Is it normal to pay a dealer 100% up front?

Feets

Hi there
I want to buy a car from a uk importer in carlow. They are asking for full value before tgey bring it in. They are not an Irish chain and its about 45k they want upfront. What rights do I have...they are good at responding but dealerships have only asked for 1000e upfront....

grogi

Feets wrote: »

Hi there
I want to buy a car from a uk importer in carlow. They are asking for full value before tgey bring it in. They are not an Irish chain and its about 45k they want upfront. What rights do I have...they are good at responding but dealerships have only asked for 1000e upfront....

Oh Honey.... (https://youtu.be/X1byi3f1REM?t=23)....

JustJoe7240

Feets wrote: »

Hi there
I want to buy a car from a uk importer in carlow. They are asking for full value before tgey bring it in. They are not an Irish chain and its about 45k they want upfront. What rights do I have...they are good at responding but dealerships have only asked for 1000e upfront....

What does your gut instinct tell you in this case?

punisher5112

Is the place legit?

Are they trading long, what reviews have they.

Link to them?

Feets

punisher5112 wrote: »

Is the place legit?

Are they trading long, what reviews have they.

Link to them?

Trading nine months and only one positive review..kavanagh prestige cars in carlow. Nice to deal with but I have been stung before.

colm_mcm

I wouldn’t take the chance.

Feets

JustJoe7240 wrote: »

What does your gut instinct tell you in this case?

My gut says they seem Ok but why should I take the risk? So I guess no.

q85dw7osi4lebg

What can they do for you that you can't do yourself?

mmrs

I think the fact that you've posted the question on here shows that there's some doubts in your gut. It seems a massive risk for that amount of money.

Feets

Carly Icy Tapeworm wrote: »

What can they do for you that you can't do yourself?

Good point.

Feets

Thank you all. I have made my mind up. What was I thinking?!

LessOutragePlz

Absolutely no way would I hand over that much money before even seeing and test driving the car.

.......

Why would they need 100% up front?

It must be cash flow problems.

Do you really want to do business with a company with cash flow problems?

Squidgy Black

Hand over the cash 100% upfront, then all of a sudden there's delays, and then next thing you know they've vanished off the face of the earth and there's a new garage 5 minutes down the road under a new name.....

Comhrá

Feets wrote: »

Hi there
I want to buy a car from a uk importer in carlow. They are asking for full value before they bring it in. They are not an Irish chain and its about 45k they want upfront. What rights do I have...they are good at responding but dealerships have only asked for 1000e upfront....

Please don't. I've never heard of any dealer anywhere asking for 100% payment for a car that's not even in the country.

Follow your gut instinct. It's an awful lot of money to take a risk with.
Plenty of nice cars available if you keep looking.

bazz26

Feets wrote: »

My gut says they seem Ok but why should I take the risk? So I guess no.

See this is the problem with getting someone to buy a car on your behalf. They want the money up front so that you just don't change your mind when it arrives and they are stuck with it. Equally you don't want to pay for something up front that you haven't seen in the flesh or driven plus the risks of that person just taking your money and disappearing.

This is why imo it's best to either import a car yourself or just buy one here.

ChuckLarry

My first theory on reading this is that they’re probably looking to avail of a nice discount from whoever they’re getting it off by paying upfront...with your cash
No thanks

bazz26

I'd doubt it. They are probably sourcing them through auctions either through a contact or going over them self. It's very likely they want the money up front because a. they don't want to be stuck with a car incase a buyer changes their mind afterwards and b. it's most likely a small part time/one man operation where their business model works off the premise of taking a profit from importing a car where the buyer pays up front rather than pumping their own cash into it.

grogi

bazz26 wrote: »

I'd doubt it. They are probably sourcing them through auctions either through a contact or going over them self. It's very likely they want the money up front because a. they don't want to be stuck with a car incase a buyer changes their mind afterwards and b. it's most likely a small part time/one man operation where their business model works off the premise of taking a profit from importing a car where the buyer pays up front rather than pumping their own cash into it.

A business model of offloading all of the risks on the consumer is not even a good model. It is a brilliant one - if only you find a customer that wants to finance you... But last time I checked that, we created banks that are well equipped to do that.

If banks don't want to, there is absolutely no reason for the customer to do it either.

bazz26

You would be surprised the number of people out there that would see no issue with using that kind of service. Some people just want to put as little thought and effort into buying a car as possible. And from the business providing the service the risk is as you said very low. It's the next step up from just giving your mate the money to buy you a car in the UK plus the cost of flights/ferry and his time.