# I'm rubbish at buying cars!!



## tmitch45 (Jul 29, 2006)

Ok seen a top of the range mondeo with low miles I'm interested in at a main dealer for £18,300. This is a bit more than I wanted to spend and was wondering what my target price should be? How much would people expect to haggle the price down to? Also any advice on the car buying process would be appreciated. As background I have no car to part exchange and I will be using a 50:50 combination of savings and finance.


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## Derbyshire-stig (Dec 22, 2010)

go round the car and find as much wrong as possible, also how is the car priced compared to others the same age/miles etc?
then if its daft expensive you have some wiggle room, if not then its down to taking the mrs with a low cut top on to help out.


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## turboyamaha (Nov 18, 2010)

Push for a couple of grand off then see what they come up with? Once the price has been agreed get a years road tax, tank of fuel mudflaps and mats thrown in. I have bought seven brand new cars and never not managed to get this!! I have also got a first service thrown in 3 times!!


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## SteveTDCi (Feb 8, 2006)

I'd start at 17k and work upwards, you can always go up but never come down  Mondeo's with petrol engines are not going to be popular and its not the kind of car private buyers would go for. Its getting closer to month end too with sales targets to hit. Don't forget to search all of the cars in the UK, never be put off travaling, flights can cost as little as £40 and a one way car hire £55, its a small price to pay for what could be a £1000 saving.


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## andy665 (Nov 1, 2005)

Bit of advice from someone in the trade for 20+ years:

1. Set a top limit that you're happy to spend and be prepared to walk away
2. The fact its coming to the end of the month will have no bearing on sales targets - its a used car - only used car target will be an internal one with no £ resting on whether they hit it or not
3. Be reasonable, screwing someone to the floor on the price will not buy you any goodwill if there is a problem later on, allow them to make a little profit and you'll be better looked after
4. Negotiate the deal and be open with them - its not just the price of the car but also the rate if you're funding 
5. Don't agree on a deal and then demand more - agree a deal and stick to it - exactly as you'd expect the dealer to do - if you want extras then state so. I'd look for GAP to be included rather than mats / flaps - just be aware that it will probably cost them no more than £60-70 if its Return To Invoice 
6. Find adverts of similar cars to check the price and to use as part of your negotiation


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## tmitch45 (Jul 29, 2006)

Derbyshire-stig said:


> go round the car and find as much wrong as possible, also how is the car priced compared to others the same age/miles etc?
> then if its daft expensive you have some wiggle room, if not then its down to taking the mrs with a low cut top on to help out.


Don't worry she is comming as she will drive the car half the time. She may wear a low cut top but it might not work as she is 7months pregnant! Actually that might work they are bigger at the moment:lol:


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## President Swirl (Oct 23, 2011)

Get a perfectly good car for 6 grand, and put the rest in a fund for your child's university costs. You'll probably lose 5k in the first year anyway.


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## tmitch45 (Jul 29, 2006)

President Swirl said:


> Get a perfectly good car for 6 grand, and put the rest in a fund for your child's university costs. You'll probably lose 5k in the first year anyway.


Yep its a good point but we want something that is bigger (need a bigger boot), reliable, with cheaper running costs (tax, fuel etc) and isnt going to depreciate too badly. We intend to keep for 4-5years so we don't want something thats really old and tatty by then and costing a fortune in repair bills and for wear and tear items. For example I had a brand new Focus st3 last car and apart from servicing, tyres (6 new in 5 years) and mot it never put a foot wrong and I had no nasty repair bills.

We do have separate savings for the little ones especially with the baby girl due as my mate have said "better start saving for the wedding now!".


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## Chicane (Mar 31, 2011)

You can pick up a perfectly good 08 mondeo tdci for 6k with reasonable mileage, certainly wouldn't be forking out nearly 20 grand for a mondeo! that's Audi territory there and that's what I'd be looking at if I were spending that much!


