General New Arrival Expected Saturday!

[JTD_Liam]

After ordering at the start of January my Parents new 500 TwinAir Lounge is at the dealers. We went to check it over on Saturday (all present & correct) & should be collecting it this Saturday.

I'll post some pics when we get it home, though thanks to the very poor colour choice in the UK it's a pretty common Passasoble Red. We specced the 15" Sport Alloys & front fogs as Dad wasn't too keen on the standard Lounge ones, so it looks abit different, but it was certainly a frustration that Fiat dropped most of the interesting colours shortly after launch - Punk Grey & Ye Ye Green would've been the shortlist if available. Not exactly the personalisation dream Fiat promised, unless you cover it in all manner of stickers.

Anyway, just wondering (even though its too late) if the 'deal' sounds alright. We got it on I-Deal PCP, which had a £500 Fiat deposit contribution. Because of this & the low interest rate (£500 Fiat deposit & 48 months - 3.2%), we decided not to put down an additional deposit as the payments were affordable. The total interest over the contract duration is circa only £700 - Dad wondered if Fiat also did mortgages

I'd looked at brokers but could only find around £700-£800 discount on 500s & these had higher finance rates, so i figured the £500 deposit contribution from Fiat UK is effectively the discount. A mate who's always very critical of car purchases & discounts agreed that the finance offer sounded decent for something as popular as the 500. As such we didn't push for further discount, particularly as the dealer had been extremely patient - we visited 3 or 4 times over 5 months & had 3 test drives before commiting.

However, the more i think of it, the more i wonder if we were being too kind. Obviously its totally unreasonable to talk discounts on the car now & i'm not proposing that, but we've not collected yet so i was wondering if the offered discount on 500 mats should be pushed to make them free? We were also offered GAP Insurance at £349, which the parents have said no to, but i think is a good idea. Should i ask if this can be discounted, or is the standard deal we've got as good as one should expect?

Apologies if there's already similar posts - i did a search but couldnt see any obvious recent results. Thanks!

Liam

 

[frupi]

I'd seriously consider shopping around for GAP insurance if you really believe you need it. I got 4 years Return to Invoice cover for £124 from an internet provider. GAP cover sold by dealers, I'm led to believe, often has a huge commission mark up.

Not quite the same thing, but I bought a cooker from a nationally known electrical retailer. At point of purchase, they asked me if I would by a three year extended warranty. When I said 'No', after several minutes of the Duty Manager pleading with me to buy cover, he sold it to me for £15 (fifteen) quid. Make of that what you will!

Sorry, I kind of missed the point about the cooker cover. The price started off at £150. After 5 minutes, it had dropped to 15 quid. Hence my feeling that the extended warranty wasn't worth the paper it was written on!

 

[RobinPJ]

I would say free mats, yes - they weren't really "patient" - they were doing their job! and 4 visits over 5 months is hardly bashing their door down.

You should get GAP insurance, but not Fiat's. Maxi will have a good one to recommend when he shows his face. I forget its name.

 

[306maxi]

I would say free mats, yes - they weren't really "patient" - they were doing their job! and 4 visits over 5 months is hardly bashing their door down.

You should get GAP insurance, but not Fiat's. Maxi will have a good one to recommend when he shows his face. I forget its name.

Surf and protect were who we bought through

 

[JTD_Liam]

Thanks people I'll be cheeky with the mats then!

The GAP quotes provided sound much better value - the £349 from Fiat was only for 3 years & the finance is for 4 years. Mum & Dad are of the opinion that they don't want it, but i do think it's one of the better products offered - not sure if 500 residuals may begin to soften now it's been around a few years, so the chances of the car being worth less than is owed on finance may increase.

One thing on our side is that the finance rate is very good so in theory we shouldn't be talking massive shortfalls, but i will plead my case to the old'un's

Did anyone here get more than £500 discount on their 500? Im not used to the words 'Fiat' and 'no discount' going hand-in-hand - can get thousands off a Punto or Bravo!

 

[jrkitching]

Did anyone here get more than £500 discount on their 500? Im not used to the words 'Fiat' and 'no discount' going hand-in-hand - can get thousands off a Punto or Bravo!

The scrappage buyers obviously did, and IIRC some dealers preregistered the last of the 2009 models & sold them with Panda-level discounts. The only other new one I know about personally was a 500 Pink that Perrys Aylesbury offered with a £2k+ discount to get it out of the showroom.

 

[JTD_Liam]

The scrappage buyers obviously did, and IIRC some dealers preregistered the last of the 2009 models & sold them with Panda-level discounts. The only other new one I know about personally was a 500 Pink that Perrys Aylesbury offered with a £2k+ discount to get it out of the showroom.

Ofcourse, yes. Unfortunately our car wasn't old enough at the time of Scrappage & tbh i'd struggle to allow a perfectly good vehicle go to scrap so i doubt we'd have taken advantage even if we could.

I did think about pre-reg and going to one of the bigger dealer groups purely to increase chances of a discount, but i think the Parents have had enough of big, unhelpful dealer groups in the past & just wanted decent service this time round, hence the smaller dealer in Warwick who have largely delivered.

You mean to say they couldn't shift the ultra-exclusive Pink version? It's a stunner

 

[MJG]

Free mats should be the minimum you can squeeze of a dealer - the genuine ones are around £50 retail - so at what they are buying them in for it's hardly a lot to ask IMHO.

