Struggling sales?

[corned]

I received a phone call out of the blue from my local dealership this morning. What could they possibly want with me, I wondered?

Turns out that all their good customers haven't bought anything recently, so they're scraping the barrel and phoning round their bad ones to see if they can luck in on a sale.

They must be in pretty dire straits to pluck up the gall to phone me. However, I heard the poor chap out, and it turns out that they have a load of E-Classes in stock, which they have to get rid of. So they thought I might like one. They even offered me £4k pex for mine, which isn't bad.

We discussed PCP deals, cash sales, servicing contracts, so I guess that's where the real interest for them lies. We'll see what package(s) they offer when/if the email comes through. They have a 30k mile/year PCP, which should be interesting.

 

[Dieselman]

Go for a C63, they are about £1 per month.

 

[trapperjohn]

Oooh. Lets see how that stacks up against Skoda/Volvo and all the other deals that are going on.

If Volvo matched Ian F's Toyota deal perhaps they will match Mercs

 

[bpsorrel]

Finance is definately what's being pushed at the moment. I contacted a large dealer group concerning an attractive facelift CLS at a good price.
Upshot was a decent deal was only on offer if I took the balance (between my car and theirs) out on finance! Weren't interested in a cash deal at all as they claimed there was no profit in the car, only in the finance deal! WTF!

 

[st4]

Go for a C63, they are about £1 per month.

and about £1500 in fuel/month for the OP.

Keith, I thought you might have left the fold for a non leaking non rusting car.

 

[corned]

Keith, I thought you might have left the fold for a non leaking non rusting car.

Nah - I haven't set my sights that high yet.

 

[Dieselman]

and about £1500 in fuel/month for the OP.

Not if he only drove it on Sundays and the occasional trip to Bluewater...

Keith, I thought you might have left the fold for a non leaking non rusting car.

After all the soul searching Corned has found he likes the uniqueness of a Mercedes, and nobody else makes cars that leak and rust so he just can't get it elsewhere.

 

[grober]

Finance is definately what's being pushed at the moment. I contacted a large dealer group concerning an attractive facelift CLS at a good price.
Upshot was a decent deal was only on offer if I took the balance (between my car and theirs) out on finance! Weren't interested in a cash deal at all as they claimed there was no profit in the car, only in the finance deal! WTF!

Shades of GM's business model in the USA and they filed under Chapter 11 in 2009!

The European market must be contracting at the moment.

 

[John]

After all the soul searching Corned has found he likes the uniqueness of a Mercedes, and nobody else makes cars that leak and rust so he just can't get it elsewhere.

British Leyland were the godfathers of leaking and rust as standard features...

 

[st13phil]

Shades of GM's business model in the USA and they filed under Chapter 11 in 2009!

The European market must be contracting at the moment.

I suspect you're right - on both counts.

The trouble is that expensive glass and stainless steel showrooms cost lots of wonga and someone has to pay for it. When the market contracts that gets rather more difficult to do.

Bearing in mind the debt mountain at all levels in the country, I can't help but comment on the irony of finance deals on heavily depreciating assets being pushed so hard

 

[NW_Merc]

British Leyland were the godfathers of leaking and rust as standard features...

You talking about the cars or the owners ?

 

[steve333]

Go for a C63, they are about £1 per month.

+£500 a month for fuel

 

[wemorgan]

+£500 a month for fuel

+£500 a month for detailing products - more like

 

[Igurisu]

The European market must be contracting at the moment.

It is. European car sales were forecast at 12.4m at the beginning of the year, its now likely to finish at around 11.8m. Next years forecast has just been revised down from 13m to 12.15m based on a "mild" recession.

Figures are from JD Power, of course a forecast is just a forecast, but sometimes these forecasts become self fulfilling.

 

[Red C220]

but sometimes these forecasts become self fulfilling.

Most Finance people I've met (bankers) are also self fulfilling.

 

[Red C220]

Go for a C63, they are about £1 per month.

Clearly what Mercedes need to produce is a C35cdi AMG, tuned to around 350/400hp with a 30mpg average.

Imagine how many of those they'd sell.

Obviously they'd be about £1.25 a month as the diesel model would be at a premium.

 

[Rory]

Finance is definately what's being pushed at the moment. I contacted a large dealer group concerning an attractive facelift CLS at a good price.
Upshot was a decent deal was only on offer if I took the balance (between my car and theirs) out on finance! Weren't interested in a cash deal at all as they claimed there was no profit in the car, only in the finance deal! WTF!

If the deal is worth it then take the deal and they pay off the finance straight away. Absolute maxium you can be charged is 2 months interest and it's usually only a month.

I bought a new VW earlier this year from an Inchcape dealer (Inchcape also run quite a few MB dealerships) and they spent 2hrs+ trying to sell me finance. I only put up with it as the deal on the car was very good. After we'd shaken hands on a cash deal the sales manager offered me £300 back if I'd take any level of finance. He stormed off when I still said no!


Interesting that an MB dealer is calling customers - mine doesn't seem to have the capability of making outbound calls!

 

[Setanta]

Surprised too that they are calling you.

The two that I dealt with when looking to upgrade from the S600 were singularly useless.

 

[John]

You talking about the cars or the owners ?

We'd need to see the owners' medical history to know about their rusting and leaking, except I don't think we'd want to see that if that was the case!

 

[bpsorrel]

If the deal is worth it then take the deal and they pay off the finance straight away.

Doubt I'd get the finance anyway! My credit score must be zero as I've never had a loan or HP in my life!

But there's another nice car I'm waiting on as we speak, so fingers crossed I'll be in my long awaited CLS any day...