Dooyoo really want a new Vauxhall? (Manufacturers)

Member Name: sidneygee

Product:	Manufacturers
Date:	14/02/02 (4392 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ridiculously Low Price if you have GM points, particularly if you want a Zafira.

Disadvantages: You have to travel to the East Midlands to buy, and you may not want a Vauxhall in the first place.

There are three aspects of a car manufacturers approved garage/dealer to consider - the supply of new and used cars of that make; the quality of servicing and repair; and the supply of parts. I shall deal with the servicing/repair and supply of parts in other opinions, and here consider only the buying of a new Vauxhall.

I have described my experiences of buying a 1997 Vauxhall Corsa Breeze 5 door in 1997 in a previous Dooyoo review. On the whole, I will admit that this has been a very successful purchase. Our elder daughter is now running this car which has covered 48,000 miles and, so far, (touching wood) there have been no significant problems. However, there are tales of diabolical service to be described elsewhere.

The car was supplied by Belmont Motors in Edinburgh - that gave the cheapest (and last offer) price. It was collected on 1st August 1997 with no discernible faults; there were no warranty claims and no subsequent untoward failures. It is on its second exhaust, with the original battery, and the tyres (properly 'rotated') lasted well. Four new tyres have been bought (the last two in July 2003).

Buying a new Vauxhall
Given a free choice, I would be very unlikely to buy a new Vauxhall. They are never the 'brightest kids on the block' and their depreciation (with few exceptions) is generally excessive for the private buyer. However, I have I have GM points to spend (see my opinion on the GM Credit Card), that gives their cars a distinct edge when it comes to price.

In 2002, I had been considering a new car, to replace our 1993 Renault Espace. We didn't really need a vehicle the size of the Espace, and we were reasonably open to ideas for its replacement.

On my GM card, I had £2,755 points (2,500 Rebate points and 255 Partner Points - the saga of which is described in my review of the GM Credit Card) that I had to use before the end
of July 2002 (otherwise I would start t
o lose points), so that I could get and extra £2,755 discount from a new Vauxhall.

So what to buy? One that appealed was an Astra 1.8 5 door SRi in Red or Premium Blue. So where to buy? Now, remember, I am talking about NEW CARS. OK, you can often get a good deal on a pre-registered car (and examples of that are given in the GM Credit Card review), but you have lttle choice of colours and specification.

1 Your Local Showroom
Earier in 2002, we visited Belmont Motors again, and met a very nice young lady (let's call her 'Madam' - because she was one !) who told us that what Heather "really wanted" was a red Astra 1.8 SXi 5 door, in the showroom at their "Special Offer" price of £12,500 "on the road".

She had assumed that Heather's Honda Accord was mine (since I was driving), and thus she focussed her attention and 'sales-womanship' on Heather

Having already done my homework. I pointed out that they could probably agree to supply us with an SRi at about £13,100 (see below), and that I thought that the extra £600 was thus well-worth it for the extras fitted as standard on the SRi.

"Oh No", said Madam, consulting her price list, and (looking directly at Heather), went on to say "we could not possibly sell you an SRi for any less than £13,500 and you won't do better than that. The proper price is £14,195. And the ONLY difference is that lovely rear spoiler and we can fit that for about £300, so you save £700 !!!. And Red is the BEST colour for a sports car isn't it, Heather?" (grrrrr !!!!??? and call THAT a Sports car ?!!!).

I decided not to argue the point but was polite, as was Heather. We had given our name and mentioned that we had the GM points, and that we had bought a Corsa from them, even pointing out the salesman there who we had dealt with ... But I had not given our telephone number.

Two days
later, Heather had a phone call from Madam (who had obviously looked up our telephone number from their records), breezingly asking if Heather had made a decision on the car, since she only had "one last SXi" to sell. I took over the call and managing to remain polite, suggested quietly that she really should study the specifications of the cars that she was supposed to be 'an expert' on. I elaborated that the total cost of the spoiler/car alarm/ABS/traction control/CD player/electric mirrors/cruise control - fitted as standard on the SRi - WERE WELL worth the extra. In any case, I continued, I could get a better price on the SXi (£12,180) or an SRi (£13,090) simply by ordering through the manufacturer website (www.vauxhall.co.uk) and pick it up from any Edinburgh garage.

So, top marks to Belmont for cheekiness and persistence but zero for product knowledge and evaluation of the customer.

2 Vauxhall Internet Site
(www.vauxhall.co.uk)
So, lesson number one before looking in your Vauxhall dealer showroom is to check the "VIP" prices on the Vauxhall web-site. (that is the 'Vauxhall Internet Price'!) and the details of 'Customer Offers' available if you buy at a dealer (which can be found under the Finance and GM Card heading on the site).

You could thus remove the dealer from the equation, and get a better discount than they generally offer up front, in the totally impersonal environment of your computer.

I have established (at dealerships other than Belmont) that once you show this knowledge, then the dealer will match this 'VIP' price, and you can still get the benefit of the various 'Customer Offers' which can include Free Insurance and 'Deposit Allowance' (see below) that you forgo if ordering from the website.

