New car brokers/car discount outfits
Stevo_666
Posts: 61,808
Advice needed folks.
I'm looking at getting a new family car as the current one is getting a bit long in the tooth. It's been quite a while since I've been new car shopping and want to know if anyone has experience of using one of the new car brokers or discount sites recently.
The main ones I know of are:
- 'Drive the Deal' (used them quite a while ago and no issues) - they negotiate a price on your behalf with UK main dealerships, then present you with one offer which you then accept or decline - and after that you deal directly with the dealership.
- 'Carwow'. Seems to get a fair bit of press and have a pretty extensive website with car reviews etc. A reverse auction site where they send your specification to UK main dealerships who then contact you to bid for your business and you pick which one you want to deal with.
Those seem to be the big two which generally get good reviews in the internet, although not uniformly good and as always I'm taking the feedback with a pinch of salt. I've also heard of others such as Broadspeed, 'Orange Wheels' etc.
I'm a cash buyer - not interested in any form of loan finance or leasing unless there's a decent sized discount for taking out a small loan etc then paying it off asap (which I did when we bought the last one - the discount was bigger than the loan which got repaid after the minimum 3 months). Nor do I want to pay any fees directly to the middle man or buy the car from the broker/middle man. Also no pre-registered cars.
Price is obviously the main factor otherwise I wouldn't be asking about this sort of thing. Quality of service is also important as I haven't got time to waste sorting out other peoples' incompetence.
Also I know about new car depreciation - we know what we're after, we want it specced the way we want it and intend to keep it for a long time (as with the current one which will probably take up bike lugging/trips to the tip & spare car duties). So no lectures about being a mug please
Any thoughts/experiences on any of these outfits, good or bad?
I'm looking at getting a new family car as the current one is getting a bit long in the tooth. It's been quite a while since I've been new car shopping and want to know if anyone has experience of using one of the new car brokers or discount sites recently.
The main ones I know of are:
- 'Drive the Deal' (used them quite a while ago and no issues) - they negotiate a price on your behalf with UK main dealerships, then present you with one offer which you then accept or decline - and after that you deal directly with the dealership.
- 'Carwow'. Seems to get a fair bit of press and have a pretty extensive website with car reviews etc. A reverse auction site where they send your specification to UK main dealerships who then contact you to bid for your business and you pick which one you want to deal with.
Those seem to be the big two which generally get good reviews in the internet, although not uniformly good and as always I'm taking the feedback with a pinch of salt. I've also heard of others such as Broadspeed, 'Orange Wheels' etc.
I'm a cash buyer - not interested in any form of loan finance or leasing unless there's a decent sized discount for taking out a small loan etc then paying it off asap (which I did when we bought the last one - the discount was bigger than the loan which got repaid after the minimum 3 months). Nor do I want to pay any fees directly to the middle man or buy the car from the broker/middle man. Also no pre-registered cars.
Price is obviously the main factor otherwise I wouldn't be asking about this sort of thing. Quality of service is also important as I haven't got time to waste sorting out other peoples' incompetence.
Also I know about new car depreciation - we know what we're after, we want it specced the way we want it and intend to keep it for a long time (as with the current one which will probably take up bike lugging/trips to the tip & spare car duties). So no lectures about being a mug please
Any thoughts/experiences on any of these outfits, good or bad?
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]
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Can't comment on the use of one, however used the price to haggle down a new car from VW recently. Matching the cost of the car and they still lumped on the supporting deposit etc.
DId us their finance for the minimum term to get the deposit contribution and the 3 years free servicing etc. Similar to you in the past, did the math and worked out it was better for us.
Side note, where is Vtech when you need him ;00 -
Clydesdale are doing 2.8% personal loans which are pretty bloody good value up to about 25K0
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Get a quote from Carwow etc and use it to haggle with your dealer of choice. That's what I did a year or so back. They'll try to match it or at least get close.0
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GrenW wrote:Get a quote from Carwow etc and use it to haggle with your dealer of choice. That's what I did a year or so back. They'll try to match it or at least get close.
This.
If you're looking at a bespoke spec, the main dealers are the best, if not only, option I guess.