(Though we got them as part of our deal - and when we collected the car and they weren't there I did have to remind him that we'd agreed mats would be included)

That GAP insurance sounds expensive - we were offered it for £250, but didn't take it yet (14 days to decide - 7 to go).

 

[deeyup]

Don't know if you can change the finance deal now at this stage (would have thought yes) but get the dealer to run figures over 34-36 months

The rate drops right down the shorter the agreement. If you can do 34 months the interest is nigh on 0%. You may only be paying an extra £15 a month but for 14 months less.

 

[jrkitching]

That GAP insurance sounds expensive - we were offered it for £250, but didn't take it yet (14 days to decide - 7 to go).

At £250 it's still way more than you'd pay if you just bought it in the market. And you've got much longer to decide - most companies offering this will cover any vehicle up to 3 months old, and when I last looked, there was at least one that would sell it to you any time in the first six months. Check also if your insurance covers 'new-for-old' in the first year, as you can usually defer the start of your GAP coverage to begin in Year 2 - but you still need to sign up & pay for it in the first 3 (or 6) months.

Anyone seriously considering this would do well to just spend an hour on Google looking at the options.

 

[jrkitching]

... tbh i'd struggle to allow a perfectly good vehicle go to scrap so i doubt we'd have taken advantage even if we could.

If I were to 'fess up to what I did to get a ticket for the thing I traded in, you'd be horrified .

 

[306maxi]

If I were to 'fess up to what I did to get a ticket for the thing I traded in, you'd be horrified .

I doubt anyone would be horrified as to what I did. R reg 406 1.9 turdo dismal with HGF and a rough body and interior won't be missed!

 

[MJG]

Anyone seriously considering this would do well to just spend an hour on Google looking at the options.

Good tip - just spent fifteen mins. and got quotes at half what the dealer was asking for.

 

[306maxi]

At £250 it's still way more than you'd pay if you just bought it in the market. And you've got much longer to decide - most companies offering this will cover any vehicle up to 3 months old, and when I last looked, there was at least one that would sell it to you any time in the first six months. Check also if your insurance covers 'new-for-old' in the first year, as you can usually defer the start of your GAP coverage to begin in Year 2 - but you still need to sign up & pay for it in the first 3 (or 6) months.

Anyone seriously considering this would do well to just spend an hour on Google looking at the options.

That's exactly why we went with surf and protect because we got 3 years cover on top of the first year with our car insurance, so a total of 4 years cover

 

[FloJo]

I'd go for GAP too. I got mine (return to invoice) from ala.co.uk via topcashback but I can't find details of how much I paid I'm afraid, but it wasn't much more than £100-ish.
Definately be cheeky and ask for the mats for free - there's no harm in asking

 

[FloJo]

Re finance - I didn't get a discount per say, but the dealer did make some of my extras free, included the mats and a tank of petrol. I paid the maximum deposit possible, finance over 3 years, it works out I'm paying £79 in interest plus the balloon payment to finish the agreement. I was happy with this.

 

[JTD_Liam]

Free mats should be the minimum you can squeeze of a dealer - the genuine ones are around £50 retail - so at what they are buying them in for it's hardly a lot to ask IMHO.

(Though we got them as part of our deal - and when we collected the car and they weren't there I did have to remind him that we'd agreed mats would be included)

That GAP insurance sounds expensive - we were offered it for £250, but didn't take it yet (14 days to decide - 7 to go).

I'll try it on with the mats - as an ex-salesman i know the dealers/staff don't make as much money per car as people think, but free mats after paying list price is hardly asking the Earth, as you say.

Im interested about you being offered GAP for £250. Was this the GAP in the little Fiat booklet, which covers the first 3 years, or did the dealer have a 3rd party supplier?

Don't know if you can change the finance deal now at this stage (would have thought yes) but get the dealer to run figures over 34-36 months

The rate drops right down the shorter the agreement. If you can do 34 months the interest is nigh on 0%. You may only be paying an extra £15 a month but for 14 months less.

We did try a few options with the finance, ie with or without a deposit from us, over 36, 42 & 48 months and the Parents decided that they'd rather get the payments as low as possible without adding their own deposit so went with 48 months.

If it were me i'd have taken it over 3 years & put some cash in of my own to get the interest as low as possible, but i'm quite different to them in that respect (ie tight)

The £700 interest we'll pay for 4 years isn't bad i suppose, but i agree with you that a shorter agreement would be better.

If I were to 'fess up to what I did to get a ticket for the thing I traded in, you'd be horrified .

Oh, haha! If the car really was knackered then i think Scrappage was a great idea. I can see why they insisted on an MOT (so people didn't just hose down a rotting heap in the front garden & drive it in) but i think it was really the cars that failed or were about to fail an MOT that we should've wanted rid of, not something in decent working order, which i know alot of scrapped cars were.

 

[frupi]

Liam, this is not financial advice or a recommendation, just a company I found on 'tinternet. Other companies are available, terms and conditions apply!
I'm not even going to post the link, just the name.

car2cover.co.uk

 

[JTD_Liam]

Liam, this is not financial advice or a recommendation, just a company I found on 'tinternet. Other companies are available, terms and conditions apply!
I'm not even going to post the link, just the name.

car2cover.co.uk

Haha it's fine! I'll take a look, thank you!

Guarantors may be required etc, i'm guessing?

 

[wigit]

nice feeling when its at the dealers, 2-3 weeks to collect my new car all be it have drooled at it at the dealers

dealers sometimes struggle to discount the actual model but you can use the accessories and gap as a freebie sweetener as they can absorb this differently