Cancelling order having only paid a £1k deposit?

[derelyth]

Hi all,

Biiit of a twisty one this so bear with me

I ordered a Mk3 on the 27th and paid £1k down on the 0% HP deal. Negotiated £3k for mine with the dealer aware of a sticking turbo actuator. £1k deal contrib and £7k to pay on collection with the rest on HP for a total of £22,900 plus the protection pack (SMART, Alloys, Paint etc) for £1200.

Tonight my TDI shat its pants on the way home, scanned a P0101 MAF code. I'm f*****g fed up now and want it gone.

Right. Twist back to the dealer. I test drove a car with the exact spec I wanted and then some. I asked about buying it as I want to change cars asap for obvious reasons.

Salesman looked on their database and said he couldn't see it but even if he could they normally don't sell them for 3 months, which he said a new order would take anyway (ballpark 12-16 weeks ) so I ordered.

I checked their site the following Monday and what do I see? A list of "clearance" ex demo with that very car listed at £21,559!

Now I wasn't overly bothered then as I knew I wouldn't get the dealer contribute or the 0% - I'd be on 7.9% or another source.

That was until I saw yesterday it had dropped another £2k!!

After tonight I really want it. I need to run the figures but part of me is willing to rinse a few hundred if needs be, I can finance a chunk and source the rest at a lower rate (4% by special arrangement).

I should mention the car is at another dealer but one under the same franchise.

The guy handling my sale is away until next Monday so I can't speak with him and won't know of a build date until he is back.

So, to my Q's...

1) Will I lose the £1k deposit by cancelling now? I only have the order form and a receipt for the deposit, I don't think I have signed the finance docs as yet?

2) If I were to call the sales manager at the other dealer, would he be able to access my order details?

3) Was my sales guy cutting me off and pushing for a new sale by saying they can't sell demo cars for 3 months?

I'm sure I had one other question but I can't remember it at the moment.

If anyone could offer any views I'd appreciate it!

Thanks

Karl

 

[Marve]

I can only really advise you on question 3. Yes, they do have to keep them for 3 months before they can sell them. I wanted the one I test drove when it was 6 weeks old so had to wait another 6 weeks before I got it. But it meant the dealership were able to order a new one for themselves then and when it arrived, left mine in the garage until I could have it. So it had to be 3 months old but maybe the chap didn't tell you it was already 2 and a half months.

My opinion on your thread is it would be good to speak to the other branch and see what the guy there has to say. Don't worry too much about upsetting people or protocol, you want to get the car you want for the price you want. Do the maths when you know all the facts and make your decision.

Only thing to bare in mind with buying the ex-demo is it will have been driven and thrashed a bit as people try it out. Mine had had a kerbed alloy repaired quite poorly but was otherwise pretty much as new. I was happy with it. Got it with 3,000 miles on the clock, 3 months old and about £4,500 off the list price. I was always paying cash so the finance offers never made a difference for me.

 

[derelyth]

Hi Marve,

Thanks for the reply

I had a feeling that would be the case but just wanted to be sure it wasn't some kind of salesman tactic to push for a new order! Having checked the DVLA's relevant website, I have found out that the car in question was registered on the 26th June (Funnily enough, 6 weeks today) so at best I guess it would be their's for another 6 weeks.

I'll be calling the dealer at lunchtime today - figures wise I've run a quick spreadsheet and it actually now seems to go in my favour financially by circa £2k - before the further price drop it just about broke even and the 3 month wait sounded as though it'd be the same timeframe in that I'd get a new car delivered anywho. However from a timing point of view it depends on the lead times from now as 6 weeks from now is 18th September and if I were a lucky chap a new order may only be another 2 weeks on top of that (Wishful thinking? Maybe...) hence I'd like to find out if any perspective dates have been released for my order.

Looking on the order form I did see that the salesman had entered 27/11/2013 as a "Requested delivery date" - I'm hoping he has put that date down as a "probable" delivery date and not an actual requested date, as I know that could mean my order is pushed down to a lower build date.

Lunchtime will tell I suppose!

 

[derelyth]

So I spoke with the SM of the branch I ordered with as the other's was on Holiday. She understood why I was looking at the ex-demo however it turns out my build date is Week 38 with a tentative delivery being the last week of September...

So it would seem just as the ex-demo becomes available I could have the new car anyway.

I'll be speaking with my salesman on Monday once he is back from leave but I just pray my car survives that long...

 

[Marve]

When you worked out your maths, did you make any adjustment to future value of the car. ie - the ex-demo will be 3 months older, 3,000 odd miles higher and will have 2 owners. The new one will be 3 months younger, 3,000 odd miles lower and will have had one careful owner.

 

[derelyth]

I didn't go that detailed into the figures, just a basic calculation based on the current figures. I would lose about £700 over the new car (£2,500 vs £3,000 for mine; £1,399 vs £1,199 for the Protection Pack) and this drew the difference down to only about £1,600 however initially I was looking more at being able to get the car quicker due to mine slowly but surely dying

 

[derelyth]

Just to update, I got quoted by a local garage to change the turbo and glowplugs for £480+Oil change. SEAT said they would either reimburse that and give me £3k for the car OR give me £3800 if I got the work done (So £3320 at best). Turns out a colleague of mine is good friends with the Sales Manager at the other local Dealer in the same group, who also happened to previously be the Group Manager. I explained to him and suddenly receive a call from my Dealer's SM saying they have one at the dock - it is red and with 17s but has everything else and that I could have it max 10 days! I'll also stand to save £710 due to those options missing.

Done deal

 

[Dudders07]

Just to update, I got quoted by a local garage to change the turbo and glowplugs for £480+Oil change. SEAT said they would either reimburse that and give me £3k for the car OR give me £3800 if I got the work done (So £3320 at best). Turns out a colleague of mine is good friends with the Sales Manager at the other local Dealer in the same group, who also happened to previously be the Group Manager. I explained to him and suddenly receive a call from my Dealer's SM saying they have one at the dock - it is red and with 17s but has everything else and that I could have it max 10 days! I'll also stand to save £710 due to those options missing.

Done deal

How did you get on with the local Pompey dealer?
I'm currently thinking of walking away from my deposit as my experience has not been good.

 

[m0rk]

How did you get on with the local Pompey dealer?
I'm currently thinking of walking away from my deposit as my experience has not been good.

Odd. We've had two recently from them and found them great

Speak to the manager there, she's great

 

[derelyth]

How did you get on with the local Pompey dealer?
I'm currently thinking of walking away from my deposit as my experience has not been good.

Not the best. I did find them slow and not entirely willing to explore all options. Only when I spoke with the group manager at Southampton did the manager at Portsmouth suddenly discover the Dealers Pool of cars at the dockside and I finally got one from there. Better spec'd than my order but I love it so...

I got a free tank of fuel "for the phone calls" but I feel it shouldn't have been necessary for them to have to use that excuse.

Not had to go back yet so not sure what the after sales will be like.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

[roger7248]

the Dealers Pool of cars at the dockside k

That's where mine came from.
My SM was looking at two databases. I'm not quite sure exactly these were, I never asked, but I'm guessing they were confirmed dealers stock, and unallocated dockside cars.

 

[Dudders07]

Odd. We've had two recently from them and found them great

Speak to the manager there, she's great

Spoke to Linda (manager) and they have now agreed to hold the car until the 1st March.

 

[sootytorques]

Only last week I was dealing with portsmouth seat, no discount offered, so done a deal at another dealer, apart from that, I found the dealer helpful.