General Price query

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General Price query

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Jan 20, 2008
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Hi,

I've recently joined the forum and am hoping that someone here might be able to help answer a query I have regarding pricings. I ordered my 500 a month ago but the salesman that sold me the car has now left the dealership. I'll be visiting them on Saturday but thought someone on here might be able to help in the meantime.

I have finally (after being fobbed off twice) managed to get a copy of my order form but have noticed that the 'total' columns do not add up. I also appear to have been charged VAT twice on some of the extras.

Can anyone tell me what the on the road price should be for the following spec:

1.4 Lounge

Crossover Black paint

Fog lights

Tinted rear windows

Chrome finished rear view mirror

A bar

Chrome bonnet strip

Is anyone here getting the Supagard protection? If so, how much was it (inc. VAT) ?

What is Equity Protection? I am being charged £395 for this (exc. VAT) but the salesman didn't mention this at the time.

This is the first time that I have bought a Fiat and I'd hate to think that the dealer is 'having me over".

Any advice / comments will be gratefully received.

Thanks.
 
Thanks for the advice Dave.

I'm going to take the booklet in on saturday anyway. It just seems that there's quite a lot of mistakes on the order!

If anyone can give me the total on the road price for this spec I'd be grateful.
 
Is anyone here getting the Supagard protection? If so, how much was it (inc. VAT) ?
Prices vary.

Some dealerships charge as little as £199 whereas others charge up to £499.

How much are you being charged? And do you actually want it, or have they just added it like they have with the Equity Protection?

What is Equity Protection? I am being charged £395 for this (exc. VAT) but the salesman didn't mention this at the time.
Equity Protection (or GAP Insurance or a whole host of other names for similar products) is basically an insurance that pays you the difference between what you pay for the car (or what you owe on the finance if you are paying for it that way) and what your motor insurance company pay you in the event that the car is stolen and not recovered or written-off in an accident.

Personally I recommend it to all my customers, as I believe it is worth having, but if your dealership has just included it on your order without fully explaining it to you first they are breaking the law.

The Financial Services Authority (the governing body for sales of all types of insurance/finance etc) class this as Assumptive Selling (just like it sounds, assuming customers want something without asking them) and can (and indeed have) impose massive fines or even close dealerships down if they are found guilty of doing it.

You are under no obligation to take this, so if you don't want it tell them to take it out.
 
Some stuff isn't on the configurator though.

I have a price list which shows these prices as RRP inc. VAT. Though it is dated 20th November so may be out of date.

A bar £98.70

Chrome bonnet strip £54.29

oh and the vintage car cover should you fancy one? £394.80 !!

I presume equity cover is a form of gap insurance. This covers you should your car get written off and the value paid from the insurers is less than the outstanding finance. It prevents you ending up with negatice equity.

Another form of gap insurance is return to invoice insurance where if you car is written off it will be replaced with the full original cost of the car.

It should be optional though and you might get a better deal or better cover elsewhere. The sales person will be keen as I would guess it will probably earn as much as selling a 500...

Cheers
baldrick
 
A fair question whenever you buy anything which is a combination of elements is 'how did you work the price out'... you should really make your dealer show you, together with the official list from FIAT. over 50% of the time you will find a mistake.

Supaguard Protection:

TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY - What exactly can it be? a polish? a wax?

Some muppet will tell you its a breakthrough in nano technology! Most cars have like an 8 year warranty for body and paint, forget it.

Also the dealer might have some 'bottled fresh air' at a good price if your interested

if you ever look at the small print is protects you against nothing. Go buy some autoglym resin polish and super protection 2nd coat stuff.

GAP INSURANCE - In my opinion not worth it either, but there are different types.

1. Cover in the event of a write off the gap between the insurance company give you and whats left on your finance

2. Gives you the value that you paid for you car (invoice price), so you completely offset depriciation.

Looking at 1...

Get the depriciation forecast for the car from whatcar.com. Turn it into a month by month value for your car, averaging the annual depriciation for each year. for the length of your finance.

Then start with the total price you are paying including interest (this is worst case because usually the penalty to settle early is only one months forward interest, not the full amount) and take off your monthly payment, so you can see how much you owe on a month by month basis.

You will probably find that you 4 year cover plan becomes most likely useless after 18 months, as if your paying £200 pounds an month, but your car is depriciating by £160, you will be in positive equity anyway. In the event of a bad incident you can usually negotiate with an insurance company hard and get 'around' the book price which the whatcar deprication is roughly based.

Then ask how likely is it my car would be a write off before you get into positive equity? and if a brand new car was written off it would have to be pretty bad, and you would probably be thankful you were alive.

Looking 2.

I have considered this before...

buy a car for 10k, pay say £400 for this type of insurance for 3 years.
In month 35 pay the dodgy bloke in your local pub £25 notes to steal your car and torch it.

Get your 10k back, after 3 years motoring.. not sure this would ever work!
 
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You can buy 'return to invoice' GAP insurance much cheaper online than from the dealer, so if you were going to get it then I would do a search on Google.

I have Supagard on my current car and while I dont know for sure how it works, or doesnt work, it still gives me peace of mind that I have it. As I cant be asked to wax my car, most people aren't, I am still glad I got it and I will do so again when I get my new 500, providing Scrogg gives me a good price on it (y)
 
Y

I have Supagard on my current car and while I dont know for sure how it works, or doesnt work, it still gives me peace of mind that I have it. As I cant be asked to wax my car, most people aren't, I am still glad I got it and I will do so again when I get my new 500, providing Scrogg gives me a good price on it (y)

seriously, it is just a paint sealer. available in the motorist discount (the autoglym one is ok) if he wants more than £50 for it the rest of the cash is going in his back pocket for friday night.

Ask yourself do you regularly pay people £50 for something that takes less than 1 hour yourself I.e. do you have a cleaner, gardener, butler? i hate seeing people waste money :cry:
 
Ive had this and its crap... it doesnt give the best shine at all. After a few weeks it was annoying me so I polished the car and what a mess that made, went all smeary.
Another polish made the car all shiny again and looked miles better than the supaguard.

The interior stuff however is good, if you spill or drop chocolate etc on the seats, it really does just wipe off... worth it if your a mucky pup:)
 
Ive had this and its crap... it doesnt give the best shine at all. After a few weeks it was annoying me so I polished the car and what a mess that made, went all smeary.
Another polish made the car all shiny again and looked miles better than the supaguard.

The interior stuff however is good, if you spill or drop chocolate etc on the seats, it really does just wipe off... worth it if your a mucky pup:)

The interior stuff is i've heard is good, but not ever gone for it as dont have kids and eating in my car is banned!

look in google for 303 products from 'thepolishingcompany'

I read somewhere else that these products are good for interior and not more than about £20.. could be worth a try '


who told you about supaguard, and what is his objectives?
 
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