VRT changes.. ***THE CATCH***

unkel

For gar_29: we discussed that here a while ago

port

I was in a BMW garage today and seen about thirty unregistered 520d awaiting collection after 1-7-2008.These were ordered for early Jan.Salesman told me that business is extremely quite.He implied that the lack of customers was vrt related and that alot of carsales jobs were under threat.

galwayallday

E92 do you even own a BMW?

maidhc

port wrote: »

He implied that the lack of customers was vrt related and that alot of carsales jobs were under threat.

The problems run deeper than VRT to be honest. Of course car sales jobs are under threat. A lot of jobs are.

jimmycrackcorm

I read in the Irish Times today that a BMW Ireland guy specifically stated the reduced price of the 320D and that the 520D was coming down also by over €8k.

Biro

galwayallday wrote: »

E92 do you even own a BMW?

Whether he does or not doesn't take from the fact that he knows about them.

MarkN

maidhc wrote: »

The problems run deeper than VRT to be honest. Of course car sales jobs are under threat. A lot of jobs are.

Cars sales in Jan 2008 were up 4% on the same period in 2007.

port

Yes Jan sales show an increase of 4% in overall car sales.My post was specific to a particular BMW garage not the market in general.The salesman's concerns were driven by the fact that majority of BMW customers are waiting until July to purchase and the lack of sales for five months will translate into poor income for 2008.As regards price and spec from July,as far as he was aware relevant vrt reduction would be applied to cars and options.

RedorDead

port wrote: »

Yes Jan sales show an increase of 4% in overall car sales.My post was specific to a particular BMW garage not the market in general.The salesman's concerns were driven by the fact that majority of BMW customers are waiting until July to purchase and the lack of sales for five months will translate into poor income for 2008.As regards price and spec from July,as far as he was aware relevant vrt reduction would be applied to cars and options.

But at the same time there is going to be a huge rush to register cars that will go up in price in July. High powered petrol engines, SUVs, performance sports cars etc . Depending on the marques they work with i cant see them being too quiet.

Stevie Dakota

BMW may be quiet now but come mid year their sales are going to go through the roof. What they have achieved through Efficient Dynamics really shames the other German marques, who are now playing serious catch-up.

E92

Stevie Dakota wrote: »

BMW may be quiet now but come mid year their sales are going to go through the roof. What they have achieved through Efficient Dynamics really shames the other German marques, who are now playing serious catch-up.

They had 3.71% of the market last month, 1 year ago they had 3.9% of the Jan market. They registered 1765 cars in Jan 08, compared to 1803 in Jan 07, so they are still flying out of the showrooms.

Info from the SIMI.

What will be really interesting to see is what their market share is in 2009, and even how many they shift after July. I can't wait to see what happens then.

MarkN

I'm thinking of an E92 335d M sport for next year so if a lot of current petrol BMW drivers think along the same lines as me as in saving some road tax etc - having your cake and eating it basically, they will do quite well I'm sure.

E92

MarkN wrote: »

I'm thinking of an E92 335d M sport for next year so if a lot of current petrol BMW drivers think along the same lines as me as in saving some road tax etc - having your cake and eating it basically, they will do quite well I'm sure.

The petrol one will be only €400 more a year to tax(than the 335d), which in turn is €290 less than what you're paying for your current E92.

Diesel and Coupé in the same sentence just doesn't sound right IMO;).

And the other 6 pot petrols cost the same as the any equivalent 6 pot diesel automatic e.g. 325i is no dearer than 325d Auto for tax, same with 330i and 330dA. Once you put an Autobox onto any 6 pot 3 series or 5 and 6 series for that matter(excluding the 335i) you're in the same VRT/ road tax category no matter whether you go for petrol or diesel. The 6 cylinder BMW petrols even manage better CO2 emissions than other cars' 5 and 6 cylinder diesels never mind their petrols.

With BMW, you can have petrol and still have your cake and eat it if you choose any 6 cylinder EfficientDynamics model(excluding the 335i);).

MarkN

E92 wrote: »

Diesel and Coupé in the same sentence just doesn't sound right IMO;).

When you're throwing €300 worth of petrol per month into a 335i to do 1,600kms a month, you'll get over diesel and coupe in the same sentence

I do love the sound off it though.

E92

MarkN wrote: »

When you're throwing €300 worth of petrol per month into a 335i to do 1,600kms a month, you'll get over diesel and coupe in the same sentence

I do love the sound off it though.

Assuming petrol costs €1.18 a litre, I worked it out that you're averaging about 18 mpg. That's terrible, I know it's a straight 6 3.0, but still. I remember unkel saying he got about 22 mpg from his 735i, but that's a much bigger and heavier car with 2 more cylinders to be feeding, and no fancy direct injection or twin turbos either! Are you driving it in town all the time, or have you a right foot that likes the accelerator pedal a lot closer to the floor than most average drivers:D?

MarkN

All town driving, 11kms to work in traffic, 11 kms home in light traffic.

The on board computer is normally hovering from 19-21mpg. It's not bad on motorway/national route cruising but in Dublin I wouldn't call the 335 economical at all - don't get me wrong, I knew all this when I bought the car...

-Chris-

E92 wrote: »

Diesel and Coupé in the same sentence just doesn't sound right IMO;).

Drive an A5 3.0TDi Quattro and you'll change your mind! Loved ours while we had it!!

mick.fr

Whatever appends in July, you guys can still negotiate a 10% rebate at the stealership anyway. Should not be a big deal.

-Chris-

mick.fr wrote: »

Whatever appends in July, you guys can still negotiate a 10% rebate at the stealership anyway. Should not be a big deal.

