After mulling this around, then finally falling out with the Volvo dealership over them not even bothering to call me back when they had promised to we finally went to have a look around the local VW garage.
The missus bought her Tourag from them 18 months ago so they sent her an invite to a very special 'secret' sale where the manager had a special book containing the prices they would sell each vehicle for.
After about an hours worth of chewing the fat with the salesman (who is the only car salesman I have ever spoken with who I didn't immediately detest!), I test drove the new Tiguan and a Passat Estate.
Hated the Tiguan but really liked the Passat. It was the Highline model and had a bit of poke at 160bhp, nice leather interior and some toys. Decent MPG too.
Sat down with him and discussed numbers, even though I had no intention of spanking £20k on a car we thought we would play along for a little while. He went to the manager and came back with a price of £20,500, which was £3k off list.
I said no and he did all the usual of asking me what that number would have to be to get a handshake from me there and then. I told him it would have to be nearer to £17k, at which he laughed and said I had no chance, I was already getting the best discount of the day :roll:
I said that was fine and we were off to do some shopping. He asked me about what extras I would want so I said integrated BlueTooth car kit, parking sensors and a couple of other bits, which he said if he could get those would I shake his hand. I told him it would be a starting point :lol:
Long story of to-ing and fro-ing and we decided to not bother so he asked us to wait a minute while the manager gave us an 'exit interview' to make sure we were happy with the service.
He came back 5 mins later saying I was the hardest customer he had ever had (I wasn't even negotiating, I just didn't want to pay the money) and if I shook his hand there and then he would do me the car for the wholesale price (ie what he buys in at, I knew what this was as I checked it out on the iPhone while waiting for him
), pay my road tax, give me the GAP insurance, throw in parking sensors and BlueTooth, on a 10 plate.
He said he was two cars away from his quota to get 10% off his bulk buy for the next quarter and needed the registrations so it was an offer for that afternoon only. B0ll0cks probably but that is how they work so you never know.
At this point me and the missus were looking at each other and asked for a few minutes to think. We totted it all up and worked out we would get a package totalling £25,900 for £18,950, and that effectively is what the car is worth at 3 years old so we would have knocked off the depreciation before even paying for it, so I bit his hand off
Wasn't planning on spending that but it was such a good deal that I convinced myself, and I must say it is a very nice motor indeed. Here's what it looks like, this isn't my exact one but same color, style etc.
