Car brokers and faults. Ask HJ 25 Feb

Fri 24 Feb 2017 20:35

Car brokers and faults. Ask HJ 25 Feb - daveyjp

From HJ Queries this week:

How safe is it buying a new car through carwow or drivethedeal? If it is safe, which company would you recommend? Incidentally, how do they make their money on a purchase? When is the new Skoda Yeti model due? Can I expect a good deal for a current Yeti at the moment from carwow or a Skoda dealer as a new model is due?

RC, Urchfont, Wilts

Either is fine because though you buy through them you don't buy from them. You buy from the franchised dealer supplying the car. The reason why prices are lower is that carwow and drive the deal channel large numbers of orders through individual dealers allowing the dealers to get bulk discounts from the manufacturer. The downside is that the dealer the car comes from might be some distance from where you live, which poses problems if the car develops faults.

Point of order re problems and far away dealers.

We bought our Aygo through Drivethedeal. The dealer was in Suffolk, we live in Yorkshire.

Car had a fault when delivered, local dealer fixed it under warranty, as they did for other warranty claims with no quibble whatsoever.

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Fri 24 Feb 2017 21:34

Car brokers and faults. Ask HJ 25 Feb - Avant

That's what should happen, and in most cases does with new cars. The problem may arise when you want to reject the car, or perhaps the local dealer can't fix the fault.

My preferred option, for which the brokers wouldn't thank me, is to get a quote from a couple of brokers and then see if the local dealer can match it. I got £7,000 off my V60 which would doubtless have been less if I hadn't shown the broker's (similar) quote to the dealer.

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Fri 24 Feb 2017 21:46

Car brokers and faults. Ask HJ 25 Feb - daveyjp

We tried the broker price match, but they wouldn't match!

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Fri 24 Feb 2017 23:20

Car brokers and faults. Ask HJ 25 Feb - RobJP

As Avant, I'd certainly prefer to put the business the way of a local dealer if possible.

When we bought the Z4 a couple of years ago, we got a price off Coast2coast, which was something like £7k off list price. Our local dealer said they couldn't match it, but they were only £120 or so away from it.

Considering C2C were sending their business through a dealership nearly 200 miles away, and I'd have had to go and collect the car from there, it made sense for us to stay local.

If they'd been more than £500 or so in difference, I'd have given it a lot more consideration though.

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Sat 25 Feb 2017 06:30

Car brokers and faults. Ask HJ 25 Feb - NARU

My local dealer could get to the right place on the price of the new car but was offering £2000 less than webuyanycar on my trade-in.

The dealer near work matched the online price. He did some creative work offloading my old car to a specialist (it was a low mileage landcruiser), and made himself more profit that way. That was fine with me - I got the deal I wanted.

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Sat 25 Feb 2017 08:36

Car brokers and faults. Ask HJ 25 Feb - RT

That's what should happen, and in most cases does with new cars. The problem may arise when you want to reject the car, or perhaps the local dealer can't fix the fault.

My preferred option, for which the brokers wouldn't thank me, is to get a quote from a couple of brokers and then see if the local dealer can match it. I got £7,000 off my V60 which would doubtless have been less if I hadn't shown the broker's (similar) quote to the dealer.

That's what I tried, but failed to do, when I bought my Touareg.

I got various online broker prices, £10,000 off list+options, eliminated those where a fee was payable to the broker, and went with Carwow - I selected a VW dealer not too far away from me, but not the nearest - I tried to get the two nearest dealers to match but they wouldn't/couldn't.

My local dealer is very happy to get my servicing/warranty work despite not selling me the car.

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Sat 25 Feb 2017 09:15

Car brokers and faults. Ask HJ 25 Feb - skidpan

My new Superb comes next Wednesday, bought via a broker. By some incredible coincidence the brokers Skoda dealer is 4 miles form where I live so its just like buying from the local dealer. Only difference is the savings I made.

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Sat 25 Feb 2017 09:24

Car brokers and faults. Ask HJ 25 Feb - veloceman

That's because you went to VW.
Never come across such an arrogant set of dealers.
So far up there own back sides selling a product they think is far more superior than it really is.

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Sat 25 Feb 2017 09:28

Car brokers and faults. Ask HJ 25 Feb - skidpan

For some reason only part of my post appeared and I recieved an error message so try again.

When I bought the Leon via a broker the dealer managed to make several cock ups in the paperwork which potentially made the manufacturers service plan and manufacturers warranty worthless. They also managed to put the incorrect VIN and reg in the service book. Basically they said "tough - go away". Rejection was on the horizon but before I went down that route I involved Seat Customer Service who sorted all the paperwork issues and issued a £200 voucher as a good will gesture.

Since both the warranty and service plan were VAG finance products they had little option but to sort. They were in breach of the law as they had theoretically missold the products because due to their mistakes they were worthless.

As for Veloceman's comment, its a Skoda not a VW.

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