I don't getcha...

mick.fr

AudiChris wrote: »

I don't getcha...

Read the thread :-)

-Chris-

Sorry, I really do need clarification.

10% rebate? At what stage? From who?

Besides from that, the principle of the original post has been called into question by other posts/threads as there is still much confusion as to whether the change in pricing will be passed on in reduced RRP or increased spec. At the moment, no one knows.

mick.fr

AudiChris wrote: »

Sorry, I really do need clarification.

10% rebate? At what stage? From who?

Besides from that, the principle of the original post has been called into question by other posts/threads as there is still much confusion as to whether the change in pricing will be passed on in reduced RRP or increased spec. At the moment, no one knows.

That's what I said, whatever will be passed or not in July, you guys should get a 10% off if you ask when you will buy your car.
And for sure, all the stealership will stay very evasive about the new prices in July because otherwise it means no revenus for till July, well anyway, this is what is happening already...

unkel

E92 wrote: »

you're averaging about 18 mpg. That's terrible, I know it's a straight 6 3.0, but still. I remember unkel saying he got about 22 mpg from his 735i, but that's a much bigger and heavier car with 2 more cylinders to be feeding

90% of my travel is in the Dublin area, but I do not have a start-stop commute into the city centre. On an 11km trip into the city centre taking say 90 minutes, I doubt I would even hit double figures!

knifey_spoonie

I supose all of ye who go to the uk are going to walk into your local dealer and demand for warranty work to be carried out, and you all expect that the garage is going to go out of its way and help you, get over yourselves .

And those of you who think that prices will fall by 8k they wont but there will be some savings to be had

When you think about it

A: The dealer is not going to pocket the money is completly wrong its going to come out at importer and manufacturer level, dont expect dealers all of a sudden to make an extra 8k because it aint going to happen (that would probally triple profits) , all they can do is take what the importer says and smile and act as if the like it

B: There is no way the price of cars are just going to suddenly drop 8k, imagine youve bought a nice bmw or whatever in jan and now its not only depreciated by 7k because of six months driving add another 8k due to the drop in vrt so in that year alone youve lost 15k.If that was me i would be none to happy and probally never go back to that brand.Trust me thats the last thing dealers want to happen.

C: Hands up all of you who are going to buy a new car straight (Very Few) so in that case your cost to change is going to stay similar, all second hand prices are directly linked to the cost of a car new so the price of all cars inc second hands will drop.Therefor logically the retail price of your trade in will drop to


And the whole idea of extra kit is exactly whats going to happen thats coming from two different manufactures.Thats what ive been told both at fairly high levels ie dealer principal . I know for a fact one importer has gone back to the manufacturer and enquired about reducing co2 on some models that are close to a smaller band by losing weight or remapping the ecu ect

unkel

knife_fighter wrote: »

And those of you who think that prices will fall by 8k they wont

You need to re-read this thread, knife_fighter. Better still, have a look at the new sticky. If every person intending to buy a car in the first 6 months of this year had done that, we'd be talking clusterf*ck came early

A base BMW 320d will go down by €7k. A base BMW 520d will go down by €8k. BMW has officially commited to this on several occasions

E92

It BeeMee wrote: »

Here's the text from the permanent TSB "Auto Ireland" magazine:

Sean Green, MD BMW Group Ireland
The vast majority of BMW and Mini models will decrease in price. To give a couple of examples, a 2.0 litre BMW 320 Diesel with emissions of 128g/km which is currently priced at €47,800 will see it's price fall to €40,762, while the price of a BMW 520D with CO2 emissions of 136g/km will fall by €8,190 (manual transmissions only).

I felt it was worth repeating it for the benefit of knight_fighter(I actually have this mag as well, and it says exactly what was posted by It BeeMee).

unkel

E92 wrote: »

I felt it was worth repeating it for the benefit of knight_fighter(I actually have this mag as well, and it says exactly what was posted by It BeeMee).

Indeed. I have it here too!

maidhc

knife_fighter wrote: »

I supose all of ye who go to the uk are going to walk into your local dealer and demand for warranty work to be carried out, and you all expect that the garage is going to go out of its way and help you, get over yourselves .

Why not? The Dealer charges the manufacturer... the manufactuer will pay regardless of where the car was bought.

-Chris-

maidhc wrote: »

Why not? The Dealer charges the manufacturer... the manufactuer will pay regardless of where the car was bought.

It's only natural for a dealer to give preferential treatment to their own customers before the customers of other dealers. Imports tend to be third tier.

Afaik, all modern vehicles come with European warranties, so there should be no problem getting your car fixed or serviced. Shouldn't be much of a problem getting it serviced either. Realistically you probably won't get the same level of service as if the car was purchased from that dealer.

-Chris-

mick.fr wrote: »

That's what I said, whatever will be passed or not in July, you guys should get a 10% off if you ask when you will buy your car.

We've covered this in a different thread, so I don't want to drag it up again, but you're presuming the dealer has a 10%+ margin with which to give you this fantastic discount. It's not going to happen.

mick.fr wrote: »

And for sure, all the stealership will stay very evasive about the new prices in July because otherwise it means no revenus for till July,

The salespeople have no other choice than to be evasive about what will happen, as none of them have any idea.
I would strongly condemn any salesperson who told their customer that they should make a purchasing decision based on spurious information (a.k.a. lying). It's unprofessional.

mick.fr wrote: »

well anyway, this is what is happening already...

..covered in another thread, sales are up 4% on this period last year, which were up 12% on the year before.


Sorry man, don't mean to be pedantic, but I do feel the need to defend my profession. And I also object to the repeated use of the word stealership - offended is too strong a word, but let's just say it makes me feel uneasy