I bought my first 4x4 Panda in 2005 and as there were so few in the UK and I wanted my choice of colour and aircon, it had to be ordered.
The 8 week delivery time was considerably extended when the dealership discovered that the salesman had not placed my order.
I found the wait frustrating as I was desperate to downsize from an unwieldy and thirsty Nissan Terrano 2.
The Panda 4x4 finally arrived with a Diesel engine last year in the form of the highly specced Cross. This was available from stock with a hefty discount and in a choice of colours. The only extra it carried that I didn't really need was the split and sliding rear seat, which I actually now find very useful.
I was much happier with my experience buying from stock than to order.
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In the US the custom and practice is that a huge percentage of cars are bought from stock. Commonly a customer will expect to leave the showroom there and then with the new car he/she has just bought.
True. But they don't play the specification game like we do. They generally have a choice of 2 or 3 engines and that's it. The level of equipment fitted relates to the size of the engine, no options to speak of at all.
There are a few exceptions, but on the whole that's how it works.
Whether or not they do that because customers want a pre-built car to drive away in and no waiting, or because customers don't want options so they can just select one from a line on a forecourt, I don't know.
To be honest, given the mark up on options and what a money-spinner it seems to be for European marques (especially the Germans!), I'm surprised the US customers haven't been conditioned into going down that route too!
Edited by TheOilBurner on 26/02/2009 at 08:47
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There are a few exceptions but on the whole that's how it works.
Japanese cars are often like that, many of the "options" are dealer fit accessories, and there's a relaitively small choice of colours. A few years ago if you wanted a/c on a Honda Civic even that was fitted by the dealer.
In the US even the German cars tend to have the options in big packs, so that limits the variables much more than in the UK. And of course the engine range is much more limited - few diesels or 4 cyl petrol's.
Edited by Bill Payer on 26/02/2009 at 09:21
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I always buy from brokers, except in the case of 500 which ofcourse was only available at Dealers. I cannot wait more than 2 weeks for the new car. After 2 weeks I would have changed my mind and wanted a different vehicle. you people who order a car then wait 3 months for delivery must be Zen masters, thats all I can say. How can you be that patient?
Surely unless you are a complete anal fuss pot the car you want must be in some dealers yard somewhere in the country, just phone round. The internet has made searching so much easier.
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I've done both and have noticed no difference. Our C8 was bought from stock and is still fine 5.5 years later. It is top trim Exclusive and so apart from choosing the colour (silver) the only significant options were dark tinted glass, sunroof, CD changer and sat-nav. Would have liked sat-nav but that would have meant not guaranteeing the good discount, so bought an after-market Pioneer sat-nav and CD changer instead.
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How can you be that patient? Surely unless you are a complete anal fuss pot the car you want must be in some dealers yard somewhere in the country just phone round.
As I said, I always want factory fitted options. They're the things which complete the pleasure of owning the latest specification of car. Waiting a few weeks is no big deal. Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead.
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Talking of US cars, slightly off subject ive just had a look at a Passat on VW.com and there are no options to be had on the USA version, apart from dealer fit accessories. You do get a longer warranty on the powertrain (5 years) - why do we always get basic warrantys in this country?
They also throw in 3 years servicing.
Car works out to £19640 for a 2.0 petrol turbo.
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I cannot imagine caring:
1. what colour a car is - though I would probably draw the line at lime green or pink, although not if the car were cheap enough.
2. what colour the interior is - but see point 1
3. whether anybody else has driven it before.
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I tried buying a new Nissan Qashqai around last November. I was offered cars similar to the spec/colour I wanted from stock but couldn't get the exact one I wanted. I was not in any great hurry, so requested that a factory order be made, the dealer (in effect Nissan) refused. If I didn't want a stock model, they were not interested.
Edited by Steve Pearce on 26/02/2009 at 10:28
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That's bonkers, Steve.
It's not as if the car has to come from far away, it would be built in Sunderland.
I guess the main problem is the shutdown of the Sunderland factory so that they could not build the car you wanted. They have a huge stock to clear before they build cars again.
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That's bonkers Steve. It's not as if the car has to come from far away it would be built in Sunderland.
This was prior to the shutdown when they were still on full production. The story I was told at the time was that all production was being exported for the foreseable future. I heard this from more than one dealer too.
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With acres of land covered in unsold cars, and factories on short time, is that a surprise?
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On a slight thread drift here, how much does it cost the manufacturers to offer all these different options? I know factories nowadays are all in theory "just in time" with parts etc, and I know they may make extra profit from Joe Bloggs charging him whopping amounts for insignificant parts.
But, I would be scared to try and work out how many variants there were of, say, a Focus?
How much more cost effective would it be to have, 2 or 3 engines, 2 or 3 specs and that it. No options other than colour? Top Spec has every toy available and so on down to a basic.
Would surely save them money with production not to mention record keeping, pattern parts, suppliers, stock holding etc etc?
And going back to the OP, I always buy from stock. May mean me trading up to a higher spec but usually the discount over ordering new makes it worthwhile.
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I think they try that to a certain degree by building more or less the same cars and then switching features on and off via computer. Then they just fit the required dash button or whatever.
The perfect example is trip computers, often only on higher models and frequently purely a software function.
e.g. most Vauxhall's have a BC button (Board Computer) but on lower models it just says "No Function" when you press it!
