Buying direct from manufacturer?

BreweryDave

BreweryDave

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Eye, Suffolk, UK
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Antique Mondial!
Exp
2011
What is to stop you buying direct from the factory for a new MH???
Cut out the middle men and save a few bob???
Can you just phone up and order one and collect from the factory???
Just a thought!
 
part of the manufacturers contract that comes with being a designated dealer will be that the vehicles will ONLY be sold through them and that no vehicles will be sold direct to the public . this is to ensure that the dealers set up /running costs and warranty back up are not undermined . in some instances each dealer will be guaranteed an area / region and no other dealer will be allowed to operate within that radius . as a point of interest this practice was severely challenged back in the late 90s within the motorcycle industry with the flood of parallel imports that were being brought into the uk from europe . savings of approx 40% could be had on crated bikes that were sitting in warehouses having been over supplied from japan perhaps 6months to a year before. the manufacturers were happy to turn a blind eye to them being sold off through the back door to the uk because they were not going to effect the MAINLAND EURO market . the problems came when people tried to take their hondas /yamahas etc into a uk franchied dealer for any warranty work . a lot were told to take it back to their original supplier as it had not gone through a initial set up and pdi service by a uk dealer and therefore was void of any warranty !! the good thing was though was that there was so little that ever went wrong with a new jap bike the savings outweighed the lack of warranty ! I DONT THINK THAT WOULD BE THE CASE ON A MOTORHOME DO YOU ? regards garry
 
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I have been to a static caravan trade show, and was amazed by just how much you could save on a new holiday home. £14.000 cost from the maker, as opposed to £42.000 for the same model bought at a holiday home park......However, try getting somewhere to keep your 14 grand van! They will only allow you onto a park if you buy from them.
 
All valid points. I just wonder what is the mark up on a 100k van???
Nice to know how much wriggle room there is!!!

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Murvi don't have dealers and do sell direct because they have to. No idea what sort of discounts are available (if any) but DevonBeekeeper is MURVI man so I imagine he'd know.
 
most converters wont even sell spare parts to the general public. its not in their interests to do so. Dealers make a markup yes, but that has to cover selling the van and any warranty issues for which they get paid very little

theres a good markup on £75k+ vans, but margins are tighter on budget vans
 
Bertie Bassett said:
Murvi don't have dealers and do sell direct because they have to. No idea what sort of discounts are available (if any) but DevonBeekeeper is MURVI man so I imagine he'd know.
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I think as a generalisation small manufacturers will tend to sell direct to the public but for larger ones it is probably too much of a distraction and they can probably sell more MHs through a network of dealers across the country than they could if they had to sell them all from thier factory gates. Try buying a car off the manufacturer. Some do, you can probably collect a Morgan from the factory but I doubt you can for say a Vauxhall.

I must admit buying from Murvi has spoiled us and I doubt I would be happy buying from a dealer. Being able to visit the factory and choose exactly what you want whether it is Fiat fitted parts of MH specific was excellent. But, we live a stone's throw from Murvi and it would be different if they were 300 miles away.
 
DevonBeekeeper said:
I think as a generalisation small manufacturers will tend to sell direct to the public but for larger ones it is probably too much of a distraction and they can probably sell more MHs through a network of dealers across the country than they could if they had to sell them all from thier factory gates. Try buying a car off the manufacturer. Some do, you can probably collect a Morgan from the factory but I doubt you can for say a Vauxhall.

I must admit buying from Murvi has spoiled us and I doubt I would be happy buying from a dealer. Being able to visit the factory and choose exactly what you want whether it is Fiat fitted parts of MH specific was excellent. But, we live a stone's throw from Murvi and it would be different if they were 300 miles away.
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Lucky you DBk, we went and spent a lot of time with Rex K but in the end went for something cheaper..............sadly!:cry:
 
BreweryDave said:
All valid points. I just wonder what is the mark up on a 100k van???
Nice to know how much wriggle room there is!!!
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We negotiated a 16% discount off our new Bessecarr
Another dealer who trying to sell us a £100k van (different brand) told us their margin was 15% and that they would split that with us.
I'd be tempted to offer a low price and increase your offer if necessary

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If a dealer can shave off £4,500 off of a brand new £47,000 van and chuck in about £1,000 worth of free accessories then I'm sure there is a good deal of haggling on a £100,000 van?
 
Having spent some time in the trade (not selling) I have a rough idea on what most dealers mark up. BUT be careful what you wish for as a dealer does need to have make enough on a sale to provide reasonable aftersales service. That was one of the reasons Brownhills got themselves into a fix as they discounted so much there was not enough money for aftersales and business running costs. A policy that Autotrail used then (they might still use it) was to allocate a certain number of vans to a dealership, once that number was sold they would not supply anymore until the next year. So if other manufacturers employ this policy a good time to haggle would be just before reallocation time (if you could find that out?)
 
