Hi there, i have been umming and arring for a while but I think I am going to take the plunge and replace my ageing Honda Civic with a Fabia VRS.

I am looking at spending absolutely no more than £7000 on one. I have seen one on the net in a Skoda garage near my brothers house in London. Its an 03 with 44000 on the clock for £6990. I know its often stated you should not just buy the first one you see but this appears to be a good deal?

What does anyone think I should be looking at in terms of bargaining with the dealer? Should i be looking at a discount, a warranty etc.... ? (I am paying cash for it by the way)

Is £7000 going to get me a decent one as I know this is bottom end of the scale for them?

Any advice on this would be really helpful as I am a bit wet behind the ears with dealerships and bargaining etc, plus £7000 is a lot of money to be spending without a bit of thought!

PS Does anyone think I am mad travelling 170 miles to have a look at this car or should I hold fire and get one locally?

Thanks

Alex

You should always be able to secure a discount when dealing with main dealers.

Lot's of people say you should walk in knowing what you will be willing to pay and obviously start haggling a little above that. The next step is to leave when they offer you their 'final price', making sure they have your contact details first. You may receive a call a couple of days later offering you an even better deal. If not, just go back in there and do the deal at the original price offered.

I guess the most important thing to remember is that there is very rarely any excuse to jump straight in, in other words there will always be other cars available and there will always be 'discounts' available. Don't let the first suave salesman talk you into thinking he's offering you the sale of the century etc as that just isn't true!

Does anyone think I am mad travelling 170 miles to have a look at this car or should I hold fire and get one locally?

Was in similar situation last Nov / Dec.

Nearly travelled same distance.

Held on a bit longer - found one 10 miles away AND they had an offer on for old motor trade-ins which I couldn't refuse

Bide your time if poss (I know it hurts). Best around Dec as people are to busy thinking about Xmas and saving up so the dealers have to 'entice'.

If your Honda will hold up then do some more thinking, reading up - and saving up - and get the lowest mileage model you can get (if you can get it from a Skoda dealer then you should get a 1yr warranty which certainly helps with peace of mind).

Took me 6 weeks after selling my car to get one at a decent price

04, 28k, good nick in and out, 7.5k

I had a set price in mind when I went looking for a VRS, I had a price of £9000 and I picked min up for £8995, still waiting to pick it up, only two days to wait now!

I managed to secure 6 months free road tax and lots of free goodies ie free safty checks, free courtesy cars, etc etc.

The salesman was fantastic explained everything about the car, and treated us as customers and normal people, no pushy tatics, gave us a wee while to decide if we wanted it, explained everything in plain english.

When it came to trade ins he gave a price for a car that he had not seen as we're trading tow cars for this and when we showed him the car next day said it was worth the price quoted.

When looking for a vrs, ask them about the history of the car, check the condition, ours had a ciggie burn in the seat so getting new drivers seat out of it, check for any dings/stratches ours had a wee bump in the front bumper been touched up, check the tyres for wear, ours had one low on tread so thats going to be replaced by the garage, see if you can get the warrenty topped up as we have 12 months warrenty compared to 5 months at no extra charge.

Go for the test drive and be prepared to enjoy, ours was a twenty mile test drive, listen out for any untoward noises that might be apparent.

Good luck in finding the right vrs for you, I've made the right decision going from a focus to a smaller car again.

David