Trade in assessment, may be of some help for some people:

gabgab

To give everyone an idea of the standard costs involved in reconditioning a CLEAN €8,000 car in order to sell it on here goes. The price is purely for example and to maybe make it a bit easier to follow,

• Valet €150
• House Charge, covering advertising, plates, recleaning, fuel etc: €200
• Warranty: €200
• NCT Test: €49
• NCT preparation by trained mechanic: €80

Profit: 12.5 percent is not alot, based on overheads and running costs of the business as a whole, so €1,000

Discount: I will leave this up to readers to assess, based on what they would offer a dealer, today, for a €8,000 car that has been shown to them in a clean fashion, by someone knowledgable, polite, and courteous:

So thats €8,000 less (€679 reconditioning) less (€1,000 profit) = €6,321

Take the €6,231, remove the discount you as a customer would expect, and look at the figure you end up at that a garage needs to have a car costing them. Would you look for €800? Of course you would,

€5,431 is now where the car sits,

Now look at your car you are trading in:

Is it due a service? Maybe €250 depending on make model and what is needed
How good are the tires? €100 supplied and fitted for a decent tire on an average car
Dents/Scrapes? this is a minefield, anything from €70 to thousands
Mileage, where does it sit with similar cars in its class

So best case scenario you're car just needs a standard service no tires, €200

€5,231 is where we are at now, and that is presuming the rest of the car has no bumps, scrapes, trim missing inside, broken wing mirror casings etc etc etc,

After doing all this, look at your car, objectively and see what else about it as a proospective buyer you're eye or ear would be drawn to? Squeek over speed umps, door that does not quiete close right etc etc,

Then bear in mind the following:
How many owners has your car had relative to the norm for its year?
Was it previously crashed and repaired before you purchased it?
What county plate is on it? The registration plate on you're car has a bearing on the potential selling price.
Is it a car previously licenced in another country? If so has it a full and verifiable service history?

I threw this up to maybe hopefully shed some light on where trade in figures come from,

Mods or anyone else please feel free to tidy it up.

peasant

Interesting list ...but explain one thing to me:

Every time in the past when I've been on a dealers forecourt looking to exchange my s/h car for a newer s/h car nobody ever bothered to even walk around the car. All they did was take note of the make and the year on the plate, consult some paperwork and insult me with a generic trade-in value that in no way reflected the above average condition of my car.

mikemac

gabgab wrote: »

What county plate is on it? The registration plate on you're car has a bearing on the potential selling price.
.

Very informative post.
I've seen this county plate discussed before and it was dismissed as an urban myth.

Does a D reg realy command more as people think a rural county plate means abuse on backroads whereas a D reg is a better bet.
People actually believe that and pay accordingly? I'm suprised

gabgab

peasant wrote: »

Interesting list ...but explain one thing to me:

Every time in the past when I've been on a dealers forecourt looking to exchange my s/h car for a newer s/h car nobody ever bothered to even walk around the car. All they did was take note of the make and the year on the plate, consult some paperwork and insult me with a generic trade-in value that in no way reflected the above average condition of my car.

Unprofessional and not conscious of costs, he has to be able to recondition that car and turn it around into profit, if he has not inspected the car properly then he will not of inspected any properly. Be wary of purchasing used stock from people that operate like this,

If your car is in above average condition then it should fetch above average prices, where this becomes a problem is:
Where is the average? In terms of your car and the price it is making back once sold
Also just how far above in terms of condition is your car, and how much in monetary terms is that worth?

Has it just been serviced, with good decent tires, a long NCT, a full service history, free from cosmetic and structural damage and little money needed to turn it around into a retail car? If so drop me a PM, I will happily point you in the right direction,

gabgab

micmclo wrote: »

Very informative post.
I've seen this county plate discussed before and it was dismissed as an urban myth.

Does a D reg realy command more as people think a rural county plate means abuse on backroads whereas a D reg is a better bet.
People actually believe that and pay accordingly? I'm suprised

Hey Mic,

Hows tricks with you?

Yes it does affect, people prefer cars from their surrounding area, its more of a psychological thing than anything else. It does definitely have an affect, trying to sell a country plate in Dublin can be alot more difficult, eg: 04 OY 1234

JohnW

I have recently changed to a BMW 1 series from a main dealer, when i was comparing his prices to another garage with a 1 series, he informed me that a D reg is worth about €1,500 more to the value of his cars compared to a other reg. He also added that the counties close to Dublin (so I suppose Kildare, Meath etc) are also more value that counties further afield.

