Dealers !!

G

gov

Senior member
In my 45 years of owning cars I've mostly managed to avoid dealers - mostly selling and buying private - being thrifty ( skinflint ) I pay no more than £9k max for a car - I could afford a new posh car but can't come to terms with how much you lose in depreciation .

Been looking around for a replacement for our DD Fiesta - bought new in 2004 - gave it a quick polish today - came up like new inside and out - just topped 60k miles. As I said in a previous post looked at at new Dacia Stepway - salesman offered the princely sum of £900 as did a another garage when I looked at a 3 year old Honda Civic . Here on the Island local low mileage one owner cars sell for a premium - several similar Fiestas are on the forecourt for up to £2995 - not a bad mark up :cry:

Comes as no surprise just a reinforcement of what I knew already.
 
gov said:
In my 45 years of owning cars I've mostly managed to avoid dealers - mostly selling and buying private - being thrifty ( skinflint ) I pay no more than £9k max for a car - I could afford a new posh car but can't come to terms with how much you lose in depreciation .

Been looking around for a replacement for our DD Fiesta - bought new in 2004 - gave it a quick polish today - came up like new inside and out - just topped 60k miles. As I said in a previous post looked at at new Dacia Stepway - salesman offered the princely sum of £900 as did a another garage when I looked at a 3 year old Honda Civic . Here on the Island local low mileage one owner cars sell for a premium - several similar Fiestas are on the forecourt for up to £2995 - not a bad mark up :cry:

Comes as no surprise just a reinforcement of what I knew already.
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To be fair what would you expect? Buying for £900 and listing for £1400 is hardly going to make them much money, especially after having to carry out inspections, make any potential repairs / improvements and to give room for negotiation and tax.
 
pvr said:
Thought you meant road tax ...
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No Sorry, was quite an ambiguous statement. But warranty considerations should be in there too, quite often a 3-6 month warranty is offered.

As I understand, 2nd hand dealers either have to add VAT to the entire value of the car, or to their profit margins, so either way at least 20% of the "mark up" is VAT and not dealer profit.
 
pvr said:
Out of interest, how much did you pay for it in 2004?
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£7500 I appreciate Dealers are there to make a profit but ................ in my case my usual OCD means the car would not need valeting and is serviced up to date - so other than giving it a 3 month warranty it could go straight out on the forecourt .

I did pay £8995 from a citreon main dealer for my first zed - whilst it was in good condition all they had to do was refurbish two wheels - they didn't even change the oil and despite a 99 point check managed to miss the fact that the passenger seat recliner wasn't working , front tyres were on the limit and one was a rft the other a non runflat - cost me a few hundred quid to get it up to scratch despite having a so called warranty.
 
Regarding the dealers paying tax on the profit, I'm a bit out of touch but used to run a motorcycle shop and we had to pay VAT on the profit of a used bike, the VAT was incuded in the price of a new one same as today.
 
gov said:
pvr said:
Out of interest, how much did you pay for it in 2004?
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£7500 I appreciate Dealers are there to make a profit but ................ in my case my usual OCD means the car would not need valeting and is serviced up to date - so other than giving it a 3 month warranty it could go straight out on the forecourt .

I did pay £8995 from a citreon main dealer for my first zed - whilst it was in good condition all they had to do was refurbish two wheels - they didn't even change the oil and despite a 99 point check managed to miss the fact that the passenger seat recliner wasn't working , front tyres were on the limit and one was a rft the other a non runflat - cost me a few hundred quid to get it up to scratch despite having a so called warranty.
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Yeh, you may know that your OCD means its perfect, but the dealer can't know for sure (just like nobody buying a car 2nd hand can know for sure how it has been treated), they have to factor in some level of risk.

If they had listed it for £2900, £400 of the mark up is VAT, say £200 for warranty, £100 for vehicle inspection, HPI report etc, £300 for general overheads (valet, unforeseen misc. repairs, facility rental, salaries, petrol / insurance for test drives, commissiong for saleman etc.) only leaves £1000 left, which out of that needs to be some wriggle room (maybe 10% of list price, so say £300) for negotiations, leaving a profit of £700....hardly huge money.
 
Looking from another point, the car owes you nothing. 11 years for a £7500 car works out at £620 per year depreciation or thereabouts.

What does webuyanycar value it at?

You can always try pistonheads first to advertise it.
 
pvr said:
You can always try pistonheads first to advertise it.
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That would be my first port of call, you'll always get less from part-ex than you would selling privately (of course you just need to weigh up the opportunity cost of maybe getting an extra £200-300 versus the aggro of dealing with tyre kickers etc.)
 
StevenH72 said:
gov said:
pvr said:
Out of interest, how much did you pay for it in 2004?
Click to expand...


£7500 I appreciate Dealers are there to make a profit but ................ in my case my usual OCD means the car would not need valeting and is serviced up to date - so other than giving it a 3 month warranty it could go straight out on the forecourt .

I did pay £8995 from a citreon main dealer for my first zed - whilst it was in good condition all they had to do was refurbish two wheels - they didn't even change the oil and despite a 99 point check managed to miss the fact that the passenger seat recliner wasn't working , front tyres were on the limit and one was a rft the other a non runflat - cost me a few hundred quid to get it up to scratch despite having a so called warranty.
Click to expand...

Yeh, you may know that your OCD means its perfect, but the dealer can't know for sure (just like nobody buying a car 2nd hand can know for sure how it has been treated), they have to factor in some level of risk.

If they had listed it for £2900, £400 of the mark up is VAT, say £200 for warranty, £100 for vehicle inspection, HPI report etc, £300 for general overheads (valet, unforeseen misc. repairs, facility rental, salaries, petrol / insurance for test drives, commissiong for saleman etc.) only leaves £1000 left, which out of that needs to be some wriggle room (maybe 10% of list price, so say £300) for negotiations, leaving a profit of £700....hardly huge money.
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Going on all this it's a wonder the poor things can even make a profit at all - I was going to keep the car but after what you've said I think I will give it to them for nothing :rofl:
 
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