A1 Car Broker - Good price? I think not!

spoonage · 06-01-2006, 01:43 PM

I submitted a form to A1 Car Broker after paying my $54.95 to get the best quote I can get for a FPV Tornado 6 speed manual. The price I got back was $51,551.00. I went to a dealership last week in Canberra (Gregorys Ford) and was quoted $49,490 on the EXACT same vehicle with FPV mats and a sports bar.

So buyer beware, check YOUR prices before forking out over $50 to give to these guys who won't even give you a decent price.

:

Bossxr8 · 06-01-2006, 06:08 PM

Burn!!!

rob_liss_lms10 · 06-01-2006, 06:25 PM

were you quoted drive away prices from both places?,car yards tend to forget to mention gov charges etc when quiting prices.

spoonage · 06-01-2006, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rob_liss_lms10

were you quoted drive away prices from both places?,car yards tend to forget to mention gov charges etc when quiting prices.

Indeed I was, both are driveway inc. government charges. And ALSO, the one from Gregorys has 12 months ACT rego worth $1012.

06-01-2006, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spoonage

12 months ACT rego worth $1012.

I knew there was a reason I've kept my NSW rego going.....costs me about half that, including CTP.

red_hotxr6 · 06-01-2006, 06:41 PM

Hmm a bit of petrol change left over. :eclipsee_

Dannopower · 06-01-2006, 07:16 PM

Thats bloody awfull, considering some people have bought them for the 45-46 mark in recent months!

spoonage · 06-01-2006, 07:22 PM

Site sponsor or not, I'm disappointed with them. When I told them how much I could get it for from Gregory's, I got the following:

We have investigated your price vs. ours and we conclude that your dealer is offering you an exceptionally low price. Dealers will occasionally sell at a loss.
If we can help in any other way, let us know. Check this site for paint and rust protection and get an insurance quote from Insurers Hotline.

Didn't even care to look around more :(

What a waste of $54 worth of drinking money! Thats a case of crownies.

parawolf · 06-01-2006, 07:24 PM

Yeah thats pretty poor. I would have thought that a car broker would then attempt to find out why their negotitated price was higher than Joe Average.

spoonage · 06-01-2006, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by parawolf

Yeah thats pretty poor. I would have thought that a car broker would then attempt to find out why their negotitated price was higher than Joe Average.

The thing is, I didn't negoiate at all. That is the price I was givin by Gregorys.

Casper · 06-01-2006, 07:27 PM

So lets see? You got a quote from A1 and then went and found a better deal? How did you know it was a better deal? Because you already had a quote of what you could expect to pay based on A1's price. If you didnt have that, walked in and got told $53K with all the options you may have thought that was a good deal too.
I dont see how you have wasted $54. You got a quote that was given (and is cheaper than RRP), you managed to find a better deal (based on already knowing what you "should" pay) and you are going to have some change.
If you had spent $1000 then you should be annoyed but when talking $50,000 the $54 to know you have a good deal seems like a fair price to pay to me.

spoonage · 06-01-2006, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Casper

So lets see? You got a quote from A1 and then went and found a better deal? How did you know it was a better deal? Because you already had a quote of what you could expect to pay based on A1's price. If you didnt have that, walked in and got told $53K with all the options you may have thought that was a good deal too.
I dont see how you have wasted $54. You got a quote that was given (and is cheaper than RRP), you managed to find a better deal (based on already knowing what you "should" pay) and you are going to have some change.
If you had spent $1000 then you should be annoyed but when talking $50,000 the $54 to know you have a good deal seems like a fair price to pay to me.

Yes ok, how about we take a small peak at the dates and facts here before you go all guns ablazing. One would imagine I wouldn't wait an ENTIRE week to post this, so it's safe to assume I got the A1 quote today. I stated in the original post that I got the Gregory's quote last week.

Gregory's quote obtained last week sans any haggling or anything whatsoever, A1 quote received today. Advised A1 of the Gregory's price, A1 told me 'wow good price get that'. Surely they could get the same price if they goto all 600 dealers in Australia or whatever that rubbish is.

Edit: My feelings are that they were too lazy/couldn't be bothered to get a proper quote for me and decided to fob it off. Too bad I'm ready to buy this week or next.

Casper · 06-01-2006, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spoonage

Yes ok, how about we take a small peak at the dates and facts here before you go all guns ablazing. One would imagine I wouldn't wait an ENTIRE week to post this, so it's safe to assume I got the A1 quote today. I stated in the original post that I got the Gregory's quote last week.

