Crikey, i’m trying to buy a car, they are offering some nice discounts if I put it on finance or PCP but I need to buy it cash. every time I say that it’s like I’m some sort of pariah!

Is it just me or does a good solid cash sale not hold any sway (I’m trying to get a small discount on a couple of possibles, like 500 quid on a 20k car!) Maybe i should just pay the sticker price.

Before you ask, I’m precluded from most finance options due to the job I do, I’m not permitted to hold loans like that (or mortgages which is painful)

Same – I’ve never bought any car I’ve ever had with anything other than cash and in recent years, not had much, if any, discount. If you believe what you read, the money for salesmen is in PCP/Finance etc deals now…

Just the way it works now. Margins are cut down to bare minimum. If they give you £500 quid off for cash they make £500 less. If they give you £500 quid off but sell you a finance deal they will make it all back in commission so they haven’t really lost anything. Better off asking for a tow bar or something useful that they can buy and fit at cost. Or just keep looking. Plenty of cars around

They aren’t really selling you a car, are they?
They are selling you a finance deal with a load of interest attached.

They don’t care what the ‘vehicle’ is to get you to take out finance – car, sofa, kitchen……

Seat weren’t overly impressed when my Wife was told the price for the car she was intending to buy – she was part-exing a 308 & they must have assumed they would be using their finance for the balance.
They gave her a good price to seal the deal and apparently their faces dropped when she told them that would be fine as she had a bank loan approved for the balance…..3.8% instead of the 10%+ they were offering her.
They got down to 6.2% to try & get her to take their finance, but why would she do that when she could get half the interest rate from the bank over the same period….!

Cars as units often don’t make the dealers any money.

Where they make money are in the volume discounts they receive from manufacturers and commissions for selling finance.

You’ll get a better sticker price for taking the finance deal because they make more that way.

It is possible to sign up to finance and then withdraw within the cooling off period (14 days IIRC) and just settle the loan at that point (i.e. only paying a few days’ interest). Could that work in your circumstances?

Had the same issue recently, as said previously, no commision on cash.

They aren’t really selling you a car, are they?
They are selling you a finance deal with a load of interest attached.

Beat me to it..!

Right not just me then. Plenty of options around, the last guy who could easily have sold me something couldn’t be arsed. Having booked a test drive I turned up with wife and toddler in tow but “The car doesn’t have any fuel”. Really, helpful my friend, thats a main dealer. I tweeted the customer service about it as it was a waste of my time.

Right, might just do this private sale then !

I’m precluded from most finance options due to the job I do, I’m not permitted to hold loans like that (or mortgages which is painful)

Do tell why, I am intrigued and nosey.

Must be a Pimp!

Why are you buying a car with cash? I guess if the job you do make it tricky then you have no choice. Cash is worthless. They’ll make money out of the credit so can then leverage that to offer you a better discount. Also PCP deals make cars more ‘liquid’ and increase the chances of you changing your car more frequently rather than holding onto it for years and years, which means they sell the same car more times.

But other than that a car is a depreciating asset, so you don’t want to use cash unless you have to – you’re just throwing it down the drain. How else do you think so many people can drive around in brand new Porsche Macan’s? They’ve not bought them with cash that is for sure.

Nah, I’m going with International Man of Mystery. Or weapons smuggler.

Right not just me then. Plenty of options around

Have a look at the various broker options – e.g. Drive the Deal

And BTW, we had such mixed service from dealers last year when we bought…Some were utterly, utterly shocking-
Toyota – no you cannot come in at 5pm when we shut at 6 and ask to look at a car.
Suzuki – yes the car is in pieces internally, no you cannot drive it, but yes it is for sale and you can put a deposit down today, after I have spoken to sales manager 20 times.

And then we have
Skoda – here is the car keys, lets go for a test drive, and we will give you our best price on that car when you get back from the drive, no haggling needed.

Seat – same as Skoda, quick, clear and best price upfront. We bought an Ibiza ST.

