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Independent vs authorized car dealer

We finally got around to buying our new (second hand) car. It took a while as the specific model we were looking for was relatively rare second hand and we were waiting for one with sensible mileage to turn up at a dealership within easy driving range of us.

Was astonished, in the process, to discover the difference an ‘official’ second hand dealer made. The car we were looking at – a relatively recent (automatic transmission, hence rarity) Golf – had dropped a disproportionately small amount from its ‘as new’ price as far as I could tell. I paused to be astonished at the second-hand value of VWs.

The moment one of our target cars turned up at an independent dealer, a further 10% off the original retail price vanished – for a car with lower mileage than the ones I’d been looking at. I’m avoiding ‘official’ dealers like the plague in the future, although with our current car portfolio we won’t be buying anything for a long while, unless we happen to win the lottery…

Posted in Cars, Shopping.

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2 comments

By Armand – August 3, 2011

  • Harvieux

    Being a VW TDI Turbo Diesel specific dealer and TDI exclusive full service and repair facility in the Los Angeles area for over 13 years running, I can tell you it’s not the dealer’s fault the prices are as high as you’ve discovered. It’s totally a supply and demand thing.  Now, the real trick is to find one from any source that will end up not costing you even more due to overlooked mechanical issues whether on purpose or not. That’s where we come in due to our totally specific area of expertise which is much, much better and less expensive than the franchised dealers.

  • http://www.division6.co.uk/wp/ Armand David

    The piece I don’t understand is that the independent dealer bought the cars direct from VW – presumably therefore at the same costs as the ‘official’ resellers. Every car on sale from an official reseller of this specific model (1 year old Bluemotion Match Golf) is 10-15% more than we paid the independent. In the UK, there’s no tie to the dealer you bought it from for servicing (that’ll get sorted out earlier) and we have the HPI inspection to ensure there are no essential mechanical faults (they are standard across both VW and non-VW dealers, although imagine VW dealers have access to a bit more specialist tech). That said, a year old VW shouldn’t have any functional issues, especially one with low, low mileage (< 10,000). So I'm not sure what the cause for the price differential is other than margins, as the supply/demand piece doesn't seem to make sense.

    But maybe things are different in the US – VW is a very mainstream car here.

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