I've only ever bought two brand new cars in my life. One was the DAF 44 which my boss let me buy at cost when I sold DAF cars for him many years ago. The other was our Ibiza in early 2016.
The Daf was a good buy and I think we got our money's worth from it as it was a very cheap car to run, simple to maintain at home (once you understood what to do with the Variomatic transmission) which we kept for years and it became Mrs J's runabout when I bought the Vitesse.
The Ibiza was an interesting purchase. My old, trusty, low tech Cordoba 1.9tdi had just bitten the dust after owning her for around 15 years. Although she had never actually stranded us anywhere she had been having various problems, including going into limp because she had a wastegate problem which was only fixable by purchasing a complete exchange turbo - ouch! So I was living with not being able to exceed 2000rpm or full throttle! We decided to "treat" ourselves to a new car as a retirement "treat" but also because we are old and need reliability for our trips down to Devon and Salisbury to visit family.
After a LOT of research I decided I wanted (and would still like) a Honda Civic 1.8 i-VTEC tourer. (I'm particularly impressed by this engine and the car generally). However, as I think I've mentioned elsewhere on the forum, this was not to be because Mrs J just couldn't get on with it. Having run a number of SEATs and Skodas in the past so I defaulted back to one of their products as a "known" prospect and settled on an Ibiza ST (estate) 1.0 95hp 3 cylinder. Dealer price was in the £14000 region (I forget the exact figure) I went in to my local dealer and was immediately "attacked" by two eager salesmen. After a short while one of them withdrew and I was shown a hatchback version of the car. I liked what I saw but the salesman was unable to answer most of the technical questions I was asking. A test drive of the 95hp engined version was not available and they couldn't show me an estate so I went home, with the salesman following me to the door offering me £500 off and a few extras (like a set of mats). I did manage to get a test drive at another smaller garage and they were able to show me an estate and I decided this was the car I wanted. They only had one prospect available in the near future which was in dark blue (Doom Blue, as a car trader friend called it) and that didn't appeal at all.
I decided, as we still had "Felicity" - our 1992 Panda Parade - at that time so we still had transport, to spend a few days trying to get the very best deal I could. So I emailed every SEAT agent in the central belt of Scotland and up into Fife and south into the Border Country inviting their very best price. I got replies from most of them, although, interestingly, not from my local dealer - which I thought was strange? I then took the best price quoted and emailed the 3 other garages which had submitted the best competing prices asking if they wanted to requote.
Having done that I walked down to our local library to exchange my books and on the way I walk past a small used car sales garage. I've talked with them before but never bought a car from them so I thought - I wonder? - Stuck my head in the door and asked if they are interested in sourcing the car for me. He asked if I had a particular car in mind and I was able to give him the exact spec I wanted. Leave it with me and I'll get back to you within a day or so said he.
In the meantime the emails came back with the best one offering around the £11,500 mark - no mention of any "incentive extras" (mats etc). Early the next morning I got a call from the wee garage and, after a very pleasant few minutes exchanging pleasantries, he asked "what is the best offer you've had so far"? Now I used to sell cars for nearly 5 years and I know this tactic so I gently said I wasn't going to "play" that game. However he, very politely, said "Look I need to make a living here. I'm pretty sure I can beat any price a main dealer is going to quote but I'm not going to simply give you the car at no gain to us". That impressed me, and I don't have anything against someone making an honest profit, so I told him. "I'll come back to you within about an hour he said". True to his word he did. "Hows about £11,000 straight"? Just let me speak to my personal financial advisor (Mrs J) and I'll be back to you before the day's out I said.
I was delaying because I suddenly thought I'd missed a trick by not looking at the websites which promise cheap new cars. I did a quick search but didn't find one that could even beat the main dealer offer I'd already had. So I took a deep breath, rang him back and accepted his offer. What about colour though I asked, I don't want that dark blue or a white one. "Oh good" said he, because the one I've tracked down is Emocion Red non metallic" Now that suited me just fine as I prefer a non metallic for touching up and I don't mind red at all. Good said he. Actually the "free" colour is now white on this model so the red should be costing you an extra £100 (approx). "I'll have it for you by the end of the week.
He rang the next day to say I can take delivery on the next day again. In the morning I was just putting my coat on to walk down to the garage when the 'phone rang. It was him. He sounded genuinely apologetic and said, Look, you can cancel if you want but I need to charge you £100 more, I'll explain why if you decide to proceed. Well, I thought, What the hell is £100? Ok, I'm still in. See you in about a half hour!
What neither of us had known was that the basic vehicle spec had changed in the short time I'd been searching and now include stuff like fancy DRLs in the headlights, LED rear lights and a few other changes and the base price had increased. So that accounted for the £100 he needed. Personally I couldn't care less about these things - just cost more to repair if they go wrong - but it probably impresses my sons more! so I couldn't care. So at the end of the day it cost me £11,100. Now, it'll be 5 years old next March, it's realistically probably worth around half what I paid for it - although there's always a good haggle to be had once a price is offered if part exchanging (remember folks it's always the amount of money you are parting with to drive away in your new purchase which is important. In many respects the trade in value on your existing vehicle is meaningless). The final "deal maker" was that he opened the doors and said "look, a complete set of fitted SEAT branded mats"! He hadn't known they were there until he'd driven the car round to the preparation area earlier. "They should be another £100 or so - just you keep them"
An interesting footnote is that when I went to pick up the new car the chap who actually did the hand over turned out to be a fellow who worked for Taggarts (BL agent) - long gone - when I worked at the BL agent down in Musselburgh. We had a grand old reunion chewing over "the old days". I've kept up contact with him and become friends with the owner too (the chap who actually got the car for me). I recently asked him about my car and asked how he managed to get it at such a good price. Apparently it was a car which someone else had ordered but then couldn't take delivery of due to a decline in their medical condition. He had just been lucky to get in there when the cancellation had just been made and, being near the end of the month, it would have had an effect on the supplying dealers sales figures so they were prepared to let it go to him at little more than cost. Lucky me!
Having said all that though, I won't be buying a new car again. It's absolutely lovely taking delivery of a new car and knowing that nothing has been abused by a previous owner and that all servicing - and more - is being done as it should but it's gobbled up quite a chunk more money than my usual 18 month to 2 year old purchase would. Also, for the first couple of years at least, I've been very aware of where I park in supermarket car parks etc (door bangers) and I feel a lot less anxious about an older car.