Nah, I’m going with International Man of Mystery. Or weapons smuggler.

I bet he is the pope.

Most of the big chains teach them to offer little or no discount on the first visit. Depending on the garage some of them will give you a call in a week or so with a better offer.

If you continue to hold out or fill in one of those automated survey forms then usually you will get bumped to some kind of sales manager who will give you a better deal.

Quite often I end up using a broker and still coming out better off. I don’t know where you live but in my experience independent rural garages are easier to deal with in pretty much every way.

Take the finance, but make sure you can cancel the agreement before it ‘starts’ and just pay the balance? Done that before to get the best deal, as advised by the (main) dealer.

It’s a boring problem – I hold a role that has massive independence requirements (audit) – finding a finance co tied to a manu that isn’t conflicted is almost impossible. Volvo, Vw, Audi, Porsche (in case I wanted a macan for example) would all get me fined and fired if I sign them. Therefore I have to have a special banking arrangement and finance deals are pretty much a no-no. So there, boring you see but quite necessary!

but other than that a car is a depreciating asset, so you don’t want to use cash unless you have to – you’re just throwing it down the drain. How else do you think so many people can drive around in brand new Porsche Macan’s? They’ve not bought them with cash that is for sure.

Why would a finance deal where you pay interest be a better deal then – my maffs showed me that neither route was really better than the other for what I want over a certain duration. But anyway a moot point as I can;t do it so have to do a cash deal.

EDIT: And secondhand as well, not new so DtD, Carwow etc not much help to me.

Toyota – no you cannot come in at 5pm when we shut at 6 and ask to look at a car.

We had that with a Toyota main dealer too – except it was over the Christmas break (ie, the quiet few days between Christmas and the new year) and they told us to come back the following week.

We went to Mazda instead.

Buy on PCP, take the discounts and free servicing and then ring the finance company up the day after delivery, tell them you want to “withdraw” from the agreement and pay it off with no (or £2) penalty.

Just don’t tell the salesman you are planning that, or suddenly he won’t be interesting in selling you anything.

Exactly as wzzzz has it – sign up for the PCP, take delivery, cancel and pay off the finance within the cooling off period.

Agree a price and let them assume you are going to use their finance ( which they make money on) then when you come to sign say – actual I am paying cash and buy at the agreed price for cash

I CAN’T EVEN SIGN AN AGREEMENT. I will lose my job and get a massive fine. Seriously, I can’t, it’s not like I can even pretend it didn’t happen. Sorry, I know that’s boring but I sort of need to stay employed.
TJagain – i would be able to do that but i sort of thought of that, the kicker was the major discount was applied to the finance balance so I would need to invoke the actual agreement to get it which would mean…..well I can’t.
EDIT EDIT: When i say CASH i mean not financed, as in if we agree a price i will pay it on a debit card.

Cash is actually the most expensive way to receive payment for most businesses. Debit card is generally the cheapest. However the reason here is the finance commission.

I don’t have much advice, however I can confirm that actually buying something seems to be completely out of the ordinary now. Even my last car that I bought through the business (ie business paid cash for it) the dealership (BMW in this case) simply couldn’t understand that I wanted their bank details and I’d send the money straight over. It was almost as if I was talking a different language.

Recently I found that Mercedes were completely happy with taking a bank transfer for a piece of metal that they had that we had decided that we wanted.

Possibly higher risk but auction for something nearly new (so with some manufacturers warranty left).

I CAN’T EVEN SIGN AN AGREEMENT.

Definitely pursue the broker route. That might be the best way to get a decent price.

Am assuming you’re doing something in financial services – makes it pretty bad if you can’t personally use the products!

I’m sure carwow offers a cash price from the deaers. Sometimes it’s a bit cheaper, but lots of 0% dealers means you can keep your cash.

Are you in a rush?

