[Rolymo]

Hi All,As mentioned in my 1st Newbie post I have just collected my used Yeti. I did consider buying a new one but was put off by the long wait and non availability of my preferred colour steel grey.
I did get some fantastic price quotes from 3 online discount car dealers that offered savings of > £2500 over list price for a 2.0TDI CR S.

Does anyone have any experience of these online discount dealers? - they seem to good to be true and you know what that usually means.

Just curious as I may look at these again when I come to change again. Mind you, I love my new Yeti so much that I can't imagine parting with it.

Thanks.

 

[The Hood]

Hi Rolymo
I got my Yeti from skodastore.com who gave the level of discount you mention, both on the car and any extra's ordered at the same time. Skodastore are in fact Rainworth Skoda the same dealer that your Yeti came from.

 

[Rolymo]

Hi,Ah - OK, I didn't know that. That's really interesting.
Given that I received excellent sales service from Rainworth (Kev Smith), I may well look at Skodastore.com next time.
Just lobbed a piccy in the gallery.
Thanks for speedy feedback.

 

[discosteve]

The discounts are true! I'd never pay anywhere near list price again for a car, even though the Yeti is the first car I've bought from new. My local dealers couldn't get anywhere close to the price I paid in the end at a dealers via the What Car? Target Price team...

 

[Rolymo]

OK - thanks for feedback and confirmation of these discounts. I have been a loyal customer of my local Skoda Dealer for 13 years and they would only offer a 5% discount (around £700) on a new Yeti, which was a shame. I don't see how these dealers are going to survive long term car sales wise. Why would anyone pay list or close to when there are far better deals elsewhere if you look around?.Anyway, glad I opted for used in the end and very happy too.

 

[discosteve]

The thing is you ultimately end up buying from another Skoda dealer anyway via an introduction. They just save you the hard work of phoning around and haggeling. It's not like you are buying a CD from Amazon over an independant high street shop where they could argue that Amazon have lower running costs and can buy in bulk. Or maybe the bigger dealers CAN get a discount from Skoda if they buy more - I don't know? All I know is that the dealer that I went to and was only prepaired to throw in a set of mats and a tank of fuel has now closed...

 

[jmc445]

2 years ago I bought my 2.0 TDI 140 4x4 Elegance from www.happynewcar.co.uk.
They sourced the car in about 6 weeks as opposed to the 9 months that I was quoted by a dealer and I got £4000 off the list price. It was delivered to my house on a low loader from a dealer in Aldershot with 3 miles on the clock. The only slight anomaly was that it couldn't be registered in my name until 6 months had passed, and when I got the V5 the previous keeper was shown as a vehicle leasing company. I'm not sure how the deal was brokered, but overall I can't say I'm bothered really.

 

[The Hood]

The discounts might be available as when buying from a long way away the customer is not likely to come back with any minor niggles which would be expected to be fixed on the spot without charge. A smaller commission then end of storey. JMC445's Yeti probably came from Garland Motors who could not even produce a Yeti for a test drive when I was looking for one, so in their case they might have managed to sell a car without having to stock a demo. They also did not bother replying when I contacted them for a first service cost for my car. However Rainworth quoted £80 les for an 18000 mile service when asked.

 

[Empcom]

I bought my Octavia fropm my local Skoda dealer 5 years ago, when I decided to order a Yeti I did look on line printed details off and used these in my negotiations with my local dealer (same salesman as 5 years ago).It did take best part of 2 hours discussion but eventually got a £2000 discount on ther list price

As I have said elsewhere this was on 23 July but I am still awaiting delivery, latest estimate is that I will take delivery on 1st November

but at least I am well over halfway there.

 

[Rolymo]

Thanks for all your responses and feedback guys. Seems that the solution is (as always), do your homework (price wise) on the car you want to buy before visiting your local dealer.

Whilst on this subject, just noticed you can get a new Yeti Greenline S for under £14K now - seehttp://www.discounted-new-cars.com/outright-purchase-cars/skoda/yeti-diesel-estate-1.6-tdi-cr-s-greenline-ii-5dr-1037354.

May be of interest to any potential purchasers.

 

[SnowGood]

Who ever you go through I'd suggest you pay anydeposit by credit card. The discount company I ordered my yeti through went bust just before delivery. They had ordered through Rainworth who had the car and were good enough to honour the price I had agreed with the discounterbut I had to pay the deposit again and claim the original back from the credit card company. Things turned out okay in the end but it was worrying for a couple of weeks.By the way the salesman at Garland Motors, my nearest dealer, wasn't interested in offering any real discount as they seem to think at the time that they could sell all the Yetis they could get hold of. The fact that each time I went in the salesman was different and seemed to have been there less than a month may explain the different experiences people have had there.

 

[The Hood]

When I was looking for a Yeti Garland couldn't be bothered to get one for me to test drive, and earlier this year whenI tried to contact them by phoneabout getting mine servicedthey said they would call back but they did not, I emailed them, and again they could not be bothered to reply.In theory they are almost my local dealer but as far as I am concerned Garland Motors don't deserve to be in business.
They have a sister garage in Basingstoke and I have not heard any favourable comments about them either.

 

[SnowGood]

Hood Garland's sister Skoda dealer is in Winchester, not Basingstoke. Is that the one you meant or is there another South East Skoda dealership we should be wary of?

 

[The Hood]

Snowgood
Whoops I stand corrected you are entirely correct Ishould have put Winchester not Basingstoke.

 

[SnowGood]

Went into the Winchester dealer during the "buy or not to buy" stage and was generally left alone to sit in the Yeti they had in the showroom so no real experience of whether they are good or bad. Garland do seem to have a patchy reputation and Hood's experiences seem unfortunate so I am not sure what I'll do when it comes to the first service. Colborne's in Guildford are no better/worse.

If I remember rightly you can use any garage for servicing in the warranty period as long as they use genuine parts/oils etc, so any VAG dealer could be used for example. It's only Skoda dealers who are authorised to do any work under warranty however.