Best Discount Achieved from dealer

Best Discount Achieved from dealer

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ninja_eli

Original Poster:

1,525 posts

274 months

Sunday 3rd February 2002
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Particularly, this question is aimed at Snarl and Bertie (sorry guys, I'm probably driving you crazy by now!). After considering your very accurate advice, I am going to get my F355 from Maranello hopefully Monday or Tuesday. My dad reckons that the Ferrari dealers are on about 40% mark up. I was thinking a little less as their part exchange rates seem to support 30%. I have managed to get only £1,000 knocked off the price of the car but I was wondering what sort of discount you were able to knock off the car.

The sales guy reckons he can't give much of a discount because he has to do the belts and a service. I have tried to bribe him with the offer of a nice antique rug for him and his sales director but to no avail!!

Your advice as always will be much appreciated!

Regards

PS. Maybe if you know someone in Maranello who can help there could be a nice rug on its way to you?
he he... I would offer something else more interesting but we are handmade rug manufacturers and wholesalers so we dont get out much and dont know what the real world enjoys!

ninja_eli

Original Poster:

1,525 posts

274 months

Sunday 3rd February 2002
quotequote all
Hi Mcnab,

I just noticed that you said you were a Ferrari dealer for 5 years. Maybe you can help with the question above also?

Thanks and regards

McNab

1,627 posts

281 months

Sunday 3rd February 2002
quotequote all
Ninja,

Dealers had 17.5% and didn't always get the real cost of the first free service and all warranty work. This left about 15% and you had to give a fairly attractive offer for the part-exchange. Result probably 10% net.

Bear in mind also that we are talking about 17.5% off the 'bare' price here (before VAT etc), so the dealer's profit before overheads wasn't all that great! Dealers' margins have decreased since then, so I wouldn't be too optimistic.

Maranello Concessionaires obviously have the best margin to play with (as importers), but they would tend to support their dealers by being pretty rigid on this sort of thing.

I will ask a friend in the trade what the present score is, and come back to you with more up-to-date info!

ninja_eli

Original Poster:

1,525 posts

274 months

Sunday 3rd February 2002
quotequote all
Cheers McNab,

Just thought I would make one point clear, it is a used car (I failed to mention that!). I have heard there is a huge difference in profit margins between new and used.

Cheers and Regards

McNab

1,627 posts

281 months

Sunday 3rd February 2002
quotequote all
Sorry Ninja, I misunderstood! You're probably not too far off-target there - somewhere between 20% and 30% if they can get it. Certainly worth your while to argue for a really good deal, because they will want to keep the cash-flow healthy.

When I had the dealership there weren't many used ones around. Much later I sold my 308 for 7k, and I bet it was re-sold for somewhere near 10k. That's life I'm afraid!

If you've made up your mind about the Maranello Concessionaires car, and if you're paying near asking price, you will be very well off for service/repairs. Always worthwhile!

>> Edited by McNab on Sunday 3rd February 18:00

ninja_eli

Original Poster:

1,525 posts

274 months

Sunday 3rd February 2002
quotequote all
Thanks for your help

I think I'll give him a call tomorrow and offer £60K for it (asking price £65K). My dad's advice is a bit old school, he says offer half price and then stand back, making sure the punch (or slap) misses and then continue negotiations!! Don't fancy that myself, so I reckon £60K should do it.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

regards

eli

bennno

12,696 posts

276 months

Sunday 3rd February 2002
quotequote all
eli,

dont want to teach you how to suck eggs, but best advice would be to get a copy of Top Marques find some similar ferrari's at other dealers / specialists and private and then go back to the dealer with 'I like the car, i want to buy it today ...but i took a look and saw this / these others at £xK. I would rather buy it off you, and will do today, but the price needs to be X...

Should do the trick

Bennno

ninja_eli

Original Poster:

1,525 posts

274 months

Sunday 3rd February 2002
quotequote all
Bennno,

Great minds think alike??

Got Top Marques yesterday, already left annotations where it looked appropriate (most of them a load of lies!!)

Cheers and regards

McNab

1,627 posts

281 months

Sunday 3rd February 2002
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Ooooooooooooo!! Thank goodness you two weren't customers of mine.

You'd have had me bankrupt in a week........

McNab

1,627 posts

281 months

Monday 4th February 2002
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P.S.

Eli, let us know how you get on, and what you think of it afterwards.

This is the great thing about PistonHeads - we can share experiences, and it doesn't cost the reader a penny.

(Shouldn't have said that - you'll be asking us all to pay our share!)

domster

8,431 posts

277 months

Monday 4th February 2002
quotequote all
Well I bought a couple of stickers, so Ted had his beer money this weekend!!!!

Domster

ninja_eli

Original Poster:

1,525 posts

274 months

Monday 4th February 2002
quotequote all
If I get it, I'll let you know. I just hope the dealer will go for it!