I dont assume anything... and I have not gone in guns blazing. I think you have started this thread guns blazing enough for everyone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by spoonage

Gregory's quote obtained last week sans any haggling or anything whatsoever, A1 quote received today. Advised A1 of the Gregory's price, A1 told me 'wow good price get that'. Surely they could get the same price if they goto all 600 dealers in Australia or whatever that rubbish is.

Why would you assume that they would just natrually get a better price? With so many cases there are situations that arise where they may or may not get given the best prices. In this case they obviously havent been given a good price at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by spoonage

Edit: My feelings are that they were too lazy/couldn't be bothered to get a proper quote for me and decided to fob it off. Too bad I'm ready to buy this week or next.

Maybe, but I doubt it. I have also dealt with them and they were very helpful at the time when I was asking questions and trying to find out some information.

You seem to think that they have done you a massive diservice and generally made you waste $54. Did you talk to them and say this? Did you ask why they didnt get a better price? Did you tell them they didnt perform to your expectations? Or did you just want to make a nice big thread to have a vent and complain about them in public?

parawolf · 06-01-2006, 07:31 PM

But it still doesn't make sense that a car broker (any car broker) cannot get a better price than Joe Average - regardless of information on hand. I would have thought that the point of a car broker and paying a fee was to get in essence the best deal possible.

Obviously not the case.

LTDHO · 07-01-2006, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by parawolf

But it still doesn't make sense that a car broker (any car broker) cannot get a better price than Joe Average - regardless of information on hand. I would have thought that the point of a car broker and paying a fee was to get in essence the best deal possible.

Obviously not the case.

I can see it from the brokers side.

They call around and get the customer the best price. Then the advise the cusomer of this. If by chace the client goes to a dealer that either:-
a)has a car in stock they need to get rid of (been in yard too long)
b)have low sales for the month
c)can see making the money back on service.

They will sell at a loss, yes less they the dealer paid for the car. It has been done before. So this is out of control of the broker.

Parawolf your were lucky. Unless you got several quotes from a range of dealers, then that's another story.

**russellw** · 06-01-2006, 07:39 PM

I have forwarded this page link to the party concerned so that they have the opportunity to address this issue. In the meantime those wishing to add further comments should wait until both sides of the story are available to us.

Cheers
Russ

Smoke Pursuit · 06-01-2006, 08:50 PM

Interesting, in all my experience usually the car broker has a much better price and usually get the most freebies, id be interested to see what the story is here, at the end of the day if a dealer has to move a car for whatever reason, they may lose money..

Was there a Trade in involved?

Des · 06-01-2006, 08:59 PM

I wanna here the other side first, but, sounds like a "right place at the right time" sort of deal. Happens all the time across all industries. I'm sure A1 will make some valid points here as to the quotes.

CarBroker · 06-01-2006, 09:00 PM

Our price of $51.5K represtents a saving off retail of...

$6470

If we get a hardcopy of the quote, we refund in full. In runout, there may be a dealer sitting on a car that they are willing to cop a huge loss on, but we regularly get upset people that find that the dealer "made a mistake" or "the car has been sold, but look at this one here" etc.

I agree that $2K is a ridiculous difference, and I would like see it in writing.

deesun · 06-01-2006, 09:03 PM

I hope the build dates are the same year. If they guarantee the lowest price then they should refund the $54. But you should have taken that up with the broker.

I hate it when someone posts faster than me.

Bucknaked · 06-01-2006, 09:57 PM

It's slightly less than $1012, but it's still a heap of money. I just got my renewal for $739.85.

I don't think it's such a bad thing. If you know the price the broker can get it for and you have it in writing, providing its not the same dealership they got the quote from, you can always use it to bargin on your own. Could actually work to your advantage.

BOSS 540 · 06-01-2006, 10:04 PM

I have used a broker once to find a particular model 2nd hand in a short amount of time. Having just traded my car on a new one the hardest part is getting the 'first' price, no dealer really wants to commit unless you are willing to sign an order/ contract. If your prices were both from only the one/ same dealer its a bit hard to really compare (against other competition) to see how good/bad the price is IMO.

Pies1 · 06-01-2006, 10:24 PM

I wouldn't touch a Car Broker if they paid me.

I wont mention the name, but there is a certain other car broker, who I used in the past.

