We're halfway through a 48 month PCP on our Panda Easy 1.2. We're pretty happy with the car and are in no rush to change it anytime soon. However, we've received one of those unconvincing 'We desperately need your car/you're invited to our special discount event' letters from the dealer - I suspect because we're at the point where our car is worth about the same as the outstanding finance balance. Against my better judgement, we're going to pop down to the dealers on the weekend to see if they really are offering anything special.

My question is, is anyone aware of any decent deals over and above the standard deposit contribution and discount combination on Fiat's own website? The finance options seem much less appealing than they did 2 years ago as the interest rate has gone up from 2.4% to 6.9%. We'll probably walk away empty handed, but I could be tempted by a really good deal - especially on a Lounge. I've requested some quotes through Carwow and the best offer on the Lounge is £7827, inclusive of the usual £1400 deposit contribution.

0% finance can be agreed plus Fiat do existing customer discounts (just need your v5 reg doc with you). A new Panda Easy for £7k is possible. Can give you contact details of my dealer and salesman if group you've had invite from won't match. Prob 28th Feb 66 plate though.

0% finance would be good. Which dealer is offering that? The comedy ' We're desperate for used car stock (despite having about 10 Pandas listed on their site) mentions an extra £400 discount voucher, but I'd expect that kind of discount over and above the standard offer. Is there a definitive list of occupations eligible for the Fiat Privilege scheme? Just wondering if local government is in there.

First off, we all know it's in the dealers interest to sell you a new car, but even better to sell you a new car when you haven't yet paid for the first one!

They'll try and tempt you in with "offers" and free gifts (yes I got a letter the other day, offering me a "gift" just for turning up) before you have paid off enough of your original PCP deal.

This way, they sell more loan as you'll take forward negative equity from the outstanding loan as you'll have to re finance it.

To chop it in without coughing up, the cars trade in value has to equal the GFV, plus the outstanding payments of the loan, plus the interest on those payments (minus a small bit of interest for settling early).

They are very good at working out depreciation and know when you're likely to have paid enough off it to cover what's it's still worth.
Which is more often than not at the end of the term anyway, that's why it's value then is guaranteed.

So they'll want to try and tempt you into a new deal before this point so you take a portion of finance forward to the new deal.

You end up borrowing more money to pay off borrowed money which is never a good thing!

We did a bit of digging on Mrs Goudrons Lounge.
3 years into a 4 year deal and she still owes around a £800 more than the car is worth (trade value).

"That's not a problem" they said "we just carry that on to the new deal"
I replied with a simple
"Fu*k off"

Considering you could get a 16 plate Panda on a PCP with low miles and cheap finance, would that tempt a buyer. Dealer would rather you found the £800 to add to initial £1k deposit you put down though. I lost negligible amount when swapped for my TA 4x4. Otherwise I'd still have mine.

Goudrons said:

First off, we all know it's in the dealers interest to sell you a new car, but even better to sell you a new car when you haven't yet paid for the first one!

They'll try and tempt you in with "offers" and free gifts (yes I got a letter the other day, offering me a "gift" just for turning up) before you have paid off enough of your original PCP deal.

This way, they sell more loan as you'll take forward negative equity from the outstanding loan as you'll have to re finance it.

To chop it in without coughing up, the cars trade in value has to equal the GFV, plus the outstanding payments of the loan, plus the interest on those payments (minus a small bit of interest for settling early).

They are very good at working out depreciation and know when you're likely to have paid enough off it to cover what's it's still worth.
Which is more often than not at the end of the term anyway, that's why it's value then is guaranteed.

So they'll want to try and tempt you into a new deal before this point so you take a portion of finance forward to the new deal.

You end up borrowing more money to pay off borrowed money which is never a good thing!

We did a bit of digging on Mrs Goudrons Lounge.
3 years into a 4 year deal and she still owes around a £800 more than the car is worth (trade value).

"That's not a problem" they said "we just carry that on to the new deal"
I replied with a simple
"Fu*k off"

Click to expand...

I've checked the CAP valuation and it just about matches the settlement figure obtained from FCA Finance, so no negative equity to carry forward from this point. I believe in going armed with this sort of info before setting foot in the dealership!

