New Car Brokers

[John Roberts 9]

Has anyone here used the services of one of the online new car brokers to acquire a brand new car? I intend to buy a new car in the next couple of months and would be interested to hear the experiences of others.

I tend to be both wary and sceptical about these brokers but the discounts they offer range from 14% up to 22% off the manufacturers full recommended selling price.

I understand that some of the less reputable brokers are effectively selling pre-registered (and therefore secondhand) cars (often using a fleet management/leasing company as an intermediary) but other long standing brokers (with seemingly excellent reputations) are selling genuine, brand new, UK spec cars that are supplied and delivered via high street main dealers.

Maybe the best thing to do is get a quote from the broker for the car I want and take that along to the Main Dealer and ask them to match it?

[Former Member]

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[chris Bond - Bondaero]

If you know what you are looking for the net can be great for finding demonstrator vehicles that seem to be sold on at 3 months old at good discounts from main dealers, and often have some good options fitted that you can get almost for free. We have just reserved a VW this way.

[John Roberts 9]

Hello Percy

Oddly enough my starting point was to look at buying a nearly new secondhand vehicle or a pre-registered one on the basis that someone else takes the large initial depreciation hit.

However, once I started to research the car broker deals I discovered that it might be possible to obtain an absolutely brand new car for only ~1500 quid more than a 'secondhand' pre-register. So, whilst I am not fixated on having a brand new one the relatively modest price difference started to make me think about it.

My natural suspicion is that the car broker deals are too good to be true and there must be some hidden pitfalls!

Thanks for responding and I will check out Ford Direct. I assume the other manufacturers have their own equivalent or is it unique to Ford?

[Former Member]

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[Frank Skilbeck]

Posted by Percy Verance on 25/06/2016 07:23:31:

Hi again John

No, it doesn't seem unique to Ford, as some other makers do have pre-registered cars etc out there. Surprisingly, BMW also do this and are (according to What Car magazine) Britain's third biggest discounter of new cars. Not that I'd choose a BMW personally.........

Edited By Percy Verance on 25/06/2016 07:26:51

My 5 series tourer is a great glider carrier, one thing you should try to, is to get a price off the car brokers site and use that when negotiating with your local dealers.

[Richard Edwards 1]

Hi John

We had this question asked a couple of months ago and i replied to the the post, as I had used an online broker for a new Citroen two years ago. Everything was great, no problems, please have a look at the thread "Discount New Car Dealers" dated 03/04/2016

[Former Member]

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[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

Maybe see what the broker can do & then contact a couple of local dealers & see how close they can come to matching it.....a good tip is to try & do the deal towards the end of the month....a desire to hit that months target can mean good deals can be had....

If dealing with the broker then I'd make sure you get absolutely EVERYTHING in writing.....a verbal assurance that "Yes of course it's the Midnight Blue" isn't much good if a white car then turns up.....think of what might go wrong & then try & ensure you have something to prove what was said in case it does. I'm not saying it WILL go wrong but just in case....

Have you thought of Motorpoint...I've had about 3 cars from them. They usually offer cars around 6-12 months old so still plenty of warranty.....be aware that they are not car dealers...they use the car to lure you in & then try & sell you service plans. extra warranties, gap insurance, finance etc etc etc. Sort out your loan or finance before you go so you know where you stand...a personal loan will nearly always be cheaper if you have reasonable credit history...they will always insist that you "talk to their business manager" & this is always fun when he offers you 7% & you can say "No thank you I have a loan arranged at 4%" & watch his little face fall....

When dealing with Motorpoint you should practice the mantra "No thank you....just the car please" & then use it often when you are in there....

Once you understand their business model & how to deal with them the are fine.

[Former Member]

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[Trevor Crook]

Lots of good advice on the Honest John website

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/search/?type=question&q=Car+broker

[Essjay]

Posted by Percy Verance on 25/06/2016 12:52:02:

Apologies for the BMW skit Frank, but I was once quite openly insulted by a BMW dealer many moons ago. I'd called into this particular dealer to look at a car (not a BMW) which had been traded in. As soon as I set foot inside the showroom door, the salesman approached me and asked "how much can you afford?" Without uttering a word I turned on my heels and left........

Similar thing happened to my late father. He was looking to buy a new BMW, and spent ages wandering around the showroom before anyone even looked in his direction.

Eventually a guy who really looked like he wanted to be somewhere else sauntered up and said "are you looking for anything in particular". Well dad was apparently so disgusted by being ignored for so long that his reply was..........

"As a matter of fact my company was interested in purchasing 6 models for staff cars, but as I've been ignored for so long here I'll recommend we go elsewhere!.", and promptly walked out.

[Former Member]

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[Trevor Crook]

I saw a statistic recently that 80% of all new cars are sold via finance - PCPs seem to be the most popular, and the reason new car sales are increasing each year.