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## andy665 (Nov 1, 2005)

tmitch45 said:


> isnt going to depreciate too badly


Buying a nearly new high spec Mondeo is going to depreciate like a stone


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## cobra (Feb 18, 2012)

£18,300 for a mondeo 

if your wanting to keep it for some time, i'd be looking at the makers offering the seven year warranties or like others have suggested picking up a £6k mondeo - get an exlease one and change it in a couple of years.

or even lease a car?

for nearly £20k you could get a nice nearly new bmw, audi or an alfa even!


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## tmitch45 (Jul 29, 2006)

Ok to give some background the car in question is the titanium x sport 2.0 (240bhp) with duel clutch auto. TBH I was really impressed with how it drives and with the interior which as others have commented in other sections is up there with audi and BMW. I've looked at A4's in the past and the space inside is small compared to my mk2 focus let alone the mondeo. Yes it is not a premium brand but if you get past the badge its a quality product that out scores all in its class according to numerous mag reviews. The car has suffered large depreciation already at a year old so this should slow down now. At sale my focus lost about 13K in nearly 5 years so if the mondeo is similar I can live with that for the reliability and warrenty that comes with a younger car. I guess it comes down to personal preference in the end I've looked at most other cars with similar specs. People may think I'm a car snob but I really do prefer a newer car and I wouldn't ever drive certain makes of car.


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## Guest (Mar 19, 2012)

first up mate, its your cash, if its what you want go for it, badges are of no interest to me, been there seen it blah,blah, all I can say is we run a few of these mondeos at work, all 2.0 diesels, most have been trouble free,odd things like remote key fobs, cd player and a few other electrics have failed, quality I would say is good but not as good as reports suggest, some of the plastics and carpet trim are not great, other than that I would say very nice drive apart from the 2.0 diesel is a little bit underpowered IMO, we have a 09 plate with just under 100k on it, so far no major faults


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## tmitch45 (Jul 29, 2006)

Looking back through the thread I think I to would be saying 18k for a mondeo is stupid but this is the equivilent of the Mondeo St220 and I therefore hope isn't a model that isn't going to depreciate heavily.


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## Matt. (Aug 26, 2007)

Bit off topic but how was Centre Parcs?

PM me.


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## SteveTDCi (Feb 8, 2006)

All mondeos will depreciate and I would guess petrols will depreciate more than a diesel, if you are going to keep it for 5 years then I wouldn't be too concerned although if you intend to sell it in 1-2 years then I'd expect a 10k hit


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## andy665 (Nov 1, 2005)

The Mondeo is a great car - I have a 2.0 TDCi Zetec and done 54k in twelve months with zero faults

BUT

Its a car sold mainly to fleets at big discounts - any bought privately, especially petrol will drop massively

No reflection on its quality as a car, merely market forces. I would choose the Mondeo over a similarly priced A4, Passat etc but I would accept that its going to depreciate faster than anything with a "premium" badge


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## tmitch45 (Jul 29, 2006)

Fair point Andy thats my take on the situation too. Like my focus ST we will be keeping it for 4-5 years min. I've looked at loads of cars and this just ticks all the boxes and is a 'family car' compromise after the Focus ST which I loved and never let me down in nearly 5 yrs. TBH thats why I'm more than happy to stick with Ford plus I have a very good small family run dealership 5 mins away who take good care of my cars. 

Anyway the deal is now done, got a reasonable price on the car with tax and first years service thrown in once they couldn't budge on the price. Hope to pick it up at the weekend and then to treat it to a good detail and some of that 3M VentureShield stone chip protector for the front of the car as the Focus ST did suffer badly with stone chips.


