I am seriously thinking about buying a new VW Golf Match 1.9TDI for my wife. We visited the VW dealer on Saturday and he said the best deal he could do for us is £15,265, which represents £620 off the list price. This price would be the same if we registered the car in January 07 or March 07 (for the new 07 plate).
Drivethedeal.com are advertising the same car for £14,301, which is basically £1,000 cheaper than my local dealer.
I know that if I purchased the car from drivethedeal.com, it would come from a VW dealer anywhere in the country and have the same 3 year manufacturers warranty. However, I am concerned that in the event of a warranty claim (either minor or major) I would be treated better by my local main dealer if I had purchased the car from them.
In what cases would I have to refer warranty issues back to the supplying dealer?
Can anybody give me any advice on this please? What would you do?
Thanks
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Save your money!!! Why give it to a vulture in a suit! Warranties are pan european nowadays. It is the garages legal obligation to honour any warranty work required. Besides they make more out of service/repair than they do out of sales. Don't be psychologically bullied with that argument 'cos its cobblers.
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we bought my wife's car (demonstrator) from a garage in Devon.....but had a minor warranty job done at a main dealer up the road, here in N London......the subject of where we bought it wasn't even mentioned...didn't seem to make the slightest bit of difference.......just gave them the car details and that was that......they are going to claim it all back from the manufacturer aren't they, so it keeps their employees busy.
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>>I would be treated better by my local main dealer if I had purchased the car from them.
In what cases would I have to refer warranty issues back to the supplying dealer?
Can anybody give me any advice on this please? What would you do? <<
I would not worry too much about the dealer - VW cars don't have problems, they have characteristics.
Most cust sat surveys would suggest that dealer service is not going to be that good anyway.
If dealer service is high on your list of priorities get a Toyota.
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If dealer service is high on your list of priorities get a Toyota.
Or a Honda, Mazda, Subaru and get it serviced by a small Local Franchise
Thye might not have sold you the car but appreciate the service business / warranty work.
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It is the garages legal obligation to honour any warranty work required.
Really? I very much doubt that's true. VW might not be very happy if one of their franchised dealers refused to carry out warranty work, but it seems unlikely to me that the garage is legally obliged to do it.
Dealers hate warranty work as the hourly rate they get is much less than they charge the general public.
Having said all that, Sales and Service are usually run totally separately so it shouldn't make any difference whatsoever where the car is sourced.
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Dealers hate warranty work as the hourly rate they get is much less than they charge the general public.
Whilst it is true that warranty work is carried out at a discounted labour rate I wouldn't go as far as to say that Dealers hate it. Warranty jobs can be a third of all work carried out in the workshop which makes the Manufacturer the Dealers largest customer. If a Dealer doesn't have any warranty work then they either have an under utilised workshop or you need to find new business - usually by offering discounted labour rates to try and keep older cars maintained at the Dealer rather than at independents. In order to fill a workshop these discounts can be larger than the discount given for warranty work.
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When I imported a Golf from Denmark a few years ago, my local dealer carried out the warranty work (a lot of it!) with no problems. It's all income for them at the end of the day - it's all claimed back from VW.
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I would be making out a cheque to drivethedeal in this case.
If you're expecting issues that will test your relationship with your dealer at this early stage, are you sure you're buying the right car?
Cheers
DP
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>>>I would be making out a cheque to drivethedeal in this case
I am almost certain that when you buy a car from Drivethedeal or Carfile, you pay the supplying dealer and not the broker. I think the broker gets a cut from the dealer.
So don't worry, you will be OK buying from a broker. Try Carfile, I have heard they are good.
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Careful how you finance it though. I bought on PCP, on the assurance that I could change the duration and mileage if I needed to.
Lie.
I cannot, nor can I settle without paying everything I would have paid over the three year period, so I can't refinance. If my circumstances hadn't changed, the car would have been an utter bargain. They have, and now it's a bargain I'm stuck with.
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Careful how you finance it though.
Sorry if I'm missing something, but what has your (as it tuns out) bad decision to buy a Honda on a PCP (which are known to be inflexible) got to do with someone buying a VW?
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Sorry if I'm missing something, but what has your (as it tuns out) bad decision to buy a Honda on a PCP (which are known to be inflexible) got to do with someone buying a VW?
If you go through a broker such as drivethedeal, as I did (although didn't use them in particular), one of the options available to you to finance it is PCP.
It looks like an attractive option, depending on what you want from a car, but I wasn't sufficiently aware of the pitfalls before I signed up. If he's considering buying a VW / Honda or any other brand, then unless he is sure that he knows what he wants from it, I'd caution against using this type of finance.
Unlike many BRs, I've got nothing against VW, and my comment had nothing to do with them in particular.
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