VW Stealers

[Naks]

There's a reason why Audis and BMWs become so affordable once their service/maintenance plans expire
The entry level VWs are much cheaper to service and maintain.

Ok, so if he wants something cheap to run, then a 2nd hand Golf/Polo should do the trick.

 

[Way69]

Ok, so if he wants something cheap to run, then a 2nd hand Golf/Polo should do the trick.

Secondhand golf is certainly not cheap to maintain...

 

[drukkie]

best advice?

phone 5-6 dealers up and play them off against each other...you'll get 8k easily!

 

[HapticSimian]

best advice?

phone 5-6 dealers up and play them off against each other...you'll get 8k easily!

On a Vivo, where the dealer only stands to make less than R10k to begin with? Norrachance. Not without artificially padding the price up front. Your advice also characterises the type of customer I regularly told to piss off - there's value in good service & open communication. If you see none of that & you're willing to play the helpful/courteous/competent guy off against the knob down the street in order to save a thousand bucks, you can go get bent.

 

[Jab]

I do not think you should buy stolen property, and even if you insist I doubt Stealers posting on the forum would admit it. IMHO.

 

[[Quattro]]

On a Vivo, where the dealer only stands to make less than R10k to begin with? Norrachance. Not without artificially padding the price up front. Your advice also characterises the type of customer I regularly told to piss off - there's value in good service & open communication. If you see none of that & you're willing to play the helpful/courteous/competent guy off against the knob down the street in order to save a thousand bucks, you can go get bent.

Psshhht, which dealership you at?
Ill get more than 8K discount.

 

[HapticSimian]

Psshhht, which dealership you at?
Ill get more than 8K discount.

Not at a dealer. Or in the motor industry at present.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Psshhht, which dealership you at?
Ill get more than 8K discount.

You could get a monkey to screw an elephant as long as they had a VW badge.

 

[The_Unnamed]

On a Vivo, where the dealer only stands to make less than R10k to begin with? Norrachance. Not without artificially padding the price up front. Your advice also characterises the type of customer I regularly told to piss off - there's value in good service & open communication. If you see none of that & you're willing to play the helpful/courteous/competent guy off against the knob down the street in order to save a thousand bucks, you can go get bent.

Well the best i can get is R130 000. I am happy with that.
Going to go check it out this weekend.

 

[Dryden]

On a Vivo, where the dealer only stands to make less than R10k to begin with? Norrachance. Not without artificially padding the price up front. Your advice also characterises the type of customer I regularly told to piss off - there's value in good service & open communication. If you see none of that & you're willing to play the helpful/courteous/competent guy off against the knob down the street in order to save a thousand bucks, you can go get bent.

Wait. So what you're telling me is that a typical VW dealer makes only 10k on a 130k vivo?

How much for a 350 double cab?

And if their margins are really tighter than a catlic schoolgirl, where does the "we in SA are getting ripped off wrt cars" come from?

 

[HapticSimian]

Wait. So what you're telling me is that a typical VW dealer makes only 10k on a 130k vivo?

How much for a 350 double cab?

And if their margins are really tighter than a catlic schoolgirl, where does the "we in SA are getting ripped off wrt cars" come from?

Once a deal has been reached & costs deducted, it is likely closer to the R6k mark on something like a Vivo. As a very rough rule of thumb most dealers (regardless of brand) work on a 7-10% margin on a vehicle's de-VAT'ed price. The manufacturers make the dosh; dealers are often struggling just to keep the doors open.

 

[Dryden]

So if a dealer only makes that on a vivo, how much does wv make? and how much does it cost to make a vivo?

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

So if a dealer only makes that on a vivo, how much does wv make? and how much does it cost to make a vivo?

Your guess is as good as anybodies.

 

[HapticSimian]

So if a dealer only makes that on a vivo, how much does wv make? and how much does it cost to make a vivo?

Good luck on ever actually getting that kind of intel, but let's reminisce for a moment... CITI Golf...

At the end of its life top-of-the-line CITIs were selling for in excess of R100k. A CITI sale would net the dealer about the same as a Vivo sale would now - about R7k on average. Yet the cars came off an assembly line that was largely unchanged for 25 years. Even accounting for maintaining the line, I doubt a CITI would cost much more than R25k or R30k to produce. I'd hate to think, percentage-wise, what VWSA's golden-egg laying goose brought them on each sale.