Like I said, I wasn't planning/expecting to trade in for another year, so my negotiating position is thus: work out a deal that gets us an equivalent or better car for no extra cost and we'll talk. Waste my time trying to get more money from me and we'll walk. I suspect the latter will be far more likely. If so, I'll spend my morning crawling over the new Giulia instead!

Another thing to consider is the appreciable hike in car road tax if you purchase a new vehicle which is registered after 1st April 2017 when different rules come into force. I think you'll pay a minimum of £140 per annum. This might be worth factoring in to your total cost calculation.

Oor Wullie said:

Another thing to consider is the appreciable hike in car road tax if you purchase a new vehicle which is registered after 1st April 2017 when different rules come into force. I think you'll pay a minimum of £140 per annum. This might be worth factoring in to your total cost calculation.

Click to expand...

This will no doubt make pre April 2017 cars, in the lower tax brackets a bit more desirable and perhaps even a bit more valuable.

Yes, that did occur to me. Our car is due its second service in about 6 weeks though, so I would have to take into consideration the cost of that too. Ideally need to grab a pre-reg or from stock to beat the deadline.

Paul A H said:

I've checked the CAP valuation and it just about matches the settlement figure obtained from FCA Finance, so no negative equity to carry forward from this point. I believe in going armed with this sort of info before setting foot in the dealership!

Like I said, I wasn't planning/expecting to trade in for another year, so my negotiating position is thus: work out a deal that gets us an equivalent or better car for no extra cost and we'll talk. Waste my time trying to get more money from me and we'll walk. I suspect the latter will be far more likely. If so, I'll spend my morning crawling over the new Giulia instead!

Click to expand...

Did you have quite a good deal when you bought your Panda originally? To be more or less matching the settlement figure at 24 months suggests you didn't do too bad in the first place.

I chopped our old 12 plate 1.2 Easy at 28 months for our Punto in 2014 - it cost me £1200 to do so in negative equity, and even that was genuinely the best offer I could muster at the time. I'd bought my Panda when they came out and paid more or less list price, along with loads of extras. I've since learnt my lesson in that regard!

It's worth hearing the dealer out to see what they have to offer, it's possible you could get a better deal than you're on. You'll only know once you have some figures to hand.

Super Uwe said:

Did you have quite a good deal when you bought your Panda originally? To be more or less matching the settlement figure at 24 months suggests you didn't do too bad in the first place.

I chopped our old 12 plate 1.2 Easy at 28 months for our Punto in 2014 - it cost me £1200 to do so in negative equity, and even that was genuinely the best offer I could muster at the time. I'd bought my Panda when they came out and paid more or less list price, along with loads of extras. I've since learnt my lesson in that regard!

It's worth hearing the dealer out to see what they have to offer, it's possible you could get a better deal than you're on. You'll only know once you have some figures to hand.

Click to expand...

A pretty good deal, yes. Fiat were doing better deals on the Panda back then though, with much lower APR.

Anyway, I went to the dealership today. As predicted, it looks like it was a waste of time. I was forced to sit down for a toe-curling chat with some bigwig from FCA Canada (of all places) who was apparently there to authorise mega deals. I was then sat down with a salesman who offered me nearly £700 less than CAP for my car and quoted me a monthly price that isn't far off what I'm paying for my Yeti - and that's over a shorter period of time!

I eventually managed to get them a bit closer to what I'm prepared to pay, but they kept me waiting so long that I had to leave. They called twice after I got home and emailed their best quote through. The OTR price they have quoted is about £600 more than the one on Fiat's website, so it looks like they're inflating that price to make the discount look better.

What a bunch of xxxxxs!

You've mentioned Carwow. How many prices did you end up with off there, any dealer not too far away. Dealer 73 miles away quoted me 27% off a new TA 4x4. Unbelievable. Anyone wanting another PM me and I'll give you details I have.

Lol, sounds like a right laugh!

Not really a mega deal in the end eh? What were they thinking?!

Al D said:

You've mentioned Carwow. How many prices did you end up with off there, any dealer not too far away. Dealer 73 miles away quoted me 27% off a new TA 4x4. Unbelievable. Anyone wanting another PM me and I'll give you details I have.

Click to expand...

