That simply goes to show how uninformed you are then, doesn't it?
With all due respect, regardless of calibre of motoring forum - not knowing prices of indian made korean cars - has never been, is not and never will be indication of any knowledge or level of information acquired.
No you didn't. To repeat yet again:.
The aspect that puzzled me was why an individual salesman (posing as Mr. X) wouldn't buy a "mint" sixteen year old BMW on his own behalf and sell it on privately at a profit whilst offering one of the huge discounts you say have always been available on an i20, thereby gaining a private profit as well as his commission.
Or are you perhaps basing your entire argument on the implausible belief that car salesmen ALWAYS do as their employers require?
It doesn't matter how many times you repeat that bizarre scenario, it's not going to be any different. I don't think there ever be a moment in credit crunch car industry where you will be able to drive to a dealer, and the guy with "Joe, salesman" plaque on his desk will be able to perform private trade few times a day where he will display relatively large cash liquidity in exchange for the customer quietly re-positioning his part exchange/scrappage car to his front lawn instead of back of the dealership and then go and convince his boss to sign off on a large discount for a car that has several month long waiting list. All that while maintaining professional and trust worthy atmosphere and juggling with customers personal details and finances. Things like these just don't happen on this side of Oceanic flight 815 time and space continuum.
And what on earth has the delivery queue for Hyundais got to do with anything other than showing how many people have realised that currently they are a quite fantastic deal?
For more than a decade Ford Escort mark V and VI was the best selling car in Britain. When Ford stopped manufacturing Escort, it remained the best selling second hand car for more than half a decade. It was horrible, attrocious vehicle with no redeeming features. And at no point in its life span was it "fantastic deal". It wasn't a good deal even if someone paid you to take it. There was a moment at the beginning of this century when scrap yards would take any car, as long as it wasn't Escort or Corsa (nota bene - another best selling car).
The above proves three things:
1. General public knows foxtrot all about cars
2. Market is driven by lemmings. People will buy spray painted turd for cash, as long as others in the hood already have it
3. Fantastic deal is in the eye of beholder
It certainly worked for me, just at the right moment and God knows, I tried to get a better deal; from Toyota, Renault and a very local Honda dealer amongst a few others. The Toyota guy seemed to realise that he was onto a loser as soon as I mentioned Hyundai, the Renault dealership as a whole seemed to have lost the will to live and the Honda guy really didn't seem to make any effort when he realised that I wanted a deal rather than just ANY Honda that he was prepared to let me have. Frankly, I really couldn't give a flying fish what badge is stuck to some identikit car; other factors are far more important.
I can relate. I had five Nissans in a row and sixth for my brothers car. Now I drive Skoda. Most of forumites wouldn't be seen dead in Almera. I even understand that not everyone cares about cars, that for some people it's just an object, a tool, like £7 trainers from Shoe Express, or 99p screw driver set from Tescos. But there is a difference. Trying to buy Toyota and Honda and ending up with small engined Hyundai i20, is (and don't take it wrong way) like being taken for a measurements at Armani and ending up with suit from Primark. It's just that at least suit from Primark is cheap, whereas you given away your old car and spent 3 year old mondeo money on that (points at the i20 thing). Just because it had new smell.
