General My Old 500 Up For Sale - Are they on Drugs!!

[EJ192]

I spoke to Autoworld about three times on the 'phone whilst I was dithering about where to have our 500 serviced. They were exceedingly nice, no complaints there, but despite my insistence that we only required a low mileage service, we couldn't agree why they wanted to charge me so much money (in my opinion) for a basic oil and filter change. I went to Fiat Stoneacre at Worksop and got it done for 67 quid less than Autoworld were asking.

No, I had it serviced at Coop Derby, although it went in for a couple of warranty bits at Autoworld, also found them Hit&Miss, several times no Courtesy car as promised nad a bit of a dont care attitude, but many service depts are like that.

New one is back in there again today for the ongoing S&S saga, they are changing the battery for a new one now as it does not seem to charge above 86%, It is just such an uphill struggle with them on S&S they just seem to want to put it down to Driver error all the time, only in the end by showing them exactly the same driving style in mine and a demo, that the demo worked and mine did not have they decided to do anything, I think if you were not ultra firm with them they would just continue to fob off!

Thanks guys, that's my decision made for when my car needs its next service, I won't be going there. I stick with this independent garage I know very well and I'll supply them the genuine parts. Autoworld have been sending me a service plan which seems fairly good until you see the price. A service plan will cover 3 services and it includes things like 30% discount on labour for mechanical repairs, free MOTs for life of ownership with a service, free courtesy car etc. The price they've quoted me is £508.17!

 

[flashyphotos]

Thanks guys, that's my decision made for when my car needs its next service, I won't be going there. I stick with this independent garage I know very well and I'll supply them the genuine parts. Autoworld have been sending me a service plan which seems fairly good until you see the price. A service plan will cover 3 services and it includes things like 30% discount on labour for mechanical repairs, free MOTs for life of ownership with a service, free courtesy car etc. The price they've quoted me is £508.17!

Yep that letter sounds familiar, just dug out mine from under my coffee cup

£508.17 for 3 Annual Services (500c Twinair)

As for the

30% Discount on Labour for Mechanical Repairs, (Would hope not to have any that are not under warranty for 1st 3 years)

10% Discount on Parts for Mechanical Repairs (As Above)

Free MOT's for life with a Service, (Sure wont be using a main dealer after 3 years anyway!)

Free Coutesy car or local collection (They offer that as standard anyway)

So all in all not much of an incentive

Not sure what the current price of Services 1 / 2 / 3 are on the TA, but does not look like much of a saving bearing in mind you have £500 tied up in their bank!!

 

[frupi]

Yes, I have one of those glitzy leaflets as well! And I ain't taking it up!

This is my own plan:

So far first year dealer service has cost us £82.75, plus pollen filter which I changed myself. I've already bought three genuine Fiat pollen filters for £6.41 each from the famous auction site. That was £19.23 for the three, inclusive of delivery!

Next year, will be another low mileage service and the last Fiat will be doing. Only additions will be a new air filter and a brake fluid change. I will get the brake fluid changed where I've just had my Cadillac done. I was charged £40 all in - it is after all, only a 40 minute job for a garage. So really I would expect next year's service at the dealer to cost me no more (allowing for inflation etc), £100 for a basic oil and filter change.

Year three end, the car still won't have covered 18k, I'm guestimating, 16k tops and will be out of warranty by then anyway so Fiat won't be servicing it. Once I have the Haynes manual, I'll be doing the majority of the servicing myself seeing as I won't need any VAT receipts to worry about. I'll clearly have to bang it in for an MOT. Whatever arises from that, I'll deal with, but I will get the MOT done 30 days before its third year of registration just in case anything major is discovered which might need warranty work required prior to the warranty actually expiring.

All in all, Fiat dealer servicing over 2 1/2 years of ownership, shouldn't cost me anymore than £200, significantly cheaper than any service plan they can offer me.

Sorry, I've deviated a bit off topic from the original post!

 

[custard]

PX/d my 09 Reg 500 1.2 Lounge last month against my new 500c

As per my other post they gave a very reasonable £7500 in PX

Its now up for sale at £9299 (Thats only £1000 less trhan it cost brand new 3 years ago!)

http://www.autoworld.co.uk/used-cars/search/1810/fiat-500

Thats crazy money for a 3 year old 500 Lounge isnt it?.

bear in mind,that price leaves loads of room to discount/PX and give someone a 'bargain'

 

[catherinej]

Ours is also now up for sale. They gave £7.600 for our 2010 model with 20,195 miles on it.

It's now up for sale for £9,322.

 

[wigit]

lets be honest its on for an inflated price for the haggle and an element of profit and some people like the comfort of buying used from a main dealer

the strong residuals were why i ended up going new as with the i-deal it was basically as cheap as going used via Fiat direct if you wanted to pay their ridiculous finance charges

what you should due is put the details of your car into the likes of webuyanycarandshaftyou.com and see who are the real rip off merchants out there (£3k less than what i sold my other car for privately and that was cheap as needed to go)

 

[frupi]

lets be honest its on for an inflated price for the haggle and an element of profit and some people like the comfort of buying used from a main dealer

the strong residuals were why i ended up going new as with the i-deal it was basically as cheap as going used via Fiat direct if you wanted to pay their ridiculous finance charges

what you should due is put the details of your car into the likes of webuyanycarandshaftyou.com and see who are the real rip off merchants out there (£3k less than what i sold my other car for privately and that was cheap as needed to go)

I actually took a £1k hit on our old MX5 on PX because had I sold it privately, I would defo have got a thousand more for it. Trouble was, the 500 deal was there and was too good to let go. We didn't want another car sitting around outside for ages until we could get rid of the MX5 and that could have taken weeks or even months. Also, I would have had to have had it fully serviced, MOT'd, cam belt replaced, new discs and pads all round and two new tyres. If you add that lot up, it would have come to about a grand, so PX'ing it and taking the hit was a no brainer.

