Yesterday we returned our Avante to the dealership to have a couple of adjustments done and a damaged wardrobe door replaced that we spotted before we bought it, the whole lot only took a couple of hours to do so we decided to wait for it.
My OH, being the fidget and nosey parker that he is, decided to take himself off for a walk down memory lane around the secondhand stock and to look for our old Lunar Zenith, He returned absolutly gobsmacked, they had hiked the asking price up over 30% over what they paid us at trade in, and more than £1000 over the recomended price for a dealer forcourt price as stated in the price guides.
We were really shocked, l know that the dealership has to cover its overheads and staff wages ect, but this is a serious rip off, and anyone who buys it will be very disapointed when they go for an insurance quote and find out that its true value is around £5000, and not the dealer price of just short of £7000 that they are asking for it.
Julia
Post last edited on 25/10/2013 23:55:06
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
Well you didn't expect them to sell it for the same amount they gave you in px did you ?
No skin off your nose what price they put on it as long as you were happy with the deal you got I guess.
RG ..buying from a dealer used is costly ..but people can bargain the price down If they dont like the price they walk away As P at ul said..if you happy with the price you got why be concerned
Have you tried selling a caravan of that value privately? The time wasters, the scammers, the dreamers, the derisory offers? When you bypass all that & simply drop off your old caravan & pick up your new one you are passing on all that headache to the dealer who charges for that service.
As for the sticker price at the dealers, I'm sure the buyer will be delighted with his 'winter bargain' with a £1000 off.
How else is the retail trade expected to make a living? If you want cheaper veg, go & buy in bulk from a farmer that grows them, but I'm sure you find it more convenient to go to Tesco just as you found it more convenient to trade your caravan at your local dealer rather than sell privately & then scour the country with cash in hand to drive the hardest possible bargain for the new caravan you wanted.
I fail to understand what you mean by 'true value'? The true value of a caravan is what anybody is prepared to pay for it. A buyer from the dealer may pay £7k unless he can get them down to £6k, an ebay buyer might pay £5.5k & the insurance co might offer £5k for a write off, but the owner might in the end get them up to £5.5k. From what you say, for you the 'true value' appeared to be around the £5k you got for it as a trade in.
we've just bought a swift challenger 580 in a dealer and got £700 off the asking price. He knocked of £500 when asked what his best price would be And when we went back to do the deal we offered another £500 less and he said he couldn't do that, (we didn't really expect him to) but he said he would do another £200 so we were well happy with that. so there are still deals to be had. Probably happened because he had just come back from the show with a stack of orders!
It isn't just the cost of staff, cleaning and sales margins, it is the cost of having it lying around till it sells. If a dealer has 40 vans at an average cost that he has paid out of £5000, then that is £200000 of dead money till they sell. I am sure there is insurance on them as well as rates for the site,
People do part exchange deals to save waiting to sell their van privately. It is convenient for the customer but the dealer then has to be patient to get a return on his money.
I have traded 3 year old van in this year for new one,dealer sold my old van in under a week.My friend traded a 3 year old van in at same dealer a few years ago and that was there for nearly 3 years with price reduced, after that time to less than it was traded in at. Mine made a quick profit friends made them a loss.
Well dont get me wrong, l was happy what we got for it, and was pleased to let it go as it was starting to show its age, and may have needed some repairs that would have been beyond us to carry out ourselves, but cheap enough materials wise for them to have done in the workshop may be as aproject for one of their young apprentices. These included an area of slightly springy floor near to the entrance door, which my OH says is still the same, and the casette locker door refuses to lock, despite several attempts by the service department at Don Amotts to sort it shortly after we bought it. Other than that, everything was in very good condition.
My point was that even with the dealers extra costs, the price he was asking was far greater than what the caravan was actually worth, and still would be over £1000 above the dealer forcourt price in the industrys guides, even if a similar discount was given at point of sale as Claire and Colin mentioned above.
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
Well I have never bought a caravan, but when I come to buy a used one it will be from a dealer, if I saw one with a sticker price of say £10k I would pitch in at £8k and see were we meet, anything more than £8.5 and I would walk away, there are plenty of dealers out there with fields full of used caravans, it is definitely a buyers market when buying used.
As for buying new is it not the case still, that if you tell them that you are going to use the Caravan as a static even though it is a tourer you can get away with not having to pay the VAT.
If that is the case then a new Caravan with a sticker price of £14k could be had for say £10,800 once you have deducted the dealers £1000 obligatory discount and taken of the VAT, or have I got the no VAT thing all wrong?
Yes you have the VAT thing all wrong unless you buy a twin axle that is only legal to tow with a 3.5tonne truck...
& its incorrect to suppose that dealers will keep reducing the price of a caravan they cannot shift. Rather than damage their retail market they would sell it at a loss through the trade.
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Topic: How Much???
If they dont like the price they walk away
