Anyone bought (or looked at) a car from the above - will they negotiate on pricing like any other dealer?
Any other thought on buying from them?
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I've bought five,E class and C class,prices seem fair and if you look to buy at the end of the month they are more likely to offer a deal.Targets to be met.
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My old man bought a CLK through them - they part exed his old E-class, delivered the car to the door, took his away and generally it was a smooth deal.
He managed to get a minimal discount from them.
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They are just like any other dealer; cars to sell, margins to make, unit targets to meet, stock to turn over, financial targets to meet.
Supply and demand are the key drivers and at the moment my guess is that buyers are thin on the ground. If you know what you want and have time, then stock watching is a good game to play. The longer a car is on their books the more it is costing them and the more vulnerable to depreciation it is. So if you know something has been there a while you can bid wildly at it.
I am looking at a C220 cdi classic se, auto, leather - budget about £15k plus my car (£1.5k). Saw an 03,03 18,000 miles in the paper at the week-end for £17,995. A quick trawl on the web revealed that it has been transferred from another showroom where it was up at £19,995. Already they are talking £17,250 and I haven't seen it yet - I am sure they will take my £15k plus my car and maybe a few quid - I will just bid them and be prepared to walk away - reason is; March is here and I think values will fall again with all the new cars going out - plus they have been heavily discounting the range.
Bid low, you can always go up.
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Thanks for replys so far.
Re cdbr's comment of stock watching - interesting that you picked up on a car that had been transferred. My understanding is (especially amongst the 'prestige' dealers) that they give up at some point (I heard 3 mths?) and send the car off to auction - I guess the unknown thing for the punter is catching the car just before that point.
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Most dealers have a 3 month stocking policy - if it'd been on the pitch for 90 days it'll get sent over the block.
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Thanks for the feedback. Picked up a 54 reg C270 CDi Estate today.
Mercedes Direct are certainly very keen to sell cars - they knocked £2,200 off the price to get me to visit the showroom and I got a further £1,300 off while I was there. This is against a car that started off at about the same price as in a 'normal' Merc dealer, but this one was spec'd far higher.
Although I don't need it they also offered HP at 3.6% flat (5.9% APR) which is cheap as from any of the on-line banks.
The only thing that's left me wondering about the deal is that when I picked the car up they'd included £299 (so same total price) for 'StarShield' (Merc version of SupaGard). I asked them to take it off the invoice but they said it's free (included in the price we negotiated). Other than being given an after care kit I really can't tell if it's been done and can't help feeling somewhat conned, even though I was happy with the total price. I really can't understand what's in it for Merc by including something I didn't want anyway.
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I would be a bit miffed if my new car had been covered in a liquid I didn't ask for. Ok, some people go for this Supaguard type treatment, some people can't stand the stuff and the extra work involved in the upkeep.
A bit like Tesco washing your apples in fresh spring water, bumping 5p on the price and saying tough, it's done now.
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I don't think Supaguard makes any difference. I had my last car - a Golf TDI estate - for nearly 3 years, and it didn't have Supaguard. I washed it with hose-fed brush fairly regularly but never shampooed or wax-polished it - yet rainwater always "beaded" on the paintwork right to the end.
Both SWMBO's Hondas have had it but we won't bother again.
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Of course you can't tell it's been applied. I used to sell this kind of product and customers would be so daft as to pour coffee onto the seats to check if it worked!!! How daft is that?
You CAN tell if it's "activated" tho. If you have a certificate then you at least know that the insurance element is live. I don't know what the cover level is for Merc but if you can't get a stain out or have a paintwork problem then you can claim, or they'll send a specialist out to sort it if that cover level is included.
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Most dealers have a 3 month stocking policy - if it'd been on the pitch for 90 days it'll get sent over the block.
Which is why you can often get a very good deal on a car that's been sitting around for a while.
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