Category Archives: buying a new car

Women don’t need to take a man with them to get a fair deal when buying a new car.

buying a new car

Good reasons to buy a new car

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The industry tells us that prices will never be as low again  so what’s stopping us from buying in 2009 (other than Economics of course…)?

The RMI thinks it’s the scarcity of finance so they are planning to bridge that gap as a bank of sorts. A wise move and likely to be profitable when sorted.

Despite the recession Ford, Vauxhall, Lexus, Toyota and other manufacturers are quietly planning to raise new car prices on their most popular models; another reason to buy now for less than later, when they’ll cost more ;-).

Used car sales are booming –  ‘phenomenal’ reports Trident Garages and auction houses are doing especially well says Honest John.

Nothing like online auctions to reach a bigger audience (think eBay) and get a better price than an ad in the local paper – all allowing competition to take its natural course.

And perhaps the government might support the industry’s suggestion of rewarding motorists financially so they trade in an older car for a new one (referred to as scrappage by the trade – what a ghastly word) to shore up our industry and jobs at risk.

Prior to 09 sales this month many car dealerships have been surviving on used car sales and aftersales alone this year.

Thank goodness there were no ‘head in the sand’, ‘can’t afford to spend anything’ or ‘we don’t need to discount’ tactics suggested in the briefing meeting reported in this week’s AM Magazine. All good and constructive ideas instead.

All delegates agreed that customers expect a good deal in a recession, as evidenced by High Street businesses.  Hence the fantastic new and pre registered car deals to be found online.

And more competition between franchised dealerships and independents when it comes to car servicing; this is such a great opportunity to develop the relationship of trust needed to tempt her back into the showroom when the time is right.

Ridgeway Group, for example,  is actively price-matching with independents re tyres, exhausts and batteries. That’s good and once again, the customer will be the winner in terms of price and service levels.

Sadly I am not convinced that any 10% aftersales discount card will buy dealer loyalty on its own, but if it comes with added value extras, fixed price servicing menus and the opportunity to check out prices and compare service levels online, then I am confident that more women drivers, for starters, will associate dealerships with providing value for money service levels than they may have done in the past.

Clearly to afford discounts, businesses need to save on their operating costs in some way. I was fascinated to read that, apparently, training costs could be reduced if better employees were recruited in the first place!

Yes I wholeheartedly agree with recruiting the best person for the job (male or female) but I don’t think training is any basis for cost cutting because everyone needs education to keep up with the latest trends and cutting edge technology/knowledge.

And, if it turns out like the Marketing industry in time, those of us with Chartered Marketer and other CIM qualifications are earning more than others – the reality is that the best staff will cost the motor industry more to emply as well.

The bright light on the industry horizon, from FOXY’s point of view, is that the female friendly garages and dealerships perform to higher service levels than those that aren’t  (because most women are more demanding shoppers than men) so female friendly car sales staff (female or male) can be expected to be more successful in showrooms whether they are selling to men or women.

That’s fine by me.

FOXY

PS: By all means follow FOXY on Twitter where we are tweeting about motoring offers, among other things…

buying a new car

Wherever I lay my hat…

A recent sample of some 1100 visitors to the Honest John website found that 28% of new car buyers and 32% of used car buyers rated their experience as poor. More were critical of the after sales contact.

If you don’t know Honest John (HJ), he writes a Letters page for the Sunday Telegraph and markets himself as an Arthur Daley car dealer type, with ethics and more knowledge. Definitely a stereotypical male image of motor (said with a cockney accent) traders as his photo would suggest.

HJ has singled out five independent businesses that meet his Highly Approved Trader (HAT) standard; BCA (British Car Auctions), Cargiant, Motorpoint, drivethedeal.com and Warranty Direct.

No franchised dealers or garages there yet…

To keep this status they all need to maintain a 97% ratio of good feedback and be judged as delivering excellent value.

I am not sure how he plans to measure excellent value or encourage customers to keep up such a high positive feedback ratio. Speaking personally I can’t think of one business I have written to to say thank you to where the service has been OK but not exceptional. I expect it to be fit for purpose in the first place.

And when it isn’t, even just mildly less than I would have hoped for, if there’s nothing to be achieved by complaining, I don’t bother; I just take my business elsewhere.

I’ll be interested to see how HJ manages this and whether the HATs stay on if the % ever drops.

So look out for HJ’s (racing pundit?) hat in future.

Let’s hope it makes it easier for motorists to identify genuine quality in the new and used car buying sector in future.

FOXY

buying a new car, women drivers

Foxy new car deals for women

How many of us are waiting to buy a new car on 1 March?

The answer is lots of us, even if numbers are well down on 2008.

It’s a great time to get a good deal (amazingly Vauxhall and Ford plan to add 5% to their model prices because of the poor euro exchange rate) and whilst the sensible money is usually best buying a nearly new car (under 1 year – with a 2 year warranty to run) that isn’t always the best financial case when you factor in realistic discounts on new cars in current economic conditions.