-Chris-

Good post, OP, thanks.

peasant wrote: »

Interesting list ...but explain one thing to me:

Every time in the past when I've been on a dealers forecourt looking to exchange my s/h car for a newer s/h car nobody ever bothered to even walk around the car. All they did was take note of the make and the year on the plate, consult some paperwork and insult me with a generic trade-in value that in no way reflected the above average condition of my car.

That's a lack of professionalism on the part of the salesman, imho. The general rule is to never price a car that you haven't seen - it's financially dangerous to do anything else!

micmclo wrote: »

Does a D reg realy command more as people think a rural county plate means abuse on backroads whereas a D reg is a better bet.
People actually believe that and pay accordingly? I'm suprised

Plates affect pricing, definitely. A local plate will be worth more than an "out of town" plate - a DL reg will be worth less in Cork than it is in Donegal.
Dublin is the only plate that generally avoids this as it's pretty prevalent in every county anyway.
It's not a reflection on how the car's driven though, D regs down the country are driven by reps and Gardai, neither are well known for keeping their cars well... Just for some reason people in Dublin don't want to drive WH regs and people in Kerry don't want SO.

mikemac

Wait, I just remembered the old GAA factor.
You'd want to be a fantastic salesman to sell a C reg to a Kerryman :P

OldmanMondeo

micmclo wrote: »

Very informative post.
I've seen this county plate discussed before and it was dismissed as an urban myth.

Does a D reg realy command more as people think a rural county plate means abuse on backroads whereas a D reg is a better bet.
People actually believe that and pay accordingly? I'm suprised

Don't know why, but I traded an 01 LD reg car last year. All the dealers, Dublin & Kildare, I spoke to said that the Longford reg who effect the value of the car, even though I explained that it was used mainly for motorway driving. The car was a navy Mondeo Zetec with FSH from dealer and in excellent condition. Traded it in in Longford and got a good price. As I handed the keys in they was already someine interested in the car.

With regard to Trade in's, most people should know by now that they will get a few grand less than what they think their car is worth, i.e. I think my car is worth around €20k - €21k, but know I would only get between €16k - €17k for it on a trade in. there seems to be a minium cost of changing, I reckoned around €4k, to cobver whta Gabgab posted.

Clare_Guy

gabgab wrote: »

To give everyone an idea of the standard costs involved in reconditioning a CLEAN €8,000 car in order to sell it on here goes. The price is purely for example and to maybe make it a bit easier to follow,

• Valet €150
• House Charge, covering advertising, plates, recleaning, fuel etc: €200
• Warranty: €200
• NCT Test: €49
• NCT preparation by trained mechanic: €80

personally i think those figures are bullcrap!!

those are the amounts it would cost the seller to carry out the work required, the garage have a full compliment of people who'll carry out the work in their normal working day, at no extra (or at the very most a small) cost to the dealer.

Jonny303

Clare_Guy wrote: »

personally i think those figures are bullcrap!!

those are the amounts it would cost the seller to carry out the work required, the garage have a full compliment of people who'll carry out the work in their normal working day, at no extra (or at the very most a small) cost to the dealer.

At no extra cost???? Someone has to pay their wages!! If there doing sales work they arnt doing retail work which isnt bringing in cash.

Eoin

That valet seems pretty expensive. That's what I paid for a top notch mobile service to come out to me at work for about 3 hours. I would think that it would be considerably cheaper for someone in the trade to get it done.

gabgab

Clare_Guy wrote: »

personally i think those figures are bullcrap!!

those are the amounts it would cost the seller to carry out the work required, the garage have a full compliment of people who'll carry out the work in their normal working day, at no extra (or at the very most a small) cost to the dealer.

Thanks for that Clareguy, constructive and helpful.

Everything cost money, EVERYTHING.

