[Tell]

I won't name them. But in the early run up they were offering fairly large discounts on the Ateca, they had to pull them by request since they were not being offered to them by Seat, it changed it's mind. They normally source direct from Seat but are using dealers to offer what they are currently offering. Even some dealers won't match that. They are saying and I believe them that large discounts will come through after launch if not before. So basically the discounts you are seeing are retail discounts not business discounts. The other interesting dimension is that the business discounts once they come through are fairly fixed and won't really fall. Basically those people who are buying the car now are getting a premium price for early delivery (stating the obvious) although some broker prices are better than others that's due to the dealer they source them through. Wait a few months and the premium prices will fall since business customers won't be paying premium prices. That conversation does tally with the Seat guy that told me our prices are not fixed yet which I thought was odd since the price list was out. They would have been the business pricing of the car that some brokers run off the back off.

The question is whether you want to pay premium prices to get a new car before anybody else or pay less and get one latter. I'm sure there are better experts out there than me on the forms of brokers. The likes of Carwow put dealers in competition with each other, whilst other brokers use these business rates and you end up getting the delivery from the manufacture if you were to order rather than a dealer. The broker really becomes a dealer in that model but doesn't have the overheads.

 

[Rob]

I guess it depends on how you finance as to whether list prices / discounts available will make a difference to you.

If you finance with PCP you are basically paying the depreciation over the length of the term. The depreciation will depend on what SEAT thinks the car will be worth (GFV) when it's time to hand it back, say in 3 years time.

Initially, if there are no discounts, the (GFV) value might be higher than if you bought in a period of heavy discounting. Therefore the monthly figure you are paying might end up very similar...

I'm no finance expert but that's how I see it. Of course, buying via personal loan or cash then you absolutely want the best price you can for it.

 

[ernieb]

I think that the offers, when they come, may not be as good as people want or expect. The Alteca has created a lot of interest and they can probably sell all they can initially produce without too much incentives. Well all know soon enough.

 

[Tell]

The guy said that PCPs were at the retail rates not at the business rates. That means that anybody that gets PCP now gets it at the underlying retail rate although later those prices when challenged by business rates may come down. That's why PCP figure that people post up on the other board are high I would guess. The guy also said that 80 percent of new car sales were to businesses, so from this you can see that if Seat wants to keep in the fleet market they have to match the going rate across models. So basically at the minute the Ateca isn't in the fleet market price list since Seat haven't put out their business rate for it yet. It's that competition from the fleet market that puts pressure on the pricing. Assume that when production is low they don't sell into the fleet side first getting the mark up on the retail side. This broker road on the back of fleet deals where possible but also using dealers where they couldn't. The short answer is Seat tries to take a profit where it can from the retail side but the bigger market and the price challenging side is the fleet. That one trickles down but if you use a broker that buys direct or into these contracts you would get discounts faster if they didn't take a big cut themselves.

This one is for Ernie, he said that the business rate once established is fairly fixed, may be fall by 2 percent or so over 18 months. I was thinking that we were going to be in this game of falling prices over a period, not on the prices that businesses pay for the cars. Thus if you are buying privately you want to buy from those that are plugged into the business rates, it's those rates that then come through to retail pricing where one expects that's a bit slower.

Interesting subject. I'm now planning to hold off till later which is what the managing director said to me in an email on Saturday. If you can wait do, it will save you money and this was from the company that currently gives you the biggest discount on the Ateca but through the dealer chain. Altruistic, it could be that once the business prices comes through their margins are higher, so it's a win - win, although you don't get the car on launch but you save an additional £2,000 + on what their current discount is, indicative. I still want to try out the leather seats my time gets peppered with holidays so I might order in late October or September if it's clear that the step change in prices have occurred. Will hold till those business car rates are published - I'm told that will be evident. In this arrangement a Seat driver delivers it direct to you. Perhaps they drop it off on a transporter... someone has to put the number plates on beforehand. I'm told you are the first owner. Failing that those price shifts come through the dealer side. This particular model of activity cuts out the dealers so you don't have those costs built in.

 

[fox]

At the end of the day Seat need to compete with the Qashqai and the Kadjar - these are considered the top vehicles in the segment that Seat want to break into.

For business use Seat are already at a bit of a disadvantage as their 1.6 TDi has higher emissions than the rivals and therefore higher company car tax. You can get £4k+ broker discount on those cars too so Seat absolutely need to allow some aggressive discounts if they want to make an impact in that sector.