I can strongly recommend the Which? Car Spring 2009 guide (get it in Sainsbury’s) to see what their suggested target discounts are.

In summary, for those of us that don’t do haggling by nature, you should be looking at the equivalent of some 5% off list price for the likes of the Mini, Mitsubishi Colt, Honda Jazz, Suzuki Splash or the Ford Ka.

Add a further 10% and you should be looking for something like 15-20% off the Peugeot 207, Renault Clio, Skoda Fabia, Toyota’s Yaris and Vauxhall’s Corsa.

To save between 20-25% try the Fiat Panda and Punto and Citroen’s C1, C2 or C3.

I am a fan of foxy cars like these; small, green, economic to run and with a good resale value.

Don’t be fobbed off by 0% interest deals (do they think we’re daft?) and watch the extras that the salesman might try to talk you into.

Finally if you are at all fearful about making a deposit payment for any car in this range, use your credit card just in case any manufacturer or dealer ceases trading between receiving your order and delivery. Your money will then be safe.

buying a new car, car dealerships, female friendly, women drivers

A red car for Valentine’s Day?

We all know that new cars have been churning off production lines for some time because it’s cheaper to do this than stop the plant, lay off the workers and so on. What optimism on the part of manufacturers like Toyota to have scheduled so many new models in 2009 for example – did I read 10 in the trade press recently?

But the backlog of unsold new cars is now so massive, with unregistered stock going back some years, that manufacturers like Mini, Honda and others have had to do the unthinkable, closing down for months at a time.

To see what I am talking about, see the Google Maps photo of Upper Heyford Airfield, near Bicester.  This is a close up of something that seemed strange to me – the number of red cars there…

Now we don’t know how old the Google Maps snapshot is but I do know that it has been a long time since red cars (other than Ferraris) have been in fashion so it would be reasonable to imagine that this stock is a couple of years old, at least.

Yet recently I have noticed more and more car ads coming through with red models featured  – could it be an attempt to shift these red cars by repositioning demand? Or am I being overly suspicious about what is simply a Valentines Day-related colour coordinated February Promotion?

Now either these red cars near Bicester are old stock and new car buyers need to understand what this is likely to mean (car electrics/brakes don’t like this neglect and their first MOT is due at the end of the third year after manufacture not registration) or the stock is more recent than I realise because someone has stuck their neck out to try to recreate a new demand for red cars in future, before buying the paint for the production line.

This will be interesting to observe, knowing from members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club that their preferred colours (in a December 2008  survey) were Silver, Black and Blue in that order.

More grist to the Buy A New Car Now AM Magazine industry campaign as the deals will be fantastic of course although sadly many of these cars are bigger models than most of us want to buy nowadays for cost and CO2 reasons.

We live in interesting times – foxy women drivers could do really well as long as they know what to look for, they do their new car shopping homework thoroughly and buy from one of the best and female friendly car dealerships (via FOXY Choice, of course).

FOXY

Red cars at Upper Heyford

buying a new car, car dealerships, female friendly, garage services

Confused messages about new cars

I am in two minds about the recent ‘scrap an old car, buy a new car’ initiative that the industry is suggesting.

The French did this very well – they did all they could to save their car industry as you might expect…

However, as a result, it you want to buy a 2CV (cult classic car) today, and other Citroen and Renault specials, there are more of them in the UK (where they have been preserved not scrapped) as the Citroen Car Club will testify.

However the UK car industry is worth £200bn a year, 200k are employed in production and a further 580k in associated sales and maintenance roles.  Think about the economic multiplier effect here – we can’t afford to let our industry go the wall through inactivity.

But motorists, including members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club, surely shouldn’t be made to feel like second class citizens because they choose to drive older cars. As long as these are well maintained and regularly serviced  for safety and environmental reasons, why shouldn’t they be able to enjoy depreciation-free motoring providing the annual repair bills aren’t prohibitive.

Yes I do feel there can be a social stigma attached to driving older cars yet the employment and transport statistics suggest that the UK motor retail industry could still stay alive by concentrating its resources on maintaining these older vehicles at MOT, servicing and repair time.

Granted it’d be a different industry with fewer and smaller new car dealerships and with more people employed in the garage side of the business keeping older cars on the roads for longer. Why not?

This would be good for female motorists, with franchised dealerships competing head on with the independents to the advantage of the consumer.

Is that really such a bad thing?

Certainly FOXY Choice would come into its own, as the only website to promote quality garage service credentials and female friendly service levels to suit all women drivers, their cars, budget and the occasion.

Let’s hope the industry might discuss these ideas with the Government in advance of announcing them in future.

Better not to build up car manufacturer and UK dealership hopes to then have them dashed by Lord Mandelson who isn’t convinced (like me)  that a scrappage (what a dreadful word) scheme might be the right way forward in these times.

FOXY