I ended up with five prices:

RRP listed on Carwow as £10,545
Dealer 1: £7827 (25.8% off) 207 miles away from me.
Dealer 2: £8660 (17.9% off) 30 miles away from me.
Dealer 3: £8660 (17.9% off) 2 miles away from me.
Dealer 4: £9145 (13.3% off) 66 miles away from me.
Dealer 5: £8366 (20.7% off) 86 miles away from me.

Note that in all cases, the discounts include the standard £1400 deposit contribution. Dealer 4 is effectively offering no discount at all. My local dealer offered an extra £485 off through Carwow.

The 'final' quote they emailed me is a bit confusing, but can be broken down thus:

OTR price: £11,155
Deposit (inc deposit contribution £3,691
Amount to finance: £7,463
Interest 6.8% APR
Total amount payable: £8,829
47 payments of £131.56
GFV: £2,646

The 'deposit' actually comprises £400 of my money plus the standard deposit contribution of £1400, leaving a discount of £1,891. However, you will notice that the cash price is given as £11,155. This is a full £610 higher than the OTR price quoted on Fiat's website! So if we assume they have inflated the price to make the discount look better, that leaves a real discount of just £1281. Not bad, but not brilliant either.

Even more interesting is the deal they have advertised on their own website for exactly the same car:

OTR price: £9,810
Deposit: £999
Deposit contribution £1400
Amount to finance: £7,411
Interest 6.8% APR
Total amount payable: £8,410
47 payments of £127.95
GFV: £2,765

£127.95 PM for a Lounge sounds alright to me. I can put in £400 deposit, so all I would need is an extra £600 off and the deal is done. I've emailed them back to ask about this offer, but I bet they'll say it's out of date and shouldn't be on their website... but whose problem is that?

Super Uwe said:

Lol, sounds like a right laugh!

Not really a mega deal in the end eh? What were they thinking?!

Click to expand...

It was unbelievable. The guy from FCA Canada was like some kind of actor hired for the day. I had to sit down with him in order to provide some basic information about my current car (which is proceeded to record inaccurately). He then asked my five year old son to pick an envelope from a selection that had been clumsily taped to the bonnet of a 500. With great aplomb, he opened the envelope and announced that I had won £50 off accessories for my 'new' car.

In hindsight, I should have walked out then, but I was so surprised to see someone wearing a black shirt and white tie combo in 2017 that I felt compelled to stay. We spent a good 15 minutes milling around the showroom waiting for the salesman (even though I had an appointment) before being offered a seat at his desk. At this point the salesman committed what I believe to be the cardinal sin of a car dealer. He didn't offer me, my wife or my son a drink. By comparison, I've bought two cars from Skoda in the last couple of years and I always get offered a hot drink moments after walking in to the dealership.

Anyway, we chatted about what Mrs Paul and I wanted and I mentioned that we were interested in trading up to a Lounge. He went over to another dealer and they spent at least 10 minutes on the computer and phone trying to find one from stock. During this time I heard him loudly complain about the small margin they apparently make on the Panda (6% for Pop/Easy/Lounge, if you're interested) and my wife had to leave with my son as although he'd enjoyed the dealership, he was getting jittery (he has autism and did well to cope, as by this point we'd been there for at least 30 minutes). He eventually returned with the first quote and I'm ashamed to say I did laugh at him as it was £175 PM - far higher than the bog standard price on Fiat's website and not far off what I'm paying for the Yeti. A bit more toing and froing took place before I had to leave. The quote above is what was emailed through after I got home.

I must admit I'm all for going down to Skoda and seeing what deals can be struck on a Citigo, but Mrs Paul does prefer the Panda. Why do the dealers have to be such a pain in the backside though?

I have just bought a Panda 4x4 twinair with metallic paint from Arnold Clark in Salford for £11,195 which I think is astonishing value as it is a brand new car. I am wholly satisfied with their service and suggest monitoring their deals carefully on the internet for a while as they do seem to do some cracking deals. Fiat's money off deal is not very appealing if they charge the full price for the car. Interestingly I thought my car was going to be a pre-reg but it is not, and its a 2017 specification. 2wd versions are cheaper and can be had for pretty decent prices too. I suspect they are a better drive as well. In retrospect I think a lounge version would have done me, but at the price I anticipate some cheap motoring and low depreciation so i am very happy. Fuel economy on the twinair is poor unless you run in economy mode when 50mpg is possible. Last weeks effort yielded 40mpg which is worse than our Panda 1.4 which is disappointing. The engine is smooth and quiet and pulls reasonably well in non-economy mode so I suppose we will have to learn further how to get the best out of it. I do like the bad weather grip and inability to spin the wheels on my gravel drive.

