wai
04-07-2011, 09:22 PM
G'day,
Well, I will be placing my order for a new Caddy Maxi Life (Silver) tomorrow and thought I'd pass this tip on.
I went to see the dealer as I wanted to push things along. The other dealers did not seem to want to know me.
When asked what I did for work, I said I was a Professional Engineer, at which point I was asked if I was a member of an association or group as there were some good discounts on offer. I mentioned I was a Member of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, and discovered there was an arrangement with Volkswagen Group Australia to offer members a 10% discount plus a reduced dealer charge. This discount offer applies to VW and Skoda vehicles. The dealer also offered me a much better trade in on my Hiace.
Overall, I got a discount amounting to over $5,000 because of the better trade in and the member discount.
So, if you belong to any association or group check out any member benefits. You might be pleasantly surprised. NONE of the other dealers even bothered to check.
The other part to this post has to do with demo vehicles.
There are two demo vehicles being offered on some sales web sites here that are not really demos. One has run up over 4,000 km (the advert says 500 km) in the space of 4 months, and the other over 3,000 km in 5 months. I spoke to a dealer in Bendigo and when I mentioned 4,000 km in 4 months (more like a company vehicle that is also used for test drives), she said that their demos do that in 12 months. She also said to be very careful as a demo is just a second hand vehicle, and should be priced that way. She said that in many cases buyers of demo vehicles get a nasty shock when they discover the pleasures of stamp duty. There is a different regime for vehicles that have been registered and genuine new vehicles.
Demo vehicles can also have a very hard life with drivers testing things out. You can get an indication of this by the state of the tyres. I have seen both of the demo vehicles in question and their front (drive) tyres were very worn.
Anyhow, hope this info helps.
Well, I will be placing my order for a new Caddy Maxi Life (Silver) tomorrow and thought I'd pass this tip on.
I went to see the dealer as I wanted to push things along. The other dealers did not seem to want to know me.
When asked what I did for work, I said I was a Professional Engineer, at which point I was asked if I was a member of an association or group as there were some good discounts on offer. I mentioned I was a Member of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, and discovered there was an arrangement with Volkswagen Group Australia to offer members a 10% discount plus a reduced dealer charge. This discount offer applies to VW and Skoda vehicles. The dealer also offered me a much better trade in on my Hiace.
Overall, I got a discount amounting to over $5,000 because of the better trade in and the member discount.
So, if you belong to any association or group check out any member benefits. You might be pleasantly surprised. NONE of the other dealers even bothered to check.
The other part to this post has to do with demo vehicles.
There are two demo vehicles being offered on some sales web sites here that are not really demos. One has run up over 4,000 km (the advert says 500 km) in the space of 4 months, and the other over 3,000 km in 5 months. I spoke to a dealer in Bendigo and when I mentioned 4,000 km in 4 months (more like a company vehicle that is also used for test drives), she said that their demos do that in 12 months. She also said to be very careful as a demo is just a second hand vehicle, and should be priced that way. She said that in many cases buyers of demo vehicles get a nasty shock when they discover the pleasures of stamp duty. There is a different regime for vehicles that have been registered and genuine new vehicles.
Demo vehicles can also have a very hard life with drivers testing things out. You can get an indication of this by the state of the tyres. I have seen both of the demo vehicles in question and their front (drive) tyres were very worn.
Anyhow, hope this info helps.