They couldn't match a dealers price i received on three different models, saving several thousand each time, the car broker basically just said the dealer must be making a loss, or they quoted runout models or some BS.

Suffice to say i told the car broker to get stuffed and thanks for wasting my time, thankfully they weren't charging me for their services at that point.

They only charge if you accept their deals.

Sponsors

max^power · 06-01-2006, 10:15 PM

I'd be suprised if the deal is legit, this happens alot in the computer industry too. "wow it's 400 bucks cheaper for the same thing!" .. when you pick it up or try to... "sorry we sold out, but heres another one (600 bucks more) or "oh sorry that didn't include a monitor, did you want one?".

ACT rego is heaps too BTW!

CarBroker · 06-01-2006, 10:30 PM

I'm not saying this applies in this case, but.... it's amazing how many times we get customers that believe the list price of a car is the onroad price. Dealers often quote list prices to people when they are asked for their best price. It's a pretty useful strategy for the dealer, but annoying to the customer in the end.

max^power · 06-01-2006, 10:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CarBroker

I'm not saying this applies in this case, but.... it's amazing how many times we get customers that believe the list price of a car is the onroad price. Dealers often quote list prices to people when they are asked for their best price. It's a pretty useful strategy for the dealer, but annoying to the customer in the end.

This is just an idea then.... Why not do what the dealers do, play their game. If i want a price of a fairlane ghia, give me the best list price as well as the best final price in the one quote? Then it's pretty obvious whats going on. You may already do this dont know.

The other tricks ive seen dodgy places use to beat prices is telling the customer an EX tax price.. they can compare all they like, they've still go to tack on 10%. maybe include that, in the quotes.

CarBroker · 06-01-2006, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by au^ute

This is just an idea then.... Why not do what the dealers do, play their game. If i want a price of a fairlane ghia, give me the best list price as well as the best final price in the one quote? Then it's pretty obvious whats going on. You may already do this dont know.

Not a bad idea, but it may risk confusing things even more. I will talk to the other guys about it and see what they think. As far as the tax thing, yes we get people quoting prices at us that don't include the GST either.

Don't want to give the wrong impression, though - the majority of people get it right. It's just those "other ones" that will read ads in the paper and not read the fine print where it says "excludes dealer and statutory charges" or "fleet buyers only" or "and if yo believe this, you need your head examined" ;)

Redrum · 06-01-2006, 11:36 PM

I think it is always best to shop around. I would never pay anyone for a quote. Brokers receive kick backs and the idea that they charge for quotes in my book is criminal. But alas in this situation was a deal, nothing hidden, so thus is business.

CarBroker · 07-01-2006, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redrum

I think it is always best to shop around. I would never pay anyone for a quote. Brokers receive kick backs and the idea that they charge for quotes in my book is criminal. But alas in this situation was a deal, nothing hidden, so thus is business.

I would just like to point out that we are (to my best knowledge) the *only* broker in Australia that declares all of our fees up front and make no secret of it.

We did try to make it "free" up front, but we were just completely overwhelmed by the requests that we got from tyre kickers. There was no way we we'd keep up unless we have an up front fee.

The vast majority of "car brokers" operate on the basis of hidden commissions. We don't. If *anyone* can show me a car broker (apart from us) that does not accept hidden commissions, I'd be more than interested. We're just about to publish our "Gifts and benefits" policy on our website - which makes it clear that we do not accept any gifts over $25 from anyone. Compare that to other brokers that take $4,000 without blinking.

Des · 07-01-2006, 05:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CarBroker

I would just like to point out that we are (to my best knowledge) the *only* broker in Australia that declares all of our fees up front and make no secret of it.

We did try to make it "free" up front, but we were just completely overwhelmed by the requests that we got from tyre kickers. There was no way we we'd keep up unless we have an up front fee.

The vast majority of "car brokers" operate on the basis of hidden commissions. We don't. If *anyone* can show me a car broker (apart from us) that does not accept hidden commissions, I'd be more than interested. We're just about to publish our "Gifts and benefits" policy on our website - which makes it clear that we do not accept any gifts over $25 from anyone. Compare that to other brokers that take $4,000 without blinking.

Got to say this is very "proper and reputable". I'd rather deal with someone who is straight and has nothing to hide (such as this) than someone who "might" be able to get great deals.
Unfortunately, as a Broker you get tarred with the same brush as all of the cowboy's out there who aren't quite forthright, just like Lawyers, Real Estate Agents and Used Car Salesman do....