Where would you go next...

When all this coronavirus thing goes away and there is an attempt to restart the economy if the government were to scrap VAT for 90 days would that encourage you to buy a new car?

Heres Johnny wrote: »

I was flirting with the idea of changing it for a 530e but dealers were offering me approx 7k less for my own car than they are retailing them for. That will certainly have to change. They were going on about UK prices when valuing my trade in but certainly weren't when valuing their own stock.

Cant have it both ways dealers.

Went through the same when buying mine. Was going to trade in a 2012 520D M-Sport but was offered a trade-in that was ~7/8k lower that they were selling them on their forecourt.

At the same time, they wanted to charge me nearly 50k for a car that I ultimately imported myself for ~39k. The irony being that they were selling an imported car.

Far too cheeky to be honest.

Another irony is that the missus had planned to spend ~20k on a Mini as a follow on to the deal. She instead opted to take the 520D off of me solely to prevent the garage making a profit on; 1) my trade in, 2) the 530e, and 3) a 20k Mini.

I respect entirely the need for profit but it is as clear as day they are taking the piss. And they are losing business as a result.

I know we give out regularly, myself included about the low trade in offers we get and the cost to change to new metal but do we forget that the costs of running a retail operation in Ireland are extremely high?
I am not looking for sympathy for the big dealers but they typically employ a lot of people and contribute to the overall tax take that keeps every thing going in the Country. What has happened lately is probably another nail in the coffin of a motor industry that was already struggling. Consumer confidence will be very low after this and the Irish government probably will do little to stimulate without backing from Europe.
The fact that this is world wide and has affected Germany is probably what will allow the ECB eventually to do what is right in the end. while Italy and Spain were being decimated before other areas with the virus the EU heads could not agree on fiscal measures to help because Germany and other wealthy countries are terrified of pooling the debts that will be racked up. Hopefully this will change otherwise the EU project is doomed.

The only thing I could envisage to help the car sales industry here is removal or reduction of vrt to bring cheaper new prices. I know this would devalue the trade ins but I do think it would make cost to change more palatable and might also reduce UK imports.

People in this thread by virtue of posting on a motoring forum are not reflective of the Irish customer base though. For everyone of us that walks away or imports ourselves we know of plenty of people that drive in, trade up and drive out. Salesmen don't want to deal with people that are into their cars, as someone will walk in later and happily pay the higher price. If they didn't, the dealers wouldn't price it that way, as the stuff would never sell. Obviously there are cases where they are optimistic with their pricing in certain cases, but private sellers, myself included do that too.

The problem with the Tesla model, seems to be that they will not take your old car as trade in. They get bids from the trade and offer you that value which anecdotally is very low making a very high cost to change.
Also their cars have no engines so service department doesn’t need to be as large or equipped as traditional garages.
I do agree things will change in the future though for all car sales. I could see much fewer upscale large retail centres in main cities with smaller service centres around the country.
Choice will be reduced and price competitiveness will be less too.
Car makers really want us all to lease or pcp in the future to keep us locked in to monthlies and trade ins every three years or less.

Anecdotally I agree with Mick and vintage about dealers preferring clueless non enthusiast buyers.
I have had quotes that were completely arse ways from sales guys but when corrected by me were sorted out. Usually by the time the finance people have to sort out the paperwork, errors are spotted and things done correctly in my experience.
Sometimes it’s not on purpose but not every car sales employee is a member of Mensa to put it kindly and inputs things incorrectly. Also they often know less about the product and offers than the customer.
Incidentally when ordering wife’s car in January there was 8k difference in cost to change for identical car from two dealers forty miles apart. That’s a huge difference in my view and hard to justify as I assume the cheaper dealer is still making money on the deal.

Not something I tend to do very often, but quiet, straight road on the way home from work this evening.....not a sinner about. Let her rip. Not bad for an aul daysul saloon...

Sane bazz. I almost enjoy going to work just to drive my car.

maddness wrote: »

I drive over 50,000 kilometres a year and thought I’d really appreciate not driving but I really miss it.
I’ve a new to me car too and just want to go on long drives!

Is that the 7 series you mentioned on another thread you would consider selling?
Not for you or what’s the reason.
I sometimes think a 730/740 would make a great buy at a few years old. Lots of car for the money.

bazz26 wrote: »

I drove to the supermarket this evening for a few essentials, first time out in the car since last Sunday. I really miss driving my car.

I’ve been thinking about this the last couple of weeks.

I’ve been WFH’ing full time since before Leo announced the first shutdown. Like you I’ve barely driven my car since. I can see myself WFH’ing a lot more frequently beyond the end of the current pandemic.

So I can see a situation where we could quite easily become a one car household.

My PCP is up early next year. I cannot see myself wanting to refinance the relatively chunky GMFV on it and neither can I see a BMW dealer offering me much, if anything, above GMFV for it.

Is handing the car back and walking away a mad thing to do? The idea kinda appeals to me. I wouldn’t be in a rush to replace it, I could take my time and if buying something else weeks/months later, I wouldn’t have a trade in to worry about and a good deal could be easier to achieve...

frozenfrozen wrote: »

do you think the gmfv could end up being considerably above market value with the way things are going atm?

The arse would really want to have fallen out of it for that to happen, but who knows!

I daily drove a 30 year old 3 series for 2 years a couple of years ago. The car served me well, and I enjoyed doing it and learned a lot from it, but it's not something I'd recommend really to anyone unless they have easy access to another car for back up and are not afraid to work on the car too.

Lack of decent headlights, abs, TC, airbags, ac and general comfort can become tiresome too.

JoeA3 wrote: »

I’ve been thinking about this the last couple of weeks.

I’ve been WFH’ing full time since before Leo announced the first shutdown. Like you I’ve barely driven my car since. I can see myself WFH’ing a lot more frequently beyond the end of the current pandemic.

So I can see a situation where we could quite easily become a one car household.

My PCP is up early next year. I cannot see myself wanting to refinance the relatively chunky GMFV on it and neither can I see a BMW dealer offering me much, if anything, above GMFV for it.

Is handing the car back and walking away a mad thing to do? The idea kinda appeals to me. I wouldn’t be in a rush to replace it, I could take my time and if buying something else weeks/months later, I wouldn’t have a trade in to worry about and a good deal could be easier to achieve...

I've been WFH since before the official lockdown too but to be honest I find myself forgetting what time it is while WFH and end up working longer hours because of the convenience. At least when I went into the office I finished work at a fixed time as I knew I had to travel home. I also like the idea of distancing my work life from my home life and a different environment does that for me.

Regarding the idea of handing back the car, that's a tough one. The idea of paying for a car over the last 3 years and just handing it back and walking away with nothing would be a bitter pill for me to swallow in my head but I know on paper the maths can tell a different story.

carsfan2 wrote: »

Is that the 7 series you mentioned on another thread you would consider selling?
Not for you or what’s the reason.
I sometimes think a 730/740 would make a great buy at a few years old. Lots of car for the money.

Yeah it’s a 730d MSport. I was originally looking for a G30 530d but got this car for similar money. It has a huge amount more standard equipment than the 5 and really isn’t much bigger. I only bought it in February and it’s absolutely lovely and the level of luxury is fantastic. I’m thinking of moving it on and buying a cheaper car as I’m unsure if I can keep it or not. The fact that I’ve spent the last few weeks on Carzone, Donedeal and Autotrader probably haven’t helped!