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## ford nut (Dec 12, 2011)

Good luck with the new car, I have a 58 plate Mondeo Titanium x 2.0tdci, has been a lovely car, had mine just over a year, had 18k on it when i picked it up and i get around 48 to the gallon, cant fault it for comfort and performance, what reg is yours?, worth looking into the extended warranty if it is out of the ford warranty period tho, :thumb:


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## tmitch45 (Jul 29, 2006)

ford nut said:


> Good luck with the new car, I have a 58 plate Mondeo Titanium x 2.0tdci, has been a lovely car, had mine just over a year, had 18k on it when i picked it up and i get around 48 to the gallon, cant fault it for comfort and performance, what reg is yours?, worth looking into the extended warranty if it is out of the ford warranty period tho, :thumb:


Thanks, its an '11' plate so still has 2 and a quarter years warrenty and has only done 3400miles so its basically a new car only about £9k cheaper.


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## SteveyG (Apr 1, 2007)

Congrats on the new car purchase. IMO £18k is not unreasonable for a nearly new TitX Sport. We compared so many of the 'premium' brands, but didn't find anything that matched the Ford or felt as nice to be in.

Did you get any fancy extras, or is it the stock TitaniumX Sport?


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## tmitch45 (Jul 29, 2006)

SteveyG said:


> Congrats on the new car purchase. IMO £18k is not unreasonable for a nearly new TitX Sport. We compared so many of the 'premium' brands, but didn't find anything that matched the Ford or felt as nice to be in.
> 
> Did you get any fancy extras, or is it the stock TitaniumX Sport?


Cheers mate and thanks for the comments. After reading some on the comments I was starting to think I'd made a huge mistake but like you we had done our homework and prefered the mondeo to the Audi and BMW all day long. Its the Titanium X Sport 2.0 (240bhp) petrol with powershift. Didn't think I'd ever go for an auto but this is really nice and smooth and in tiptronic mode is very responsive. Its a very relaxing drive more of a cruiser and totally different to the Focus ST3. Its very similar to the VW dsg and as good as the box on my father-in-laws lexus! I drove a 2.2 TDI Titanium X sport to get an idea of the car and was impressed but we dont do the miles to warrent a diesel.

The whole buying experience yesterday was very strange! The sales man really didn't seem like he wanted to sell us the car. I suppose it might have been his demonstrater and he didn't want to part with it! or is it a sales tactic? To be honest it was like pulling teeth, he didn't really know much about the car interms of what it came with and anything extra that was fitted. He didn't even seem like he knew what he was doing with the autobox so after a while I just stopped asking tech questions as I got the impression he was either taking a wild guess or didn't know. TBH it had everything and more that I could want so will enjoy discovering any extras when I collect it. TBH i was more bothered about fully checking the alloys and bodywork for dings etc. In the end we didn't get a huge amount off the list price but it was very competitivily priced compared to a national search on autotrader. We left the showroom when he wouldn't budge on price and phoned him back to close the deal later. As I said after knocking a few hundred off he wouldn't budge so we managed to get him to pay for the 1st service at our local ford dealer and throw in the tax which he did.

To answer your question I think its mainly a standerd X sport but I need to go over the standard specs in the catelogue and double check if there are any extras as these need to be declaired to the insurance. The only thing it didn't have is the rear privicy glass but if I'm that bothered I can get this fitted in time. I don't know if people are aware (I wasn't) but when your insurance ask about modifications even ford optional extras need to be declaired. I can understand if we are talking ford bodykits or larger alloys but apparently its anything that doesn't come as standard for that model so daylight running lights, parking sensors, spoilers different radio etc. My insurance said that in the event of a claim these extras cost more to replace so need to be declaired otherwise the policy could be void!!. If this is accurate I dread to think how many people are driving around with accidentally undeclaired modifications.

SteveyG I notice you have recently got yourself a mondeo what extras did you get? manual or auto? any pics? I'll be collecting mine on Saturday so after a clean will be posting up some pics.


