Car Supermarkets

In the market for a new car and I'm going to visit a few car supermarkets tomorrow. I've seen a few prices online and they look OK. Is there room to haggle usually? are part ex prices inline with parker's guide or well bellow? can you drive away with the new car that same day or will I have to go back? I live in mod wales and will be travelling to the midlands or south Wales to shop around, so could do without an extra journey.

Some Carsupermarkets are slaves to their stock. i.e. The quality varies WILDLY within the same places- its what their Buyers can get hold of at the auctions currently.

The Carpeople in Manchester/Wakefield are quite good however you still need to ask ALL the questions before giving a deposit- can you see the service history (its not available? Sorry Im not interested then). Dont take the sales persons assurance that it is full main dealer. I had one promise me this over the phone- went down and the service history and only one stamp in 60k.

Arnold Clark and motorpoint. sorry, I wouldnt touch them.

Trade Sales in Slough are incredible really – taken over a huge amount of space. I bought my car there years ago and, as was new, bought it unseen then checked it out when I went to pick it up. They say no negotiation possible and I didn't try.

they're basically just finance institutions, they don't care about the cars, it's merely a method of them supplying credit.

as hora- you need to be SUPER careful with the history of the car, and if you're not knowledgeable yourself about cars & their workings, try and take someone who is…

I've also experienced unbelievable rudeness from staff at Carcraft (or whatever it is these days) in Liverpool (were browsing for cars for a mate).

Took a look at Cargiant a few months ago.

Prices are fixed.

You can drive away the same day if you want.

Cars were distictly average, and not especially well looked after – lots of cosmetic damage, worn tyres, dinked wheels etc.

What really put me off was the test drive – it lasted about 3 minutes around the indsutrial estate – didn't get above 20mph. Not spending multiple thousands of pounds on that basis.

Overall the feel was that the prices might be a little cheaper than the usual dealership thing, but you weren't getting any better value for money.

new or nearly new is a different ball game…

similar experience as JonEdwards, and some of the stock has been sitting around for A LONG time – one I looked at, the tax disc was nearly a nearly out of date…

Trade Sales in Slough

I think this is the firm that our Audi A2 came from (this was a few years ago mind). You have to be VERY careful – we'd bought it as a UK sourced car and no had any problems with it – I'd buy one again – until we came to trade it in and the Honda dealer turned round and told us it was an import (and consequently worth significantly less)…

I've also experienced unbelievable rudeness

YEP!

Thats part of the sales tactic. Their time is limited and they are doing YOU a favour. They basically treat you like a timewaster. You then want to please them and start to think you are not being fair. You dont ask to see the service history as you'll think its rude and the salesman has already told you the car has only had one previous owner (he cant show you the V5 as its dataprotection apperently) with a full main dealer history- again he assures you that it is.

Thats how it works..

Then the V5 comesback and its 3 previous owners and a patchy history. You ring up- engaged. The Sales manager says his sales person would never say that and for you to prove it. He'll then add the person has since left the business and good day Sir!

I've had elements of the above tried on me- at every step. Ive stopped the sales person and ended the conversation and left.

The Sales Mgr-bit. Im guessing thats what'll happen when its too late and only verbal. I had a stand up row with a Sales Manager over promised spare keys that never showed. The manager said 'prove it' when I said I was promised the two spares were to follow..

You then want to please them and start to think you are not being fair

I wanted to lamp the little fecker 🙂

If it is a new new car. Why not contact say 20 main dealers nationally and ask them for their best price?

Thats 20 calls. An hour?

the Honda dealer turned round and told us it was an import (and consequently worth significantly less)

I think that's to protect their interests – dealers want to sell cars so value imports as less even though the imports in these cases are identical to the uk ones – well my Puma is. Selling privately would be a better bet or just keeping the car until it's mostly depreciated which is what I'm doing.

the Honda dealer turned round and told us it was an import (and consequently worth significantly less)

I think that's to protect their interests – dealers want to sell cars so value imports as less even though the imports in these cases are identical to the uk ones – well my Puma is. Selling privately would be a better bet or just keeping the car until it's mostly depreciated which is what I'm doing.

Agreed. However, selling privately or otherwise it was worth less as an import (and we should have been told). just a bit late to find out when you're sat there trying to hammer out the finer details having agreed a trade-in at the full private book price…

We bought our car from Carcraft in Wednesbury. Some tatty cars there but the prices tended to reflect this. Also, in common with a lot of garages these days, they only valet once the car has been sold. We were after a specific model & paid a lot less than sourcing via a dealers, but accepted a higher mileage car. The service & after sales was pretty good, they dropped a little bit on the price & I haggled our trade-in price up, also got them to do some paint & a small dent on the new car. Also found a few niggles afterwards which were all put right without any fuss. Overall experience was good. Be warned though, it is high pressure selling & make sure your ready to change cars as they are very good at what they do. The chap followed us 20 miles home to get our car's documents. Be certain as to what you want as we were just swept along & before we knew it we were signing up. Dont regret changing cars or using Carcraft, but they rely on you not thinking too much about it.

