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I hope to purchase a new Citroen Picasso in the near future and am tempted by some of the prices offered by one or two of the internet dealers (e.g. Drive the Deal) for UK sourced cars. What has been the experience of other readers and who would you recommend?
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Hi PLS,
I bought my VW through ukcarbroker and I'd certainly recommend them.
You pay the broker nothing, he simply puts you in touch with the garage with whom he has a contact and you deal with the garage from that point on - easy peasy.
I see they have some good discounts on Cits as well.
Best of luck.
CF
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Don't know if you've done a search but there have been a number of such queries here recently which have highlighted certain areas of concern with certain companies. There have been some company failures and IIRC the Watchdog website has some info. I'd check these threads out and seek advice from the Trading Standards Dept. local to any companies you shortlist before doing anything. Deals that seem too good to be true usually are !
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I bought my UK sourced Peugeot 307sw through www.new-car-discount.com and have no complaints or problems.
Car was delivered on time, to spec with no faults.
And the price was 17% off of list :-)
BR
Michael
steam.to a summers day out
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The **safest** internet dealers are the "brokers" - they negotiate trade discounts with main dealers, take a small deposit from you, put you in touch with the main dealer, and from that point onwards you have nothing more to do with the broker - all further dealings and payments are between you and the main dealer.
You will also be entitled to any additional perks from the main dealer (such as Ford's free insurance offers), just as if you had turned up on the dealer's doorstep yourself.
www.drivethedeal.com definitely works on this basis. The other two previously mentioned companies may do, but you will have to check.
Ian
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I've been looking at exactly the same deal.Citroen, at the moment are giving some fantastic discounts.I went to a Citroen deler last week, armed with the Drive The Deal price and the dealer actually offered to match it-in other words a Picasso Desire Hdi for 10700 on the road-a 28% discount-that's as good as it gets!!
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Don't want to 'rain on this parade' but aren't all these supposed 'discounts' just recognition of the fact the the UK list prices are heavily inflated ?
Of course if you want one of these cars and don't want to import it all of this is great. But I wonder how much the equivalent cars are across the water in Europe.
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Hi Volvoman. Prices still vary from European country to country however the gap is very much smaller now. It isn't UK prices which are heavily inflated, it is list prices. It is quite remarkable how much a large fleet buyer can receive in discounts etc. This is how the internet brokers work - they agree to sell x cars through a dealer. As many brokers advertise nationwide this means even a large dealer can sell many more (and thus buy many more) vehicles thus he gets a better price.
Just to frighten you all, some of our largest fleet customers (and figures are similar across the mainstream manufacturers) are getting around 25% off list prices...
Thank god for brokers I say.
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Mrsb's Yaris from ukcarbroker arrives on Friday.
They were a few hundred quid cheaper than anything I could negotiate, the free insurance deal applied and my car is delivered direct from a Toyota franchised dealer who is the only body I've given money to. Sweet.
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I bought my Passat through Drivethedeal.com (I have no connection other than as a customer). They secured the extra discount [plus a bit more] from the same dealer chain that the sales rep flatly denied existed (the extra two grand off at the end of last year) and I only paid them the first £500 deposit (on credit card) - thereafter all payments were secured through the main dealer and the car was delivered on time and in order.
My preference is always to negotiate myself [it's the best part of the transaction to take the dealer to the edge and then try to push him off it as you play brinkmanship] and get a car for better than the best deal I can find on the net, in the magazines or wherever. On this occasion, even using another VW dealer could not get me within £300 of drivethedeal.com's price - as such i know not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
In my experience, they were professional, courteous and did exactly what they said on the tin [apologies if any IP counsel are hawking]. I am in the market for a new TT 150 convertible for the G/F for Christmas and I will certainly be checking with drivethedeal.com in that hunt.
So far as I can see, the downsides [potential] are no part-ex [but the selling is again the best part of parting with a set of wheels] and you have to sort your own finance [if you need it] - that is easy enough provided you go into a dealership forearmed and ask then to match it [remember to get them to drop the document fees - they will do it when pushed].
I have also bought a Honda in the last twelve months and managed to get an extra £500 out of a supposedly minimally discountable model (a Civic Vision 5dr petrol for under £10500 last Sept.) plus by selling the old Civic private secured an extra £750 over trade part ex.
My next attempt will be getting a 1999V Boxster 2.7 manual in the right spec from a Porsche dealer for a mate at the right price - now that will be a challenge.
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