PCP

[Althered]

Hello, I am new here and currently own a Toyota C-HR. I am thinking of buying a SEAT Ateca and have some questions about the finance side. My original intention was to simply part exchange (£15000 fot the C-HR) and pay the remaining amount as cash. I received a quote and the dealer says the SEAT(VW) contribution of £2000 is conditional of taking out a PCP contract, is this true? Also, I would receive a £1500 deposit contribution from SEAT(VW) which would make £3500 contribution all in all. If I pay cash I will lose this benefit, which is considerable. If I took out the 48 month payment option (PCP) and, for example, after 12 months decided to request a settlement figure, would I be penalised? My dealer says I would just pay the interest for the current calender month on top of the remaining amount owed, but he is desperate to sell me a vehicle and I am not sure if he is being truthful. Any info would be appreciated.

[NeilW]

Best advice I can offer is asked for a copy of the T&C's.
Finance deposit contributions are generally seen as a way to get a discount and I've certainly got that in my next car. The (Skoda) dealer told me I could request a settlement figure after the first month and would only need to pay the balance. I did askto read the T&C's before agreeing and they had to given me a different customer's agreement and cover up the personal information.

It seems odd that SEAT would give two discounts, I suspect one is from the dealer and that you could probably get off a cash purchase.

[Rory]

f I took out the 48 month payment option (PCP) and, for example, after 12 months decided to request a settlement figure, would I be penalised? My dealer says I would just pay the interest for the current calender month on top of the remaining amount owed, but he is desperate to sell me a vehicle and I am not sure if he is being truthful. Any info would be appreciated.

Early Settlement is set in law and the max penalty is 30 days interest, but you also have to give 28 days notice - so it's effectively a couple of months. Should be a relatively small amount of money for the interest (of course you've also got the capital to pay as well).

It's standard practice with VAG finance to take all the discounts and then Withdraw from the finance. You have to do this within 14 days of signing the documents. That way the only fee is a few days interest - should be just a few £. Generally don't tell the dealer you're going to do this as they won't be very happy because they lose their commission (that's why they always tell you to wait a bit). We did it on wife's Tiguan. No problem at all. Once past 14 days then you're Settling.

When we got the Ateca we paid cash, but there were loads of discounts for this and that - test drive discount, 'loyalty' discount (which oddly was available even though we didn't already have a SEAT) and others that I can't remember. At the time there wasn't a deposit contribution available - they were doing 0% finance but then if we took that some other discount wasn't available.

[Pollypaz]

Try going on What car web site and they will give a target price for both cash and pcp. I went armed with cash price for new model and the dealer actually beat it by £500

[boristhebold]

I've done what Rory suggests twice, not had an issue and saved several thousand pounds.

[Chop]

Sell the car privately. Then go on Carwow and many dealers will give a quote for the car you specify. Go to a dealer with the quotes and they will match it. This will be about 4K less than asking price. Then pay cash.

[pds76]

This week I was looking at various options before I decided on buying a 20 plate Xcellence Lux . Drive the deal.com managed to get me over 6k discount on a Brand New FR Sport but they don’t accept part exchanges. When I spoke to my local main dealer they were only prepared to offer me the two discounts currently on offer

[Rory]

Unless it's changed, DtD just refer you to a dealer, don't they? I don't see why they wouldn't take a px - dealers are supposed to be really short of cars. You'll only get a WeBuyAnyCar type price though.

We used CarWow for the Tiguan, and both the local VW dealers quoted. I didn't like DriveTheDeal as they won't (or wouldn't at the time) tell us which dealer they were going to refer us to - they also wanted me to say I'd wait for the factory lead-time (12+ weeks) but we needed the car quickly. We didn't have a P/X but I think CarWow lets you put details of your px in. CarWow weren't quite as cheap as DtD but the dealer negotiated a bit more face-to-face and they found us a car to the exact spec in 8 days.

For the Ateca, I had an idea from this forum where the lowest price should be, and our local dealer was there or thereabouts. Again, we didn't have a PX though.