but there's definitely stock around right now and some decent deals too.
...which leads me to the question I've just posted on the Off Topic forum:
What's the dealership mark-up on a new Jazz and how worried are they about sites such as CarWow? I'm wondering how a 'decent deal' is achieved.
I can't help on the dealer markup but I've just been through this exact dance with the Jazz and it's natural head to head rival... a BMW 320 MSport. No, seriously, stop laughing at the back! For the record the Jazz *slaughtered* the 320 for refinement hence the purchase. Anyway, back on topic...
Carwow is a broker site and do absolutely nothing to facilitate the sale. It's purely there to put dealers in touch with customers who they wouldn't normally get. Carwow makes a big chunk of its cash from dealers paying to be on the service (my local BMW dealer bailed when the cost didn't justify the extra revenue) and, so far at least, I've not had any dealer contact me directly. You just get a handful of general prices back for both cash and PCP (though you need to get in touch if you want the PCP breakdown figures, it's still just total cost of car) and it's up to you whether you pursue it or not.
With BMW I was honest with them when it came to pricing, showed them the best price I'd been given and they went away to swear vigorously in a backroom. Matched the (frankly silly) discount for me and had the attitude of 'this is absolutely fair, we'll try and match it if we can, if not we'll give you the best we can do and you can decide what to do next'. Surprisingly mature.
Did the same thing with Honda and while my local wasn't... uh, quite so friendly about it the process was much the same. As it happens they came back within maybe a hundred quid so convenience outweighed any possible saving by travelling to Reading. Dealers, ultimately, aren't stupid and know the tools are now out there for customers to be a lot more informed. Frankly I think some of them take it as a good thing when it cuts an hour of haggling out of the process and customers know what's more realistic.
Just to put some figures on it believe I got about a grand and a half (including the £500 deposit contribution) off an EX with Sunlight white paint plus the 5% apr, 5 years service plan, 5 years roadside assistance etc. Oh and as I currently live next to a large building site got £100 knocked off the paint protection option as well. For reference the best Carwow deal was around £150 cheaper but involved going to Grimsby so that seemed a fair trade off ;-)
Another thing to bear in mind at the moment is PX values are going silly. The whole reason I just changed was finding out my PX on a Civic was £500 less than I paid for it two years ago... Once again I'd suggest hunting around different manufacture web sites. A fair few have a free valuation service (though expect a follow-up call unless, of course, you accidentally typo your phone number) and while the likes of Honda don't some of the individual dealers do. Again, for reference, I was looking at £12k from Merc, £13.5 to £14.5 from BMW and Honda and, weirdly, £13.8 to £14.8k from Mazda. On a diesel Civic I paid £15k for in 2019. Yeah.... Definitely worth doing as the usual route of 'book price' doesn't really take into account market conditions which can best be described as a very empty cupboard with a few mothballs rolling around in a lonely kind of way. Same approach as a service like Carwow, be honest about what you've got from where (and be prepared to show the emails), you'll get decent pricing most of the time. Just do NOT use services like WeBuyAnyCar.com. Their entire business model is 'quote high, get car on site for appraisal, take off hundreds for every paint scratch or swirl even if they've been there from the factory' and dealers will laugh a lot if you try to match their on-line quote (rightly so).
