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Punto EVO prices, are they having a laugh? - J500ANT
www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/item.htm?id=35559

Active 1.4 8v with Start&Stop 3 door £10,995.00
Eleganza 1.3 MultiJet (95 hp) Dualogic with Start&Stop 5 door £15,595.00

Maybe i'm out of touch, but £11k for a base model Punto sounds a bit steep to me. Especially when the new Polo is the same or a bit cheaper, model for model. (not sure which is better specced of course)
Punto EVO prices, are they having a laugh? - bell boy
madness if its true
then again ford keep hiking their prices
so the recession must be over with
pity i missed when it was over though
Punto EVO prices, are they having a laugh? - paulb {P}
The sort of person who pays 15 large for a new Punto of any description is the same sort of person who pays 18 for a new Bravo, or full list for any new Ford - that is to say, someone who likes paying over the odds.

I have always regarded the sticker price of any Fiat to be the starting point for negotiations - or in some cases, a way of using spare 0s from the number box - and my dealer appears to share this view, given their willingness to do deals.
Punto EVO prices, are they having a laugh? - zarqon
I'd bet the Polo buyer pays much nearer the list price and I'm sure no one, company or private, pays anything like the list price for a Fiat, Ford Vauxhall or many others, but a company car chooser will pay the tax on these prices.

If Fiat and others don't expect to achieve these prices why list them, don't they want the user/chooser business?

MPZ
Punto EVO prices, are they having a laugh? - paulb {P}
If Fiat and others don't expect to achieve these prices why list them don't they
want the user/chooser business?


I'm guessing - and I stress guessing - that if they quote a high price but allow punters to chisel bits off, they end up getting the price they actually budget for, while the punter rolls away thinking "I got a good deal here".

Plus there will be those who persist in the notion that you are somehow obliged to pay the list price, and in those cases the manuf. comes out slightly ahead.

They must be doing something right, though - haven't Fiat Auto been posting fairly tidy profits in recent times?
Punto EVO prices, are they having a laugh? - idle_chatterer
I'd bet the Polo buyer pays much nearer the list price and I'm sure no
one company or private pays anything like the list price for a Fiat Ford Vauxhall
or many others but a company car chooser will pay the tax on these prices.

>>

We certainly found VW dealers unwilling to give any discount from list on a new Golf recently despite waving DtD and What Car target prices in front of them, we did find one who gave us about £1K off in the end. By comparison Ford immediately got to £4K off a Focus, transaction cost for each was then within £1K so it became a question of whole life costs and perceived image which Ford lost.

I too think that Ford etc are playing a risky game in increasing their prices, in this oligopolistic market they'll be hoping that other manufacturers follow suit to sustain generally higher prices.

HJ comments in another thread that average transaction costs have risen by £1K this year already and you have to understand that the UKP / EUR exchange rate makes profitably a big problem for anyone who manufactures on the mainland and wants to sell in the UK.

The risk is that Ford / Fiat etc lose sales if UK buyers consider their products to be overpriced, on the upside this might keep second hand values buoyant ?