We hear so many stories of car salespeople who don't seem to want a sale (in fairness, not many from Skoda dealers), so here's a heartening story of a team who did.
My Octavia (April '09) was in for its 20,000 mile service at Jewsons of Oxford, who had supplied it new. While it was there, unbeknown to me, Sam the salesman and Paul the business manager valued it and prepared a PCP quote for a new identical model (vRS diesel manual) for £80 less per month than I'm paying now.
When I came back with the loan car to collect mine, it was a pleasant surprise - eighty pounds a month less. Although I was intending to keep this one for the full three years, it's a no-brainer - they get a sale and I get a new car sometime next year. I'm going for a vRS petrol with DSG this time, much the same price as a diesel manual.
Part of the reason for the good deal is that Skoda have extended their offer to pay the equivalent of the VAT on new cars ordered before 31 December - it used to be 'delivered before 31 December'.
Opportunism - yes, but that's what sales staff are paid for. Nice one, Jewsons.
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Very nice!
Some folks have all the luck :-)
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...Nice one, Jewsons....
And you can order a yard of sharp sand at the same time.
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Good pro-active selling....that's how it should be. I yearn for a slaesman to sell I actually asked the BMW seller to make me want it - he failed though. Skoda were very good when I dealt with them.
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What are you in now Avant, is it a Diesel vRS? What are your thoughts on it overall?
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But what you have not told us is how much longer you will be paying £80 less per month for?
It sounds on the face of it a deal that you could not refuse. Ideal selling opportunity for the salesman.
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"But what you have not told us is how much longer you will be paying £80 less per month for?"
It's a fixed instalment PCP over 42 months, like the current one. I was surprised that I had positive equity in trhe current Octavia after only 19/42 months, but it's worth just over £1,000 more than the settlement figure. No problem if I have to wait for a few months (although they think a petrol vRS is only about 12 weeks) as although the value of the car goes down, so does the settlement figure.
Woodster - Impressions of the diesel vRS after 20,000 miles: almost entirely favourable.
The CR diesel has a much more linear progression on acceleration than the PD, but just as vigorous. It's also much quieter.
Steering and handling very good: the ride is on the firm side and I did think about a 1.8 TSI Elegance - but there is a bit of extra acceleration with the 2.0 petrol that's worth having. I'm doing more like 12,000 miles a year now rather than 18,000 so a petrol DSG is the way to go - and it's quite fun to have a change to look forward to rather than exactly the same again.
Comfort (with the vRS sports seats) and practicality are of course first-rate (mine's an estate and so wll the new one be). And nothing has gone wrong with it.
Alternatives? It's only 20 months since I chose this one, and what's on the market now is much the same. The new 1.8 Prius is tempting, but not as spacious and not as much fun to drive - and it would cost slightly more per month instead of a lot less. Audi A4? I love Audis but comparable versions of both this and a 3-series Touring cost £7,000 more (list price). Both have an indefinable 'feel-good factor' about them - partly the badge, partly the inbuilt quality - but that isn't worth £7,000.
I believe Skoda have one of the highest proportions of 'repeat buys'. I can see why.
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>> Good pro-active selling....that's how it should be. I yearn for a slaesman to sell
>> I actually asked the BMW seller to make me want it - he failed though.
>> Skoda were very good when I dealt with them.
Yeah but its hard to sell to a guy whos body language says "I Want I Want I WANT NOW!"
"
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It is a no brainer if you always plan to finance your cars. If you had intended to keep it long term and buy it out right then the deal would not be so great as you would be paying a lot longer.
I had to get my car from Birmingham because none of the local dealers were interested in me. They were too busy trying to ilegaly flog PPPs and over priced gap policies rather than the car itself.
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>> I actually asked the BMW seller to make me want it - he failed though.
Read somewhere recently that the staff in BMW dealerships say they're not salespeople, they're there to "assist customers in placing their orders".
