WSSC & other indie dealers

[DaveR]

West Sussex Specialist Cars now have 5 Z4MC's in stock according to PistonHeads Classifieds this morning.

Obviously from a seller's perspective, for the sake of taking a hit on price, selling to an indie dealer affords the opportunity to get rid of your car quickly and move on with whatever your next plan was.

From a buyer's point of view though, are there any advantages (warranty?) in buying from an indie dealer? Essentially, it's the same car you could have bought privately (if you'd been in a position to move when the private seller still had it) but now for, let's say, £3k more. It's still won't be a BMW AUC and I would expect the indie to be fairly unreceptive to hard negotiation since they clearly want to turn a decent profit on a fixed cost transaction (assuming they're not doing Sale or Return).

WSSC have had some of their cars for months and their price point seems to be on a par (or even more than) cars which occasionally appear at Sytner (Solihull). Can anyone comment on their buying experience from an indie? Or, come to that, if you sold your car to one, what is the typical margin applied to the forecourt price?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Adamski]

I went to a few indies prior to buying my zed. Mine is pre facelift so no extended warranty etc would be available from an indy dealer.

I ended up buying private, as I could have a real discussion with the (then) owner about the car and its use.

In the end, I reckon I saved a packet buying private, and the car was better looked after than many I had seen for trade sales, plus it hadn't been sitting on a forecourt for an extended period of time.

It's personal preference I suppose, and in a trade sale you have some backup if the car had faults after you buy it... but gambling on a private sale could pay off, and in many cases, does.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[James_G]

This car:

http://www.westsussexspecialistcars.co.uk/used-cars/bmw-z4-3-2-2dr-petworth-201145427799431

belonged to somebody on here and for a while it was in the Classifieds. Based on his advert on Pistonheads and their price your £3k gap would be about right I'd say.

Personally I can't see any benefit from buying them versus buying a private sale car that's covered by BMW extended warranty. However, compared to buying a private car with no BMW warranty, they do offer some protection should anything go wrong, since you are protected by Consumer Rights. My own experience of claiming from an independent dealer (4 years ago) when something does go wrong is that it can be a lengthy process and not especially pleasant.

Of course the other thing everyone forgets is that your typical dealer's stock will have no tax, so once you've negotiated on price you immediately then have £465 on top for a year's RFL. In all but very specific circumstances private sale cars will come with some RFL.

 

[teamemmenracing]

Read this stuff all the time on here ......... and heathenistic as it might sound ...........

the Zed 4 is just a car ...... its a pretty awesome bit oif kit but it is in fact a bit of machinery that does a job.

A crap and lazy mechanic .... is a crap and lazy mechanic whether he works for and Indy or the royal house of BMW itself.

Unless Im buying new or still under warranty, I have no problems buying from Iny's .... I check the car out - I check the price, if Im happy its a deal. Same with servicing ...... I use my local Kwik Fit, but thats because I know the blokes there and they actually do proper work.( I would do it myself but cant be arsed lying on my back when they have a ramp).

Theres not a lot to a Z4 ..... doesn't take long to gen up on what to look for when you are buying .....

 

[Darren Slone]

Read this stuff all the time on here ......... and heathenistic as it might sound ...........

the Zed 4 is just a car ...... its a pretty awesome bit oif kit but it is in fact a bit of machinery that does a job.

A crap and lazy mechanic .... is a crap and lazy mechanic whether he works for and Indy or the royal house of BMW itself.

Unless Im buying new or still under warranty, I have no problems buying from Iny's .... I check the car out - I check the price, if Im happy its a deal. Same with servicing ...... I use my local Kwik Fit, but thats because I know the blokes there and they actually do proper work.( I would do it myself but cant be arsed lying on my back when they have a ramp).

Theres not a lot to a Z4 ..... doesn't take long to gen up on what to look for when you are buying .....

Fair points well made + 1!