Buying a nearly new car for first time

flyingcod14

Hi,

I am new to the forum (been a fan of MSE website for ages) but recently I decided to take the plunge and buy a nearly new car. Now I'm not expecting replies of "Well done" or "You mug" (I'd say both might apply though!) I'm just writing this in case anyone else out there is about to buy a nearly new car or anyone can pass on some tips.

I've owned cars for over 10 years but they have all been 2nd hand and most I've paid is less than 3K and have bought them private. To cut a long story short I went to a VW dealership and plumped for a 56 plate Golf GTi 3dr manual with 9K on the clock for £16K, which was 2K of the list price. I know a could have gotten a better deal but I'm trying not to think about that (they wouldn't even give me mats/flaps/full tank petrol) I'm scheduled to pick the car up this week, however last night I spotted the same car on another site (apprivedused.com) for sale at £16,995 and advertised at 25k miles. I call the VW sales manager and they give me the fob off, saying the 9k mileage is genuine and that I still got the car 1000 cheaper. Now I feel a bit miffed that instead of getting a car with 2k knocked off it's only 1K. I feel I'm only learning at this as until a few months ago I'd never set foot in a dealership. I'm still looking forward to picking the car up but I want to take the other advert with me as I feel as I've been diddled over the price, but are all dealerships like that?

Let me know your thoughts/tips for future reference.

Thanks for listening!

fc14

Hintza

Haven't checked the price but will assume it's fair.

It is the mileage that would annoy me and you must ask yourself are they at it?

When you go to collect it ask to see the V5 and call the previous owner and see what they say the mileage is. If now joy with that then contact a VW dealer and ask them to check the mileage and has it had a service and when?

Now this coulds have been a lease car and has been on the fourcourt since contract ended perhaps as late as end of February and the mileage might be ok.

How you deal with the garage will depend on how they react to your questions but if they get all shifty you shouyld be able to squeeze them on the price or walk away and/or contemplate reporting them.

For me the alarm bells would be ringing.

Keep us posted please.

anewman

How about holding out for a pre-registered car and haggling? They'll be pretty much brand new but could be a few thousand cheaper. Another option is to use the broker websites like http://www.dealdrivers.co.uk/ or http://www.drivethedeal.com/ to save some money on new.

I wouldn't ordinarily recommend buying new, but sometimes the cost of the nearly new used isn't much less than new and with some shopping around you can probably get new for nearly new prices.

Apparently some cars can reset the mileage to zero a few times if the total mileage is below 1000. It is possible the website mileage you saw was an error, but as stated above would do all I can to check it out.

MORPH3US

I'm confussed...

You got a car you wanted for £1k less than it was advertised in the paper, plus it is lower mileage than the one in the paper... and you're not happy?!?!?

If you had paid £17k and then seen it in the paper for £16k then I could understand... if it said 10k miles in the paper and then you found out it was 20k miles I could understand....

flyingcod14

Thanks for the replies. I did a check on parkers and they stated a 56 plate with 10k-12k mileswould be about £15880, so part of me feels I haven't paid that much over the odds for it. The VW sales manager said that it was their demo car, however I sort of belive this as I'd originally test drove that actual car at another dealership two months ago, however we couldn't reach a deal - felt a bit pressurised and was on my own so I walked away. Then last week when at another dealership I found out that the salesman from the other branch had nicked itand tried to sell it to me!

I will check the V5 when I go and pick it up though.


Ta

fc14

flyingcod14

MORPH3US wrote: »

I'm confussed...

You got a car you wanted for £1k less than it was advertised in the paper, plus it is lower mileage than the one in the paper... and you're not happy?!?!?

If you had paid £17k and then seen it in the paper for £16k then I could understand... if it said 10k miles in the paper and then you found out it was 20k miles I could understand....

No, VW dealership sticker price was £17995 and I got it for £16k, so I thought hey 2k off - bargain. Then I saw it on the other website it was on for £16995 (only 1k off) and the mileage was different. It just got me wondering if I could have gotten more off if I'd seen it advertised on the allapprovedcars website first.

fc14

Jorgan_2

The website may be refering to a different car but human error has put the wrong picture/details with the ad?

It could well be an ex-management VW car, check the log book to see if VW are registered as the first owner. My brother works for Honda & changes his car every 9k miles.

AdrianHi

I think the bottom line is here is that you have paid £16,000 for a car which might sell for as little as £15,880 according to Parkers and it has 9,000 miles on the clock.
If the mileage is genuine I think I'd be feeling pleased with myself right know
I would recommend spending around £400 to £500 a year on either an extended VW warranty or a warranty direct warranty with all the optional cover items included just before the manufacturers warranty runs out.
The reason is that this car will have fairly constant depreciation from now until it is around 5 years old when it slows down, you don't want to be hit with repair bills and the same depreciation costs as you had in years 2 and 3 of the cars life in year 4. You would have been better off selling the car and buying another new new one under warranty if that happened.
This pattern of car buying and selling (or warranty cover) works on a lot of the German cars (BMW, Audi and the right VW's like the GTi) as they don't loose their value quite so quickly in year 1 as other cars, which means that depreciation is still to come in years 2 to 5, unlike an Astra which dumps a load of it's value straight away and then looses relatively little after year 1.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

They could advertise it elsewhere for £10 if they want. I don't see what you're moaning about. You were obviously happy with the price you paid, its up to them how else they advertise it.

flyingcod14

AdrianHi - many thanks for your reply that was the sort of advice I was after, (PewPewPew - why bother?), I wasn't having a moan specifically about the price I was just concerned about the other advert, like I mentioned I have not bought a car from a dealership before and for this amount of money before, and their might be a few people out there who, like me, are learning about this sort of thing.


Cheers

fc14