14-year-old Renault Espace, which only had minor (but irritating) faults. I felt we should sell it while it still had some value left. However the dealer we sold to, after complimenting us on looking after it properly, said, "You'd never get 14 years out of a new one of these, cars aren't built to last more than 10 years now". Only one opinion of course but I have heard other people say the same.

Alison_B

I tried these people http://www.ukcarbroker.co.uk/. They are fleet sales but they sell to the individual also. They are based in London but I didn't want my new car being driven down by somebody else, so I went to my local showroom and told them of the price and that it was fleet sales and they got in touch with their own fleet sales. They came back with an even better offer. Definately worth a try.

windym_2

I bought a new VW Passat estate 1.9 TDI 130bhp from https://www.new-car-deal.co.uk and saved about 3K. It was delivered to my home in less than two weeks, I paid a £500 deposit on CC and the balance AFTER delivery and inspection. I had a phone call from the original VW garage a week later asking if I was happy. It is a pre-reg BUT being the registered keeper isn't the same as legal owner, you get a fully paid up receipt with OWNERSHIP. I have been really pleased with the car and after sales even though it was via the internet. Would recommend to anyone.

--Tony--

My dad bought a Megane Cab Coupe from Virgin at a saving of £4,000 over the dealers price. He only paid £13,999 which is very low for this car and it even had lots of extras you don't get with the UK spec (ie spare wheel!!!!).

dashnine

There's lot's of advice above, all valid but here's mine as well:

Why buy a new car? Buy a nearly new car instead. A post somewhere above mentions the depreciation that hits new cars as soon as you drive away from the garage. If you buy a 6 to 12 month old car a large proportion of that depreciation has been borne by the first buyer.

Some manufacturers register the cars, let their managers & staff drive around in them and then sell them via their web sites (but are delivered to your local dealer who you buy it from) after around 6 to 9 months. Save thousands!

motorguy

Very Valid dashnine. Depending on the car, buy at six or nine months old, you still have the rest of the manufacturers warranty and you;ve saved ££££'s.

The exception to that is probably things like the new 3 series bmw or an SLK merc that is in such high demand there is next to no saving when buying @ six months old.

Also there are some cracking deals on outgoing models like the 'old' passat or current model Suzuki Vitara (£9999 at the dealers). The new model vitara is going to be 17K

bylromarha

I couldn't get my car second hand, had to buy new. The only ones I could get second hand were 5/6 years old, and I wanted at least 1 years warrenty. I looked for so long that, oh dear, it was the 30th Dec and I just had to do a bit of cut-throat business. The dealers were desperate for a sale at that time of year, so were undercutting each other in a stupid way...all the better for me!

If you have a car to p/ex it makes a big difference. Some of the online people like drivethedeal.com don't do p/ex, so I used them to get a starting point that I used to go to the dealers.

I ended up driving 200 miles to pick the car up from a northern dealership but saved myself over £3000 by doing so as the local dealer was not at all willing to haggle as he is the only dealer for miles and didn't think I was willing to drive far for that bargain...his loss of sale.

bytie_bit

Check this site out want to know what car you going to buy or to have a look.
http://www.netcarshow.com/

bbford

My husband went to order his new car yesterday - a 3 series BMW.

I was disappointed thiugh that no extras were offered free and no little perks - in fact they have added the new increased price as we do not get delivery until Sept. when the price increases.
Has anyone received BMW 'free' extras or able to haggle a bit?
My husband prefers to buy with our local dealer for better service,unfortunately we had poor delivery/aftercare after bbuying from a pooled car service.

Many thanks for any advice.

YorkshireBoy

royalsteve wrote:

...so put my 13K in a high interest account to save approx 3% a year net tax, so another 1200 saving over 3 years....

Your saving will actually be half this figure at around £600.

This is because your average balance over the 3 years (ignoring compounding) will be around £6.5K due to a diminishing balance as monthly payments are made.