Why, oh why, Car Stealers

Bint Box said:
What is the reason for paying off in 14 days please?
Is it so that there is no interest accrued on the finance or something to do with the cooling off period?

Dealers are supposedly prepared to give a beter deal on the price of the car if finance is involved, presumably due to a kick back from the lender?
The "finance and pay off in 14 days" certainly seems attractive if it gets a good deal on a vehicle compared to a straightforward cash (bank transfer) purchase.
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That's the theory yes. The dealer get comission from selling finance. To entice you they give you a better deal on the car. If you've got the cash in the bank you just clear the finance within your 14 day cooling off period.
 
HEADRAT said:
Don't mind them being a business or making a profit but I do mind being offered £2K less for my car than I easily achieved the Carwow and being immovable on their price, car is being picked up on Monday!

If others are happy for dealers to make money on both ends of the deal and be immovable that great, it just not for me.
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There's a lot going on here.
  • Clearly they want to make profits which means buy low sell high like any other business
  • Sometimes a particular dealer has no desire to take your crappy trade-in that won't sit well alongside others on their forecourt, meaning they will send it straight to auction. The only reason they offer part exchange is because some customers want the smoothness that provides of exchanging cars directly.
  • Some use the 'immovable' line as a negotiating tactic, that's what they tell you on the day, then a few days later you get the follow-up email to check in, depending how you reply their stance then softens "I've had a chat with my manager and bla bla where do we need to be to strike a deal". I've been in a position where I would have signed on the dotted line there and then if they've shifted by a few hundred quid on the day, they missed their shot and we went to another dealer during their little charade
  • Do not take their low offers as an insult, just take it at face value. They offer £2k less for the above reasons.
 
  • Sure, that's what they would 'like', who wouldn't! (if they can make £2K on top by undervaluing my car an not dropping on their overpriced car then super, ther's 'one born every minute', unfortunately in this case for them not me! )
  • Well my 'crapppy' trade in was a 2015 BMW 4 Series which was clear worth approx £2k more than they offered, car is being picked up tomorrow from a dealer about 15 miles from me.
  • Nope, I walked away, I even asked would they budge now that I managed to get £2K more for my car. I spoke to the Retail Manager and he was immovable, there was no flexibility at all. The price was the price, well apart from my car which was worth £2k more than they'd offered, I'm actually surprised they didn't try upping the value of their car by £2k :D
  • I think they offered £2K less because they thought I might be a sucker that would be happy with that!
Fair to say I won't touching this dealer with a barge pole

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HEADRAT said:
  • Well my 'crapppy' trade in was a 2015 BMW 4 Series which was clear worth approx £2k more than they offered, car is being picked up tomorrow from a dealer about 15 miles from me.
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It's a nice car but if it isn't what they deal in then they don't really want it unless they have little choice. It'll cost them money to move it on someone else.

I had the same thing - my car was a 2015 BMW 5 Series which was in absolutely perfect condition. Perfect main dealer service history, it was in better condition than 99.9% of cars of its type. But none of the dealers I spoke to about its replacement really wanted it because they wouldn't retail it themselves and would have to move it on some other way. Once I'd realised this and instead sold it through a car buying platform where people who actually wanted it made bids on it the whole process was much easier.

  • I think they offered £2K less because they thought I might be a sucker that would be happy with that!
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If it was just that they'd have changed the offer when they realised you wouldn't do the deal. They didn't, so it wasn't that, was it?
 
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Agreed , what I think is a VW dealer has bought boat load of X lease Polestars that they probably paid too much for and are now stuck with them. I think somebody will have a very red face when they are stuck with them or have to drop the prices, they just haven't had them on their forecourt long enough yet to realise ;)

I'm sure other punters might come along that will be happy to take less for their car in PX and pay asking price, I've moved on now.
 
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HEADRAT said:
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Out of interest I'm going to follow the car, they've just dropped it by £400
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Will you be getting back to them if they drop it by £2k from the price at the time you talked to them?
Casual email perhaps, plenty scope for gloat fest?
 
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Had a pretty poor dealer experience last week, albeit at an independent dealer with a good reputation, not a main dealer.