And I agree, this really is a brilliant site. I think I think it truly has helped me with my decisions and I recommend it to everyone that I know is interested in cars.

ninja_eli

Original Poster:

1,525 posts

274 months

Monday 4th February 2002
quotequote all
Ps I dont have a stutter!

snarl

3 posts

274 months

Monday 4th February 2002
quotequote all
Before I bought my 355 I called around a few dealerships posing as a seller of one asking for ball park numbers at which they would take it off my hands. I knew what I was looking for so just used that spec as my example. You get the usual story that they "aren't selling well", "we've got a few in stock already and don't need another", etc,etc but they normally give u a basic guide price.
Then I found the car I wanted that fitted the specifications I had given myself and went to haggle it down (this was about 3mths later). The difference in the price from what I wanted to buy (dealers offer) and what I had to sell 3 mths earlier (the make believe 355) was about 20%.
Needless to say I walked into the showroom thinking I had the deck stacked in my favour.............needless to say the result did not go as planned.
I got £2000 off the asking price after aiming for about £5000. I did however get about £1500 more than I expected for my trade-in. I also got the front bumper and bonnet of the 355 resprayed to get rid of all stone chips and on the "goodwill charter" they replaced the rear tyres as they were down to 4mm of tread. The car was also immaculate when I went to pick it up, wheels, engine bay, leather interior etc all made to look like new.

ninja_eli

Original Poster:

1,525 posts

274 months

Monday 11th February 2002
quotequote all
Has anyone ever dealt with JCT600 or know of someone who has and can tell anything about them. They are official main dealer but the following has made me think a little:
advert agreed to
1997 R reg Spider Giallo 10kmiles £72,950 £71,950
1997 R reg Spider Rosso 16kmiles £72,950 £70,950
1997 R reg Spider Rosso 18kmiles £69,950 £67,950

He said he may even go lower on the last one (provisionally said 66,950 but must check)! What could be the reason for this? He reckons its because they bought it at a better price... Does this make sense (I guess McNab will know)? I would have thought the margin was safe enough to keep the pricing of all the cars closer? I wanted yellow but might go for red at this price and if the car is as should be you can't go wrong!!

Regards and thanks again

McNab

1,627 posts

281 months

Monday 11th February 2002
quotequote all
Eli,

I don't know them, but they have been Ferrari dealers for a long time, and this is greatly in their favour. All three cars were registered at virtually the same time, so the only difference is mileage and spec, and of course condition, which you will have checked yourself.

Using the 'agreed' prices:

£71,950 gets you a yellow one with only 10k miles, but without Central Locking and Electric Driver's Seat.

£70,950 gets you a red one with 16k miles, but without Central Locking, Remote Locking, Immobiliser, Fogs and CD.

£67,950 gets you a red one with 18k miles, but without Fogs and CD.

All this according to their website. I would have thought the low-mileage yellow car should be at least 3k more expensive than the others, but perhaps some people don't like yellow. The mileage on the other two is close enough not to matter, but condition could play a part here. A poor interior can wreck the value - and the number of previous owners makes a big difference.

Also look at service history very carefully indeed, and check for accident damage. A leery squint down each side in bright light is very informative, and check the paintwork all round. Condition of Alloys and rear tyres can tell you a lot too. Incidentally, buying-in price will not affect retail price!

Have a good rummage in the boot and other obscure places as well. I once found a wodge of turf in a recess at the side of a Ferrari boot, covered by carpet and (incredibly) missed by repairers. Just to cheer you up, I also found an ex-demonstrator Dino of mine at a most prestigious showroom with 2,000 miles less on the clock than when I sold it..... Today's dealers don't do that sort of thing thank goodness.

Not an easy job for you, but you'll manage!




domster

8,431 posts

277 months

Tuesday 12th February 2002
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Be careful how many miles you want to put on the car before you sell it again.

As you can see, many owners only do 8k-10k miles in them, which equates to a year or two of second car 'weekend and golf club' useage. If you could get a set of golf clubs in, that is.

Anyway, the point is that if you put 10k miles onto the 18k miler, it would be considered quite high mileage at 28k miles by a Ferrari main dealer and you would get a v poor trade in. This could be at least 3 grand less than the 10k example, which would by then have just under 20k on the clock.

So all I'm saying is, look at resale, as in reality you may be just as well to go for the more expensive one.

Of course, if you're doing v small miles, say 3000 and will sell in a year, then the higher mileage ones make more sense. Ditto if you want to do 10k miles a year and keep it forever.

Just food for thought!

Rgds
Domster



ninja_eli

Original Poster:

1,525 posts

274 months

Tuesday 12th February 2002
quotequote all
Cheers guys! It does seem a little odd to me still, might check it out, might not. If Maranello accept my offer on their car then I won't bother.

Will let you know how goes...
In the meantime, thanks and best regards