CharlieB72

Perhaps I will have to bow down to the stronger sex and ask my wife to try the locals, one more time. She is very strait forward competent and incredibly bright. I have more or less decided tough to go to DtD because then I wont have to swallow to much crow when she gets a better deal than I can No, its about money for us. The locals would have to get very close and I would have to be very happy to go there which I am not particularly. I was just following advice on this board that I should give the local crew a chance. I would be made up if could have the local Independent service it and do any warranty. I much prefer Independent Specialists to Main Dealers. I think that they go the extra mile all of the time, are usually crewed by enthusiast who are factory trained and have worked at main dealerships anyway. Generally much cheaper also So more than Likely DtD and if possible an Independent if not a long drive to a recommended Skoda Dealership. Their is a guy locally with his own garage business, I know him very well. he has probably the best reputation for miles and does a lot of insurance work also. I thought that I heard someone locally say that he did or was happy to do servicing and Warranty work on new cars. I will have to consider asking him also. I am not quite sure how it works. I am not in a rush now as I wont be doing the scrapage thing, as after MOT Insurance and TAX etc and then driving up to where ever, I calculated that it would only be worth about £50 -£90 at the end over no scarpage and that is if the car passes an MOT without any hassle. My other car that is taxed that could be scrapped would need replacing so that is more cash.

My husband is an Independent Financial Adviser so with you all the way on independency! He works for himself, a fantastically ethical, qualified pension specialist, though people will still go to banks that will charge them extortionate amounts of commission with no service afterwards. Just had a bad experience with another main dealer that we have used for years on my husband's car. Always best to go with someone you trust rather than a big and flashy showroom. True colours are shown when something goes wrong. Must admit buying a new car is exciting and slightly terrifying in equal measure. I hope my Yeti lives up to the hype - I'm not planning on buying a new car again in a hurry. :no:

Supposedly after a house it is the biggest expense and the biggest hassle. I have no plans to buy again an a hurry either hopefully this will be with us for some time. I want to get it right and not be disappointed and have to change. I have this perception probably not accurate, that when I was young cars seem to be with us longer and cars stayed the same for ever and where valued. Now cars change at the drop of a hat, models age quickly are worthless within a few years and we do not keep them.

It's not some kind of game. This 'don't appear to keen' or 'trying to be pushy' lark isn't going to get you anywhere.

The best thing to do, is the level with the salesperson. At the end of the day you want to buy a car and the seller wants to sell the car, you are both heading in the same direction but from different ends of the field.

Just say, I've found an excellent price off the internet, I'm not afraid to buy off DtD but I'd rather support a local business and thought I should offer you the chance to match or get close before I place the order.

Just be friendly and it will go such a long way, also being a 'nice' customer will help massively if you ever have a problem with the car as you''ll already have a good rapport with the sales chap.

Hope this helps, and hope it doesn't come over as rude or anything, it's just my opinion from the other side of the fence!

Having been on both side of the Car Sales desk, I agree with your very honest post. I used to think of how I was taught to sell and turn it round (first to speak loses etc) but nowadays I look at available discounts and work out the percentage available. BMW, VAG etc have simialrish figures available (including back end money) so I aim for this. But, I would rather pay a little extra over DtD in order to give the dealer a smattering of something and then always take my car back for servicing and extras. Of course a promise of returning for servicing isn’t anything like as good as the cash in hand, but it might help. Too many dealers are going to the wall these days and I have no doubt the Interweb has played it’s hand in this. ‘Lookers’ proudly laughed at me in 2003 when I asked a trainer about interweb sales. “nobody in the UK has ever bought a car off the web and we doubt they will ever sell many on it!” the dealership shut in 2007.

I think it also important to remember that it’s possible that one day we will see so few dedicated dealerships that we will almost have to buy from the web :(

When I bought my Sedici, I told the salesman I used to be in the trade )in order to cut straight to the chase)and offered him a figure I thought was slightly optimistic (derisory), but felt they would rather offload the Fiat (they were Honda) at it’s SIV, rather than send it off to an auction (they’d had the car for a few weeks) and after 3 days the Sales manager brought me the stock list with the SIVs on it. I agreed to buy it for more or less cost, but took a little finance out to ease his sale. I also bought him and the salesman a nice bottle of Malt Whisky as a thank you

I would say that you should always let a salesman go through your finance options, no matter how you intend to buy your car. Sometimes the Manufacturer offers incentives to take insurance and the dealer may well put his bonus in to the pot as well. This can sometimes give you effectively 0% finance on a 3 year PCP for instance and if the dealer has got a bit of profit from the finance he may well give you the discount you would like from the car you are looking at. Be friendly with your salesman and you may well go further than trying to out-psych him/her. I saw customers walk away and the Sales manager/Business Manager, say I really liked that person and would like to help them. I’ll have a look at their figures again. If he could find the money we would ring the customer back. It does happen occasionally as even car sales people have hearts, well that’s what they told me

If you show you know exactly what you want and demonstrate, in a friendly way, you've done your research, I don't think it makes any difference if you are male or female. I phoned up, chatted to the dealer about why I wanted my spec, how Park Assist is a cheaper option than ESP + Front sensors and a few snippets of info from here that he may find interesting etc. We built up 'a rapport' and I mentioned the DtD price. I went in with the husband and 2 kids, had 2 test drives in different models, then they did us a cracking deal with great finance (price v similar to DtD). They knew we knew exactly what we were prepared to pay, so it was all very genial without unpleasant haggling. Personally I think that women can do better than men in these circumstances!

I agree. I have bought any cars over the years and sincerely doubt any man would have bettered my deals. I agree some women are hopeless at the ‘haggle’ and as such they really can be taken to the cleaners, but I believe that the difference in sex does not make a difference in how you can potentially negotiate. I ‘negotiate’ on almost everything that is of even moderate expense. I got 10% off a DAB radio recently by just smiling and asking for it at the ‘House of Fraser’ and have saved over £1,000 in total when buying my Home cinema.

A golden rule I believe in though, is the 'leave them a way out' one. A customer might come up with some stupid figures and a saleperson should always try to ease the potential embarrassment and this applies too to the salesperson. They should never close the door on a customers negotiations with any form of disdain. A pleasant atmosphere gets much better results than a hostile one

Do sales chaps help people out with their car once they have bought it if their is a warranty problem??

I did and as a rule, customers always seem to go to the salesperson that sold them the car anyway if they have a problem, even though it’s pretty unlikely that the salesperson could fix their motor.

I always felt I had a duty of care to the person who had spent their hard earned money on a faulty car and would at the very least, try to be the liaison between themselves and the service dept.

I am not too fond of the term haggling. That is what yo do in the Kashbah over souvenirs to take home and recycle.

The key to getting the "right price" is primarily knowing what it should be - research in places like the internet sellers and various listings etc. Another good source of finding the lowest traded prices is if you can find out what the leasing companies buy at. here in DK, it is published as the "taxable value" = the amount you get taxed on when you get a company leased car.

The work with the seller and buyer is then negotiating to get as close to that price as he/she will go or what you are prepared to pay. The negotiation can and should be on a polite, respective basis or either party will feel put upon and there will be no deal.

Both you and the seller ought to look at this as an ongoing relationship - the seller wants you to come back and buy another car in the future and you want their support in resolving any other relation with the dealership. In my opinion this is worth more than squeezing the last €50 out of the deal.

If the dealer does not want to participate in this scenario - go elsewhere. If you don't, do not be surprised if the dealer doesn't either.

...........but start having done your homework.

Edited 25 January, 201016 yr by Agerbundsen