PX maddness

[tezza]

Went to my local dealer yesterday to get a PX price on a new £34K MH, I have a 2006 Ace Napoli, FSH and only 23K miles on the clock, the van is used every day as a second vehicle hence the slightly higher milage than normal.

apart from that all is in excepional condition, shock horror, only offered 17,500 for it, when questioned, he said the mileage was to blame.

Is this right, are we being penalised for using our pride and joys?

 

tezza

[kevandali]

Not really sure if that seems to be the norm at the moment.

We went to the recent Birmingham show and we have a 2006 Swift Suntor 630L and were only offered £22000 from one dealer and £25000 from another dealer in part exchange. The van has only done about 17,000 miles.

[LordThornber]

Terry, apologies if I'm telling you what you already know but part exchanging really is a license to lose money.

 

You're paying for the privelage of just turning up and saying ta ta to your pride & joy.

 

There's only one way to "get even" with a dealer and that's flog it yourself and then negotiate a nice fat discount with your dealer.

 

The obvious downsides are numerous, not all are comfy with face to face selling, large financial transactions can be perilous etc etc.

 

If you're set on part exchanging my tips are three fold, visit a dealer towards the end of the month, some, (all?), have sales targets and might just be one "unit" short of the target. That applies largely to car dealers but may well with a larger van dealer too.

 

Make sure the van is well presented - essential.

 

The Daddy of em all though for me is this though, if you're going to buy the van, place your price to swap in front of the saleman, make it reasonable but in your favour of course. When he/she returns with their figure, squeeze em where it hurts, i.e start heading slowly toards the door, and watch those figure alter.

 

My last new vehicle purchase in 2005 resulted in the dealer making a profit of £19 on the deal, I'd no reason to disbelieve him at all. The poor b****r was drained when I'd finished with him.

 

Martyn (AKA Arthur Daley) :D :D

[Rainbow-Chasers]

sounds about right! We have a chap that has a 04 autotrail with all the extras and 12k on the clock - he was offered 10 grand, so he now has bought a new one, and hires his old one out through us! He paid 47k for it 4 years before. So now he has a new van and an income which he is happy with.

 

You also have to remember that in the current climate, the first thing people off load, is the 40 grand of equity sat on the driveway - this has meant that many dealers are over run with motorhomes. Maybe look at trading it in end of the year - one you should get a better deal, and secondly, if the mets predicted 35 degree summer hits, they may sell a few off!

[Brian Kirby]

tezza - 2009-03-08 11:45 AM Went to my local dealer yesterday to get a PX price on a new £34K MH, I have a 2006 Ace Napoli, FSH and only 23K miles on the clock, the van is used every day as a second vehicle hence the slightly higher milage than normal. apart from that all is in excepional condition, shock horror, only offered 17,500 for it, when questioned, he said the mileage was to blame. Is this right, are we being penalised for using our pride and joys? tezza

Yep, that is about the way it works.  You take a commercial vehicle built for 100,000 miles per year, stick a motorhome body on it, and suddenly the entire nation's motorhome dealerships take fright if it has covered more than 6,000 miles per year!

Added to that, the dealer may have a large amount of stock at present, which he may not be very confident about shifting and, even if he wants your order for a new van he's not going to give you top dollar.

Also, you are a bit late ordering, as most orders for new vans will have been placed last year for delivery about now.  That means, if he has done well with his orders to date, he may have "made his year", but now be facing an avalanche of used PX vans, as the new ones go out.  Who'd be a dealer, eh?

Your only way to be sure is to try a few more dealers, and see if the price changes much, and then go back and see how far he will go to match your best offer.  He has to believe you are serious, and you him.

[Tony Jones]

Martyn's point is well made though. Very often, with cars as well as vans, most of the so-called PX allowance is actually discount the dealer would have given you anyway, supposedly for NOT PX-ing!

 

When I was a sales rep, we had a fleet of about 8 cars and when one of them was due for replacement the boss used to be ruthless to the point of dishonesty. Taking the point above, his approach was "They're lying to me about PX, so I'll do the same to them."

 

So he'd start by telling them there was no PX, and beat the price down accordingly. THEN, on the point of making the deal, he'd say, "Now, how much will you give me for this car at the same time?" and start haggling about that.

Invariably the figure offered for the old car was lower than he'd have been quoted as "PX," but equally invariably his overall "cost to change" was MUCH lower than it would otherwise have been.

 

You'd have to be pretty hard-faced to try this one, but he was, and it always worked - I saw some of the paperwork.

 

Tony

[panagah]

However in typical dealer style,

 

Although of course he knocks you for high milage, when selling, he keeps with the inflated price telling all prospective buyers that "these vans are good to go to mars and back" and you dont want a low milage van you need one thats got usage.