I'm lucky enough to have a company car, but my company buys all the cars outright in cash. Between me and the company we tend to play two or three dealers off against each other and my last three cars (all bespoke specs) have come with between 12.5-20% discount.
Timing will also be critical too. Just before new reg cars come out or towards then end of their sales quarter when they've got the last few units to shift to hit targets!Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarves are not happy.0 -
If you have a definitive spec in mind and are insisitent on new, your only real option is going to be a main dealer. If you're prepared to compromise even slightly then take a look at carwow. My father in law bought an ex-demo x5, sub 5k, service plan etc, didn't care what colour the trim or exterior were and paid cash. He traded it in a year later and got more than he'd paid. in a nutshell, he told them what he was prepared to pay if they wanted to sell the car that afternoon.
It's easy enough to play off a main dealer against another - we have two Ford franchises within 15 miles, and there are differences to be had even when we were looking at the exact same spec.
As for taking a loan etc it really depends which works best for you. Most of them get such a kickback off the warranty and service packages, not to mention the actual finance itself (0% deals are usually self-financed by the manufacturers) that they'll try and steer you along this route. A colleague recently bought his on finance because of the free stuff they put in, but forgot the early release fee of £400 or so.The only disability in life is a poor attitude.0 -
Colleague of mine just retired and took a lump sum to buy a new car. Used CarWow to get about £16k off a golf R estate. Dealer in the southwest was cheapest so he took the train down and drove it back. I’ve used it to get some quotes on anew car too0
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Thanks folks - some good points here.
A couple of votes for Carwow's prices (especially Keef's colleague who got the Golf Estate), although I suppose it depends on what car and how badly the dealer needs to meet sales targets."I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Mouth wrote:If you have a definitive spec in mind and are insisitent on new, your only real option is going to be a main dealer. If you're prepared to compromise even slightly then take a look at carwow. My father in law bought an ex-demo x5, sub 5k, service plan etc, didn't care what colour the trim or exterior were and paid cash. He traded it in a year later and got more than he'd paid. in a nutshell, he told them what he was prepared to pay if they wanted to sell the car that afternoon.
It's easy enough to play off a main dealer against another - we have two Ford franchises within 15 miles, and there are differences to be had even when we were looking at the exact same spec.
As for taking a loan etc it really depends which works best for you. Most of them get such a kickback off the warranty and service packages, not to mention the actual finance itself (0% deals are usually self-financed by the manufacturers) that they'll try and steer you along this route. A colleague recently bought his on finance because of the free stuff they put in, but forgot the early release fee of £400 or so.
As for finance, depends what they offer but a small loan with a short minimum duration in return for an extra discount or other freebies would be OK (or something with an early release penalty that isn't too steep like you say) as the amounts wouldn't be material."I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Flâneur wrote:End of Q targets, always worth a target point if the timing works
Something also tells me that second half of June and Dec may be a good time when people are usually thinking about holidays/Christmas rather than cars and there isn't the rush on for the bi-annual new plates. That said, not sure how it works if it's a factory order with a few month lead time and whether just a deposit counts towards their targets or whether they actually have to register the car?"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
I used a broker called autoebid to buy my new new golf estate. They negotiated a price that was cheaper than Carwow, even including their fee. My local dealer couldn’t match the price either. Car was delivered to my door as well. Very happy with their service.0
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fuel2000 wrote:I used a broker called autoebid to buy my new new golf estate. They negotiated a price that was cheaper than Carwow, even including their fee. My local dealer couldn’t match the price either. Car was delivered to my door as well. Very happy with their service."I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0
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Stevo 666 wrote:Advice needed folks.
I'm looking at getting a new family car as the current one is getting a bit long in the tooth. It's been quite a while since I've been new car shopping and want to know if anyone has experience of using one of the new car brokers or discount sites recently.
The main ones I know of are:
- 'Drive the Deal' (used them quite a while ago and no issues) - they negotiate a price on your behalf with UK main dealerships, then present you with one offer which you then accept or decline - and after that you deal directly with the dealership.
- 'Carwow'. Seems to get a fair bit of press and have a pretty extensive website with car reviews etc. A reverse auction site where they send your specification to UK main dealerships who then contact you to bid for your business and you pick which one you want to deal with.
