Just checked in the Autocar and the car in question was a Mazda CX3.

But some of the stories on line paint a different picture of how recovery firms react to a callout....

Battery life is an important factor. looking out of my office window at the work car park, more than 50 % of cars are more than ten years old. Many people would/could only spend a few thousand on a car, and working and living in a rural area means public transport is non existent.

I personally would worry more about the life of any touchscreen fitted.. MY (admittedly limited ) experience of laptop touchscreens is that after 6 years use, broowed time.....

On the ITV news this evening ( 12 Feb 2020 ) there was an investigative report on Norton Motorcycles (UK) Limited.

Based on what was presented by ITV news it would appear there were questionable goings on regarding the way Norton managed their finances, both how they raised money and what they spent it on. Director Stuart James Garner refused to answer questions put to him by the ITV business editor Joel Hills. It made disturbing viewing to say the least....

Don’t go searching with discount as your number one priority. I’ve seen loads of people making this mistake, often walking away from an excellent car at an outstanding price because I couldn’t or wouldn’t throw it away only to buy something with major issues, fiddled mileage or faked history. No one gives away good stock so be wary of its too cheap. Some dealers price stock with heavy discounts and strong part-ex offers in mind and others keep prices lean to bring punters in but they’ll often refuse to budge by even a penny piece. At the end of the day you could look at two identical cars one priced at £10k and the other £9k, would you think you’d struck the better deal if the seller of the first car gave you £1,000 off?

As a trader I often had calls from people who simply wanted to know how much I’d discount a car by without even coming to view it. I tended to price them very keenly as it was just a sideline, more of a hobby if I’m honest so i wasn’t reliant on a big return. So to those fixated with discount I’d simply tell them that I’d add x amount on and then give them it back again in discount if that made them feel better but at the end of the day I’d take no more than £200 off a retail car and anything below £1,000 would get a token gesture like some fuel thrown in.

Dealers don’t have a fixed profit margin either, you could buy two identical cars on the same day at auction and one might’ve cost you five hundred quid more. There are no hard and fast rules here, it’s all fluid. Most dealers will have a policy regarding discount as mentioned above but in order to ascertain whether you’re getting a good deal you need to research what similar cars are selling for and be careful that you’re comparing like for like.

Discounts are irrelevant, it’s the price you ultimately pay, the cost to change that’s important and don’t forget to do your homework on finance too, I’ve seen people argue like crazy to get £300 off then sign an uncompetitive finance agreement that’s stings them for £2-3k more than the best bank loan. Yup, sure I’ll give you an extra £100 off if I’ve a fat finance commission coming. A wee trick is to let the dealer quote you a lovely overpriced finance deal then haggle hard for a discount. Get it on paper then call him later agreeing to buy but you’ll source your own money, legally he can’t change the price you pay based on how you fund it.


As for VAT, the dealer (if Vat registered) will have to pay it on the profit margin. If it’s £1,000 then it’ll be £200 for example and as you guessed it, it’ll be you who pays it as business cannot pay tax, it simply collects it. It makes no difference though as you’ll pay VAT unless you buy privately and on a new car you pay it on the full price.

Further to all this, I remember as a young trainee salesman being sent out to add £500 to the screen prices of a list of overage stock that were going to be involved in an £1,000 minimum trade-in offer. Ain’t no free lunches I’m afraid.

It is a 4yr old car and will have a few battle scars despite being an approved used example. Some oxidisation on alloys at this age is fairly normal but I’d need to see the rust spot above the windscreen to see if I’d view it as anything more than a simple stone chip. It could well be from a replacement screen but equally a nasty stone chip. Either is hardly Suzuki’s fault and should’ve been noted when you were viewing the car. Do try your luck with the corrosion and paintwork warranty, they might well help but I’d say that it’s not really a reason to reject a car.

My wee Polo had a few chips on the bonnet and a minor one above the screen plus some minor deterioration on the alloys when I bought it at 3yrs old at just over £7,000, though this was at least £1,000 less than the approved used examples I could find at the time. I’ve kept on top of it and it’s not really much worse than it was when I bought it.

I’m concerned that you bought it on a PCP though. On new cars it often makes sense but on used it’s rarely competitive with typical interest rates of 9% APR or more compared to bank loans of less than 3% APR.