Why not contact say 20 main dealers nationally and ask them for their best price?

Or – you tell them what you want & let the dealers fight it out amongst themselves?

http://www.autoebid.com/

Only have experience of Cargiant – it's great if your expectations match what they offer.

– if you want to have a proper poke around in a few different cars, look at how big the boot is, whether the seats fold flat (usual MTBing factors!), how comfy the seats are, etc then it's good – you get the keys and have as long as you like to look over it with no pressure or hassle from salespeople. Finish with one, go back to desk, get the keys to the next on your list.

– if you don't want to haggle and wish that car dealers would actually advertise the price they want, it's good too – no negotiating done at all.

– if you're looking for something mainstream, decent value, ex-fleet/hire/company – great. Anything outside that, they don't have many examples of.

– if you want to spend an hour driving it on all sorts of roads to see if you really like it, go to a main dealer instead.

They sell finance not cars.

You are much better off buying from a main dealer or, if you're clued up, buy privately.

It strikes me that you choose the car go on Autotrader and find a few etc surely that's a better bet.

I've been reading a thread on pistonheads about these places and I've gone right off them based on what I've heard. Not wasting a 6 hour round trip to be treated like crap and not have the stock on the website available on site. Found a car at a large dealer in Swansea for the same money as they supermarkets are asking so will be heading down there tomorrow.

You should checkout Autoquake (www.autoquake.com) – their website has loads of photos of each car plus a section showing any cosmetic faults.
I bought a car costing close to £20k without even viewing it – I was cr@pping myself before it arrived to be honest, but it was exactly as described.

They do offer a 7 day money back guarantee, which I know they will honour as my Dad bought a Vectra from them which turned out to have a problem. He took it back, money refunded, no issues.

I did a lot of research before I bought & the only cars I could find cheaper were private sales.

ex-fleet/hire/company

Yes- also alot of these DONT have service history as we know it. Only service history print outs. This may be the future one day- not today though when you need to resell the car.

Surfr – hurray!
Carsupermarkets are like autojumbles- if you are clued up and prepared to search you can find a gem, however for alot of people they are 'convenient' places for people to go and just be given whats available. Lazy daft feckers!

Arnold Clark once tried telling me the 4 TDI Tourans that he had in were definitely NOT ex-hire. I reminded him that its a 40mile round trip. Assured me. Got there and on the back of each one was a neat little square of dirt on the real tailgate.

As I walked away he said 'how did you know'?!

been looking in the s.wales area where i live for the last few months, heres my advice.

dont go to 'carcraft' in Newport (s.wales) bunch of pikey scum bags who latch onto you the second you walk in and dont leave you alone

'motorpoint' in Newport are much better, they leave you alone to view the cars and wonder round. you then give a few details so you can get the keys to a few cars and have a little drive round the 'internal' compound' they DONT let you go out onto the road. you can drive off the same day, obviously with credit checks etc.

there are really good deals there but the big thing i would warn you about is about is the warranties, the car could have been sat round for ages and only has a year left or registered a while back even though its a new plate.

i know many people who have bought from them and had no problems.

the carshop in cardiff is ok aswell.

saying that we just took the wifes fiesta into the local ford dealer and their part ex was £600 more than motorpoints…

We bought our last car in CarGiant and were overall very happy with the process. We registered on the site for email updates and were very specific with what we wanted. When the car matching what we wanted came up, we went straight up same day, bought and took it away.

I actually liked the fact there was no haggling and I think the price we paid was very good (I've found other companies like CarCraft to be more expensive for identical makes/models/specs/mileage). I'd buy from them again.

A lot will credit check you before allowing you on the premises. This is because they exist purely because of the margin they have on credit.

Others actually offer good deals. I'd also look into brokers – there are a few around who will get you new motors for good prices.

This is because they exist purely because of the margin they have on credit.

I don't do credit so would they not want me?

A lot will credit check you before allowing you on the premises. This is because they exist purely because of the margin they have on credit.

Not heard of this check before being allowed on premises. Credit is certainly a bonus for them but we didn't use credit when we purchased from Cargiant and there was no hard sell to take credit.

I think this is the firm that our Audi A2 came from (this was a few years ago mind). You have to be VERY careful – we'd bought it as a UK sourced car and no had any problems with it – I'd buy one again – until we came to trade it in and the Honda dealer turned round and told us it was an import (and consequently worth significantly less)…

Of course its imported, its an Audi!

Good salesmen at Honda – just how much did he get out of you?