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Thread: Discount car websites

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    Discount car websites

    I was just about to buy a new car from a main dealer and I thought I'd better search around for ammunition to knock the price down as much as I can, when I came across discount car sales. For example, Nationwide Cars, UK Car Discount & 4 wheels 4 U.

    The price of my choice of car is nearly £3000 cheaper!

    I've spoken to one of them and they say that they sell in greater volumes than the dealers so they get bigger discounts and they have no showrooms and therefore no overheads.

    It all seems good, but I'm still very skeptical.
    The old expression "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is" seems to apply here, but I don't want to spend £3k more if I don't have to.

    Has anyone come across this type of car sales before? or even bought from them?

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    Re: Discount car websites

    Quote Originally Posted by Gav View Post
    I was just about to buy a new car from a main dealer and I thought I'd better search around for ammunition to knock the price down as much as I can, when I came across discount car sales. For example, Nationwide Cars, UK Car Discount & 4 wheels 4 U.

    The price of my choice of car is nearly £3000 cheaper!

    I've spoken to one of them and they say that they sell in greater volumes than the dealers so they get bigger discounts and they have no showrooms and therefore no overheads.

    It all seems good, but I'm still very skeptical.
    The old expression "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is" seems to apply here, but I don't want to spend £3k more if I don't have to.

    Has anyone come across this type of car sales before? or even bought from them?
    I bought a 3 month old Renault Megane coupe cabriolet from Trade Sales in Slough, absolutely brilliant and £3K cheaper than anywhere else at the time. They also do new cars. I think you've hit the nail on the head with the lower overheads - for example Trade Sales don't do test drives so I did the test drives and model comparisons at main dealers but bought from Trade Sales. Another good one is Motor Provider, New & Used Car Supermarket, Large Choice of Cars In Stock"

    Marcus

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    Re: Discount car websites

    Quote Originally Posted by marcusj View Post
    I bought a 3 month old Renault Megane coupe cabriolet from Trade Sales in Slough, absolutely brilliant and £3K cheaper than anywhere else at the time. They also do new cars. I think you've hit the nail on the head with the lower overheads - for example Trade Sales don't do test drives so I did the test drives and model comparisons at main dealers but bought from Trade Sales. Another good one is Motor Provider, New & Used Car Supermarket, Large Choice of Cars In Stock"
    I just spoke to someone in the trade and got the real answer.
    I'm getting 0% finance over 3 or 4 years from the main dealer, so they won't shift on book price, whereas the "other" dealer does about 10% interest.
    Both work out the same over 3 years, but I guess you could save yourself £3k if you have the cash.
    I'll stick with the main dealer and 0% I think.

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    Re: Discount car websites

    Quote Originally Posted by Gav View Post
    I just spoke to someone in the trade and got the real answer.
    I'm getting 0% finance over 3 or 4 years from the main dealer, so they won't shift on book price, whereas the "other" dealer does about 10% interest.
    Both work out the same over 3 years, but I guess you could save yourself £3k if you have the cash.
    I'll stick with the main dealer and 0% I think.
    ...and that's the trouble with 'interest free loans'. There are, of course, no such thing; originally everybody was offering them but if you paid cash you got a lower price.

    Hang on, says Parliament, that's misrepresentation. If you're paying a higher price for the product, then that has to be included in the interest calculation. So the price of everything goes up in order to pay for everyone's interest free loans.

    You can't go to DFS and say - OK, what's the cash price? - because if they give you one, they're breaking the law. So if you have cash, don't shop where 0% interest is on offer.

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    Re: Discount car websites

    What car are you looking for?

    I had an interesting conversation with the recovery guy about cars on Monday, whilst being towed home, I therefore now know loads of stuff about cars

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    Re: Discount car websites

    Quote Originally Posted by David Bailey View Post
    What car are you looking for?

    I had an interesting conversation with the recovery guy about cars on Monday, whilst being towed home, I therefore now know loads of stuff about cars
    Small (but big enough to occasionally hold 5), cheap, economical, automatic & comfortable enough for long journeys.
    Actually I've pretty much decided which one now.

    Interestingly, while looking, I did some calculations about fuel economy and it seems that at the current price differences between petrol and diesel, the cost of ownership and given that I do about 10,000 miles a year, it's much more cost effective for me to have a petrol car than a diesel one.
    The old assumption that diesels are cheaper to run, does not necessarily apply.

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    Re: Discount car websites

    Quote Originally Posted by Gav View Post
    I was just about to buy a new car from a main dealer and I thought I'd better search around for ammunition to knock the price down as much as I can, when I came across discount car sales.
    What Car? magazine (and their website) have a "Target Price" for every new car. This shows the expected discount that they have managed to negotiate, and they apparently can even help you find a dealer which will offer it. So that's a good starting point and a copy of What Car is good ammunition.

    These are new cars, not the "nearly new" ones (which are obviously even cheaper).

    I think some brokers are even cheaper - there are some listed on the What Car? website but I'm not sure how much of a recommendation they come with, if any.

    Also, we're coming up to the end of June, which is the end of the quarter. Some dealers will be twitchy about missing their quarterly targets and there can be some really good deals on offer as the end of the month gets nearer, depending on whether that individual dealer is about to miss their targets. It might be 2 or 3 weeks (if you can wait) before these deals emerge though - probably the last week of June.

    My local dealer offered me a deal in the last week of June last year, which I should have taken, because the same dealer couldn't get anywhere near matching that deal later in the year which I finally decided to replace my car.

    It's well worth shopping round and playing one dealer off against another - for instance don't answer questions like "how much do you want to pay per month" until you've got a price for the car- tell them you have more dealers to talk to later and you're after the best price.
    Last edited by DavidY; 6th-June-2008 at 07:36 PM.
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