... to get your 500?

I'm hoping to trade/sell an MX-5 to get mine - how about you?

Ant

Toyota Avensis GLS (the kids have their own transport now so I no longer needed a "family car")

A G-Wiz

Nothing - it was an extra car.

Traded an 07 Fiesta Diesel for my First 500 (2009 09 1.2 Lounge)

Traded that 500 for my (2012 12 Twinair 500c)

As the nice Fiat dealer wouldn't give me a penny for my (then) 14 year old Alfa 155 I sold that privately and didn't trade anything in, since traded the 500 for an MX5

a 500,before that...a 500 , and before that my toyo aygo

I traded in a Merc. C Class sport for my TA Lounge and my OH traded in a Ford KA Ztec (New shape) for her 1.2 Pop. Now traded in the TA Lounge for an A500

We traded in the Wife's 53 plate MX5 which we had from new.

We took quite a hit on it PX'ing, compared to selling privately, but I figured that by the time I had had the MX5 serviced, new discs/pads and cam belt done and a fresh MOT and then all the associated bother of having numerous tyre kickers and people wanting to beat us down, what we lost on the PX I would have to have spent anyway just to get a decent private sale price. Besides, when I looked at the MX5 from an insurance market value, if it had been written off, it would only have fetched (optimistically) £250 more than we were given for it for the 500.

Anyway, no regrets. The amount saved on VED per year (a difference of £240) and main dealer servicing costs as well as the huge difference in mpg that the 1.2 500 gets over the MX5 1.8i Sport, justifies the PX in my view. And of course, not buying a 'brand new' 500 from a Fiat dealer, saved us about 2k for a six month old car with only 800 odd miles on the clock.

Nothing. It's a fourth car to allow our 3.2 V6 GT to slip into semi-retirement.

With what we're saving in fuel it's paying for itself

frupi said:

We traded in the Wife's 53 plate MX5 which we had from new.

We took quite a hit on it PX'ing, compared to selling privately, but I figured that by the time I had had the MX5 serviced, new discs/pads and cam belt done and a fresh MOT and then all the associated bother of having numerous tyre kickers and people wanting to beat us down, what we lost on the PX I would have to have spent anyway just to get a decent private sale price. Besides, when I looked at the MX5 from an insurance market value, if it had been written off, it would only have fetched (optimistically) £250 more than we were given for it for the 500.

Anyway, no regrets. The amount saved on VED per year (a difference of £240) and main dealer servicing costs as well as the huge difference in mpg that the 1.2 500 gets over the MX5 1.8i Sport, justifies the PX in my view. And of course, not buying a 'brand new' 500 from a Fiat dealer, saved us about 2k for a six month old car with only 800 odd miles on the clock.

Click to expand...

Sounds like you done reeeeal good!

Ant

I scrappaged a 406 with a blown head gasket and got 2k off a brand new car. That's a good deal

Hi
I traded in a Volvo XC90 (nervously)...and I haven't looked back.
Beep beep!!!

Golf tdi

Mini clubman 08 reg for maggie 61 reg

306maxi said:

I scrappaged a 406 with a blown head gasket and got 2k off a brand new car. That's a good deal

Click to expand...

To be fair Maxi, seeing as (in my very humble opinion) that the 500 is hugely over inflated in price for what it is, you deserved to get a good deal trading in the 406 and getting the 2k off scrappage. I personally would never walk into any Fiat dealership and buy a brand new 500 when you can pick up very low mileage used 500's like our own, but I guess it's all down to choice.

frupi said:

...seeing as (in my very humble opinion) that the 500 is hugely over inflated in price for what it is...

Click to expand...

That IMO is beyond doubt and a quick look at the prices & discounts available on a new Panda will quickly confirm this.

The small car market was hugely distorted by scrappage. When Maxi & myself bought our 500's @ £2K off list, there was a 12-16 week waiting list & 6 month old cars with <1000 miles were being sold for a premium over the new list price.

It's a different situation now. Today skilful negotioating should get you £1000 off a new 500 (it's still nowhere near enough to make the car reasonable value for money), but a 6 month old car is not the same as a new one, whatever the mileage & if you buy one, do remember that a car bought at 6months old & sold after 3 yrs will be worth significantly less than one bought new & sold after the same duration of ownership. Buying a low mileage secondhand car does not give you the same protection as buying new & there is a small but definitely greater risk of buying a lemon.

In the final analysis, if you need a car you can only do the best you can in the market as you find it at the time. FIAT's pricing policy & incentive schemes are hugely biased towards those needing finance & IMO cash buyers considering a 500 can find better value elsewhere.

jrkitching said:

That IMO is beyond doubt and a quick look at the prices & discounts available on a new Panda will quickly confirm this.

