When to buy a new Karoq

[SUP]

Hi folks, 

When would you say is the best time to buy a new Karoq 1.5 TSI DSG Sportline in February or March.  Škoda have a £3250 deposit contribution offer on until 29 February 2024 but I wondered if there might be a better deal to be had in March when the new plates are released?

 

 

[Karock]

I doubt it as normally many buyers wait for the new registration and being just after Xmas  jan/ feb tend to be poor sales months for dealers and they offer incentives to try and meet their sales quotas. I have always found that Jan-feb are the best times to buy , you can generally push dealears to give a few extras on top of their best offer.

[chieflordy]

I don’t think it is likely the deposit contribution will go up from that level, movement more likely down. Also you should be able to negotiate a dealer discount which is quite seperate from the VWFS deposit contribution. No exact science but towards the  the quarter or year end is usually a good time for that, with the, having sales targets to meet etc.

[Stonekeeper]

Isn't the offer on existing stock new cars and not Really new cars that you order?

 

So i would imagine they are already registered.

 

The offer being available to shift them?

[xman]

I think about "the best time to buy (for cash)" a lot.

 

IIRC there was a Skoda email promo in Jan and an even more enhanced promo this month. "Special events" as Skoda puts it. Unusually this time the local dealer attached a very long list of brand new cars avaible for immediate delivery.

 

Interestingly I was hanging around my Skoda showroom last week waiting for an MOT for around 2½ hours. Most of the time there was no one else in the showroom and no one in the used car lot outside. Then an (very) elderly couple came and were speaking for some time with a young salesman. I overheard a small part of the conversation and the sales guy admitted that there was extremely little footfall this month. He did say that normally March is much better with new registrations but then it falls off again.

 

So this month may be a good time to haggle hard, especially if they've got stock. Then I feel you'll have to wait till around June when there is another lull.

 

But Im hoping that car sales will be in decline all year, forcing manufacturers to put more incentives both to customers and to dealers allowing heavier discounts

 

Even then I doubt I'll be easily tempted.

[xman]

4 minutes ago, Stonekeeper said:

Isn't the offer on existing stock new cars and not Really new cars that you order?

 

So i would imagine they are already registered.

 

The offer being available to shift them?

You may be right. Under stupid new regs they have to sell iirc 22% EV this year or face steep penalties for every ICE car sold in excess.

 

https://www.whatcar.com/advice/buying/what-is-the-zev-mandate/n26196

 

So that long list I referred to may be pre reg 2023

Edited 24 February by xman

[chieflordy]

PCP deposit contribution offers are also on factory orders, ie they still honour it when the car comes 6 months or whatever later.  Unless there is something specific about this particular offer, excluding factory offers, which I doubt.

[Redboy]

There were a lot of 23 reg Karoqs with under 50 miles on the clock for around £29-30K when I bought mine in December. It had 8 miles on the clock, lots of decent kit but unfortunately no ACC and heated screen. I figured I could live without those extras and enjoy the savings. 

[kodiaqsportline]

5 hours ago, Stonekeeper said:

Isn't the offer on existing stock new cars and not Really new cars that you order?

 

So i would imagine they are already registered.

 

The offer being available to shift them?

 

No, it's on all orders made by 29th Feb. The car will be brand new, you will be the 1st registered owner.

 

What it doesn't say and may be worth finding out, is is there a delivery date stipulated in the T&C's?  They usually say something like odered by 29th March and delivered by 1st August or something, but I can't see that mentioned. Perhaps it's just on any order.

 

As per above, if you're lucky you may find a dealer who 'needs' to sell a car to make their monthly sales target rather than a dealer who just 'wants' to sell a car. It once happened to me with our Ateca.

 

7 hours ago, SUP said:

When would you say is the best time to buy a new Karoq 1.5 TSI DSG Sportline in February or March.  Škoda have a £3250 deposit contribution offer on until 29 February 2024 but I wondered if there might be a better deal to be had in March when the new plates are released?