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I was once told of a story, wherebuy some (I dont know which one inparticular as i cant remember) but some British Leyland cars you would pay extra for the 5th gear - although all the gearboxes had 5th installed, but there was a metal bar that simply blocked the leaver from selecting the 5th gear - if you where savvy about the car you simply didnt pay for the "extra" and cut the bar off.
Im inclined to belive this was true becasue it was told to me by someone who was a car fantactic and new everything there was to know about Cars and the industry at the time
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I can remember Ford Pops being offered with chrome bumbers as an extra the standard ones were the chrome ones sprayed silver.
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My dads is the strangest car ever in this regard, it a 97 Dec Fiesta Ghia 1.3 Endura which was built in March 1996, so that was a long long time it was sat in a field! It has such as oddenties as a heated front windscreen but no aircon. I have seen a lot of Fords like this, certain specs just cannot be sold, the most extreme example is a V reg Escort MK5, the model which they stopped making in 1994! And yes its the most rusty V reg car I have also seen.
Personaly I can be impatient and I am not that bothered about the luxeries, as longs as it has electric windows and central locking I don't care. I would probably just order one thats in stock depending on the delivery times.
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I have seen a 51 plate escort and Mondeo MK2 before and also an S reg Nova.
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51 reg Escorts are not that rare seen a few, by then the public started to love the Focus and the poor Euro NCAP results just meant the Escort by then was seen as out dated.
An S reg Nova wow that must be pretty special, thats a good five years stuck in a field. How do these cars suddenly get registered? I see the V reg Escort round where I live a lot (Ted1400 might have seen it, its a White one) it is owned by an an eldlerly couple who use it to go the health centre and the library. I always wondered if they knew the 9 year old car they are driving is actually at least 15 years old.
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Motorpoint were last month advertising an unregistered Peugeot 307SW, 2.0SE petrol with tiptronic transmission. If memory serves they wanted 8/8.5k ish. Sounded a bargain, and I was more than half tempted, but decided to spend 2k less on my 3yr old Mazda 6. I'm very pleased with it, but still feel a twinge of regret for not getting the 307 for delivery on an 09 plate.
I expect there are a few more of these out there which will look odd on 09 plates.
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It is not normally possible to register these cars at six or more years old;they would not meet legal requirements for registration.There are exceptions-I knew someone who built a Mk. I Lotus Cortina up from a shell and was give a registration number about three years after the end of the Mk.I.He was always getting pulled up by the police;so much so that he contacted the head of the local traffic police and asked him to circulate his staff to the effect that the car was legal.
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I placed an order for a new MK6 Golf 1.4TSI SE 5dr hatchback this afternoon with a few extras including a sunroof and within three hours the garage phoned me back to tell me, that having entered my requirements into their ordering system, a 5 month waiting time has come up in contrast to the 10 weeks or so that had been expected!
They said that they'd check this anomaly with VW in the next day or so and get back to me - not too good so far, then. Still, I can wait, earning a bit more on my pensioner's savings at about 1%net!!
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One per cent nett?
Greed, I call it. Who do you think you are - a disgraced former banker? :)
I couldn't wait five months, but the new Golf is meant to be a brilliant car.
Hope you enjoy it.
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I couldn't wait five months but the new Golf is meant to be a brilliant car. Hope you enjoy it.
I'll have to wait.
In the meantime I can put some more mileage on my 4 year old MK5 Golf 1.6 FSI SE with only 23k miles on the clock!
Just was looking forward to acquainting myself with the extra umph of the turbocharged 1.4 engine
Edited by oldgit on 26/02/2009 at 20:11
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Both of ours came from stock or, in the case of the Xantia anticipated stock. The Xant was a run out deal in Forte trim and only choice I was offered was the first due (grey) in late October or second (red) a week or so later. Just wanted to get hold of it so took the grey.
Berlingo was needed quickly as predecessor BX had failed the MoT. Once narrowed down to 1.9D and Desire trim it had to be silver but was ready in 3 days.
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I have seen a 51 plate escort and Mondeo MK2 before and also an S reg Nova.
In late 1993 a dealer offered me an unregistered, zero mileage early 1989 VW Golf GTI. Back in the early 90s hot hatches were virtually unsaleable due to the recession and monstrous insurance premiums. I didn't buy it as at the time I was searching for a GTI 16V.
I picked up my 530d company car mid December last year after a 3 month wait. When I ordered it in September, the supplying dealer offered me a cancelled customer order for immediate delivery at a very favourable leasing rate. I was very tempted as the astronomical list price promised a very high spec car. Unfortunately the relationship between price and taste had been lost on the guy who ordered it and I turned down the offer as I just couldn't have lived with it for 3 years.
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Having retro-fitted a number of options on my own cars (getting the parts from breakers) I have found that the newer the car the more ready to fit the options it is.
Last year I bought a 2000 Mondeo 2 without ABS and having negotiated with the breakers for a complete set of eveything including the wiring I found that it was only the expensive vacumn, hydraulic and mechanical parts that were needed, as the wiring down to the relay, fuse and warnig lamp was already in place.
As for buying from the factory it seems a gauranteed way not to get the discount that could be negotiated by a broker. The brokers usually quote the full price of factory fit toptions on top of the discount price for the stock car.
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