I'm in touch with a dealer about a used VRS petrol estate. It's a 64 plate manual with 28k miles. Great spec, winter pack including front screen, canton sound, adaptive lights, leather, full dealer history.

 

My only bugbear is they're not moving more than a token gesture on the ticket price or trade-in. The price is quite good - it'll be just a hair over £16k.

 

Anything else I can try to feel like I'm doing a good deal at least or should I just be pleased to have managed to pin a car down with the exact spec I wanted, as they are very rare and go like hotcakes.

I think you have answered your own question. Dealers don't move much on their used car prices as they are priced to sell.

 

You have already said it is a good priced, rare, go like hot cakes and the spec you want. Buy it now before someone else does.

See if they'll include a set of flaps and full tank, thus taking it a hair below?

Ask them to chuck in voucher to use against the cost of a service, a free MOT, tank of fuel, etc, etc. 

 

As above, if it's the car/spec you've been looking for then go for it and anything else you can get thrown in is just an added bonus. 

 

Regarding the p/x price, have you compared it with WeByAnyCar or someone similar?  Dealers will often price match those as a bare minimum.

If the Trade in is a Mk2 Fabia vRS they want them like they want a hole in the head so they will often offer £300-£500 below WBAC quote so that they know they can wipe their nose.

They can not just break even on flogging the Twincharger while also cutting their profit on the car you are buying.

That is unless that is another hard to shift car, then that is a different story.

As others have mentioned try and get extra things such as tax, fuel, services, extra warranty etc. If they won't move on the figures.

 

There aren't loads of used petrol VRS out there and now everybody wants Petrols again so unfortunately dealers know they can sell these cars a few times over. Even more so if they are well specced.

 

Don't accept a deal on anything less than you are happy with, but also ask yourself would you be gutted if you let this one slip.

So you would be happier if it was advertised at £1k more, but then you got £1k knocked off??

 

To be honest, from my experience its very rare that main dealers budge on asking price.

There are loads of them, not as scarce as hens teeth or anything like it,

and more away to be returned after the end of 2 & 3 year leases.

18 plates coming out next week and the 64 plate will be just another Mk3 petrol vRS on sale in the UK that makes a Dealer less than selling a new car and finance or leasing a new car.

 

 

Edited 23 February, 20188 yr by AwaoffSki

49 minutes ago, courty said:

See if they'll include a set of flaps and full tank, thus taking it a hair below?

Flaps on VRS? Have you ever seen Ferrari or Lambo with mudflaps? 

3 minutes ago, Lyminton said:

Flaps on VRS? Have you ever seen Ferrari or Lambo with mudflaps? 

 

Love the way you're comparing a VRS to a Lamborghini. Pretty certain the Urus has mudflaps...

 

I've got flaps on my VrS estate, no crap flicking up behind me - just high levels of NOX 

Going by that price I wish I'd taken a VrS petrol estate on PCP back in 2013! My mint condition 63 plate Elegance Estate with 1.6 diesel engine, could have been bought outright this time last year for £9700 but had a trade in value barely £8500, even with diesel going rather out of fashion that is a huge difference in relative value. I'm not sure that I'd regard £16,000 as a good price for any Skoda Octavia more than 3 years old, good for the dealers maybe!

 

The market is full of good second hand cars but trading in ties your hands.

Consider offloading the Fabia separately (if that’s the trade in) and you can then negotiate a real deal.

1 hour ago, AllanDJ said:

Going by that price I wish I'd taken a VrS petrol estate on PCP back in 2013! My mint condition 63 plate Elegance Estate with 1.6 diesel engine, could have been bought outright this time last year for £9700 but had a trade in value barely £8500, even with diesel going rather out of fashion that is a huge difference in relative value. I'm not sure that I'd regard £16,000 as a good price for any Skoda Octavia more than 3 years old, good for the dealers maybe!

 

 

You say that but I'm not sure it would have given you a healthy figure at the end. Book/trade price is very different to a greedy retailer's forecourt price 

 

I bought a 3 year old 15k example in 2016 at a dealer (presumably off the back of someone's PCP ending) and "only" paid £14k. Very well specced too. Can't imagine the 3yr value for the original owner was more than £12k. Hope the original owner got a healthy discount, as the list price with options nudged over £30k and that's quite a loss in 3 years.

 

*Edit - mine is hatch not estate but I think it's mostly still relevant, but the estate would have cost slightly more and be worth more Vs hatch.

Edited 23 February, 20188 yr by ahenners

The losses on some cars are a joke! My Aug14 vRS Estate DSG TDi was bought at 3 years and 3 months old and I paid £11k with every option I wanted bar sat nav (Winter pack, Black pack, Full leather, Gemini's plus the standard vRS spec). Had 75k on the clock though, so that's where the saving came from, not that it matters as it's now got 81k on the clock 3 months later. I think £16k for a low mileage petrol is ok these days even though the first owner who probably took out a PCP on it wouldn't have seen any extra equity!

4 hours ago, Kahunajb said:

I think you have answered your own question. Dealers don't move much on their used car prices as they are priced to sell.

 

You have already said it is a good priced, rare, go like hot cakes and the spec you want. Buy it now before someone else does.

Totally agree. 

 

If it's the car you want and you've already admitted it's a good price then what's the problem? 

 

I think we've gotten into a culture of haggling with everything (which isn't always a bad thing), but sometimes a good deal is a good deal and you either take advantage of it or let it pass you by hoping for something even better to come along. 