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Think in this area Merc have the monopoly on how not to win sales. I had a run in with them several years back and vowed to never visit them again, but a colleague was in the market for a E class cabriolet so i popped in with him a few months back. No atempts to sell, and negative comments cast over his choice of model. He bought from another marque in the end
Nice to see a dealer being proactive and looking for a win win on this one
Last edited by: mikeyb on Sat 11 Dec 10 at 17:52
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I think a lot depends on the dealership. Last year I was looking at buying a Merc along with several other models. We arranged a test driver at the Mercedes garage in Shrewsbury. Unfortunately we were slightly delayed getting to the dealership so when we arrived all the salesmen were busy. After waiting for a few minutes the dealer principal took care of us himself. He had worked himself up from the service side IIRC and he was not a pushy salesman. However his laid back friendly approach did win us over.
In the end we went for a late W211 E class which has proved to be an excellent buy so far. No problems after 30k miles and the servicing has been surprisingly cheap. It's fixed price and with long service intervals it's working out cheaper than my old Mazda. Last time my car was serviced I had a new W212 E class for the day. I wasn't impressed. The steering was too light and the sat nav didn't accept full UK postcodes unlike my own car. Hopefully they will get the issues fixed when the mid life update comes along.
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Test drove a Fabia a month or two back - liked it well enough to take a second test, then got to the money.
Pleasant and helpful dealers, perfectly acceptable, but their offer on my car was beyond a ridiculous joke at £1500 under Glasses (checked elsewhere) and full rrp on the Fabia, with no budging whatsoever.
Waste of everybody's time.
Didn't like the seats much anyway, although would have managed if the deal was doable.
Another local dealer off the list then, to add to the disastrous Nissan and Seat experiences at the same time.
Sigh.
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...but their offer on my car was beyond a ridiculous joke at £1500 under Glasses (checked elsewhere)...
The book doesn't buy it.
To get one low offer is unfortunate.
Were Nissan and Seat 'disastrous experiences' for the same reason?
If so, it sounds as if you were trying to sell a car deemed undesirable by the trade.
What was it?
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The car is a cute little Aygo, two years old, £20 tax, sensible miles, nice condition, silver...going like hot cakes off forecourts (allegedly) and certainly lots priced in Autotrader at literally double what they offered, so I thought it was a bit mean.
Nissan
Me: I'm interested in yadaya...
Young lad: Not got any in mate.
Me: How about a brochure?
YL: Not got any of them either.
Me: Can you at least send me one?
YL: Can you call back in a few days?
Two weeks later, still no brochures, still no car, interest lost in that dealer.
Seat:
Me:I'm interested in yadayada...
YL: Not got one. got something similar. Want to try? Come back in a week. Tuesday at 5:30, here you go all booked, see you then.
Tuesday:
YL: Who? Sorry? Oh yes. No, it's in the workshop. Dunno when it'll be out. Tomorrow maybe. No hang on, colleague taken it home, off on his holiday now, I'll call in two days when it's back.
Three weeks later:
YL: Do you still wanna buy this car or what?
Must just be me I suppose, but this is not what I expect when I'm about to spend thousands, and I won't deal with people who are like that in any transaction, so nose face, spite, etc.
And still have the Aygo.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Sat 11 Dec 10 at 22:04
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...The car is a cute little Aygo, two years old, £20 tax, sensible miles, nice condition, silver...
I agree that knocks my undesirable car theory somewhat.
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I wonder if the dealer principals know what effecte these pathetic sales people have on business?
I'm not in the trade, but surely it's not rocket science - employ people who love cars and have good interpersonal skills. It sometimes seems that the opposite criteria apply.
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>> I wonder if the dealer principals know what effecte these pathetic sales people have on
>> business?
>>
>> I'm not in the trade, but surely it's not rocket science - employ people who
>> love cars and have good interpersonal skills. It sometimes seems that the opposite criteria apply.
>>
Most Dealer Principals were salesmen, then sales managers.
They sit in their offices not really understanding customers, or the aftersales departments.
Most salesmen do not have the 1st idea of how a car works, or how passionate some people are about cars, or what peoples needs really are from their car.
I've been in the trade (aftersales) for 30 odd years.
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Have to agree with Pat & ST, salesman that loves cars is pretty rare in my experience and it's such a shame :-(
Salesman that knows cars and is handy about one is even rarer. I guess there are exceptions like Bellboy on here but how do you find someone like that?
Word of mouth isn't that great, the people around you only buy a car every couple of years, if the recommended garage is still in business, you're doing well!