Business is there to provide jobs and dare I say it, make a profit, regardless of what the business is,

To answer you indirectly, the vehicle is being checked over by someont aht is either fully trained, unlikely as they are working on more complex problems, or someone that is training.
They have a wage,
Along with the man that gives them the bulbs and wipers, the parts man
Along with the service advisor that has scheduled the work,
Along with everyone else in the business

Then the costs, rent, or mortgage,
Light, Heat, Waste disposal, Ramps, Tools,

The list goes on and on and on,

Your point is not valid or even remotely well put together,

Clare_Guy

Jonny303 wrote: »

At no extra cost???? Someone has to pay their wages!! If there doing sales work they arnt doing retail work which isnt bringing in cash.

Do you really think it costs a garage €150 to "valet" a car, how much does it cost the "man-on-the-street"?

They'll have a young fella to do the "valet".

The "house-charge" is bullcrap too. Advertising, ad it the website at no extra cost, stick a sticker in the window, maybe ad it to the ad in the local paper which will be a fixed cost too. Plates? most second-hand cars i've seen have plates on them already! Re-cleaning? "young fella, get the hose out again!" Fuel? how many cars have you taken for a test drive that DIDN'T have it fuel warning light on?

Warranty? Where's the cost? There's a value attached to it but no fixed cost.

NCT Test? If it requires one you can be sure that cost was taken off the previous owners deal.

NCT Prep? As above,

All work will be carried out during the course of the normal working day after paying jobs like servicing and repairs have been done.

And no... i don't expect the salesman will dragged away from his desk or flirting with the receptionist to help out...

gabgab

eoin_s wrote: »

That valet seems pretty expensive. That's what I paid for a top notch mobile service to come out to me at work for about 3 hours. I would think that it would be considerably cheaper for someone in the trade to get it done.

The guy doing at your house does not have the costs involved, a valeting bay or two removes two ramps from a service area,

Also its an average, some cars are clean and can be done quick, others may need two interior valets,

There is always a approach that in the trade equals half the price, we still buy the materials, and the staff, and allocate the space.

L-M

Jonny303 wrote: »

At no extra cost???? Someone has to pay their wages!! If there doing sales work they arnt doing retail work which isnt bringing in cash.

+1

@Clare_guy. Clearly some1 has to be paid for work carried out plus parts, and profit. Nothing comes at no extra cost to a dealer.

Our warranty and house charges and more than the above qouted but i would say that is a round about figure.

I would also never give a car a value without inspecting it.

Clare_Guy

gabgab wrote: »

Thanks for that Clareguy, constructive and helpful.

Everything cost money, EVERYTHING.

Business is there to provide jobs and dare I say it, make a profit, regardless of what the business is,

To answer you indirectly, the vehicle is being checked over by someont aht is either fully trained, unlikely as they are working on more complex problems, or someone that is training.
They have a wage,
Along with the man that gives them the bulbs and wipers, the parts man
Along with the service advisor that has scheduled the work,
Along with everyone else in the business

Then the costs, rent, or mortgage,
Light, Heat, Waste disposal, Ramps, Tools,

The list goes on and on and on,

Your point is not valid or even remotely well put together,

blah, blah, blah... SHILL

L-M

Clare_Guy wrote: »

blah, blah, blah... SHILL

Any moderators around

Táck

peasant wrote: »

Interesting list ...but explain one thing to me:

Every time in the past when I've been on a dealers forecourt looking to exchange my s/h car for a newer s/h car nobody ever bothered to even walk around the car. All they did was take note of the make and the year on the plate, consult some paperwork and insult me with a generic trade-in value that in no way reflected the above average condition of my car.

would you really want to buy a car from a garage who appraises their incoming cars like this?

its something for all people to think about. if they didnt bother looking over your car, what about the used car you are buying.

Zube

peasant wrote: »

Every time in the past when I've been on a dealers forecourt looking to exchange my s/h car for a newer s/h car nobody ever bothered to even walk around the car.

Out of six cars I've traded in, I'd say I got two close inspections (by a salesguy, not a mechanic), three walk-around "inspections" which told the garage bugger all, and one car traded without even being seen.

