Cash is king... where?

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Dazzy

Guest
Anyone have any good experiences to share of good deals when buying cars for cash from garages?

I've been looking for an X5 and the best cash discount i've been offered is approx 10%, others 5%. I've made offers close to the discounted price but no budge from the garages (all BMW dealers).

The are very few of these cars for private sale in Carzone and are generally mad prices. Most private sale prices are even higher than BMW garages which will give a warranty!
 
Would never buy and ex rental car and I reckon people drive the ars? out of them.
 
Car dealers also make quite a bit if you get finance through the garage. They get commision from the bank so by paying cash they will make less from you. Just a thought.
 
Dazzy said:
Would never buy and ex rental car and I reckon people drive the ars? out of them.
Click to expand...

bought one 6 months old & 6k miles. Going like a storm for 4years+ so a good experience.

While people might drive them hard that doesnt necessarily damage a car. Now if you have a yank grinding the **** out of the gears and the clutch it mightnt be great but overall not that bad a risk.
 
I would use the UK as a comparison; Have a look at one of the car supermarkets, e.g. cargiant. Factor in the VRT & allow say €1000 for travel, HPI/AA checks and general hassle. If you can get it for this or close, then you're probably doing as good as you can get.
Another option to see where the real floor on car prices is to pop along to or one of the other auctions.
 
Thanks. Did as you suggested and it works out almost the same, if not a little cheaper here based on the prices in cargiant. €24k in VRT (once you get the calculator to work).... such a rip-off.
 
No, I haven't found that garages are dropping their prices at all. I have been looking for six months now for a 1.4 petrol 04 and some garages
still have the same cars at the same price. Then I hear Gerry Ryan talking about some garage doing cash deals of 20K on cars that were originally 100k ...
Does anybody know of garages giving decent discounts anywhere in ROI ?
 
Gerry was talking about some Mercedes Garage yesterday morning that asked him to make them an offer on a car. Unfortunately he didn't mention the garage.... I must send them an email.

I also talked to someone from a fleet management company yesterday. He said that he isn't seeing any great deals coming out even in the repo lot which he has access to.

He told me that the bigger well established dealers wont be giving big discounts as they can stick it our through a downturn. He reckoned its the garages that have invested a lot in a franchise/premises in recent years that now have big overheads is where the best deals could be.
 
lovely 05 x5 3.od sport on ebay for 13k stg thats 17800 euro. Dont bother with irish dealers just overpriced rubbish mainly, go to uk for the wekend and bring the missus! seriously cash is yer only man at the moment.
nice choicee with the x5!
 
I'm wouldn't be a fan of travelling to the UK for a car. The Irish log book doesen't take into account any previous owners from the UK, and its not easy to sell them on. Also, if you had a problem you can't exactly go back to the garage easily.

I've been burned in the past so any car car I buy has to be perfect. 1 private owner, with a full service history. I get a mechanic to check out the car fully and do the cartell checks.

Here's another example of where the cash is king philosophy is not holding true (for me anyway)..

I went to see an 06 X5. Dealer is looking for 50K for it and say it has been recently reduced. Best they will do for cash is €48k, and wont go any lower.

What's even more surprising about this is that they have had the car for sale for over a year.
 
I was watching a car that had been on Carzone for at least 8 months, probably more. 2003 Mazda Xedos 9. 40K miles.

Started at €15K
Then €14K for a long time.
Then one Wednesday evening I saw it was €10K. So I said to myself this garage really want to sell this car.

So I sent him an email that said "I'll give you €8K cash on Saturday morning if car is as described, no offence but this is the only deal I'm interested in". Salesman phoned me the next morning and now I have the car, which I feel was reasonable value.

I would send an email to your BMW salesman along similar lines (maybe not the cash bit but you'd be surprised how small 8K is in €500 notes). I imagine your offer is somewhere between 10-20 % of asking price. The email will be in his inbox...... the car is still on the forcourt......he just needs to get the right time to discuss it with the sales manager. The reality of the current economic climate will eventually come to us all, even BMW garages!! Good luck.
 
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