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>> Salesman that knows cars and is handy about one is even rarer. I guess there
>> are exceptions like Bellboy on here but how do you find someone like that?
>>
Correct me if Im wrong BB, but I dont think he is a car salesman.
I have him down as a trader.
A real trader, is someone who deals in good, decent, honest cars, and as such the description also applies to the man as much as his goods....
A real trader also knows much more about his stock, than a salesman.
(not to be confused with a person who buys and sells cars..... often as a hobby.)
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There's a bit of deja vu in this post....
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Took the Mother in law round the various marques today, looking to replace the ageing Polo. VW had one occupied salesman, which is fair enough, but I had to prompt the receptionist to try and find the other, which she couldn't do...
Kia dealer : hopeless
Hyundai - top marks along with Toyota. Both very friendly without being sickly, pertinent questions and offering test drives plus delivery dates and what they'd got in used stock.
Didn't bother looking at some of the others because the Yaris got the vote. I rather thought she'd fancy a 1.2 Hyundai i10 at £6795, brand new and in stock. No Yaris, but you could almost have 2 of these and both have a 5 yr warranty. Thoughts?
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Sorry for going off topic a bit, but on the subject of car dealers, my car is due for its 2nd service and i normally contact 3 dealers for prices as experience shows they can vary quite a lot. I emailed the service dept of one dealer a week ago and have still not had a reply. The 2nd one i have phoned twice, but when they tried to put me through to service reception nobody answered the phone. Then someone from the 3rd dealership, who serviced it last time actually phoned me as i was looking for their number and said that they had noticed from their records that it was due for its next service and would i like her to book it in. Excellent i thought and asked how much it would cost, "sorry, i dont have that information, i will have to get the service dept to call you back", that was on Wednesday...........
I can only assume that they must all be so very busy that they can't handle any more work !
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Given that the country is not exactly infested with skoda dealers, I would go with the one that is
A: nearest
or
B: the least hassle.
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Then someone from the 3rd dealership, who serviced it last time
>> actually phoned me
Unless they overcharged you, and you felt happy with them you could do worse than establish regular custom.
If something should go wrong with the car after warranty then they are more likely to try and sort some goodwill out for you.
Doesn't surpise me that those manning the phones don't have a clue what they're doing, find the name and ask for the service manager(ess), in my Toyota dealership's case the female service manager really knows her stuff and has the suthority to make decisions..organ grinder and all that.
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Woodster - I think she'll love the Yaris, and will probably get it sooner than she would an i10. Our elder daughter is on her fourth 1.3 Yaris (the bigger engine is worth it unless your MiL is only going to drive round town). No problems with them, and despite what some road testers say the Yarises have been lively and fun to drive.
Octagon Bracknell are an excellent dealer - another example of people who want to sell.
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Cheers Avant, think we might be test driving a 1.3 soon.
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As reported on here before i did a few hundred miles in a CR170 VRS estate in the summer, it was quite worthy though let down by road noise, particularly from the rear, much worse than my Focus ST in this regard.
I wouldn't rule one out though I too would probably look to the petrol, on the otherhand if space is not an issue then a Golf GTi might appeal more and if space is needed then a Mondeo estate with the new ecoBoost 2.0 petrol engine probably offers a little more of everything.
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The Mondeo estate is truly vast: the Skoda Superb is its nearest rival rather than the Octavia. Both very good cars and it's difficult to justify the extra cost of (I think) the only other estate of that size, the Mercedes E-class.
Road noise I think depends partly on the tyres they fit at the factory: some of them are Dunlops and a lot of people on the Skoda forum, complain about them.
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I don't need a huge car next but I think I've ruled out the Skodas based on external styling. And the Superb is good value but too big.
So then that leaves VW and Audi for me I think. And I might end up with say an Audi A4 2.0 TDiE Technik instead of the Passat CC because it's a bit shorter. But it might all change. I'd have to also consider the new Jetta which has a longer wheelbase than the Golf at last.
Avant, you being on a PCP makes this a bit of a no brainer for you. I could opt out but would need to put my cash into an expensive car to make it work I'm thinking. Maybe a PCP is another option.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Mon 13 Dec 10 at 21:17
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Skoda Octavia II - A salesman who wanted to sell - Skoda
