Buying a car from online discount companies

I'm looking to buy a new car and discovered there are some German websites that claim they can give discounts like 15% on brand new cars. I'm sh*t scared to order something costing thousands from a website that could be dodgy. Has anyone used such a place? I kinda like the idea of saving €4,500 on a €30,000 car but I've found nothing good or bad about this particular site when googling them. The only one I've looked at so far is newcar24.de which doesn't look completely bogus, nor does it look all that professional.

There's not much risk with the reputable companies. They are simply importing from countries where they can buy the vehicle cheaper. Just make sure the cover all import formalities, provide you with German registration paperwork (which usually implies the import has been handled correctly) and don't take too much money from you up front.

Yeah I thought that's what they would be doing. Trouble is knowing which of them are reputable. I'm hoping someone here has used one.

I'm not saying that this is always the case, but many of these re-imports are not to the same specification as the German models. I don't mean they're not safe or anything but the may not have the same "extras" on as a German market one, e.g. electric windows, airco and so on, so it's worth checking up before you buy that you are getting exactly the same car.

This one ( http://newcar24.de/ ) claim no depost, no EU re-imports, and delivery at your local car dealer. It seems too good to be true, and that's usually a bad sign.

I initially used an online site to get a price for a new car last year...then went to my main dealer and used the quote as a bargaining tool - they didn't go quite as low as the online place but I reckoned having a face to face relationship with the place that would be doing the servicing was worthwhile.

I think I ended up getting about 15% discount from the dealer, against 17% online...

We ordered our car from a company not far from Salzburg (but in Germany). Will look up the name if you are interested. Found them on the internet. This was a re-import. ie the car is ordered according to our specifications, exported to another country where the tax is ?higher, and then brought back. So the car will be much cheaper, but it will take longer to get it. Absolutely no problem with the order, it is legal, the car is fine. You can also order the extras that you want to have. We ended up paying several thousand euros less than the Renault dealer (who was going to give us all sorts of discounts). So it is worth it, and if we ordered another car we would do it that way.

Good idea. I had thought of trying that but didn't expect the dealer to come that close. I'm off down there in an hour, I'll give it a try

Ok this is the company. The link doesn't seem to be "live" - you'll have to copy and paste.

www.europe-mobile.de

you'd be surprised what level of discounts are available if you push it (and go to the showroom at the right time of the month/quarter/year).

We first went to the dealer (actually a few since we were not decided which car we wanted), looked at the cars we were interested in, got their "best price" ie with diplomatic discount too, and did a test drive. We then checked the prices of the online dealer and then went back to the dealer in Munich to see if they could match the price or come near it. The online company was still miles cheaper - but it does take longer to get your car.

It's an interesting point but I think it's actually the opposite. I'm also in the market for a new, EU car and it appears to me that they offer considerably more extras and are still cheaper! Maybe they sometimes have a couple of less airbags but that's still more than my 25 year old Golf 2 - ha ha!

Brightondan

FYI - we got 11% discount direct from our local VW dealer. It arrives in January :-)

Are you boasting about the discount, or disappointed? (In the current market I'd be VERY disappointed - VW are authorising discounts up to 23% depending on model and extras

I'm in the market for a new set of wheels too, and have some questions regarding haggling (if it's possible with EU cars and ways to go about it here in Germany) and the current discount possibilities.

Shall I continue here or start a new thread?

Brightondan

Oh. We were quite proud to have got 11%, considering that those online discount companies were offering 15%. I imagine the 23% must be for the hard to shift models. I can't imagine them offering that on the new Golf Mk6.


Up to you really. This has evolved already into a haggling thread anyway.

I should think that there are huge bargains to be had now considering the sad state of turnover for car producers. But whatever the local showrooms offer you, it is worth checking out the on-line discounters, one address I gave earlier. I am good at bargaining for cars (she says modestly), I had months of living alone in a hotel in Munich while my husband was ill to check up on best possibilities, and the on-line company ordered the car with exactly the extras that we wanted, at a way lower price than the showroom. We were entitled to a good chunk of discount from the showroom at the time, then they went down a bit more, but they couldn't touch the other offers.

The online company were efficient, "produced" the car properly, offered extras such as undersealing etc, and they are close to Munich. Only drawback is the extra waiting time, probably about 4 weeks extra. Might be a bit more.

Still at the end of the year, showrooms also have this years models, that they have ordered too many of to make up their quota. They will offer them at v good prices to just move them out. But they won't necessarily have the extras that you want.

How much did they charge you for that? Did they rub any snake oil into the bodywork as well?

We refused it! Took the snake oil though.

Derek, I do think that you could have possibly either gotten a better (bigger) discount or could have waited a little longer for prices to become even more competitive, see here:


- New VW - And this is in the UK, on the new VW, without even a possible dealer discount yet added to the mix.

Also, there is another thread started here: BOGOFF by Johnny English that provides some interesting glimpses into a possibly even cheaper car buying future, as the Sky article above also predicts the possibility of the 50% car...

Ho hum

I suppose we'd lose a month or two waiting list time and our deposit if we were to try and cancel our order (if it's even possible).

2 questions:

1) Do you think it's possible to get good discounts on EU-wagen?

2) Do you think it's possible to get good discounts on non-German cars, such as Hyundai, Toyota, Honda etc.?

B'dan

EU-wagen? Are you sure you're from Brighton?

Yeah, I've got the debt to prove it!