The friendliest online price source of UK main dealer new cars and vans.

We’ve got a lively office.... and between us, our dealers and our customers, a lot of great conversations. So here’s a look at what’s happening in our world!

28/12/08                                         Looking forward to 2009
We really are...looking forward to 2009! A lot of the ‘chaff’ from the broker marketplace is disappearing - those who took on fancy offices, too many staff, borrowed heavily to manage IT needs, or (mainly) just did a bad job, abused fleet terms, and usually offered their customers no logbook to go with the cars they were ‘selling’ them. Most get away with it by failing to include coverage of the really important processes and ‘catches’ in their main webpages..relying on the unsuspecting buyer to simply not spot that a question has been glossed over..or isn’t mentioned at all. Buyer beware...ask all the questions, and never assume anything!

No sane driver would accept a seller of used car asking if its OK with them if they keep hold of the logbook in another name for a few months (!), so why any driver would find it acceptable on a new car sale - frankly - is a mystery. We’d love to see brokers regulated.

There have been stories this year of well known brokers (who should all know better and are still being recommended by motoring journalists who don’t bother to work out how things are really being done!) putting individual customers down as self employed plumbers, gardeners, decorators etc on order documentation to trick the manufacturer into approving fleet discounts,.only to be caught out by the manufacturers running checks with owners of new cars and having conversations with surprised folk who were clearly nonplussed to find out they’d been named as a business. It’s time these scams stopped. Remember, if you smell a rat...there’s probably one lurking nearby!

We’re ending the year only 6 vehicle sales adrift from 2007’s total figures...so with the country in its current state, and the market being as it is for the past 4mths, we’re pretty pleased with that result! Anything we take orders for between now and New Year’s Eve will reduce that handful of difference too.

We wish all the great people who’ve been in touch with us this year a lovely New Year...and lets all hope we have more settled times ahead. Especially good wishes to those customers who keep in touch with us regularly throughout the year..to share knowledge, comment on issues, and help us drive our service and websites forward with ideas and support, or just say hello to see if we’re OK from time to time! ...so special thoughts at New Year go to Ralph M’, Ian S’, Brian H’, Steve D’, Jenny P’, Jon D’, Mark S’, Paul R’, Ian L’, Dan C’, Katherine M’, Tim C’, Roger D’, Roger H’, Simon J’, Colin R’, and Tina J’.
....and to our partnered dealers and motor groups...we appreciate the hard work you all put in to enable us deal with everything speedily and efficiently, the never-ending ‘special requests’ (!), the out-of-hours favours, etc! It’s great working with all of you, many of you have known some of our staff for 10-12 years+, so it’s been a long ride...but you’re always there for us..and we thank you!

Our top brands this year for a mix of great cars, great dealers, the right type of deals for the private driver, good consumer finance offers, good engines, sensible options prices, ease of access to stock, sensible warnings prior to price changes, sensible leadtimes for most key models, so - overall in our view are (in no particular order): Audi, Ford, VW, Toyota & Citroen take the votes from us..
Best new car in 08: Ford’s new Fiesta.
Most coveted car in 08; Mercedes CLC Sport.
Best popularity turnaround: Volvo C30
Forecast best sellers in 09: New Ford Ka, VW new Golf Mk6, Seat new Ibiza diesels, Citroen C1.
Manufacturer to watch 2009-10: Seat
Best product launch: (with stock in place at the right time, with the right prices): Ford’s new Fiesta

Watch out for Citroen’s new special editions from Jan 1st - including the Pluriel Charleston to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 2CV. Pic’s on our website Citroen pages any day now...

12/12/08                                         The Value Added Bounce!
The VAT drop has done wonders...we’ve had a good week as the public have cottoned onto to lower vat plus lower loan lending rates equals a good time to now buy...especially as manufacturers get rid of the excess remaining stock ‘gluts’ between now and Xmas. From January things already look to even out as stock depletes and the brands which delayed their price increases on 1st Dec’ are now looking at invoking them between 18th Dec - 20th Jan instead.

The SMMT figures came out, with no surprises...the manufacturers whose sales have dropped by around half compared to the previous November are those which have either had little stock to offer their UK customers without long factory waits this year (which clearly hits their dealers’ ability to sell anything), or are those brands which have made it hard for their dealer network to take customers from broker referrals - reducing their routes to market even moreso than with the downturn in place.

