The post title sums up car shopping. More of it I’m afraid. A visit to Cannock’s motorhouse to look at a car that hadn’t arrived yet, and seems a bit too cheap, then a hop up to Stafford to look at an overpriced A3 and get a woeful part-ex offer (against a car priced at 13k :-O), then another car that wasn’t there, a test drive of a very nice Golf GT 170 that we can’t afford (unless the salesman produces a vast discount), but was very nice*, then a fairly pleasant drive through Utoxetter over to Derby. Lunch from Mcdonalds (meh), and an A3 that was priced a little more realistically, but an even more woeful part-ex price- a whole £1500 below what most online guides reckon.
I dislike most shopping, and as I may have mentioned, I don’t like car salesmen. What I want is a half-sane PX, and a sensible (rather than ‘bargain’) price on what I buy, as little haggling as possible, and minimum hassle. Is that unrealistic?
The phrase that is really annoying me is ‘How much do you want for your car?”.
Well, £10k and a big discount on the one I’m buying would be nice, but that’s not going to happen.
*Of course, this is deliberate. The salesmen is hoping, correctly, that a 170BHP Golf meets my practical needs very well, and is also a car I’d quite like. He’s hoping I’ll break the budget.
It must be the day for for it. I found a ‘pre-reg’ in Manchester on Friday (over the phone) the price was 7k cheaper than new with about 50 miles on the clock. The only disadvantage was 30 months warranty instead of 36 as with a new vehicle (oh, and we’re second owner, Citroen Company being the first). So, we raced off up to Sale this afternoon only to find out it was a 5 seat not a 7. After hurling abuse at the bloke for wasting our time (I specifically asked for a 7 seat C4 over the phone) he directed us to another one they had (7 seater) only this one had £1300 worth of suede electric seats as well. BUT it’s in black 🙂
Anyway, sale agreed without the PX as the price offered was an insult.
We’re in no rush so should get it in a couple of weeks.
Minimum haggling? Easy.
“What is the best price you can do on THAT car if I part-ex THIS car?”
And be prepared to walk away.
I’ve found that being absolutely straight with a salesman, not messing around, and just asking outright what his best price is usually comes up trumps – after he’s done his compulsory “Oh… I’ll have to check with my manager on that one… I’m really cutting my own throat you know” bit.
@Hoipoloi
Black is good, but needs to be kept clean. PX offers for me have varied from the dissapointing to the woeful 🙂
@Stu
That *is* my approach. However, many car salesmen do not see things your way, so walking away is the order of the day. Take this example:
A 54 Plate Audi A3 S-line TDI DSG. They are asking 13850 for it, which is over the odds by 1k by many online guides, so you might expect a nice big P/X margin to play with. My car is listed as a minimum of 5k for a part-ex, over 6k for a provate sale, and I saw one older and tattier but with fewer miles on a forecourt for 8k (which is ridiculous). The offer? £4800. That means the sticker price on the A3 needs to drop a lot.
Oddly enough, a local car supermarket (notorious for crap P/X) offered more. On a cheaper car.
With all the walking away and looking elsewhere, I’ve driven far more miles at the weekend than I have for some time.