Clare_Guy

gabgab wrote: »

To give everyone an idea of the standard costs involved in reconditioning a CLEAN €8,000 car in order to sell it on here goes. The price is purely for example and to maybe make it a bit easier to follow,

• Valet €150
• House Charge, covering advertising, plates, recleaning, fuel etc: €200
• Warranty: €200
• NCT Test: €49
• NCT preparation by trained mechanic: €80

Profit: 12.5 percent is not alot, based on overheads and running costs of the business as a whole, so €1,000

Discount: I will leave this up to readers to assess, based on what they would offer a dealer, today, for a €8,000 car that has been shown to them in a clean fashion, by someone knowledgable, polite, and courteous:

So thats €8,000 less (€679 reconditioning) less (€1,000 profit) = €6,321

Take the €6,231, remove the discount you as a customer would expect, and look at the figure you end up at that a garage needs to have a car costing them. Would you look for €800? Of course you would,

€5,431 is now where the car sits,

Now look at your car you are trading in:

Is it due a service? Maybe €250 depending on make model and what is needed
How good are the tires? €100 supplied and fitted for a decent tire on an average car
Dents/Scrapes? this is a minefield, anything from €70 to thousands
Mileage, where does it sit with similar cars in its class

So best case scenario you're car just needs a standard service no tires, €200

€5,231 is where we are at now, and that is presuming the rest of the car has no bumps, scrapes, trim missing inside, broken wing mirror casings etc etc etc,

After doing all this, look at your car, objectively and see what else about it as a proospective buyer you're eye or ear would be drawn to? Squeek over speed umps, door that does not quiete close right etc etc,

Then bear in mind the following:
How many owners has your car had relative to the norm for its year?
Was it previously crashed and repaired before you purchased it?
What county plate is on it? The registration plate on you're car has a bearing on the potential selling price.
Is it a car previously licenced in another country? If so has it a full and verifiable service history?

I threw this up to maybe hopefully shed some light on where trade in figures come from,

Mods or anyone else please feel free to tidy it up.

It's funny how a thread appears with an article about how much pressure the car-dealers are under at the moment and shortly afterwards another thread appears showing punters how little money the poor car dealers actually make on cars!...

Is there a charidee for car dealers i can donate to?

gabgab

Clare_Guy wrote: »

blah, blah, blah... SHILL

I put up a post to try and help people get a realistic appreciation of the costs involved in cars and where a trade in figure comes from. I hopefully helped a few people out in understanding it a bit better,

Thanks for your helpful and intelligent posts,

Stevie Dakota

ClareGuy is an idiot. Gabgab, it's interesting to get the view from the other side, well done.

Clare_Guy

gabgab wrote: »

I put up a post to try and help people get a realistic appreciation of the costs involved in cars and where a trade in figure comes from. I hopefully helped a few people out in understanding it a bit better,

Thanks for your helpful and intelligent posts,

yeah man thanks for that helpful info. now get back into the showroom and start selling some cars!!

Zube

Táck wrote: »

would you really want to buy a car from a garage who appraises their incoming cars like this?

In each case where the sales guy didn't give a rats, I was buying a new car.

gabgab

Clare_Guy wrote: »

yeah man thanks for that helpful info. now get back into the showroom and start selling some cars!!

Yes boss, thank you sir for letting me OUT of the showroom to use the internet computer that is beside the money tree........

You're a clever one are'nt you

furtzy

You'd get similar responses if it was an estate agent. Car salesmen are viewed with the same distain. Everyone has had an experience of the salesman running down your car saying theres no market for your vehicle at the moment, no calling you back etc etc. Now that times are tough for them people are having their pound of leash....rightly or wrongly

Clare_Guy

Stevie Dakota wrote: »

ClareGuy is an idiot. Gabgab, it's interesting to get the view from the other side, well done.

Why thank you Stevie D :rolleyes:

gabgab

Zube wrote: »

In each case where the sales guy didn't give a rats, I was buying a new car.

Still should though, any defects will have an affect on the trade price he gets on the car from whoever is buying it off him,

Clare_Guy

gabgab wrote: »

Yes boss, thank you sir for letting me OUT of the showroom to use the internet computer that is beside the money tree........

You're a clever one are'nt you

only an hour and twenty minutes for lunch? times are tough...?

gabgab

Are you in Mensa?? seriously....... I mean you're bright as a button,

I have a day off,

Please do not reply unless you have something constructive to add,

peasant

@all ...lay off the insults and stay on topic

Clare_Guy

gabgab wrote: »

Are you in Mensa?? seriously....... I mean you're bright as a button,

I have a day off,

Please do not reply unless you have something constructive to add,

ok

craichoe

*sigh* .. well you can look at it two ways. A business has to put a figure on how much inhouse services cost them. These figures are always over inflated, in every business.

