Anybody know some bloke answered phone today & said they have went bust.

All 3 dealers near me owned by them.

Have a look here.

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/general-car-chat/dealers-close/58382/?highlight=saltdean

Good ridance!!

I noticed the accident damaged octy II demonstrator from citygates was in the bexhill dealers today when I went to collect some trim!!

See what happens when everyone wants £2,000 off a new car.

Dealers go bust. No dealers, no cars.

Dealers go bust. No dealers, no cars.

I'll happily pay extra for a car over an internet deal if the dealer can put in some value-add to the deal. Most are not prepared to though and have a "take it or leave it" attitude....

Chris

See what happens when everyone wants £2' date='000 off a new car.

Dealers go bust. No dealers, no cars.[/quote']

Two ways of looking at it. One dealer sells a car at full price with no discount in 2 days and one sells 4 cars with a discount of £1100 on each car in 2 days.

How can the latter be bad? Maybe this is why some garages rip us off with extortionate service charges.

There is always pros and cons for everything but if, for instance, my local dealer offer me a couple of hundred quid off an Octavia and gave me a poor trade in value for my car and then I find out I can save about £1100 elsewhere, is it any wonder i'd go somewhere else?

Unfortunately though, it means I have to fight my credit card company to get my deposit back so I can save my deal.

I'll happily pay extra for a car over an internet deal if the dealer can put in some value-add to the deal. Most are not prepared to though and have a "take it or leave it" attitude....

Chris

I agree that attitude doesn't really work. We all know you can buy a car off the web. But surely helping out your local business by paying an extra

Two ways of looking at it. One dealer sells a car at full price with no discount in 2 days and one sells 4 cars with a discount of

I can see your point. But the dealer that sells 4 at discount will make hardly anything but will get 4 registrations which will help their target.

I will be honest, I don't know how that side of it really works, but I bet if you talked to 10 different dealers, you would get 10 different discounts on a new car.

It's the way some say that they can't go below a certain amount and then gladly let you walk out the door.

I just never really understand that.

I guess the 3 dealers that have closed must have been in trouble for sometime.

Always a shame when a business goes to the wall.

What is going to happen to the staff?

Unfortunately though, it means I have to fight my credit card company to get my deposit back so I can save my deal.

Phone Sparshatts of Fareham and ask to speak to Steve Cross (He is the Dealer Principle and a friend of mine), I was in there today talking about it with him and there are some arrangements in place.

I will be honest' date=' I don't know how that side of it really works, but I bet if you talked to 10 different dealers, you would get 10 different discounts on a new car.

It's the way some say that they can't go below a certain amount and then gladly let you walk out the door.[/quote']

Different dealers will have different overheads, so they'll have different bottom lines which they can operate to.

If they're not going to at least hit this bottom line, there's no point in doing the sale, hence they'll let you leave...

Rob.

Story from the Brighton Argus paper is here:

http://www.theargus.co.uk/the_argus/archive/2006/07/25/BUSINESS1ZM.html

I got on well with after-sales at Saltdean Garage's Peacehaven service department, even though others have said they could be rubbish - well for me they were better than a mate's dealings with an Audi dealer! Anyway, that's why I bought the 06 vRS, better the devil you know sort of thing.

Service department was always very busy so why has it gone bust?

My mate with the Octavia MkII vRS Estate phoned Skoda today as he had a fixed price servicing deal. Anyway that's honoured by Skoda UK so that's OK, but the Skoda lady mentioned they are actually bit shocked by the demise of these three dealers in the group and they expect 'something' to be sorted out but in the meantime they recommended Crawley as the option for us on the South Coast.

Clarion Cars in Worthing, however, still advertise as being Skoda Specialists - I seem to recall them getting a good review on here when they were a proper dealer. Clarion aren't a main dealer but I thought they lost the franchise to Ballamys (who were better at sales than Saltdean but not so hot on service IMHO)

For me the Fabia needs a service very soon as it's clicked over 9000 miles... oh well I suppose Creepy Crawley it is then... Can't believe that there won't be a dealer on the South Coast for long, enough taxis to service for a start!

See what happens when everyone wants

Believe me' date=' that has nothing to do with why these particular dealers went bust, sh*te service and arrogant staff resulting in a general loss of business is the main cause.

But that is the nature of any sales driven business, I was in it for years, always met my targets year after year, if your a good salesman you will find ways of selling things, you build up your sales by retaining repeat customers, if you look after your customers they will come back, if you dont they wont, likewise they will recommend you if you give a good service at a reasonable price (you dont have to be cheapest) but even if you are the cheapest and still give a sh*te service they wont recommend you.[/quote']

I can't say that I can agree with any of those statements, the service I got from Citygates was pretty much first class and the staff were friendly and helpful and because of that I bought two cars from them. It seems like youv'e had a rough experience with them though.

Different dealers will have different overheads' date=' so they'll have different bottom lines which they can operate to.

If they're not going to at least hit this bottom line, there's no point in doing the sale, hence they'll let you leave...

Rob.[/quote']

Yeah, I can totally understand that, just find it unbelieveable in this day and age that you have to fight for a discount only to be told the lowest they can go is

Yeah, I can totally understand that, just find it unbelieveable in this day and age that you have to fight for a discount only to be told the lowest they can go is

By finding people who are willing to accept a discount of

it cost about

it cost about

By finding people who are willing to accept a discount of £300 below list price...

That said' date=' it's kind of strange that people *expect* a discount when buying a car...surely this simply means the list price is inflated?

Rob.[/quote']

RRP is the same for anything. Look at cds and look how they differ in prices and not just at online stores.

Why shouldn't people expect a discount. RRPs are there for guidelines (and are normally higher than the expected selling price, for a purpose I presume). What would be the point of a salesperson really if all we are going to do is pay the price that is in the brochure. Would there be any need for them?

As you say, there will always be people that will pay the full asking price or a very slight deduction.

Where the f**k did you get that figure from?.

i got that figure from sombody i know who works for volkswagen in milton keynes

What would be the point of a salesperson really if all we are going to do is pay the price that is in the brochure. Would there be any need for them?

If they weren't spending so much time haggling over

If they weren't spending so much time haggling over

Phone Sparshatts of Fareham and ask to speak to Steve Cross (He is the Dealer Principle and a friend of mine), I was in there today talking about it with him and there are some arrangements in place.

A quick thankyou to Stu for pointing me in the direction of Sparshatts. Didn't speak to Steve, but spoke to Grant who, along with Skoda Customer Services have been great.

Grant matched the deal for both the new Octavia and my part exchange price for the Fabia (he did say that Saltdean gave me a brilliant deal) and along with Skoda C S, located teh car that I have ordered and should be in the UK on monday or Tuesday and I should be able t pick it up in 2-3 weeks (I am on holiday for a week during this period).

I had to pay the