Trying to buy a motor atm – wondered what to make of this deal we were offered yesterday.
Test drove (with two young children) a seat exeo – 36k miles, 2 years old. Wife would be the main driver on the mway and she really liked it. Taxed it was ready to go at just over 11K.

Bloke sat down and offered 1.5K trade-in for our existing car. Bit of umming and awing and we ready to head off (4.30 on a Sun afternoon) and he comes back with £500 off the price and 2K trade-in. We still said no just because we felt like we should see more cars.

Anyone know what margins these guys work with? Sounds like he moved a fair bit there but I basically have no idea. Be helpful for when we look at the next one.

What spec/plate/how many owners is the car?

One thing, have a look at the V5- see who the first owner is. Enterprise owned a fair few Exeo’s.

http://www.parkers.co.uk

Parkers is wildly out according to the industry/book etc.

As always – it’s the cost to change that matters. As salesman has taken £500 off his sale price and offered £500 more for your trade in, cost of change has dropped by £1k. So… my view would be that either they’re keen to get rid (possibly been in stock a while), the car was basically overpriced to start with or he was taking the wee with his initial trade in offer. Or some combination of the above.

I’d personally focus more on what those sort of car/spec go for than just getting more off. If its very keenly priced I’d go for it. The salesman may have £300 in the car, or he may have £3,000- who cares?

Always focus on the things that matter- previous owner, cosmetic condition, serviced so far and…when is the next service due? If its year three or 12k/20k whichever comes first you are fast approaching a potential £500 servicing bill?

Thks – would you ask to see the V5 from the salesman or is that something you can look up on line with the reg plate?

If we got 2 grand for our car in a private sale I’d be turning cartwheels so I reckon that was fair value.

Ordinary-looking car the exeo, or at least this model was. Felt fine to drive, right size for us, but the look of the thing slightly tipped the balance into not going for it in hindsight.

Firstly, what is the value of your current car? Otherwise the quote is meaningless.