Car supermarket in Northampton had an immacluate Nissan 200SX up on their webiste for about a grand less than anyone else. Went down there after work to take a test drive. Salesmen told me the price which was £1000 more than advertised. But I had a print out of the advert. He then agreed I could have it at the low price if I could deal straight away. First I wanted a test drive. Halfway through the drive, saleman's mobile phone rings. One very loud phone conversation later, he tells me that there has been a big mistake and car is already sold.
Yeah right.
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I believe the term is "bait and switch".
Yes, this is an old trick designed to get you off your backside, drive across town and into their shownroom.
If you ever see a car advertised by main dealer chain at a very good price then telephone first and ask for details (i.e. colour, registration etc.) and ask them to confirm that it is still for sale. DO NOT give them any of your own details, save maybe for your name.
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Thanks to all for the education. The car is still \"for sale.\" Check out Sorry, deleted. ND under \"Nearly New\" What a company. Wouldn\'t touch them with a pole.
Regards
Moneysworth
Appreciate your concerns but we try not to name specific companies unless there is concrete evidence on wrongdoing already in the public domain. Suffice to say we appreciate you reminding us all of this all-too common sales \"ploy\". No Dosh.
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A local Suzuki garage advertises their cars for only £4995, what they dont tell you is that is before VAT at 17.5%.
On seeing the advertisement my parents rushed there to buy a new car. Chose the model, colour etc. they wanted but the final quotation came to £5900 nearly £1000 more.
This was going on 2 years ago now and the garage are still doing the same - there is no indication in the advert that prices are before VAT.
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Update
I\'ve re-enquired about the Volvo V70 SE Diesel. It\'s still on the website today. Young lady calls me and tells me it was sold either today or yesterday however she has done her best on my behalf to \"get the salesman to sell it to me\".
I am now being severely patronised. They do, however, have another V70 \"coming in\". No details on year, mileage, colour spec are available. Am I interested? If so they will cal me back on Saturday next!
The original V70 has now been sold to my knowledge at least 4 times over the past 16 days and each time on different days of the week.
Do business with these people at your peril! Deleted. I think I may have mentioned this before but this time I will use short words and say them a little louder. This is a widespread practice. Naming and individual companies & location on this website isn\'t acceptable on one person\'s say so . Please refer to the smallprint for further info. www.honestjohn.co.uk/credits/index.htm ND
A slight aside on the same subject. There was once a main Ford Agent in Skelmersdale who would steer customers into a lounge area with coffee etc. This was always after a PX price and finance details had been provided. The salesman and his manager then sat and listened via a hidden mike to the couple discussing what they could or could not afford etc etc. The salesman would then return to the lounge with an alternative offer.
Lizards may be one word I was looking for.
Regards
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To be fair there a number of national chains that do this sort of thing - I won\'t name them here though. I think this sort of stuff is meat and drink in the car business.
When I used to be in the s\'hand car business we were pretty \'straight\' with customers. I know some outfits that operated close to the edge (or just outside of) the law - some of them were big chains. One of the worst was the local Peugeot main dealer (long since gone bust) who we know used to get up to all sort of tricks. They used to buy \'salvage\' Pugs and get the bodyshop to repair them during \'lean periods\' - they put them out front at top retail prices. This went on for a long time until a customer found that his newly pruchased 205 was two cars welded together and the story hit the local press.
In the used car business one often catches glimpses of the dark underbelly of capitalism. In my experience the smartest prestige main dealer is not necessary any more honest than the smallest and scruffiest of back street traders.
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no dosh -
"Deleted. I think I may have mentioned this before but this time I will use short words and say them a little louder .."
you missed the third post, from the top, which also names the company!
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....and the car is still there on the website. Looks very nice indeed.
We should all try to buy it.
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I understand perfectly why the names were deleted in that particular post. However if you look at the 3rd post objectively then to delete the names at that stage would infer possibly that I was telling porkies. In my opinion, and to be fair, we are all expressing our own opinions here, the 3rd post is factual. I tried to purchase a non-existent car. It's still for sale! If the moderator feels the 3rd should be changed then I'm quite happy to comply.
I'm quite happy to move on from this as we have probably done it to death. Thanks for the many interesting contributions. I've learned a lot.
Regards
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the 3rd post is factual.
But we only have your word for that. If we took everyone's word as factual, then we would have no need for a no name/shame policy. DD.
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you missed the third post, from the top, which also names the company!
Not anymore. Thanks for pointing it out. DD.
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Not just dealers but manufacturers also do this... or at least they did a few years back. The basic model was listed at a very attractive price but you could never actually get your hands on the basic model - it was always 'special order' and the punter would be encouraged to spend just 'a few more pounds' to get the de-luxe or whatever spec.
I suppose it was a variation on the supermarket loss-leader except that they couldn't make a loss if they wouldn't supply the cars.
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You're right about prestige dealers; just because they sell expensive cars doesn't make them better. Last year someone I know sent their Porsche in to the dealer for a major service. As could be predicted, the bill was massive. However, what he failed to mention when he took the car in was that he had painstakingly marked engine parts. The dealer had billed for a lot of things not replaced despite providing some of the supposed old parts...
Same happened with my Ford a couple of years back. The exhaust fell off and I took it in to the dealer and had a new one on. It went in for its annual service three days later and - lo and behold - the service receptionist told me they had to fit a new exhaust. I queried this and they said it was very common when this model of car got to this age etc. etc. I let this go on for five minutes or so before asking them whether they thought it could corrode in three days. No proper apology but it was quite satisfying seeing how embaressed they were!
Given the above two the sales tactics relayed in this thread are not all that surprising, but it is sad as I know very little about cars and wish I could have more trust in the dealers.
Toby.
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Your exhaust story rings a bell. I had new shock absorbers fitted on my previous car. About 6 months later it was MOT time and I had this done at the same garage that fitted the shocks.
They failed the car on shock absorbers and quoted £200 more than I had paid previously.
I got my hands on the fail sheet then told the manager that I would send this to the DoT Vehicle Inspectorate, along with the receipt for the new shocks I had fitted only 6,000 miles back. He suggested a free retest as his his chap may have been mistaken but I pointed out that no, I'd be far happier if the failed shocks were replaced at his outlet's expense as that had to be safer than passing some failed shocks......
He agreed and I never used that garage again.
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