I have just bought a two year old diesel DSG hatch with 23k, paid £14500 which was a good price, got a tan of fuel and the tax thrown in to get the little bit more, I like you always want more for my pound but sometimes you have to just bite the bullet and accept its not coming down any further, I do agree with you about dealers though, I find now that many wont budge an inch

You might be able to haggle for 'cash' if you can finance elsewhere and sell your current car privately, but the last couple of times we've used a dealer there has been 0 wiggle room on price, barring squeezing mats, mudflaps and a tank of fuel out of them.

Though for a diesel you might have the upperhand now the government has deemed them evil.

I’ve spent the last few months looking at used Octavias and the Skoda dealers will not budge much on price. I got a 1.4, and without any trade in, they came down £100. I’ve called the bluff of a couple of others and walked, and they waved me off !! They are businesses trying to make a profit so it’s fair enough.

In the end I know I paid slightly over the odds using a franchised dealer, but the car had every option I would have specced if new, 12 months warranty, 12 months MOT, service done as it was due in a couple of months, 12 months AA cover, and fuel. So I was happy. If there was any problem after collection I have confidence they would sort it out.

 They told me the price was the price and they knew it would sell, and theirs was the cheapest 1.4 estate available from the franchised network - which it was, in fact it also had about £1500 worth of factory options which most of the others didn’t...

I have noticed that used diesel prices are less than the petrols now.

 

Edited 23 February, 20188 yr by classic

7 hours ago, AllanDJ said:

Going by that price I wish I'd taken a VrS petrol estate on PCP back in 2013! My mint condition 63 plate Elegance Estate with 1.6 diesel engine, could have been bought outright this time last year for £9700 but had a trade in value barely £8500, even with diesel going rather out of fashion that is a huge difference in relative value. I'm not sure that I'd regard £16,000 as a good price for any Skoda Octavia more than 3 years old, good for the dealers maybe!

 

 

Just paid £8250 for a good condition  elegance estate 1.6D from a dealer with 17" alloys & KESSY ++. Think your trade in value's quite good?

They will want the sale in this month for monthly targets.  Tell them to drop it for a completion this month if you can complete in time that is. 

I waited two months and the price dropped £1k...

Arguing about what a good deal is or what other paid for their cars...  a complete waste of time. The market fluctuates, used car prices can sometime INCREASE - yes increase - it all depends what's happening in the trade at any specific time. Same with discounts and haggling etc. It all depends on what the dealer paid for the car and how much profit they are willing to sacrifice. There is simply no right and wrong answer that applies to every dealership.

 

It's not rocket science. Go online to autotrader or Skoda's own website, and see what a similar car is selling for. If it's near the lowest price then unless the dealer made a killing on buying the car, there isn't much room to negotiate - why should the dealer sell the car to you when he/she can easily sell it to someone else?

 

From experience, I find it very difficult to believe a main dealer can have a great deal on a car that old. Not only do they have certain overhead costs associated with the deal, they'll have to stick on a manufacturers warranty if the car is on the 'approved' list.  As ever do your homework...  enter the details of the car in to several auctions sites like "webuyanycar.com" "wewantanycar.com" Evan Halshaw's car buying service and Arnold Clark.  See how much the car is really worth (you may get a shock if you're expecting £16,000 on a 3rd year old Skoda!) then add around £1000 - £1500 to make the sale worthwile for the dealer.  If that price is below £16,000 then it's not a good deal. If it's about equal to the price then it's a decent buy. If it's over the price - snap the car up as fast as you can.    (that's assuming some savvy buyer hasn't already bought it).

Edited 23 February, 20188 yr by Guest

5 hours ago, MrWow said:

 

Just paid £8250 for a good condition  elegance estate 1.6D from a dealer with 17" alloys & KESSY ++. Think your trade in value's quite good?

I just handed my car back, with such wretched residual values there wasn't any way that I would trade a car in for at the very best £1200 less than it would cost me to clear the finance off! That's why I'd be very wary about paying anything like £16,000 for any Octavia Estate car which is over three years old, no matter how good a spec the car has. With so many of these cars on the road now and a large number about to be traded in for the new registration in March, I would tend to think there would be far better deals to be had than that, particularly if you were looking at high spec diesel models which have taken a bit of a bath in their residual values over the last year or so.

A good deal is only relevant to the purchaser. If it’s the car type you are after, got the spec you wanted, has acceptable miles and age and fits the realistic budget you have in mind for a car of that age and miles, would you really walk away just because they wouldn’t drop £500? After all, it was probably priced right to draw you in in the first place if you have done your research properly. 

 

Otherwise try to get as many accessories as possible added into the deal, even if the bits are just piled up in the boot for you to play with instead of fitted, still better than buying yourself at full price. Tank of fuel, cost of tax, scuffs and marks sorted out esp wheels, new wiper blades, serviced, roof bars even if you don’t need them - can always flog on later. 

 

Took 6 hours on Xmas Eve negotiating a deal on a Golf GTi once. Knew I had a good deal done when they refused to include the cost of painting a roof spoiler. Salesman went home late absolutely battered!

Edited 23 February, 20188 yr by BigEjit

Recently bought another Octavia and on my wish list was Xenons, Columbus and Winter Pack.

Found a rare one with all three and self parking.

Dealer knew he had me over a barrel really due to the spec but still managed a £250 discount and 2 years servicing.

When I purchased I was told 12 months approved used car warranty but when I took delivery and read the documentation I realised the original owner had purchsed the optional 5 year warranty so I now have two years remaining.

The car originally had a private plate fitted so I thought I'd check what the original owner is driving now

He's had another new Octavia, same engine, same gearbox, same trim level and even the same colour.