[*]Valet €150

Is this how much the materials cost to perform this task ? What is the hourly rate for the employee .. how many hours does it take to complete this task ?

[*]House Charge, covering advertising, plates, recleaning, fuel etc: €200

Would this not vary from dealer to dealer ? I.E. depending on how much the dealer invested in Advertising in the first place ? What kind of numbers are these based on ? What type of Advertising and how many cars ?

[*]Warranty: €200

Warranty is an Aftersales risk, It could cost you 0 or thousands of Euro ? How was this 200 euro figure arrived at ? Is the warranty provided by a third party company ? Is there any general guidelines that garages follow ?

[*]NCT Test: €49

Are all cars that come in not NCT'd ? AFAIK, most owners would have their car NCT'd before the sale or trade in ?

[*]NCT preparation by trained mechanic: €80

How is this 80 euro figure worked out ? Would there not be a variation in the work needed to bring the car up to NCT standard ?

Saying that it is good to get an opinion from the other side, but i would appreciate comments on the above.

L1011

craichoe wrote: »

Warranty is an Aftersales risk, It could cost you 0 or thousands of Euro ? How was this 200 euro figure arrived at ? Is the warranty provided by a third party company ? Is there any general guidelines that garages follow ?

Dealer warranties are very frequently bought off insurance firms such as Warranty Direct, hence a (relatively) fixed price.

Biro

To be honest, I also find it hard to believe that a dealer pays €150 on a car to valet it. €80 for an NCT check? Would it take 2 hours to do this on every single car? Even on average? If so, is the mechanic on €40 an hour? Even having to buy parts (rarely I'd say) that's being very generous with the amount allocated.
I understand that the premises costs money and staff cost money, but adding plates and fuel to cost is strange - fuel is always part of the bargaining deal. If you're paying €150 per car for a valet then I'll come and do it for you, for €140 per car! I'll even buy my own stuff. If I get 4 cars a day I'll clean up!

Robertr

Only problem I have with this is that you would not be offered 5k for a car that retails for 8k or anything like it.

Also, the figures work out nice and handy when looking at an 8k car but how about a car that retails at about 50k. By your rationale, the garage would be taking at least 6k profit and offer me about 43k? Doubt it. I’d say he would give me 35k if I was lucky and also be earning the profit on what ever I'm buying.

How about when the dealer rings someone to buy the car off them. You telling me that there is not a few grand taken off the trade in value between the phone being put down and him telling you what was said?

gabgab wrote: »

To give everyone an idea of the standard costs involved in reconditioning a CLEAN €8,000 car in order to sell it on here goes. The price is purely for example and to maybe make it a bit easier to follow,

• Valet €150
• House Charge, covering advertising, plates, recleaning, fuel etc: €200
• Warranty: €200
• NCT Test: €49
• NCT preparation by trained mechanic: €80

Profit: 12.5 percent is not alot, based on overheads and running costs of the business as a whole, so €1,000

Discount: I will leave this up to readers to assess, based on what they would offer a dealer, today, for a €8,000 car that has been shown to them in a clean fashion, by someone knowledgable, polite, and courteous:

So thats €8,000 less (€679 reconditioning) less (€1,000 profit) = €6,321

Take the €6,231, remove the discount you as a customer would expect, and look at the figure you end up at that a garage needs to have a car costing them. Would you look for €800? Of course you would,

€5,431 is now where the car sits,

Now look at your car you are trading in:

Is it due a service? Maybe €250 depending on make model and what is needed
How good are the tires? €100 supplied and fitted for a decent tire on an average car
Dents/Scrapes? this is a minefield, anything from €70 to thousands
Mileage, where does it sit with similar cars in its class

So best case scenario you're car just needs a standard service no tires, €200

€5,231 is where we are at now, and that is presuming the rest of the car has no bumps, scrapes, trim missing inside, broken wing mirror casings etc etc etc,

After doing all this, look at your car, objectively and see what else about it as a proospective buyer you're eye or ear would be drawn to? Squeek over speed umps, door that does not quiete close right etc etc,

Then bear in mind the following:
How many owners has your car had relative to the norm for its year?
Was it previously crashed and repaired before you purchased it?
What county plate is on it? The registration plate on you're car has a bearing on the potential selling price.
Is it a car previously licenced in another country? If so has it a full and verifiable service history?