3 Car Brokers
When you are wanting to spend GM points then, in the same way you can
forget pre
-registered cars, you can forget imports, because you cannot use the points.

In any case, the imports on offer are almost invariably badged as Opels. But there are on
e or two Brokers who deal with suppliers in the UK, and some of them seem to be VERY competitive.

I found what seems to be the best of them from reading an account in an issue of 'What Car' about a year ago when in the local library.

They are on the website www.broker4cars.co.uk and currently have offers on 16 car makes, including Vauxhall.

I have not believed in Father Christmas for a few years now, but the offers here appear to be fool-proof.

The operation is based upon GB CARS (UK) BROKERAGE LTD agreeing with particular Vauxhall franchise dealers to focus an estimated 200 orders per annum on their Dealership from all parts of the UK (in return for a commission to GB CARS (UK) BROKERAGE LTD). These extra clients enable the dealership to get greater margins and bonuses from Vauxhall.

Vauxhall Dealers are set volume targets each quarter by the factory, which, if achieved allows that Dealer to claim back further bonuses. That puts the Dealer selected by the broker in a stronger position than his competitors. With 200 extra orders coming in from all over the UK through the Broker (with no effort from the dealership itself), which is all incremental business, added to what he is already selling to customers in his own locality, the dealer will inevitably hit this targets. GOOD NEWS FOR THE DEALER And REALLY GOOD NEWS for clients of the Broker it seems!

You do not have to pay any money to this Broker in Derbyshire. They collect their commission from a Vauxhall Dealer in the area and below is the message received within 1 hour of my enquiry for an Astra 1.8 SRi 5 door.


"Dear Sidney,
We can supply the above vehicle for £12683.00 (metallic an extra
£250 ) on the road via our contracted Vauxh
all dealership.

If you already have funding available for this vehicle it is my advice to take advantage of Vauxhall's finance deposit allowance of £1000.00. All you need to do is borrow £1500 over 12 months at a base rate of 5.3% and Vauxhall give you £1000 towards your deposit. The interest charges and documentation fees will come to £224.50 so this will save you a further £775.50 off of our price making the price £11907.50 . GM points may also be taken off of this price. As we act as a broker we pass your information directly over to our contracted dealership who will then contact you and deal with you at the price we have quoted.

As you are buying a UK vehicle you will still receive three years Manufacturers warranty and road side assistance. Your contract will be with our contracted dealership so therefore eliminating any doubts you may have. If you wish to proceed with an order for this vehicle I will require your authority to pass your information over to our contracted dealership. Our contracted dealership will require a £200.00 holding deposit by way of credit card which you can forward onto myself or alternatively you may forward a cheque to them.

If you have a part exchange we can forward the details over to our dealer who will come back to me with a price for this; once I have this I will let you know.
Regards
Gary Bain
Director
GB CARS (UK) BROKERAGE LTD
website www.broker4cars.co.uk
Tel 01773 513969".

Deposit Allowance
Now, I didn't know that bit about the Deposit allowance ... it has never been hinted at in my local Vauxhall Dealership! ... and a further saving of £1,183 over the VIP price, and taking that £1,500 on a credit agreement will give a little further saving with the sum left in an interest-bearing account (I'll leave the academic calculations of how much this would be to others such as SueMagee ...).

But, hang on ... is that all ? No ? there is m
ore !

Fancy a Zafira ?
Should we possibly fancy a Vauxhall Zafira (a logical replacement for the Espace, perhaps), then the prices that this broker has available (for the latest 2002 models) are really quite incredible!!

The broker4cars price list for the Vauxhall Zafira (in 2002) were as follows :

1.6 16v Club £10626
1.8 16v Club £11066
2.0DTi 16v Club £11501
1.8 16v Comfort £12946
1.8 16v Elegance £13696
2.0DTi 16v Comfort £13287
2.0 DTi 16v Elegance £14131

That includes the Deposit allowance, and represents a saving of £3,429 on a 1.8 Club !!

Take my GM points away, and this brings the price down to only £8,358..... And this is one Vauxhall model range which does seem to retain its value better than most - Check out the trade prices for a 1999 model

Oh, the part-exchange quote for the Espace is a slightly disappointing £4,500 (I would expect nearer to £5,000), but still makes the important 'cost-to-change' less than £4,000 !!!. .... Decisions ... Decisions ...

I s?pposed I should at least get out and test drive a Zafira ..... I did so, and we decided, collectively, to buy an Astra SRi. We collected this on 2nd July (and the review will follow soon after this update).


By the way, this broker also deals with Volkswagen, Renault, Toyota, Mazda and Citroen garages (and has some brilliant deals! I can really recommend that you check out this site).

Conclusions
By doing your home work, it is possible to gain distinct advantages in this car-buying lark ... And remember, it is YOUR money that you are saving .....

Happy bargain hunting !


© Sidneygee 2002

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