Buying a used Mercedes - how does the commission work between dealers?

[tim.100]

I test drove a highly-priced car within London last week. The MB Retail Salesman brought it round to the house, which saved a lot of time.

We spoke 48hrs later; I declined his car, and said that I'd just made an offer on a similar (newly listed in better colour) car at another MB Retail dealership. He was very sorry that I hadn't used him. In the end my offer was refused (but the car is still available).

So do I get a better price by leveraging the salesman I've met, or should I go direct every time?

My thinking is that using one dealership to buy a car at another dealership is just going to add to my cost.

Never bought a used car from MB Retail before, so appreciate all insights on how the system works.

 

[Teflonso]

It will cost you pennies for the phone call to try it. You'll either get the car at the price you want to pay, or you wont. Give it a go!

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[tim.100]

It will cost you pennies for the phone call to try it. You'll either get the car at the price you want to pay, or you wont. Give it a go!

.

I've made the call to the dealership with the car, as above. Just want to understand the way that sales between MB dealers work.

 

[Dryce]

So do I get a better price by leveraging the salesman I've met, or should I go direct every time?

No hard and fast rules on this - it depends on the dealership network and the outlet you're dealing with.

As an example outlet A may have the car but is unwilling to deal because they think they can get more for it - but outlet B needs the business and will get the car transfered and sold at a lower margin.

This can work the other way round where outlet A has the car and if you go direct can do a better deal because it can make more selling the car rather than transferring it to outlet B.

You'd be best calling and seeing what can be done.

 

[72 dudes]

As Dryce says, this works if the two MB dealers are within the same dealer group. It worked for me, I got a car transferred from one dealer 50 miles away, declined their request of a £500 deposit for doing so, and ended up buying at the same price.

If the car you like is at another MB dealer NOT in the same dealer group, you will run into trouble. I went into the local MB dealer enquiring about one darn sarf, but was met with no interest. The Sales team tried to say that if anything went wrong inside 6 weeks, the car would have to go back to the original dealer, regardless of Approved Used warranty!
The issue seems to be that the car cannot be transferred, but is in effect "bought" by the local dealer (which would rubbish the reasoning above due to contract of sale etc)

I didn't totally accept this reasoning, but buying relatively local can help with future goodwill issues.

HTH