Those seem to be the big two which generally get good reviews in the internet, although not uniformly good and as always I'm taking the feedback with a pinch of salt. I've also heard of others such as Broadspeed, 'Orange Wheels' etc.
I'm a cash buyer - not interested in any form of loan finance or leasing unless there's a decent sized discount for taking out a small loan etc then paying it off asap (which I did when we bought the last one - the discount was bigger than the loan which got repaid after the minimum 3 months). Nor do I want to pay any fees directly to the middle man or buy the car from the broker/middle man. Also no pre-registered cars.
Price is obviously the main factor otherwise I wouldn't be asking about this sort of thing. Quality of service is also important as I haven't got time to waste sorting out other peoples' incompetence.
Also I know about new car depreciation - we know what we're after, we want it specced the way we want it and intend to keep it for a long time (as with the current one which will probably take up bike lugging/trips to the tip & spare car duties). So no lectures about being a mug please
Any thoughts/experiences on any of these outfits, good or bad?
It's no good, I've fought the urge but can't hold out any longer.
Mug!!0 -
Ballysmate wrote:It's no good, I've fought the urge but can't hold out any longer.
Mug!!"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Stevo 666 wrote:Flâneur wrote:End of Q targets, always worth a target point if the timing works
Something also tells me that second half of June and Dec may be a good time when people are usually thinking about holidays/Christmas rather than cars and there isn't the rush on for the bi-annual new plates. That said, not sure how it works if it's a factory order with a few month lead time and whether just a deposit counts towards their targets or whether they actually have to register the car?
Sales periods are usually easy to find out - take a look at their advertising and it'll say "....this offer ends on......", these usually correlate with the manufacturers sales periods. One point though, they're never usually in a rush to sell a factory order. Normally they try and push anything they have on site/in group stock, or at least anything already in the country at the docks. A colleague was basically told if he wanted discount on a Golf, he needed to compromise and buy something already built rather than being very picky. More than one dealer told him that too. And this was about two weeks into the emissions scandal. Couple weeks later he tried for a discount citing he was worried about residual values and so on. Sales manager called him and offered him his deposit back if he was getting cold feet, but he was basically never gonna save a penny.The only disability in life is a poor attitude.0 -
Mouth wrote:Stevo 666 wrote:Flâneur wrote:End of Q targets, always worth a target point if the timing works
Something also tells me that second half of June and Dec may be a good time when people are usually thinking about holidays/Christmas rather than cars and there isn't the rush on for the bi-annual new plates. That said, not sure how it works if it's a factory order with a few month lead time and whether just a deposit counts towards their targets or whether they actually have to register the car?
Sales periods are usually easy to find out - take a look at their advertising and it'll say "....this offer ends on......", these usually correlate with the manufacturers sales periods. One point though, they're never usually in a rush to sell a factory order. Normally they try and push anything they have on site/in group stock, or at least anything already in the country at the docks. A colleague was basically told if he wanted discount on a Golf, he needed to compromise and buy something already built rather than being very picky. More than one dealer told him that too. And this was about two weeks into the emissions scandal. Couple weeks later he tried for a discount citing he was worried about residual values and so on. Sales manager called him and offered him his deposit back if he was getting cold feet, but he was basically never gonna save a penny."I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Stevo 666 wrote:Mouth wrote:Stevo 666 wrote:Flâneur wrote:End of Q targets, always worth a target point if the timing works
Something also tells me that second half of June and Dec may be a good time when people are usually thinking about holidays/Christmas rather than cars and there isn't the rush on for the bi-annual new plates. That said, not sure how it works if it's a factory order with a few month lead time and whether just a deposit counts towards their targets or whether they actually have to register the car?
Sales periods are usually easy to find out - take a look at their advertising and it'll say "....this offer ends on......", these usually correlate with the manufacturers sales periods. One point though, they're never usually in a rush to sell a factory order. Normally they try and push anything they have on site/in group stock, or at least anything already in the country at the docks. A colleague was basically told if he wanted discount on a Golf, he needed to compromise and buy something already built rather than being very picky. More than one dealer told him that too. And this was about two weeks into the emissions scandal. Couple weeks later he tried for a discount citing he was worried about residual values and so on. Sales manager called him and offered him his deposit back if he was getting cold feet, but he was basically never gonna save a penny.
