mrklaw

I can't help but think that the what car target price is a scam to make them money, not help consumers get the best deal.

I was looking for a new MY03 WRX, and the dealer offered me £19250 including metallic. But the what car target price is about £18600, so I rang their number, and a dealer rang me back.

He said he is the guy who supplies subaru dealers in the UK, so there is no way dealers can match his price. He also said that he pays What car a percentage on each car sold through the what car phone line.

Now I have no problem with it being the cheapest price for a UK car, but the what car target price clearly says that it is a fair price with a good discount, but still allowing the dealers to make a living. If true, the price for the subaru isn't something that dealers could match, therefore lots of potential customers ring the line, get in touch with supplier boy, and what car makes a tidy sum from commission.

Sounds fishy to me.

pbee

I dont understand.

IM supply the dealers but do not sell direct to the public. The exception to this would be the lease companies. And I would presume if lease companies are selling direct to the public without finance involved IM would not be to happy about them doing so.

If you buy a car where do you collect it from ??.

P

MattW

Not sure about this - I'm a member of CSMA who do something similar. When I enquired about an MY03 STI the best price was £23600 and this was a main dealer who called me back.

The Jet

www.tins.co.uk are quoting 18,892 for a new 4-dr with metallic.

Osbourne in Colchester are having a closing down sale and have a few unregistered WRX's for 19,160 (which they claim is trade price+£100)

Could also be worth trying www.carfile.net.......

Supercue

iTrader: (1)

In July I bought a MY03 WRX SL with PPP in Black Mica. I tried 4 diferent dealers accross the UK and found that absolutely no-one was willing to drop from list price (23345). Apart from WRX mats free superguard and a tank of petrol.
Now you may think that I'm crap at negotiating but believe me when I say I normally get my poud of flesh out of a deal.

I came to the conclusion that as I wanted leather and there ar'nt many new cars in the UK with leather I had to pay the premium of list price.
Now that hurts coz I don't pay list for anything! However where I did make money out of the car was on the finance. I managed to negotiate a 3yr deal on the car at a staggeringly low 6.2% apr with a tiny ballon of £7700 with the dealer.
To me that is cheap compared to what else is on offer from all the other dealers. The best from the rest was 7.9% and a balloon of £9800

So really its a case of you pays your money and takes your choice. For me I wanted the car badly enough to pay the list price and I bet there are thousands of peeps like me who have done the same.

ejunk

I have just rang the What car line to get a price for a STI 8 and am awaiting a call back. I will let you know how it goes.

casp

Nobbles of penicuik offered me a brand new 53 reg wrx wr blue del mileage for 18300 TOLD me not to tell anybody but **** em.
if you go in with a hard faced attitude you will get it for this price

Stringpants1

Spend some money on a dictionary!!

SirFozzalot

I sent What car an email and the next day had a return email from a Subaru dealer in the UK offering me a new STi8 typeUK and would match the Whatcar? price to the penny........pick up said STi8 next week!!

Whether Whatcar? magazine make any money out of it of not I have saved about £1600 off the list price so I am very happy indeed! My 'local' dealer wouldn't budge on the price at all by-the-way.

Trashman1

Check out CarFile

This is the guy that phoned me back. I've asked about several cars though not actually bought thru "his" dealers - but it has become a bargaining point for mine and the other half's cars last year. Saved quite a bit and beat What Car price.

Way it works: Dealer gets a discount/margin from supplying manufacturer - 50% initially, then 50% if they hit quotas. Some dealers are prepared to give this away upfront - speculate to accumulate. It works as the deals they do thru Carfile are all incremental business on top of the normal business. Carfile take a percentage if the deal goes ahead but as above it can become a bargaining point with your local dealers Don't know if what Car get anything from the deal (doubt it) but after I had Carfile's number I didn't speak to What Car again

Trashman1

Having read Scoobynet for a while though not so sure it was a good idea for Scooby buying...was contacted by Sparshatts who never phoned me back after the initial call. Obviously didn't need the business