Anyone used www.buynewcars4less.com ?
Experiences good or bad?
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I used them last year.Was a bit nervous at first but as they were rated alright in Whatcar and HJ thought i'd give them a go.
Quite straight forward..bought the new 3 series off them and saved ££££.
Added quite a few extras on the M sport model.
The BMW dealers x3 could not come close to matching them.
Had my car since Jan and transaction went smoothly.
The only reason i chose them rather then Drive the dEal was that they offered a good partexchange on my car...hadn't taken them up on the offer as managed to sell privately in the end.
SR
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Did you get the V5 immediately or have to wait?
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think the V5 arrived a week later.
I had to get the car delivered as couldn't collect it from main dealer.
The only prob that i had was trying to get it delivered at a mutually convenient time.Had taken 2 weeks to sort that bit out..but that was owing to the problem with the dealer that i was getting the car from..who was a bit slow!
SR
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Took delivery of an A4 Cabriolet recently; it was ordered through them last year. The price was the most competitive I could find at the time, and the car was delivered to the exact spec I ordered, with me as the first keeper. The V5 turned up within a few days of the car being delivered, in line with my experiences from cars bought direct from a dealer.
However, though communciation with Buynewcars4less was good throughout, the car is actually sourced by a fleet managment company and I had no contact with the supplying dealer at all. The deposit was paid to the broker when the order was placed; the balance was also paid the same way and the car was delivered by transporter.
We also bought a car from Drivethedeal last year; they handled the process differently in that they just passed the order on to a dealer; all communication from then on was direct with the supplying dealer, which I have to admit did make me feel more comfortable
HTH
Peter
Edited by Peter S on 22/02/2008 at 19:10
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Thanks for the replys, how did you pay the remainder of the balance? was it done via a bankers draft like with Drive The Deal?
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...how did you pay the remainder of the balance? was it done via a bankers draft like with Drive The Deal?
I actually just sent a cheque for both the deposit and the balance, so had to wait 5 days for it to clear in each case. Looking back I think those might have been the only cheques I wrote last year!!
Buynewcars4less didn't take credit cards for the deposit either, which was another area of difference between the two transactions. With DTD I paid the dealer over the 'phone by credit card for the deposit and a debit card for the balance
HTH
Peter
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so you had to pay the full amount for the car before you received it?
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Yes, full balance paid before delivery. That was the case for the car bought through DTD and the one from buynewcars4less, though in both cases the cars were delivered by transporter to my home address.
The car bough through DTD was paid for by debit card on a Friday, with delivery the following Tuesday IIRC. Since the car bought through buynewcars4less was paid for by cheque more time was required (to allow for the cheque to clear) which seemed fair enough
Not sure what the payment process/timeline would have been if we'd collected either car, though I'm sure with DTD we could have just paid the dealer on the day by debit card like any other customer.
Peter
Edited by Peter S on 23/02/2008 at 12:45
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Thanks for that, although im a little surprised as on the Drive The Deal site is says that you don't pay until the car is on your drive!
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Must admit I didn't see that on the DTD website, but as I was having the car delivered I expected to pay for it before I saw the car. I guess that it should have been possible to pay over the 'phone when the delivery driver turned up...it didn't occur to me at the time. When I've bought cars direct from a dealer, but had them delivered, I've always paid before seeing the car. I wouldn't do it with a used car, but for a new car the risk seems negligible to me
I'm fairly sure the Distance Selling Act (2000?) would have allowed me to reject the car if it hadn't been as expected and a full refund would then have been due, though I'm sure someone will prove me wrong on that ;-)
Peter
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Anyone used www.buynewcars4less.com ? Experiences good or bad?
The prices may be good and so too the experiences of others using this company but ultimately choosing to deal with this company reflects your attitude to risk.
You must hand over your money to BuyNewCarsForLess who are effectively a third party in this deal before you receive the car. Once the funds are cleared in his account he pays the leasing company for the car and it takes about another week for your car to arrive.
If he goes bankrupt at any point (including when you pay your initial deposit in cash, so no credit card protection here) you have not only lost your money but also the car.
And if you do a trade in this must be presented along with the cash for the new car so you are without a car for a week or so here too. Imagine losing your exisiting car and cash as well !!
Like Cilla used to say on Blind Date, "the decision is yours!"