 

I'm going to be pedantic again - you're not buying the car in Feb, you're only ordering it, which meets the T&C.  The contribution is normally £2250 but if you order in Feb, Skoda will apply an extra £1000 bonus.

 

Never say never, but from my experience, when Skoda have these 'special' offers, they don't tend to be replicated in the following months. They usually only offer them once or twice a year.

 

drivethedeal is a good source for information on current offers. I've no idea how their prices compare to local dealers or CarWow these days.

 

Hope that helps

 

Edited 24 February by kodiaqsportline

[Rory]

When we got our Karoq last Aug we really wanted a new one but there were just none around - yet Skoda had a summer offer of £2500 deposit contribution even though lead-time was 9mths.   Kamiq had £3500 on it, and leadtime on that was even longer.  

 

Dealer told us Skoda had got in a bit of a panic as the number of people renewing PCPs had dropped right off.   Maybe the same is happening now?

 

Back in Aug the dealer put an order on for us to have a new one, so we could grab the PCP contribution.  It was always going to be a lot to change, but they indicated around £6K.  The car turned up in Dec (so very early) and the dealer was talking about £13K to change, so I cancelled it. 

 

A thing dealers do with PCP customers is try to get them into a new car before their current PCP expires - the salesman told me that's become very difficult as px values have dropped so much that there's no equity in the customers current vehicles.

 

 

Don't know if it still works, but do people use CarWow or DriveTheDeal these days?   We got a great price on our last Tiguan using CarWow, and the car came from a nearby dealer who got us the exact spec and colour we wanted from pipeline stock - it arrived 8 days after we ordered it, although they had said it could be 4-6 weeks.    We also have access to Affinity through the Blue Light scheme and Griifin through Boundless (ex-CSMA).   Griffen had very low pricing on Karoq last year but you had to wait full leadtime and pick the car up from Aldershot - I've bought ars from a distance before and it's never been straightforward and Aldershot is a long way for us.

Edited 24 February by Rory

[kodiaqsportline]

Don't know if it still works, but do people use CarWow or DriveTheDeal these days? 

 

I used DriveTheDeal for our latest car. Any seller being some distance away can have it's downside but you have to factor that against the savings. Due to several delays in delivery ( not the dealer's fault ) I cancelled that order without issue and received a full refund of my deposit. Had been looking around relatively locally for an alternative, didn't see anything, one dealer said they had a car I'd wanted on it's way, the price was £3000 more than DTD, I mentioned DTD price and said I'd just re-order and put up with the wait. Next thing I know, he price matched them !!!  An extra £3000 of his already discounted price, just like that.    I hate dealers., much prefer Carwow or DTD not just because of potential savings, but because there's no negotiating. 

Edited 25 February by kodiaqsportline

[Rory]

My experience was some years ago but DtD were rude - they called me but wouldn't take the discussion any further unless I agreed to order based on the factory lead time, and we needed the car quickly as the other car needed to go to a family member whose car had reached end-of-life.

 

CarWow worked brilliantly - apparently the dealers know where you are and it was noticeable that the dealers furthest away quoted lower.   I got the best offer from a dealer in S Wales, but that's a long and messy journey.   Our next nearest but one VW dealer (14 miles away) wasn't far out, so went to see them and there was some further movement on price so in the end they were pretty close on cost.  Still a few hundred more than DtD's price though.

 

What's daft is they have to pay something in the region of £400 to CarWow, yet I'd walked out of a sister branch on the one we bought from as they'd refused to negotiate.

[SurreyJohn]

On 24/02/2024 at 19:27, Rory said:

Dealer told us Skoda had got in a bit of a panic as the number of people renewing PCPs had dropped right off.   Maybe the same is happening now?

 

Back in Aug the dealer put an order on for us to have a new one, so we could grab the PCP contribution.  It was always going to be a lot to change, but they indicated around £6K.  The car turned up in Dec (so very early) and the dealer was talking about £13K to change, so I cancelled it. 