I threw this up to maybe hopefully shed some light on where trade in figures come from,

Mods or anyone else please feel free to tidy it up.

gabgab

craichoe wrote: »

*sigh* .. well you can look at it two ways. A business has to put a figure on how much inhouse services cost them. These figures are always over inflated, in every business.

Is this how much the materials cost to perform this task ? What is the hourly rate for the employee .. how many hours does it take to complete this task ? Would this not vary from dealer to dealer ? I.E. depending on how much the dealer invested in Advertising in the first place ? What kind of numbers are these based on ? What type of Advertising and how many cars ? Warranty is an Aftersales risk, It could cost you 0 or thousands of Euro ? How was this 200 euro figure arrived at ? Is the warranty provided by a third party company ? Is there any general guidelines that garages follow ? Are all cars that come in not NCT'd ? AFAIK, most owners would have their car NCT'd before the sale or trade in ? How is this 80 euro figure worked out ? Would there not be a variation in the work needed to bring the car up to NCT standard ? Saying that it is good to get an opinion from the other side, but i would appreciate comments on the above.

From 2 to 6, how much is the piece of steak and potatoes (materials) and the chefs hourly wage in a restaurant?

How many liters of fuel will a car take, do people trade them in with full tanks, how much do I have to put in it before sending the new owner off with it?
How much is a monthly subscription to carzone, will I advertise locally in local papers?
How much is a small advertisement in a daily paper, do you get much for €1,000?

Very few garages purchase warranties from third parties, where does the garages customer go with a problem if not an inhouse warranty? Yes there are, there is a collection of all warrany monies and it is pooled, if you have a car with no problems, if you have a car with a battery and a window regulator problem, could be €300. Now in a negative amount of €100 or 50%

Very few, much like tax, people trade them with the attitude that it does not need to be done as it is not their car anymore

The car has to be inspected, look at a nct report.
At a minimum, light focus, easily off can take sometime to get it right,
tire depth and pressures,
emmissions,
all fluid levels,
all bulbs, down to plate bulbs etc,


All said and done it is like anything, it seems like it is small, it seems like it takes no time, but it does, and it costs money

-Chris-

Biro wrote: »

To be honest, I also find it hard to believe that a dealer pays €150 on a car to valet it. €80 for an NCT check? Would it take 2 hours to do this on every single car? Even on average? If so, is the mechanic on €40 an hour? Even having to buy parts (rarely I'd say) that's being very generous with the amount allocated.
I understand that the premises costs money and staff cost money, but adding plates and fuel to cost is strange - fuel is always part of the bargaining deal. If you're paying €150 per car for a valet then I'll come and do it for you, for €140 per car! I'll even buy my own stuff. If I get 4 cars a day I'll clean up!

I don't know how much it costs per valet in our dealership, but I do know we have a very large industrial unit for valeting. This has rent, light, heat, insurance, maintenance etc. due on it each month.
There are also 4 full time valeters.
Materials are probably a pittance compared to rent & wages, but they're there.

If it were as cheap to valet cars as some people think it is, either all the valeters who are currently operating in our multi-storey carparks would be driving around in S-Classes, or a pricing war would break out.

gabgab

Biro wrote: »

To be honest, I also find it hard to believe that a dealer pays €150 on a car to valet it. €80 for an NCT check? Would it take 2 hours to do this on every single car? Even on average? If so, is the mechanic on €40 an hour? Even having to buy parts (rarely I'd say) that's being very generous with the amount allocated.
I understand that the premises costs money and staff cost money, but adding plates and fuel to cost is strange - fuel is always part of the bargaining deal. If you're paying €150 per car for a valet then I'll come and do it for you, for €140 per car! I'll even buy my own stuff. If I get 4 cars a day I'll clean up!

How much would he pay then for what could be two, or 5 hours work?
What has the salary of the mechanic got to do with anything?
Fuel is bargaining tool, but who pays for it? The money has to come from somewhere,

All I am trying to do is to point out the elements involved in buying and selling cars, too many people look at carzone, look at a forecourt price and decide what their car is worth with no consideration for the realistic price it will fetch, and what money has to be spent on it,

Alun

Put it like this .. assuming the garage in question doesn't have valeters, mechanics and other staff just sitting around on their arses all day doing nothing (and if they do, then they have other problems) then anyone spending time doing an 'internal' job 'for nothing' could better be employed doing the same for a real, live paying customer at the full retail price, so in that sense it is actually costing them that amount.