In any case, when I put the reg of our old MX5 into an insurance calculator, its insurable value was only 250 quid more than we were given in PX, so I think we did ok in the end. Plus, we got 10 months back on the Road Tax which we put to good use on the 500 buying RTI, mats and filling the tank.

 

[Super Uwe]

Just had a quick nose on the dealer's website who we bought our Panda from, and our 500 which was valued at £6200 for the p/x is on there for £7990.

Just to clarify - a 1.2 Pop with a/c and nothing else, 27k miles and about six months left of the third year dealer warranty.

Can't blame em for trying!

 

[RobinPJ]

Do they give a year's used warranty with it? Is it immaculate? If so then given that the same car would cost £10,500 now brand spankers then £7,500 (assuming a mild haggle) doesn't seem that bad...

 

[frupi]

Just had a quick nose on the dealer's website who we bought our Panda from, and our 500 which was valued at £6200 for the p/x is on there for £7990.

Just to clarify - a 1.2 Pop with a/c and nothing else, 27k miles and about six months left of the third year dealer warranty.

Can't blame em for trying!

Yep, well I suppose they are trying to make a profit. But again, see, I paid £7499 for a six month old POP last year and ours has b&m and A/C and had only 800 odd miles on the clock, so personally, I think their price is barmy. Makes me wonder how much I could flog ours for now with just over 5k on the clock at 14 months old?

 

[stu0710]

Thought I'd just share this one for you as a comparison:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2011-FIAT...4551436?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item35bbd4ca0c

A delivery mileage 1.2 lounge on a 61 plate for £7999! Their site in Leamington has plenty of Pops at this price which I thought looked cheap until I saw this!

My old lounge 09 plate 19K miles is currrently being offered for £8495.........

 

[Super Uwe]

Do they give a year's used warranty with it? Is it immaculate? If so then given that the same car would cost £10,500 now brand spankers then £7,500 (assuming a mild haggle) doesn't seem that bad...

No idea about the extra year's warranty, it's possible that they might. And it was in good condition rather than immaculate to be honest, nothing special.

I think it is overpriced bearing in mind it's got the old suspension in it and no Start&Stop (maybe that's a good thing depending on how you look at it!). Agree that they will have budgeted for a bit of haggling.

FWIW, the car that stu0710 has posted looks an absolute bargain on the face of it. Somebody snap it up now!

 

[The Littlest Hobo]

Thats 'only' a cheap price for someone with cash. If they need finance then they are going to pay

£7995 x 15% = £1199.25 + £250 doc fees = £9444.25 over 3 yrs

Compare with brand new. I got £500 towards my deposit and low rate 0.2% finance plus an overallowance on my trade in so paid under £9000

£9000 + £300 (Total cost of borrowing) = £9300

Ok i accept you get discount on the used but......... how much

 

[frupi]

Thought I'd just share this one for you as a comparison:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2011-FIAT-500-1-2-Lounge-/230784551436?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item35bbd4ca0c

A delivery mileage 1.2 lounge on a 61 plate for £7999! Their site in Leamington has plenty of Pops at this price which I thought looked cheap until I saw this!

My old lounge 09 plate 19K miles is currrently being offered for £8495.........

That appears to be one cracking deal and if it isn't snapped up soon, I would be amazed! If it were me and we were looking for one first time, I'd be down there myself tomorrow. Truly astounding that a Franchised dealer, albeit Mazda, is flogging it so cheap. Cash deal would be best me thinks, probably get a couple of hundred quid extra off that price.....:chin:

 

[stu0710]

Its sold, did someone on here buy it. Tbh I think it was an error as they have other 1.2 lounges of the same spec & age for £9299. Was a bargain for someone if they bought it though. Would have suited the young girl in the other thread!

 

[stu0710]

Thats 'only' a cheap price for someone with cash. If they need finance then they are going to pay

£7995 x 15% = £1199.25 + £250 doc fees = £9444.25 over 3 yrs

Compare with brand new. I got £500 towards my deposit and low rate 0.2% finance plus an overallowance on my trade in so paid under £9000

£9000 + £300 (Total cost of borrowing) = £9300

Ok i accept you get discount on the used but......... how much

you're forgetting that this is a Lounge whereas yours is a pop!

 

[The Littlest Hobo]

Fair enough stu. But then £9444.25 against £10,400 (I think it was going to cost me £1100 more for the lounge. I still think its not that good a deal. Stretch things to 4 years and its even closer........

 

[306maxi]

Fair enough stu. But then £9444.25 against £10,400 (I think it was going to cost me £1100 more for the lounge. I still think its not that good a deal. Stretch things to 4 years and its even closer........

And for that you get B&M, air con, a leather steering wheel, glass roof, chrome on the outside, a stainless steel exhaust finisher and to top it off the car will be worth more when you come to sell it too.

 

[jrkitching]

Compare with brand new. I got £500 towards my deposit and low rate 0.2% finance plus an overallowance on my trade in so paid under £9000

Noone can be blamed for taking advantage of these kind of deals but they are only possible because the true cost of providing the finance is built into the list price of the car.

Given the miserly discounts usually offered, this is terribly unfair to cash customers who must either accept the rip-off or buy something else entirely .

 

[loveshandbags]

Noone can be blamed for taking advantage of these kind of deals but they are only possible because the true cost of providing the finance is built into the list price of the car.

Given the miserly discounts usually offered, this is terribly unfair to cash customers who must either accept the rip-off or buy something else entirely .

Good to see you back on form JR.
Noticed from the Dualogic TA or 1.2 thread that the OP was able to secure discounts on the Panda.