The small car market was hugely distorted by scrappage. When Maxi & myself bought our 500's @ £2K off list, there was a 12-16 week waiting list & 6 month old cars with <1000 miles were being sold for a premium over the new list price.

It's a different situation now. Today skilful negotioating should get you £1000 off a new 500 (it's still nowhere near enough to make the car reasonable value for money), but a 6 month old car is not the same as a new one, whatever the mileage & if you buy one, do remember that a car bought at 6months old & sold after 3 yrs will be worth significantly less than one bought new & sold after the same duration of ownership. Buying a low mileage secondhand car does not give you the same protection as buying new & there is a small but definitely greater risk of buying a lemon.

In the final analysis, if you need a car you can only do the best you can in the market as you find it at the time. FIAT's pricing policy & incentive schemes are hugely biased towards those needing finance & IMO cash buyers considering a 500 can find better value elsewhere.

Click to expand...

Thats the thing Mr. Kirching, there is a huge difference between buying Finance and Buying Cash. As there are not so many cash buyers these days, cash buyers are generally people who plan on keeping the car for their lifetime and not shifting them every three years. I was a cash buyer, but i plan on keeping my Fiat forever (until it breaks). Ideally, a cash buyer would buy a 2nd hand low mileage car, but there again i wanted to chose all my options so i just took the hit and bought new. In Greece right now with the crisis, if i bought the car today instead of 2 years ago i would have been able (a fiat dealer salesman is a friend) to get a standard 1000 euros discount that is offered as default by the dealer + another 900 euro discount that the salesman himself would personally give me after speaking to his sales manager. For me the car was not a business, it was a pleasure so i was prepared to take the hit. These days people see cars more as a financial game or a necessity rather than a pleasure item. They are, unfortunately, becoming very expensive pleasure items with insurance and fuel. The only thing you can save on by being knowledgable about cars is the servicing, which as we know some people on this forum manage to make considerable savings on their servicing due to their knowledge.

jrkitching said:

That IMO is beyond doubt and a quick look at the prices & discounts available on a new Panda will quickly confirm this.

Today skilful negotioating should get you £1000 off a new 500 (it's still nowhere near enough to make the car reasonable value for money), but a 6 month old car is not the same as a new one, whatever the mileage & if you buy one, do remember that a car bought at 6months old & sold after 3 yrs will be worth significantly less than one bought new & sold after the same duration of ownership. Buying a low mileage secondhand car does not give you the same protection as buying new & there is a small but definitely greater risk of buying a lemon.

In the final analysis, if you need a car you can only do the best you can in the market as you find it at the time. FIAT's pricing policy & incentive schemes are hugely biased towards those needing finance & IMO cash buyers considering a 500 can find better value elsewhere.

Click to expand...

I'm not entirely sure I agree with your view that a 6 month old second hand 500 that was sold with very low miles would fetch significantly less than one bought from a Fiat dealership brand new. Our own vehicle was ex Fiat Fleet with certified mileage, PDI'd by them and sold through a specialist reseller, not some independent selling 'allsorts'. Therefore, the risk of buying a lemon was in my view, mitigated. True, I had no exact idea of how the vehicle had been treated in the four months it had actually been in service, but after only 821 miles, I doubt it had been ragged, and to date, we've had no problems other than those crazy windscreen washer barrels dropping out! We also retained the remaining 18 months of Fiat warranty as well as buying the extra year for the rather paltry sum of 27 quid, even if it doesn't cover that much

To be fair though, we bought the car with the intention of keeping it for quite possibly, several years. Cars in our ownership tend to stay with us for anything between 7 and 10 years. With the mileage that the 500 does, it will be with us for at least 7 years before it even hits 50k, so when we do eventually come to sell, it'll probably be worth peanuts anyway.

I agree that buying a 500 brand new, Fiat will offer all the incentives for those who can only afford to buy one on finance. There's little getting away from that. You mention about skilful negotiation. Sadly, there are many people who enter a car showroom fully intent on getting a superb deal, who then end up folding in front of very clever/experienced sales persons who know exactly (well a lot of the time) what they're doing. I make no bones about it, the two cars I've bought brand new in my life, I was extremely forthright about what I wanted and in the case of the MX5 that I bought on behalf of Missus, it came down to an argument with the Manager of the dealership where I necessarily became quite rude. Buying a brand new motor two days before Christmas Day gives you huge bargaining power, especially if they think they will lose their Xmas bonus!

Wholly agree with the point about cash buyers buying from organisations such as I did. There are some exceptional deals to be had if you can just hand over the cash and PX and walk away. Personally, I've had nothing further to do with the place I bought our 500 from, but I will always insist that I got a great deal from them.