L-M

Robertr wrote: »

Also, the figures work out nice and handy when looking at an 8k car but how about a car that retails at about 50k. By your rationale, the garage would be taking at least 6k profit and offer me about 43k? Doubt it. I’d say he would give me 35k if I was lucky and also be earning the profit on what ever I'm buying.
QUOTE]

And what if ur 50K car is sitting on the dealers forecourts for 6 months +, costs only increasing, and value only decreasing? There has to be some sort of margin to allow for this and also all of mention in the first post. It's not all money making, money is lost too.

Cyrus

The original post would make sense in some limited situations, but of course there are very few garages that will go by something like that.

more than likely the salesman will do a quick walk around, make sure it isnt badly damaged and then check the trade value of the car, and thats it, that is regardless of the fact that the car traded in may be in pristine condition with good tyres, 2 year nct, low mileage etc, doesnt matter a toss.

Thats why ive never traded a car in

Biro

gabgab wrote: »

How much would he pay then for what could be two, or 5 hours work?
What has the salary of the mechanic got to do with anything?
Fuel is bargaining tool, but who pays for it? The money has to come from somewhere,

All I am trying to do is to point out the elements involved in buying and selling cars, too many people look at carzone, look at a forecourt price and decide what their car is worth with no consideration for the realistic price it will fetch, and what money has to be spent on it,

Look, it's fair enough, you've provided a good thread with information, and you're right, people over value their cars because of what they see on the forecourt. In the UK it's a case of forecourt prices are one thing and private prices are a bit less, and everyone knows the reasons why, but that's not the case here.
What annoys me though is two things. One is that sales guys do tend to whine a lot about their job being underestimated, but if you weren't making money you wouldn't be in the business. Fair enough, you're supposed to make money. But what really annoys me is the fact that I'm frequently ignored by sales guys. And I've never yet gotten a call back from any of them.

Cyrus

Limerick-man wrote: »

Robertr wrote: »

Also, the figures work out nice and handy when looking at an 8k car but how about a car that retails at about 50k. By your rationale, the garage would be taking at least 6k profit and offer me about 43k? Doubt it. I’d say he would give me 35k if I was lucky and also be earning the profit on what ever I'm buying.
QUOTE]

And what if ur 50K car is sitting on the dealers forecourts for 6 months +, costs only increasing, and value only decreasing? There has to be some sort of margin to allow for this and also all of mention in the first post. It's not all money making, money is lost too.

if its sitting there for 6 months thats the garages fault for over pricing it

a fairly priced car will sell quickly

L-M

Cyrus wrote: »

a fairly priced car will sell quickly

Not true, u can be a fairly priced as u like and if there isn't a market for it, it won't sell.

mkdon05

garages make a profit on taking your old car and also make a profit on selling you a new car. Thieves disguised in a shirt and tie.

That said if you dont like their trade in price, stop whinging and sell privately.

Cyrus

Limerick-man wrote: »

Not true, u can be a fairly priced as u like and if there isn't a market for it, it won't sell.

there is a market for everything, has to be (within reason) thats why it sold in the first place, prices are too high thats why they dont sell

gabgab

Cyrus wrote: »

Limerick-man wrote: »

if its sitting there for 6 months thats the garages fault for over pricing it

a fairly priced car will sell quickly

You're dead right there, but a fair price will not always be accepted by a customer or potential customer.

A fair price from a garages perspective, with costs as discussed, and showroom, and staff is going to be very different to somebody selling a car on the side of the road and with no warranty or overheads. That is the same for every facet of business,

gabgab

mkdon05 wrote: »

garages make a profit on taking your old car and also make a profit on selling you a new car. Thieves disguised in a shirt and tie.

That said if you dont like their trade in price, stop whinging and sell privately.

Please show me an example of us making a profit on both parts of a deal, or how it is done

L-M

mkdon05 wrote: »

garages make a profit on taking your old car and also make a profit on selling you a new car. Thieves disguised in a shirt and tie.

Lol, so when we trade in a car, service it, clean it, and advertise it we make money? Invite me to ur world please