Considering when the Panda launched in 2012 the Panda 1.2 Easy was £9510 OTR and discounts were scarce, wanting healthy discount now is perfectly reasonable to me. What my dealer is very skilled at is listening to what I want and turning it to their advantage. In November '15 they knew my budget and said instead of secondhand how about new for around the same money? Also they sourced my TA 4x4 for me and I paid around £1000 less than they would have retailed for completely mint. And it would still be good value 10 months on if I'm honest. Knock finance down to 0% and the £127 month will drop by a fair bit. That would swing it. And the £400 absorbed by them you would have to put in. As you have a Carwow quote from dealer 30 miles away, that's an idea to pursue for a better deal.

Apparently there's zero chance of movement on the finance rate - at this dealership anyway. While the list price of the Panda is fairly high, in practice they've had to discount them in order to keep up with the competition. The like-for-like Citigo is always cheaper because of two factors: cheaper finance and better residuals - and that's before taking into account any discounts.

To be honest, I got fed up of listening to the salesman moaning about low margins and claiming the other dealers I had quotes from must be losing money, when in all likelihood they're probably just leveraging a better price from Fiat by buying up blocks of production slots. I'm particularly annoyed that the standard deal on their website is nothing like the 'special' deal in store either, 'cos they jack the OTR price up to make the discount look better.

The thing is, we're only halfway through the finance term, so we weren't expecting to need to think about trading in for another year. The car is due a service soon. I'll probably take it to the next nearest dealership again as they were so much cheaper than this dealer last year (£99 v £179 for a first service) and have a chat with their sales staff.

One thing I forgot to mentuon in last night's ramble: When I was at the dealership, one lovely older lady bought a car. Before she could leave, the guy from FCA Canada grabbed her and insisted on taking her photo with the salesman whilst playing some kind of jaunty 'we've made a sale' music on a little stereo. The poor woman looked horrified!

Don't think the sales push for February and March will come to much at certain dealerships judging by your story. I've had good deals on Sales Demo cars before, so if you see something you could "borrow" at service time at your preferred garage that's barely been used. Always a chance.

I had another call from the salesman at closing time yesterday, just to double check I didn't want to take the deal. I said no. Although they managed to get close to what I wanted to pay, it just wasn't quite close enough in the end.

On reflection I feel slightly bad about some of the things I typed above. Not about the way this particular dealership treats customers - any business that relies on being able to get money from the people who walk through the door needs to treat them well. I hate the faux bonhomie and glitz of these 'VIP' events, but maybe that's a personal thing. A good dealership should look after the customers too. Offer them a drink, not keep them waiting too long etc.

No, I feel slightly bad because having looked at the total cost of the car, I do believe they went as low as they reasonably could. They pretty much matched the lowest price on Carwow, and if there had been a few hundred quid's worth of equity in our current Panda we almost certainly would have done a deal. Unfortunately there wasn't, so it wasn't to be.

I suppose we could have gone for another Easy, but I can't see that it would have been any cheaper (probably more), so pointless to swap when ours is only 23 months old and with just over 4k on the clock. Mrs Paul and I have decided to wait until the autumn and then have a look round. By that time, the Panda may have accrued a bit more equity. Of course there's also the possibility that Fiat's deals for Q2 will be more attractive. If the APR drops from the current 6.9% back down to the 2.4% it was when we bought the current Panda, then who knows? Knowing our luck, the prices will probably shoot up instead!

Couple of points:


1. You saw a 'Canadian' in a black shirt/white tie combination and yet didn't think to take a pic and then share on here? Seriously?


2. I have no idea how all this PCP stuff works but how would it compare to say:


a) Joining the British cycling club (or whichever other scheme) and getting the 20% off 'OTR' price
b) Trading your car in at the dealer and they pay off the finance
c) Going to your high-street bank and taking a loan with them for say 3.3% APR these days


Mesmerising.


Now I shall go to YouTube and watch Terry Hall in a Specials video to sate my thirst for the black/white combo.