will121
|
 posted on 3/12/16 at 07:46 PM |
|
|
Used car buying experiance
thought about time a got a decent car again but no idea really what i want, so the idea Today was to go along to one of the National large used car
sales centers for a one stop shop look round.
The day didn't go as i had planned!!!!
Upon arrival no chance of just a browse around the 500 cars, without the commencement of the questions, first of which looking at the salesman eyes i
must have failed
Salesman - Whats your monthly budget?
Me - i wont be paying monthly as will be paying in full,
What no credit loan required!!!
Second hurdle was my comment on the £149 sales transaction fee 'so i have to you £149 for the privilege of you selling me one of your
cars'
discussed my general requirements, Diesel, under 35k miles, 3 years old something like a Kia Sportage, response was lucky on my budget, but would look
at the 500 cars on site and the 3000 in group to see options.
even though a computer in front of us had to go away with a notebook to find whats available, came back with 3 cars, first option was a Nissan Qashqai
which ticked all parameters, second Mazda CX5 at 76k miles, third a Ford kuga £1.5k over budget.
So natural progress was to look at the Nissan, which was luckily just reduced as a clearance and if not sold shortly would be returned, so a brief
test drive of 4 miles.
upon returning we drove by a nice Kia Sportage in the showroom so asked for the keys for a look, was very good spec but about £1.5k over my original
budget, but asked to take it for a test drive.
Salesman's short response was, well if you test drive it are you going to buy it!! my response is how do i know as ive not driven it yet!
A further short exchange of words along the line of you cant just come try things, as they don't own them and cant afford to just rack up the
mileage (on their 4 mile test route) and if i did want test drives best i go to a main agent.
My final comment is 'please get my driving licence im going home'
Don't know if this is the general experience of this type of dealer which appeared to have their 'one' prime car to sell, but wound
me up enough to rant on here about it.
So im off to find myself an independent dealer to dispose of my hard earnt cash to
|
|
|
|
|
loggyboy
|
| posted on 3/12/16 at 07:58 PM |
|
|
Awfull but not suprising.
I would only bother with that sort of place if they happened to have the exact car i wanted. However ive never been in a position where i didnt know
exactly what car i wanted, so can see the advantage of having the opportunity to various options in one place.
Mistral Motorsport
|
|
|
Ugg10
|
| posted on 3/12/16 at 08:29 PM |
|
|
quote:
Originally posted by loggyboy
Awfull but not suprising.
I would only bother with that sort of place if they happened to have the exact car i wanted. However ive never been in a position where i didnt know
exactly what car i wanted, so can see the advantage of having the opportunity to various options in one place.
Agreed, had the same result the three times I bought from supermarkets, the salesman was my best friend and showed us lots of cars he wanted to sell
not what I wanted to buy (one even started showing us cars without asking budget/requirements) and then an hour later when we had not bought anything
got right uppity as if I had wasted his time and huffed off to another customer. Only bought when they had the exact car I wanted, the benefit is
there is no haggling so none of the dealer salesman going off to get managers permission to give you a free set of floor mats.
---------------------------------------------------------------
1968 Ford Anglia 105e, 1.7 Zetec SE, Mk2 Escort Workd Cup front end, 5 link rear
Build Blog - http://Anglia1968.weebly.com
|
|
|
StevieB
|
| posted on 3/12/16 at 08:52 PM |
|
|
I've had the same experiences before and have vowed that I'll avoid at all costs going forward - I'd rather buy privately and save a
bit of money on the purchase price. Half the warranties they offer are worth bugger all anyway, and there's not much goes wrong with modern
cars compared to 20 years ago (though admittedly when it does, generally more expensive!).
I just hate the car supermarket experience. The only way to make it palatable for me is to buy online, then have them leave the keys in the car
outside for me to collect without any human interaction with any staff!
|
|
|
mcerd1
|
| posted on 3/12/16 at 09:01 PM |
|
|
don' have any car supermarkets round here - just the mid size Arnold clark type one - I've only looked once and everything seemed to be
10% more than anywhere else.....
last time I narrowed my choice down to a c-max in the end (the alternatives that ticked all the boxes were out of my budget)
found 4 cars worth a look in my various searches within a half decent distance - all were main dealers as it turned out (2 Ford and 2 Vauxhall)
I'd have loved some private sales, but the nearest ones I could find were 200+ miles away 
one sold before I got a chance to see it
the next was in a Vauxhall dealer very nice and very low mileage but a bit more than I wanted to spend (full titanium spec with only 22k on it) had to
drive 60+ mile to see it and the dealer turned out to be very helpful, test drive was no problem and they told me they weren't interested in my
old car as trade-in so it would be there min. price (£300) and didn't want to mess me about (which was fair enough as it was a scabby 13 year
old focus)
very nice car, would have git it if it wasn't for the price - also the 17" alloys wouldn't have lasted 5 min on the roads I have to
drive
the next one was mid spec, mid price and just up the road (evans halshaw) - but they wouldn't let me test drive it without a £300+ deposit
because 'I didn't sound like I was sure I wanted to buy it' - as it was I felt it was a few hundred £ more than it should have been
so I told them to stuff it... but that didn't stop them phoning me every few days to ask if I wanted other cars
but checked there website a few weeks later and the car I looked at had £750 knocked off the price still not sold - but I was so sick of dealing with
them that I just looked else where....
its also worth mentioning that halshaws sales folk were so clueless about the cars that I'm surprised they could even tell the front from the
back - even when the car in question is from there own brand and a model that's only just gone out of production a couple of years before.