The brands which have launched models with plenty of stock, had sensible attractive apr’s and deals in place all year alongside attractive engines, and have empowered dealers to capture customers any way they can, have come out of it with reasonable figures rather than hefty drops.

A couple of new dealers came to see us this week to set up terms with us for our customers...it was good to see some real enthusiasm and ‘fire in the belly’ from them, as so many are feeling the grind at the moment and it shows in the showroom and on the ‘phone.

We left 3 messages for a dealer this morning between 0930 and midday, and we’re still awaiting the return call...on a brand apparently desperate for sales this month...and we had one for them - but if you’re reading this we’ve placed it elsewhere at 2pm..we couldn’t wait any longer..and neither could the customer. Come on guys!

On a better note - one of our main dealer partners has just hit their Dec’ sales target, 2.5 weeks early...fantastic going in this climate...but they always, always, answer the phone and come back to us within 10 mins. It makes a difference and helps them sell cars!

Another large broker called us to ask if we’d handle of some of their enquiries - but call their customers pretending to be them instead of our own company name, only disclosing who we really were if the customer wanted to go ahead and order. Cheeky wotsits! If you’ve lost your staff, sort it out yourselves and come clean with your customers if you can’t look after them! They were genuinely surprised when we declined their kind offer. Incredible.

Anyway, watch this space...some interesting features, products, and a new major-interest car brand brand on our website due to ‘go live’ in the New Year!

Busy today.... so signing off now.....live long and prosper (George Takei should have won Jungle!).

3/12/08                                         Value Added Temper Tantrums
Well..last week was ‘all go’...hundreds of cars to re-price and thousands of factory extras. What fun! We had two staff assigned to concentrate on it and get the job done quickly...whilst the rest of us tackled the phones and email business until the new pricing tables were ready for each brand and model. They weren’t happy bunnies...but someone had to do it!

There’ll be a few adjustments in the coming days as manufacturers decide if they’re going to ‘tweak’ anything as a result but we’ll upload any changes and corrections as soon as they land with us.

And joy of joys...we have to change it all back again in a year’s time! But here’s the point to remember: the next 8-9 months IS the time to get a new car ordered if you need to replace your current car. With VAT at its lowest level for years...

2009 will NOT be the year to think about it at the end of the year - as stock will be lower than we’ve been used to in 08 (manufacturers have already drastically reduced build programmes to balance out supply with demand) and unless you can find the exact spec’ you want in spare UK stock next Oct-Dec then you’ll have to factory order ....and you’ll then be at the mercy of the manufacturer’s lead times as to whether your car can be built in time to be invoiced to you by the end of 08 with 15% vat... or your invoice date may trip into 2010 at whatever VAT is going to rise by for goods and services invoiced after 1/1/10.

If VAT goes up to the rumoured 18.5% - 20%, then on top of the current 15% that will make a huge difference on a car invoice. Don’t forget, dealers will invoice you for the balance just before delivery so will have to enforce the prevailing VAT rate at that date.

Ford and Seat were top dogs for holding off with their planned price rises on 1st Dec (they will probably implement them within 6-8 weeks) but it is at least a respite period to allow customers to take advantage of the lower VAT rate until they have to make their changes at manufacturer-level.

We were interviewed by a very nice lady from the Sunday Times last week and as a result had a lovely piece in their “In Gear” driving supplement on Sunday....since that article appeared we’ve absolutely drowned in enquiries....it’s been like the days before the downturn took hold of the car market! We had over 320 new subscribers to our weekly ‘ Hot Deals’ bulletin plus another 600+ car price enquiries and our website has averaged 400+ visitors an hour since Monday morning. Just shows what a little piece in a great paper can do for you!

The boss has been doing a tour of some of our ‘northern’ area dealers, came back this Tuesday with hypothermia, beetroot chutney, and some kendal mint cake for the office. We weren’t impressed, but she did at least manage to get some photo’s of the new Ka’s just rolling off a transporter for our customers at one of our Ford motor group partners. We’ve loaded the ones she managed to get in focus on to the New Ka pages on our website. She’s in the south-west next so lets hope we get better souvenirs, like a decent pastie and some cider hooch for the forthcoming office xmas extravaganza (we’ve been promised a tree this year...so if you see anyone in a DealDrivers t-shirt wielding a chainsaw down there this weekend - keep her away from your trees!)