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## SteveTDCi (Feb 8, 2006)

Most dealers especially Ford are really hard work and don't understand the products, your bestr off just doing your homework and then just buying the car. Some dealers do have car people there rather than people that have worked up from McDonalds through Currys  

I find people on the fleet side actually like cars and have an interest in them 

I knew about the insurance, its quite common that they only replace the car based on basic spec, thats why specialised brokers are so much better


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## SteveyG (Apr 1, 2007)

tmitch45 said:


> Cheers mate and thanks for the comments. After reading some on the comments I was starting to think I'd made a huge mistake but like you we had done our homework and prefered the mondeo to the Audi and BMW all day long. Its the Titanium X Sport 2.0 (240bhp) petrol with powershift. Didn't think I'd ever go for an auto but this is really nice and smooth and in tiptronic mode is very responsive. Its a very relaxing drive more of a cruiser and totally different to the Focus ST3. Its very similar to the VW dsg and as good as the box on my father-in-laws lexus! I drove a 2.2 TDI Titanium X sport to get an idea of the car and was impressed but we dont do the miles to warrent a diesel.
> 
> The whole buying experience yesterday was very strange! The sales man really didn't seem like he wanted to sell us the car. I suppose it might have been his demonstrater and he didn't want to part with it! or is it a sales tactic? To be honest it was like pulling teeth, he didn't really know much about the car interms of what it came with and anything extra that was fitted. He didn't even seem like he knew what he was doing with the autobox so after a while I just stopped asking tech questions as I got the impression he was either taking a wild guess or didn't know. TBH it had everything and more that I could want so will enjoy discovering any extras when I collect it. TBH i was more bothered about fully checking the alloys and bodywork for dings etc. In the end we didn't get a huge amount off the list price but it was very competitivily priced compared to a national search on autotrader. We left the showroom when he wouldn't budge on price and phoned him back to close the deal later. As I said after knocking a few hundred off he wouldn't budge so we managed to get him to pay for the 1st service at our local ford dealer and throw in the tax which he did.
> 
> ...


I had a very similar experience, where he didn't really know too much about it, and I struggled to get much of a discount. Supposedly the actual dealership don't make the kind of profits they used to and it just goes to Ford or the dealership group. Don't know how much of that to believe, but I got £750 taken off which brought it down to the figure I had in my head, and cheaper than similar spec ones on Autotrader and Pistonheads.

I ended up getting the 2.2 Manual Estate in Panther Black with Touchscreen Nav + Rear view camera (coz this thing is ******* huge!!), privacy glass, keyless, cargo pack and auto headlamps/wipers. Wasn't originally going to get an estate, but we fell in love with this car when we saw it. Alloys were pristine :thumb: 
Hopefully will collect Wed next week.


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## SteveyG (Apr 1, 2007)

Picked up my Mondeo last Tuesday and finally got a chance to give it a clean today. Ended up taking a lot longer than usual due to the size of this thing. Had to get some steps out the garage to reach to the centre of the roof and I'm 6'1"!

Overall I couldn't be happier - it really shifts when I put my foot down, the interior is a comfortable place to be and fuel economy on my 60 mile trip to work and back is getting me about 54mpg :thumb:























































:argie:


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## kevoque (Jan 16, 2012)

Hi same engine that is in my Range Rover Evoque as well but don't seem to be getting the same mpg !! Nice motor !!
Enjoy !!
Kev


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

The claim is mid 30s mpg average for that engine. 

None of the diesel Mondeos nevermind petrols I've driven have managed 54mpg so your computer is either faulty, your maths are out or your work is 80 miles downhill. 

Not the slightest chance of bettering the manufacturers claims by over 50%. 

The Mondeo is a good car. There isn't much arguing against that. 

It actually looks better as an estate than hatch.


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## SteveyG (Apr 1, 2007)

Mine is the Diesel 2.2  The book says 57mpg for extra urban, so I'm almost there...

I get 34mpg around town.


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

SteveyG said:


> Mine is the Diesel 2.2  The book says 57mpg for extra urban, so I'm almost there...
> 
> I get 34mpg around town.


I was scanning through the thread on my phone and missed it wasn't the OPs car.

He will only get mid 30s at best.

That could mean with the purchase price,depreciation and fuel costs it does make a 6 cylinder German car more than worth consideration.


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## SteveTDCi (Feb 8, 2006)

That looks really smart


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