You may have your heart set on a prestige or exotic car but assume its hefty price puts it out of reach, however there are ways to make the financial sting of funding such a high ticket item far more palatable than you might think. Perhaps that Porsche, high end BMW or Mercedes could be on your driveway sooner than you think.
Discounts
To start with, the full retail price may not be the actual price you’d pay if you’re prepared to do a bit of research and negotiate at the dealership. Even some prestige marque models can be bought for several thousands off the retail price.
You may find attractive deals being offered by a respective dealer or manufacturer as a matter of course; if not then do your own research by checking the websites of online car brokers.
Car brokers put the buyer (you) in touch with the seller (a franchised dealership) and are paid a small percentage of the price by the dealer they put you in touch with. They shouldn’t get involved in the sale directly so there’s no question of them registering the car and selling it on to you or similar. That said, check that the broker you’re working with is commissioned base; they shouldn’t ask you for any money.
There are pros and cons to using a broker, but then again you don’t have to actually buy through one. Many have online configurators, so you can price up your preferred specification and see what it costs if bought through them. It’s then a simple matter of seeing if your local dealerships are prepared to match the broker price.
It makes negotiations simple and easy; the dealership can either match the price or they can’t. If not you can try another or, if they’re close on price, decide whether to accept it or buy through the broker.
Other funding options
Rather than focusing on a premium priced car’s overall retail price, funding it through a lease whether a personal or business type could put you behind the wheel for a lot less per month than you thought possible.
Adjusting how much you’ll pay up front as a deposit – usually three, six or nine multiples of the monthly payment – will influence how much per month the car will cost. Hefty servicing costs and some replacements can be included as part of the lease on a ‘with maintenance’ basis, so you could enjoy prestige motoring at a reasonable monthly fixed cost.
Nearly new and pre registered
It’s well known that most cars take their biggest depreciation hit as soon as they’re first registered, so the canny buyer can gain by looking at the nearly new and pre registered options.
Dealerships frequently sell their own demonstrators soon after registering them, and often sell pre-registered cars. These are models registered but likely not used so will have delivery mileage only – they’re often put on the road by a dealership so as to count as registrations to go towards a monthly or quarterly manufacturer sales target. They account for up to 30% of annual car sales.
You could try pushing for further reductions as these cars are costing the dealership money in tied up stock so they’ll want to move them on.
Saving on prestige is certainly possible
It’s certainly possible to save money; even prestige cars can be heavily discounted at times and there’s always the flexible funding options such as leasing.