I think the best bet is to wait for one with delivery mileage car to come up at a discount. Basically this means that the dealer bought the car to meet a target so that they got a discount. I think what what my dad did last time, he’s a cash customer

The biggest cost by far with car ownership is depreciation. Leasing a car means that for a fixed amount per month – not much more than what you’d pay on a loan, you get a brand new car, no servicing, fully warranted cars, don’t lose anything on depreciation, don’t take the risks that car ownership brings. Car ownership is a mugs game. Lease or PCP (which is basically leasing with options).

Car ownership is a mugs game.

The mrs bought a delivery-mileage Yaris 10 years ago. In that time its had servicing and an exhaust back box. Oh, and a set of tyres.

It’s now cosmetically tired (no thanks to me), but still going fine. Can lease type deals genuinely beat the monthly costs of running something like that for 10 years?

The biggest cost by far with car ownership is depreciation. Leasing a car means that for a fixed amount per month – not much more than what you’d pay on a loan, you get a brand new car, no servicing, fully warranted cars, don’t lose anything on depreciation, don’t take the risks that car ownership brings. Car ownership is a mugs game. Lease or PCP (which is basically leasing with options).

If leasing meant that cars didn’t depreciate the lease would be free? I see a lease as paying the depreciation in monthly installments.

But cheap is all about used surely

There are good PCP deals out there but the main purpose is to keep people in newer cars without them really understanding how much they’re paying overall.

i dont get how pcp or leasing is a better deal. say leasing is £300 per month, that’s £3600 per annum. I could buy a good second hand car for that and it will last a darn sight longer than 1 year.

Can lease type deals genuinely beat the monthly costs of running something like that for 10 years?

You’ve missed the point of car buying, which is to make your neighbours envious of your toys.

Can you get a family member or trusted member to buy the car via finance, write the V5 over to you ASAP.
If you are married the dealer can do this – finance in one name, vehicle in partners name.

Then just pay the finance company off before any interest is paid.

I’d had enough of driving my wife’s car which kept going wrong, so now I pay £140 pcm incl vat for a brand new Fiesta. Lots of toys which all work, and it drives absolutely perfectly with no knocks, rattles or problems whatsoever. It’s on PCP so I can either chop it in at the end of the term or pay the last bit off to own it.

Probably costs more overall but it’s worth it to have a nice new fully working car without the upfront cost in one hit.

Nothing comes for free, especially motoring. Leasing type deals means you are simply paying for access or use of a car. If you buy a car you still have costs that will cost you x amount per month if you amortise it – tax, depreciation, initial cost, cost of money (not much these days to be fair), risk of something expensive going wrong, servicing, tyres, consumables etc. When you lease you pan an amount per month for access to that vehicle. Simple. You are not paying for anything else. The lessor or leasing company is of course paying for the costs of running the car (servicing, tax, warranty etc).

OK you can buy a car, say a Toyota Yaris, and run it for 10 years into the ground. Say that car cost you 12k. It will be worth sweet fa so it has cost you £1200 per year in depreciation. That’s about 3/4 of the cost to lease a brand new Yaris which will be replaced with another brand new Yaris every 3 years or so. And that’s just the depreciation. Usually in lease deals the tax is included, servicing and sometimes tyres and insurance. So it all adds up and ultimately it is risk and trouble free motoring vs. investing in a car and having to stump up every time something unexpected happens to it.

If you’re smart and are not fussy about the car you want to lease you can sweep the stock of leasing companies, get on their mailing list and you’ll get offers coming through. A mate of mine picked up a VS Tiguan for a shade over£200 per month – about half what it would cost you normally. And that included full maintenance package. Sol like everything in life, of you shop smart and shop around you can get the deals.

Though it won’t help the OP unfortunately. Can’t think what job they have that forbids them for signing up for any car lease, PCP or finance deals. MI6 spy maybe? gotta stay off grid?

Leasing is the same issue I’m afraid as almost all the leasing schemes are underwritten. Y finance I’m banned from. As are my family so I can’t do t that way. I get a big cash lump sum for vehicles hence wanting to spend it !