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Not entirley true Smokey & the Bandit; the balance was paid direct to the fleet managment company NOT Buynewcars4less, but I'd agree there's till the risk that the fleet managment company goes bust and I have to admit the thought had crossed my mind...
As a result I carried out a few checks first before releasing funds: A quick search of the Companies House Website showed that it was a well established, profitable company with (in the last Financial Year at least...) good cashflows. I called Audi with the registration number that Id been given for insurance to check that the car existed; it did. Based on that I was happy to pay the balance.
A quick on-line check a couple of days later showed that the car had been registered (presumably in my name) as it showed on the databases; correct car, spec and colour with a 'first registered' date of the date the cheque would have been received... At that point I had an invoice, proof of payment and knowledge that a car to the spec I'd ordered with the registration number I'd been given had been registered!
Dont forget, the same could have happened with the car I bough through drivethedeal; if the dealer had gone bust after I paid and while the car was 'in transit' between them and me I'm sure the liquidator would have halted proceedings until they sorted out who owned what!
Just my thoughts though. If you're concerned about the risks of buying on-line then I'd agree using this kind of business to buy a car might not suit you - as Smokey & the Bandit says, it depends on your attitude to risk, and of course how much research you actually do before hand :-)
Peter
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I recently had dealings with BNC4L. They were perfectly pleasant to deal with and offered me a price which was lower than anyone else's on a prestige make by £1200.
Ultimately I decided not to do business with them. This was partly because of the risk (outlined above) which I wasn't prepared to accept in this day and age. There are established banking processes available which offer protection to both parties but they would not consider using them. But mostly because of the IMBALANCE of risk.
If the seller defaults in this case the buyer has nothing. He is an unsecured ordinary creditor. However, if the buyer defaults the seller still has the asset, which may be disposed of to recoup some or all of the seller's loss.
It's a pity that BNC4L are not addressing the payment question to provide better protection for buyers. They would have made at least one more sale this week had they done so.
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I recently bought a Golf from Carfile. After phoning they gave me a good price, but after a little negociation they gave me a full tank of diesel.
After this phone call I dealt with a VW dealer and paid on the date of delivery to the dealer by Switch. The salesman got lost trying to find my farm and got a bit of mud on the car. He was so embarassed he gave me a free first service and another tank of diesel.
A good result I thought, Carfile and the dealer were excellent.
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Not entirley true Smokey & the Bandit; the balance was paid direct to the fleet managment company NOT Buynewcars4less but I'd agree there's till the risk that the fleet managment company goes bust and I have to admit the thought had crossed my mind...
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Their practices must have changed recently. Towards the latter part of last year I obtained a quote for a new car from BNC4L and was ready to go ahead until I was given the procedure for paying. It involved a cash deposit to BNC4L and then the balance paid to BNC4L once the vehicle had landed in this country. I was told it would take about a week from this point for the car to be transported to a dealer, PDI'd and then sent onto me. So I was totally reliant on BNC4L forwarding on payment to the lease company for this car. If the deal had gone wrong I would have been £23k (including the initial deposit) out of pocket and nothing to show for it.
I asked at the time about me paying the lease company direct which I would have felt happier about but I was told this was not an option.
Therefore no deal. But at the likes of Drivethedeal.com at least you are dealing the main dealer and can pay for your car when it arrives with you.
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Thanks for the useful advise. Ive decided to buy use , mainly because i can get the car a lot sooner then buying new and im currently without a car and its only 9 months old so ive still got over 2 years of warranty left.
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As a quick follow up to this I've just read in the new (November already!!) edition of What Car? that Gwent Fleet Management, one of the intermediaries used by buynewcars4less, is to be placed into voluntary liquidation.
Kevin Costelloe of buynewcars4less is quoted as saying that around 100 customers had either paid for cars and not received them or were at risk of losing their cars! He goes on to say as soon as he became aware of the problems he warned customers... It appears that some new cars supplied by Gwent had outstanding finance and have been repossessed!!
Needless to say I've just HPI'd my car...it's all clear...phew!
Peter
Edited by Honestjohn on 26/09/2008 at 06:41
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One further update; there was an email address in the article for the insolvency firm handling the case. I've just contacted the person named, and got a very quick response saying that the Company (Gwent Fleet Managment) did not go into voluntary creditors liquidation but has been wound up by the High Court and is being dealt with by the Official Receiver.
Peter
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Buynewcar4less's website is currently unavailable. Might be coincidence.
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