I think the general advice if buying through a broker is to not pay any money up front, except a modest deposit directly to the supplying dealer.

[Former Member]

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[John Roberts 9]

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to add their thoughts here.

If nothing else the cheapest car broker offerings may provide an indication of the maximum possible discount that is likely to be achievable from a Main Dealer. Unlike some I don't mind the haggling process and this kind of information represents a good figure to aim for.

The Motorpoint business model described by Steve above seems to be increasingly common nowadays presumably because it offers the dealer considerably more profit margin than the car itself. The cost of some of these 'add ons' is staggering but this tends to be disguised because it only appears to add a few quid to the monthly payment.

[Former Member]

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[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

Posted by Percy Verance on 25/06/2016 22:32:30:

I often wondered how much discount they secured on these cars? Probably something like £5k to £6k per car I'd imagine.......

I was told by a Fleet buyer once (Avis I think it was) that they can run the cars for 6-12 months & sell them for pretty much what they paid for them....Quite a few of the cars Motorpoint sell are ex rental (my wifes Focus is an Ex Hertz car!!) & these are usually moved on before their first service is due (12k miles?)

Re the BMW dealers & being ignored whilst I wouldn't defend the attitude of the Salesman (it sounds appalling) I do actually have some sympathy with them because if they rushed up to customers the minute they came through the door you'd call them pushy & if they give you some "browsing time" they're accused of ignoring you....a no win situation. You do wonder why they find it so had to get it right though.....treat customers as you would like to be treated.....it can't be that hard can it?

[Former Member]

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[kc]

 

The thing is the cheapest discount price for new is about the same as a secondhand price for a year old car. Check it for yourself - you will only save a few hundred. All the year old cars are ex rental and have just under 13,000 miles which seems to be when they sell them. When I rented from Hertz the car had a sticker saying if the mileage went over 13,000 then there would be a penalty charge - obviously it was a long term hire car thay hired me for a day because I wanted a particular model to try. However consider buying from Hertz via their 'hire before you buy' scheme on their secondhand sales.  ( you get a refund on the hire charge if you buy, but it's only on their sales cars ) 

Having asked Carwow for a few quotations I think they are genuine prices. You need to know what spec you desire first though. The only downside is the cheapest prices often come from dealers a fair way away. For example the cheapest price for me on one brand was Lincoln although I live in Essex. nearest dealer was 3rd cheapest on one model, but still much cheaper than he offered me in person! ( Carwow is anonymous - the dealer doesnt know who you are)   The far away dealers offered  delivery but a full tank of fuel if  I collected instead  

Broadspeed's ' quick quote' was slightly cheaper still - couple of hundred pounds. Again worth getting a quote.

 

 

Edited By kc on 27/06/2016 12:10:28

[John Roberts 9]

Hi KC,

Your experience is similar to mine.

The Manufacturers Recommended Price for the car I am considering is around £25K. CarWow brings this down to around £22K. Carfile (who have been around for about 25 years now) are able to save another £1K but best of all is Broker4Cars who reckon on getting if for £19.4K. A couple of dealers are offering extremely low mileage pre-registered ones for about £19K.

The saving offered by Broker4Cars looks almost too good to be true and might indeed prove to be if the car isn't UK spec or perhaps is a zero miles pre-registered vehicle supplied via a lease/fleet management company. I suppose if this turned out to be the case I could simply decline to take delivery but that inevitably means a tons of hassle.

[kc]

Carwow prices all seem to come from proper Main dealers not from dodgy sources as far as I can see. Consumer Association / Which warn that if your name is not shown then such as pre registered etc it's probably not legal so beware 'fleet' sales deals etc.

One very competitve quote from Carwow came from my local Toyota dealer. I printed out the quote and took it with me, when we came to talk prices they agreed the price as quoted. However they also had various extra insurances - tyre damage, alloy wheel insurance,- loss of new car- etc, etc which they offered me. Options of course but may make up therir profit! CA/Which say it's chepaer to buy insurance eleswhere. So just be ready for the 'extras' . But might apply to any price even full price.   But getting a grasp on what price you are paying was not clear.  They confuse everything with extra insurance,  deposit discount, monthly payments, servicing, etc even when you want to pay cash.   Near impossible to find what you are paying!  ( I thiought I was very good at mental arithmetic and I couldn't figure out the price I would be paying and neither could my wife - she's very sharp with figures too.   And this applied at several dealers of different makes.  They write the price down in a weird way.   Obviously they do it deliberately to obfuscate the real price, so beware )

My experience is it's best to start talks with dealer mentioning you came from a Carwow quote. Bringing it up at the moment of sale catches them unaware - I went to a different branch of the same firm and same make car and they said they didn't deal with Carwow. So it's a local sales manager thing - some do, some don't.

Edited By kc on 27/06/2016 13:14:13