Went to see an L405 Range Rover, supposedly a 1 owner car with FSH and 27k miles. I asked in advance about the condition of the car and was told that the wheels were a bit curbed but apart from that it was perfect. Turned up ready to pay the asking price in cash, but the car had a poorly painted front bumper, lots of scratches and scuffs all over the body, plus a large dent in the rear bumper. I opened the door and the interior buttons had the wear you'd expect from a 100k+ mile car so I'm fairly sure it had been clocked. I thought I was polite to the sales woman and just handed the keys back saying I didn't want to waste her time by test driving it as the condition wasn't what I'd hoped for, but she immediately got offended, saying she'd been selling cars for 20 years and that amount wear and tear was normal on any used car, that she could guarantee the mileage was original (how on earth can you guarantee that if you personally haven't owned the car since new) etc etc. If she really had been doing it that long you'd think she'd have learned to describe cars honestly and not waste time arguing with somebody who clearly doesn't want the car.
 
geekman said:
Had a pretty poor dealer experience last week, albeit at an independent dealer with a good reputation, not a main dealer.

Went to see an L405 Range Rover, supposedly a 1 owner car with FSH and 27k miles. I asked in advance about the condition of the car and was told that the wheels were a bit curbed but apart from that it was perfect. Turned up ready to pay the asking price in cash, but the car had a poorly painted front bumper, lots of scratches and scuffs all over the body, plus a large dent in the rear bumper. I opened the door and the interior buttons had the wear you'd expect from a 100k+ mile car so I'm fairly sure it had been clocked. I thought I was polite to the sales woman and just handed the keys back saying I didn't want to waste her time by test driving it as the condition wasn't what I'd hoped for, but she immediately got offended, saying she'd been selling cars for 20 years and that amount wear and tear was normal on any used car, that she could guarantee the mileage was original (how on earth can you guarantee that if you personally haven't owned the car since new) etc etc. If she really had been doing it that long you'd think she'd have learned to describe cars honestly and not waste time arguing with somebody who clearly doesn't want the car.
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Variations of the "Its a used car, what do you expect" have always been around but the standards do vary wildly between dealers. I remember car shopping a while ago I'd completely had enough of it so I used to love it when they said the "what do you expect" line because I had my response loaded up and ready to fire... "What I 'expect' is something in better condition than my 10 year old car that you tell me is worth one tenth of the one you are trying to sell. Not worse."

Another personal favourite is if you can get them to have a look at your trade in first then repeat the teeth sucking and finger rubbing on the one they are trying to sell.
 
HEADRAT said:
Fair to say I won't touching this dealer with a barge pole

Auto Trader UK - New and Used Cars For Sale

Find your next car with Auto Trader UK, the official #1 site to buy and sell new and used cars. Over 400,000 cars online. Simple, easy, quick!
www.autotrader.co.uk www.autotrader.co.uk
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NB you seem to have included your postcode in the link and it appears on the page under delivery costs. Well I assume it is your postcode.
 
So it's a franchised VW dealer, that's part of the reason they don't want your crappy (8 years old, non-VAG family marque) trade in. A lot of franchises have a policy along the lines of they don't want random cars over 5/7 years old or over 60k miles or whatever on their forecourt. Which means auction, which means little margin unless they buy it for a good price.

I used crappy to be deliberately emotive because it's in the eye of the beholder, you can have a great car to you, it still might be a crappy car in the context of an unconnected dealership.
 
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HangTime said:
So it's a franchised VW dealer, that's part of the reason they don't want your crappy (8 years old, non-VAG family marque) trade in. A lot of franchises have a policy along the lines of they don't want random cars over 5/7 years old or over 60k miles or whatever on their forecourt. Which means auction, which means little margin unless they buy it for a good price.

I used crappy to be deliberately emotive because it's in the eye of the beholder, you can have a great car to you, it still might be a crappy car in the context of an unconnected dealership.
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It depends on the dealership, recently bought a Polo for my mum and the VW dealership offered 1k more than WBAC and £300 more than Motorway on the trade in. I was surprised as the Polo was priced well turns out they had a 2nd hand car dealership where they sold off all the older trade ins from all their franchised dealers in the group regardless of brand.
 
HangTime said:
So it's a franchised VW dealer, that's part of the reason they don't want your crappy (8 years old, non-VAG family marque) trade in. A lot of franchises have a policy along the lines of they don't want random cars over 5/7 years old or over 60k miles or whatever on their forecourt. Which means auction, which means little margin unless they buy it for a good price.

I used crappy to be deliberately emotive because it's in the eye of the beholder, you can have a great car to you, it still might be a crappy car in the context of an unconnected dealership.
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The absolute rubbish main dealers were presenting on their used forecourt when I was looking last year would have me confused for them having any standards! Visible crash damage, enough water in lights for a gold fish to thrive, broken electronics. It took me 6 months to find somewhere, and a car, that I was in theory happy to part with my cash and even then I had to make compromises. I expect I'll be leasing again in a few years time when the market stabilises again and electric cars are the standard and not a premium.
 
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