examples include; them swearing blind to me that the car has a 1.6 diesel despite the fact its a 1.8 petrol and even says it on the car and seeing a
stripped sierra diff in a box in the boot when assessing my car for a trade-in the guy asked 'why is your gearbox in the boot ?' and on
another occasion being told by one of the parts guys that I didn't know what I was talking about as Sierra's and Granada's were all
FWD.....
the last one was in another branch of the Vauxhall dealer round the corner from my house, they tried the deposit to bring the car up the road trick,
but luckily I knew one of the senior salesmen and he got it brought up for nothing on nothing more than my word that I'd buy it if it was right
and without committing to any fixed price - this is the one I got in the end, but I nearly didn't even look at it as there was no way I'd
pay a deposit on a car I've never seen (the fact that it was £1500 than the others helped too)
I can imagine the supermarkets are worse, but some of the main dealers (ie Halshaws) were just painful to deal with
[Edited on 3/12/2016 by mcerd1]
-
|
|
|
big-vee-twin
|
| posted on 3/12/16 at 09:30 PM |
|
|
Last time I bought, I used Motors.co.uk - found the car I wanted, sent an email to the selected dealer, they rung me up and I told them what I wanted
to pay for their car. They rang back accepted the offer.
The following Sunday I drove to the dealership which was 2-3 hours away did the deal and picked the car up the following weekend - no grief it was
really great.
Duratec Engine is fitted, MS2 Extra V3 is assembled and tested, engine running, car now built. IVA passed 26/02/2016
http://www.triangleltd.com
|
|
|
Toys2
|
| posted on 3/12/16 at 09:40 PM |
|
|
My only time in a car supermarket, my new "friend" salesman told me "I have just the car for you" before I'd even told
him what I wanted!
My local main Ford dealer is pretty useless too, I was looking at new cars (I get a discount as my dad was a Ford employee) needed a 7 seater so was
looking at the Grand C Max, the moron sales guy asked if I'd considered the "B Max", my response was the B Max is a 5 seater.
"Is it?" came his reply 
|
|
|
will121
|
| posted on 3/12/16 at 09:51 PM |
|
|
As Im leaning towards a Kia sportage 2wd diesel does anyone have an opinion good or bad? Will be used to tow track car about 5 times a year
|
|
|
ian locostzx9rc2
|
| posted on 3/12/16 at 10:16 PM |
|
|
I know a few people with Kia Sportages and they all love them Kia and Hyundai are pretty good these days with good warranties . As for towing if
it's a light weight car and trailer it wouldn't be issue .
[Edited on 3/12/16 by ian locostzx9rc2]
|
|
|
mark chandler
|
| posted on 3/12/16 at 10:47 PM |
|
|
They serve a purpose, my old car started chucking up fault codes and dropping into limp mode, I knew what I wanted and was prepared to pay so went to
the closest supermarket in Swindon, drove the car and dropped mine off a couple of days later after they had cleaned the car properly.
I may have paid to much, just could not face selling the old car so it worked for me just fine.
They also offered a loan, 4.2% I could do slightly better than that 4.1 with my bank but they were certainly not loading it up.
|
|
|
chris
|
| posted on 3/12/16 at 11:31 PM |
|
|
I went to a car supermarket in Derby was looking to buy a knew focus but they didn't allow test drives and told me to nip down the road to the
Ford dealer have a test drive there and then come back sod that the main dealer got my business
|
|
|
rdodger
|
| posted on 4/12/16 at 08:20 AM |
|
|
That just sounds like a sales process that's been used for years.
Off he popped to see his sales manager who gave him 3 keys. The one you would buy, the one you can't afford and the bouncer to send you back to
the one you would buy.
Having said that from what I understand car supermarkets generally run on a tight margin and rely on high turnover, commission on finance and extended
warranties/care packages etc. So if they have a car that you like not bad places to buy from.
|
|
|
cliftyhanger
|
| posted on 4/12/16 at 09:01 AM |
|
|
I bought our main hack from motorpoint.
They had the spec of car we wanted (Toyota auris diesel estate, poverty spec but only 7K on the clock) at one year old for 9.5K, 2k cheaper than local
places.
I called, checked some stuff and explained my trade in bashed out a deal, bit less trade in than I hoped for, but not much and besides, as the
salesman said, the cost difference was the important bit. Car was 200 miles from me, but for a deposit (can't remember how much) they could get
it to within 80 miles.
I put a returnable £100 deposit down, and drove to get the car. I did get 2 calls trying to flogme paint care and so on, all rejected.
When I saw the car I was happy, they drove my car around their pound. Went upstairs and did the paperwork.
Only real flaw is they tried to flog me a 2 year warranty. I asked if that was beyond the manufacturers 5 year warranty....
Been happy with car, only fault was a tiny crack in some boot trim. Not exciting, but my parking permit is over £300 cheaper, cheap tax and
economical. It just works (and hard!)
|
|
|
bi22le
|
| posted on 4/12/16 at 01:56 PM |
|
|
I have heard the sale and its a real shame.
My wife and I have a budget and spec for a newish car. There are loads of makes and models that fit the bill and I wish we could look at them back to
back. Not even test drive as we are decisive enough to wittle down to one or two after actually sitting in them.
The problem is that we can't do this activity so habe to look at lots of pictures and sneak around main dealer forecourts.
Its a great business idea but it should be provided with a premium seevice not a budget service. Show rooms patrolled by shark like salesman.
Track days ARE the best thing since sliced bread, until I get a supercharger that is!
Please read my ring story:
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/forum/13/viewthread.php?tid=139152&page=1
Me doing a sub 56sec lap around Brands Indy. I need a geo set up! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHksfvIGB3I
|
|
|
