No Price Haggling

[Ron240]

I recently received this from Mercedes about their new car buying process beginning in January. It is said to remove haggling by fixing a firm price.
I have heard about this type of business model and believe it does work, but as far as I know it has never been applied in the UK before?

 

[curious]

Don't need to haggle these days anyway with Carwow , Drivethedeal, etc, and Mercedes are one of the bigger discounters on Carwow.
(My partner got herself a £18k Renault for £14k and I myself a £65k Jag for £51k, both brand new.)

Let's see if they're still on Carwow in January.

 

[Blobcat]

Daewoo tried it (if you remember them…)

MB are just looking at latest trends and going with it. In reality they don’t want anyone to buy a car from them, they want leases

 

[Ron240]

Don't need to haggle these days anyway with Carwow , Drivethedeal, etc, and Mercedes are one of the bigger discounters on Carwow.
(My partner got herself a £18k Renault for £14k and I myself a £65k Jag for £51k, both brand new.)

Let's see if they're still on Carwow in January.

Carwow is still haggling though...it is 5 dealers offering their best price, which I have then used as a bargaining tool in getting my local dealer to match.
It has worked very well for me in the past.
With Drive The Deal you deal with only one dealership for your new car, and although the price is usually unbeatable the dealers are as far as I know always located in England and hundreds of miles away from anybody living in Scotland so not convenient.

The way I see this operating is exactly as it says - one price for the new car regardless of where one buys it within the official Mercedes network.

 

[Ron240]

Daewoo tried it (if you remember them…)

I do indeed now that you mention it.

"That'll be the Daewoo"

 

[A.J.]

I recently received this from Mercedes about their new car buying process beginning in January. It is said to remove haggling by fixing a firm price.
I have heard about this type of business model and believe it does work, but as far as I know it has never been applied in the UK before?
View attachment 80963

This system of car purchasing will be the death nell for the Franchise Stealers as they are today, they will just become PDi centres

 

[Ron240]

This system of car purchasing will be the death nell for the Franchise Stealers as they are today, they will just become PDi centres

It does look that way...and ultimately I cant see it being good for dealer or consumer in regards to new car purchasing.

 

[DSK]

When I went to see an SL500 a few weeks back at Merc notts they advised of this fixed pricing bs but, tried to get a deal done and dropped the price to make it happen. Sadly the car was too below par for what I would call decent.

Used dealers are also doing this but it’s all about greed and wanting to over charge for goods and have punters, who are stupid enough to accept it. Of course all prices have flex in them.

The CLS55 at Transparency Cars I made an offer on a few years ago of 13k I was arrogantly responded to saying the price of £16k is fixed, then it went to 21k and appears to have finally sold after 3 years when it was last advertised for £12k. I made two further offers only 2k less than ones asking price and these are insanely over priced but was told they want to try and hold out for more.

This is why I try and find perfect cars, privately owned by ideally one/two owners. The buying experience is usually first class and I’d rather put the money in the hands of one who may need it for changing circumstances etc rather than than line the pockets of greed and bullsh!t of so called mint, best in the country cars.

Edited to add the below;

I should add, I would happily pay the asking price and in many cases have done, provided the asking price is realistic and sensible to begin with.

This fixed price bs is just another form of bullish tactics in addition to those that are recent and also have been evolving nicely for the automotive and motor sales industry for years. The wise won’t be trapped by this net. It’s probably the retail industry’s way to charge whatever they want, knowing other dealers and independent garages will be playing the same game.


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[Jasandjules]

We bought our E Class from a Main Dealer. And they negotiated...

 

[Ron240]

We bought our E Class from a Main Dealer. And they negotiated...

It applies to brand new cars and doesn't start until 3rd January 2023.

 

[SL63 Mark]

I also received the same email from Mercedes, and thought the same. If you want to sell something, there will always be a deal to be done.

Depends on supply and demand. Probably they think the demand for new cars is strong enough at the moment to support this sort of BS. We shall see.

Personally I prefer the used car approach, but understand this does not suit everyone.

 

[sonic]

I am sure this would suite MB perfectly being able to dictate the price, in practice I dont see it working.
The market will always find its price, if the price is too high buyers will move to other makes.

 

[davidsl500]

I wonder what the Competitions and Markets Authority, formally the Monopolies Commission, will think of that? - and why was there ever only one Monopolies Commission..?

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Price fixing by another name some call it a cartel it’s against all the principles of commerce and to protect dealers margins much like moving from biannual servicing to annual. Beware people bearing gifts there is always a catch and I’m surprised they can get away with it but it may just apply to the franchise owned by MB

 

[Ron240]

I wonder what the Competitions and Markets Authority, formally the Monopolies Commission, will think of that?

That is an interesting point...but thinking about it I believe it will not apply in this case.
This authority was set up to stop manufacturers dictating the price their product should be sold for by shops etc that had already bought it.
The difference here is that Mercedes retain ownership of all brand new unregistered vehicles within their dealer network, so legally at least there should be no problem.

 

[lewyboy]

Don't need to haggle these days anyway with Carwow , Drivethedeal, etc, and Mercedes are one of the bigger discounters on Carwow.
(My partner got herself a £18k Renault for £14k and I myself a £65k Jag for £51k, both brand new.)

Let's see if they're still on Carwow in January.

Possibly not, Porsche have a no haggling policy and don't appear on CarWow.

I did manage to negotiate a discount on a new Porsche last year but mainly down to dissatisfaction rather than anything else.

I have just achieved 25% off a new Volvo though.

 

[Ron240]

I have just achieved 25% off a new Volvo though.

Just to pick up on this one point...
There will obviously be reasons for it but I still think that is an incredible discount off the list price of a new car, so very well done to you.

 

[lewyboy]

Just to pick up on this one point...
There will obviously be reasons for it but I still think that is an incredible discount off the list price of a new car, so very well done to you.

Part negotiation and part standard discounts. £6k for taking their 0% finance and £3.6k existing customer loyalty discount.

 

[Binnedit]

There is an awful lot of change happening within the motor trade, especially with franchised dealers.

Many of the Manufacturers are forcing, what is known as, The Agency Model onto dealers. Whereas, the Dealer is paid a fixed fee for selling a new vehicle. Therefore no room to negotiate, as the price is fixed.

If I were a Dealer, that had spent millions building a dealership, customer base, etc etc. I might be a bit miffed at that.

MB might be one of the first to adopt this model. There are many more in the pipeline, believe me.

 

[Woodleigh]

In reality they don’t want anyone to buy a car from them, they want leases

Agreed; it smacks of sharp practice, not what you would expect from Mercedes.