 

A thing dealers do with PCP customers is try to get them into a new car before their current PCP expires - the salesman told me that's become very difficult as px values have dropped so much that there's no equity in the customers current vehicles.

PCP deals are apparently in big trouble, just look at the current Karoq offer (with Feb sale)

 

https://www.skoda.co.uk/finance/deals/karoq-pcp

 

Click on the green calculate button, default is :

cash price £28,365

total payable £32,034.14

 

so basically, deal is pay them £3700, although they jazz it up as they give you £3250, although it ought to be obvious that you then have to pay them £7k to end up £3700 higher than start price.

 

Then when you look at the deposit, it's £5105, which is same as 20 (yes twenty) months of £252.

 

Why would anyone want to do PCP on those terms, if can find £5100 for a deposit then must have some financial sense to have saved that up, and if got financial common sense, going to see through any distorted headline monthly payment figure, and look at total cost of the deal.

 

The other reason deals are in trouble is many had big problems changing at end of a deal that expired in lockdown (and for months afterwards), scarcity of new cars resulted in people hitting the option point, unable to get replacement car, so paying the balloon payment, as only other option was no vehicle.  Having bought it, many are keeping it.

Edited 25 February by SurreyJohn

[kodiaqsportline]

3 hours ago, SurreyJohn said:

Why would anyone want to do PCP on those terms, if can find £5100 for a deposit then must have some financial sense to have saved that up

 

Depending on the offer, I'll use PCP to buy the car then settle the loan - for me it works out cheaper than just paying cash, but I'd never belittle anyone who takes out a PCP for the full period. We're all different. I don't know, nor am I interested in another person's financial situation.

 

The £5100 deposit could be the equity in the car being traded in. It all depends on the current market and their previous PCP arrangement. They may not have a previous arrangement and they're funding the deposit with their current car? Who knows.

 

Six months ago, Joe Average could have easily put down £5100 from part of the equity in the car. 

 

All I will say is that I try to keep an eye on the market as I'm always on the lookout for a deal, and at the present time I see no deals. Regardless of how you fund the car,with high new prices and low trade prices, I'm not sure there are any bargains to be had.  However if anyone is on the lookout for an EV, there are some, what I think quite incredible deals on pre-reg cars. The reason they're incredible is because with certain EV's, supply outstrips demand - they can't shift them. 

[Choclab]

When I bought my Octavia, I had a £12k trade in, but only £6k allowed as deposit. Anyone taking deal, and unable to pay off immediately, ended up paying a lot of money in final figure (but I did drive out with £6k in my pocket. With the Karoq, going the HP route, all of my trade in value went as deposit, so less to pay back overall, and so less interest paid. So many go the PCP route, but don’t realise how much it will cost in the long term.

[Rory]

16 hours ago, SurreyJohn said:

Then when you look at the deposit, it's £5105, which is same as 20 (yes twenty) months of £252.

 

 

Why would anyone want to do PCP on those terms, if can find £5100 for a deposit then must have some financial sense to have saved that up, and if got financial common sense, going to see through any distorted headline monthly payment figure, and look at total cost of the deal.

 

 

Some people just live their lives based on monthly payments. 

 

We know young people get everything on monthly payments - iPhone, gym etc etc, but as I close in on retirement I've been somewhat surprised to find a lot of retired people do it too - I suppose it makes sense if you've got a final salary and state pension coming in, you know exactly where you are and that nothing is going to change.

 

It could well be possible to Personal Contract Hire (PCH) the Karoq in that example for about the same monthly payment but without any deposit, so overall that could well be cheaper.  But leasing doesn't have the same flexibility as PCP and everyone hopes their car on PCP will be worth more than the GFV (optional final payment) so they think they'll get something back (or be able to buy the car at a bargain price).

Edited 26 February by Rory