|
Thanks all, GAP insurance for £93 for 3 years from ALA and 10% cashback through Quidco on that too.
In terms of buying experience here's brief summary.
On line brokers, such as OrangeWheels, Drive the Deal were hopeless, in each case I got a price for new on line, clicked through and completed forms for finance quotes, gave all my details, and several days later heard nothing. They advertise prices on cars which they cannot honour, or the cars can not be delivered.
Volksagen dealer. Friendly and helpful but I am still waiting for a quote 2 weeks later on a Beetle. No attempt to sell. Quoted me 5 months lead time and weren't interested in my suggestion of loaning me an old Polo or Fox or anything to tie me over while I waited for it. Took all my details, agreed a spec, and then nothing, would have loved a Beetle, but I never even got a quote.
Kia dealer (tested Proceed coupe), very helpful, let me test drive on my own as long as I wanted (two cars back to back) and didn't make me feel awkward when I said "not for me". No sense of hospitality, (not even offered a coffee)
Suzuki dealer (tested SX4Cross) - again fine in terms of arranging a test drive and again no sales pressure... but again No sense of hospitality, (not offered a coffee
Mini dealer, a bit disorganised about organsing the test drive, and quoting against my spec which I laid out on their own configuration tool and sent them, But friendly, helpful and no hard sell. Would recommend Laura in Spires Mini Watford.
Vauxhall dealer, showed me a car that stank to high heaven (previous owner was a heavy smoker and then filled the car with air freshener). Salesman shared his cake with another sales person in front of me, and didn't offer me a drink even. Then because I filled in a form I got LOADS of calls and emails from Vauxhall dealers the next few days. very intrusive.
Audi dealer. Sales girl very helpful, quite fun and chatty without putting pressure on, during test drive. But their finance package was not good, and attempts by me to engage with their "business managers" on that were a tad painful. e.g. when I asked if they could be more competitive on their APR, they simply dropped my monthly payment and extended the contract so I was in fact paying same for the car.
Fiat/Alfa dealers. All very helpful, local one was great, let me take 2 Giuliettas out for good test drive and presented me with lots of finance options, all competitive, and no pressure. (recommend Alex Cooper at Glyn Hopkins in St Albans), Another on phone (had a used car I was interested in), also helpful, but lost the sale. I wanted to put a deposit on the car on the phone (it was 3 hours drive away), with option to walk away and get deposit back if the car had faulty seal around sunroof (whistling) or rattles/squeaks in the dash. They refused that. By the time I might have been free to go and look, I had found a suitable example locally. They were not prepared to vouch for their own product it seemd. I found a particular one within an hours drive that I like the look of, and this is the dealer who eventually made the sale. He was fine. Only issue was that even though I had an appointment and they knew which car I wanted to see, the battery was flat, and there was not enough fuel in the tank to start it. But I knew I was very interested, I was very patient, gave them all the time they needed to get it sorted, had a thoroughly nice test drive and made the purchase with some gentle negotiation on both sides. County Motor Works Chelmsford, contact Stephen Lane.
Looking forward to taking delivery of my Giulietta 2.0 TCT JTDm2!
|