Well if you will be content with something close to spec then go for a used one.
I know deep down you aren't a mug. Listen to that inner voice.0 -
Stevo 666 wrote:Mouth wrote:Stevo 666 wrote:Flâneur wrote:End of Q targets, always worth a target point if the timing works
Something also tells me that second half of June and Dec may be a good time when people are usually thinking about holidays/Christmas rather than cars and there isn't the rush on for the bi-annual new plates. That said, not sure how it works if it's a factory order with a few month lead time and whether just a deposit counts towards their targets or whether they actually have to register the car?
Sales periods are usually easy to find out - take a look at their advertising and it'll say "....this offer ends on......", these usually correlate with the manufacturers sales periods. One point though, they're never usually in a rush to sell a factory order. Normally they try and push anything they have on site/in group stock, or at least anything already in the country at the docks. A colleague was basically told if he wanted discount on a Golf, he needed to compromise and buy something already built rather than being very picky. More than one dealer told him that too. And this was about two weeks into the emissions scandal. Couple weeks later he tried for a discount citing he was worried about residual values and so on. Sales manager called him and offered him his deposit back if he was getting cold feet, but he was basically never gonna save a penny.All lies and jest..still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest....0 -
Ballysmate wrote:I know deep down you aren't a mug.0
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Veronese68 wrote:Ballysmate wrote:I know deep down you aren't a mug.0
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What car does Derren Brown drive? Surely that's the one to go for?0
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Shortfall wrote:What car does Derren Brown drive? Surely that's the one to go for?0
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I have a very good relationship with a particular car dealer (group of dealers) which means that when I want something changed - as I did a couple of weeks ago - I phone them or email them, tell them what I'm looking for, they find it and I drive away a happy chap. As long as the marque that my contact is dealing with keep producing quality cars that I like driving then it's not an issue. I've tested them against all the car dealer websites and the like and they've never been beaten. I've also recommended them to plenty of other people and have, to date, "sold" some 20ish cars for them on that basis (not including the 14 my family have had from them).. It all started because of a friendship, that transmitted to excellent service and has continued because of that.
More than happy to recommend them via pm if anyone wants to know who it is.Trail fun - Transition Bandit
Road - Wilier Izoard Centaur/Cube Agree C62 Disc
Allround - Cotic Solaris0 -
Veronese68 wrote:Ballysmate wrote:I know deep down you aren't a mug."I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0
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Carsnip might be worth a look.0
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Captain Fagor wrote:Carsnip might be worth a look."I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0
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lostboysaint wrote:I've also recommended them to plenty of other people and have, to date, "sold" some 20ish cars for them on that basis (not including the 14 my family have had from them)..
Your family are better to car dealers than mine. I make it that my near family have bought about 11 cars in 50 years! And, of those, only about 6 will have come from dealers......Faster than a tent.......0 -
Rolf F wrote:lostboysaint wrote:I've also recommended them to plenty of other people and have, to date, "sold" some 20ish cars for them on that basis (not including the 14 my family have had from them)..
Your family are better to car dealers than mine. I make it that my near family have bought about 11 cars in 50 years! And, of those, only about 6 will have come from dealers......
I was a bit shocked when I added up the number the other day after collecting my latest. That's four of us and my parents.Trail fun - Transition Bandit
Road - Wilier Izoard Centaur/Cube Agree C62 Disc
Allround - Cotic Solaris0 -
Rolf F wrote:lostboysaint wrote:I've also recommended them to plenty of other people and have, to date, "sold" some 20ish cars for them on that basis (not including the 14 my family have had from them)..
Your family are better to car dealers than mine. I make it that my near family have bought about 11 cars in 50 years! And, of those, only about 6 will have come from dealers......The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
PBlakeney wrote:Rolf F wrote:lostboysaint wrote:I've also recommended them to plenty of other people and have, to date, "sold" some 20ish cars for them on that basis (not including the 14 my family have had from them)..
Your family are better to car dealers than mine. I make it that my near family have bought about 11 cars in 50 years! And, of those, only about 6 will have come from dealers......
14 cars and 2 motorbikes in less than 20 years for me. This doesn't include wife cars. Am I doing something wrong?The only disability in life is a poor attitude.0