What people tend not to realise is that a dealer, regardless of the badge on the building, has precious little to do with the manufacturer directly. It's a retail business that just happens to deal in rather pricey items from a single supplier. Any dealer (except Mercedes, they operate differently) has to physically purchase its stock from the manufacturer. Once that happens the manufacturer has made its cut. The dealer is then left with a normal stock item that needs to be sold on for a profit...

 

[Dryden]

I see

also, is the "Recommended Retail Price" in ads these days not another method of price fixing? And do the dealers still fix prices?

 

[HapticSimian]

I see

also, is the "Recommended Retail Price" in ads these days not another method of price fixing? And do the dealers still fix prices?

Not price fixing in my personal experience, but consider that any dealer from any one manufacturer will pay the same amount to get a specific car on their sales floor. This does establish a limit to how far below RRP any dealer can go, as it obviously doesn't make much sense to start selling stock at below cost. That being said, there will sometimes be unwritten agreement between dealers to not discount below a given level on a certain model or range, especially with newly launched and/or very popular models.

Having been on the other side of the fence, it saddens me that Joe Public has such a negative view of car dealers. Admittedly it isn't always unfounded, but most dealers are genuinely just trying to get by. They are quite often on the receiving end of flak that isn't deserved.

 

[Dryden]

Very interesting. Last question (maybe...

why are parts so expensive? Why does Ford charge me 3 200 to change my discs and pads where Kwikfit does it for 1 500? They must have markups running into 100s if not 1000s of % for certain spares. How are they allowed to get away with this?

 

[HapticSimian]

Very interesting. Last question (maybe...

why are parts so expensive? Why does Ford charge me 3 200 to change my discs and pads where Kwikfit does it for 1 500? They must have markups running into 100s if not 1000s of % for certain spares. How are they allowed to get away with this?

Farked if I know - a dealer's got to make money somewhere!

I'm largely speculating, but from what I've witnessed I'd again apportion at least a bit of blame to the manufacturers directly. A franchise dealer is often obliged to source its parts from the manufacturer and, as with the cars, they really do just take the piss sometimes. The dealer will pay a shedload for a pair of brake pads from the manufacturer, only to get a specially packaged set exactly like the ATEs you can buy directly from Midas or whoever. I suspect the packaging might be made of saffron, but other than that I have no idea.

What's starting to reach levels of scary are the rates dealers charge for labour. On the one hand I realise that cars are becoming more and more complex, and mechanics therefore have to be better and better trained, but the vast majority of work conducted would be comparatively menial tasks like clutch & brake replacements and normal services. I suppose it is once again driven in part by dealers' desperation to remain profitable in the face of trying economic circumstances, but I do not have the information to defend the service side of things.

 

[Gnome]

Dealers easily ask R400-R500 labor per hour. That is an absolute rip-off. I calculated that if I earned that much per hour (for a 7.5 hour day) I'd take home ~R69000 - R86250 per month before tax. No way in hell is the training for being a mechanic nearly complex enough to justify that kind of pay. I highly doubt they pay their mechanics that sort of money.

Dealerships definitely milk the public on service, parts and second hand sales. That is for damned sure.

 

[HapticSimian]

Dealers easily ask R400-R500 labor per hour. That is an absolute rip-off. I calculated that if I earned that much per hour (for a 7.5 hour day) I'd take home ~R69000 - R86250 per month before tax. No way in hell is the training for being a mechanic nearly complex enough to justify that kind of pay. I highly doubt they pay their mechanics that sort of money.

Dealerships definitely milk the public on service, parts and second hand sales. That is for damned sure.

I'd agree on service & parts, but I'd add that milking on 2nd-hand sales happens on a deal-to-deal basis, and not as often as people might think. For every successful milking there's a Volvo in the back lot that has stood there for 6 months after the DP forced the pre-owned manager to pay full book for it in order to get rid of a Caravelle/X6/ML/etc. that has been parked on the new car floor for 8 months.

Car sales sucks ass for the most part.