I'll be returning my company car (Mercedes EQC) in early February and plan to buy a used car with a £15K budget. Several dealers are currently running Christmas promotions (around £500 off). I'm wondering whether to buy now with these holiday discounts, or wait until January when dealers might offer better deals due to slower post-holiday sales and tighter consumer spending. What would you recommend?
Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Sep 2007
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My understanding/guess is that the run-up to Christmas is pretty quiet for car dealers, so I guess that might mean you can bargain harder with them. However, I wouldn't rush into a car purchase because of this, you've got to decide what you want and then give yourself time to find a deal. I imagine it's a buyers market at the moment.
Usually the run up to Xmas is a busy time for car dealers, traditionally people buying cars for their partners, kids, mistresses etc
However this year sales have dropped around 9% some dealers have seen bigger drops of 20%.
They hope it's going to bounce back in January, but we'll see, it's starting to feel like a recession is looming
However this year sales have dropped around 9% some dealers have seen bigger drops of 20%.
They hope it's going to bounce back in January, but we'll see, it's starting to feel like a recession is looming
I would decide on make and model 1st and then look at the deals currently available and then watch them closely and see which way the market is going, if it's something rare you may find no movement but if it's a common car and readily available you'll have plenty of choice
Figure out what you want and watch the market for a few weeks to see what the going rate is - don't get suckered into purchasing something in a rush because there's "£500 off" a car at a dealer that might be £1000 more than everything else on the market to begin with.
Yep depend on what you want to buy, where you live - in similar price bracket, personally took me about 6 months and had to purchase, big garage, 50miles away, which, as I'd feared, would be annoying for niggles.
Cambs .. market for 3 series diesel/auto and like seems stagnant ... and watched dealers knocking off £500 after they've been in stock 3 months;
for me, manual petrol from bm&audi I was looking for were rare (mostly because they weren't numerous/desired anyway)
Cambs .. market for 3 series diesel/auto and like seems stagnant ... and watched dealers knocking off £500 after they've been in stock 3 months;
for me, manual petrol from bm&audi I was looking for were rare (mostly because they weren't numerous/desired anyway)
Soldato
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- 16 Aug 2009
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- 7,997
"Mistresses" lol. Let hope so because prices have been crazy post pandemic its about time they came down can't get anything close to what I have now for what I paid previously
Yeah the prices are still far too crazy imo, even PCP doesn't bring cars into affordability range. Between me and the missus we bring in 75k per year, but we can't be affording 5-600 per month on a 7 year old Audi A4 equivalent to what we've got at the moment. We need a big car for family and just obscene and I refuse to get an SUV.
I think prices need to come down 20%
I think the dealers are talking up the 2nd hand market - AT doesn't show what cars sold for (it's not rightmove) so need to make an offer once you have studied your local market,
A4 equivalent , well it is actually an A4 I just bought, had had several price reductions apparently finance from previous buyers had fallen through.
Interest rates aren't coming down, todays high inflation(people eating out and going to swift concerts), buyers aren't queuing up, recession unfortunately in the offing.
A4 equivalent , well it is actually an A4 I just bought, had had several price reductions apparently finance from previous buyers had fallen through.
Interest rates aren't coming down, todays high inflation(people eating out and going to swift concerts), buyers aren't queuing up, recession unfortunately in the offing.
Soldato
Dealers tend not to pre-reg cars part way through a quarter as their registration bonuses from manufacturers are generally quarterly. Dealers will therefore hold back with Pre-Reg exercises until as late as possible hoping that they can meet targets naturally with retail sales. Quarters are run Jan-Mar, Apr-June, July-Sept, Oct-Dec.
For brand new cars, its generally best to go in about a week or 2 before the end of a quarter (end of Mar, June, Sept, Dec) as, if they are very close to their quarterly registration target, they may be keener to do better deals. In some cases they will actually lose money on the deal as that last registration can open up thousands in Registration Bonuses to the dealership (this is also why they do pre-reg exercises at the end of quarters).
Of course, this means you have to accept that you may not get the exact car you want due to availability of physical cars not having your exact spec and also that you must be ok with moving quickly i.e. buying and driving away in days.
Ah fair, I was always under the impression the pre reg was before new plates in march/September so cheers for the explanation.
Soldato
This can still happen as manufacturers sometimes put extra bonuses on for individual months but, in general, it tends to be the quarterly bonuses based on the entire quarter.
An example would be:
- Target to register 80 cars for the quarter
- Achieve 100% (80) = £100 registration bonus on each car = £8000 bonus
- Achieve 110% (88) = £150 registration bonus on each car = £13,200 bonus
- Achieve 120% (96) = £250 registration bonus on each car = £24,000 bonus
So a dealer might be on 90 registrations and have secured £13,500 bonus. They could then sell the next 6 cars at a £500 loss to get to 96 but that will net them an extra £10,500 of registration bonus (£24,000 less £13,500). Less £3,000 loss on the 6 cars still give them an extra £7,500 of income for selling 6 cars at a £500 loss each.
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Ah that makes a lot of sense and I will consider it if/when buying my next new car. Thanks for taking the time to explain