Thanx. Not really applicable as only one uk dealer for what I want and will be ordering to a specific spec!
Just didn't want to either be tooooo cheeky or pay over the odds! We have good haggling skills between us!
 
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A decent discount also drops the VAT so they save there as well
 
We are also looking around at at the moment, we found it interesting to compare German price list in Euros to Uk. We found overall a 15% difference, this was after excluding tax differences, at best the Uk was 6% more than eu, worst was 20%. The exchange rate should mean healthy discounts if buying EU vehicle.

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Providing that the rate does not move against you between ordering, delivery and paying!

Any sort of crisis can set the rates moving all over the place!
 
We got about 3.5k off a 64k van and also a trade in that was a out 2k over the odds (dealer said "I can always sell a good AutoSleeper") plus a couple of bits thrown in.

Scaling that up to 100k you should get at least 10% off but might be limited by a shortage of competition for selling the van that you are considering.

Cheers, Dave & Jacki
 
Abacist said:
Providing that the rate does not move against you between ordering, delivery and paying!
Any sort of crisis can set the rates moving all over the place!
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Protection against adverse exchange rate movements
Transferring currency can be a difficult balancing act. We can help protect you by taking advantage of favourable movements whilst protecting you against unfavourable ones. We’ll even enable you to fix an agreed exchange rate with us for up to 24 months for even greater stability.​

Options are available ;)
 
but in reality rates dont move that much in my experience (imported 9 vehicles last 20 years) between agreeing a price and paying.... The market in Europe much bigger and deals to be had, 17% not unusual on a CB less on a PVC. But when in the UK all they seem to do is change the € symbol for the £ one, conveniently forgetting about exchange rates!.... We pay a heavy price in the UK for that stretch of channel! UK not called treasure island for nothing..

as for brownills cutting margins to the bone? back in 2007 got a quote for a EuroMobil with zilch kit, Oh they did generously say they would throw in an awning! price £45K. I got the same van loaded with 5K of extras for £34K in Europe

manufactures really only sell through dealer networks...small bespoke companies being the exception
 
Is there a strong financial advantage in buying a MH from Le Continent? I do know that you can buy the much sort after, (in this country), Eriba Caravans much cheaper in say Holland, (from a dealer), slap on a number plate, and tow them over, but of coarse a tug isn't a motor vehicle.......However, I do seem to remember that a few years ago, buying anew car from the EU was much cheaper then getting the same model here. Is that still the case??

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in theory, we in the uk should be able to enjoy the benefit of the great european free trading market that comes with being in the EU and purchase a new vehicle from whoever in the EU offers us the best deal ! however the reality is somewhat different , firstly most people will want their new vehicle built to their chosen spec [esp in the case of a motorhome ] as standard equipment on a van built for the southern euro market could be quite different from a van destined for northern /uk use. secondly most uk buyers will want RHD, so unlike the situation i mentioned in my previous post regarding mtorcycles [which only needed a headlight adjustment and a speedo mph overlay to make them the same as a uk bike] you would not be able to take any advantage of any surplus EU dealer stock [which would all be LHD !] having been a motor trader for over 40 years MY personal experience regarding purchasing NEW vehicles outside of a official uk supplier is this . weigh up any savings on purchase price with the practicalities and logistics of getting it home . be prepared for the reaction you may encounter from any uk dealers you approach should you require any repairs /warranty work doing [this can range from awkwardness to outright hostility ] esp when you turn up ranting and raving, demanding they put right something they have made no profit on in the first place !! also, be aware that when you come to sell it, esp in px , it could well be valued less than a original uk van . one other thing to bear in mind, is that some [not all] insurers are not keen on covering vehicles which have not been imported through the official uk dealer network. regards garry
 
We spoke to a Carthago salesman in Carthago-City, they explained that yes we could if we insisted buy a new MH from them but it would need to be delivered via a UK dealer, he implied they would negotiate a price with the dealer. I did not press him on this as we went really to compare all the model variants we were interested in alongside each other, we are also looking at 2 other manufacturers and still not decided.

There is a price difference due to RHD, UK sockets, Speedometer, may be headlight adjustment, and possibly delivery. But compare the specs of French, German and UK sold vans, and there are very few differences if any, and nothing to justify the 14% markup on the van price.

If we do get a new van, then I think we will go via a UK dealer (if we can find one we trust) to avoid the hassles noted previously with registration VAT etc... and warranty, but getting a price from the manufacturer or country of origin does give more information and hopefully will help us when negotiating with a UK dealer. Especially when adding options to the spec, as there can really be no debate about UK or EU spec then e.g
  • TecGrill - uk price £770, german price £568.23, 26%!!! (it is the same product, I have allowed for different tax rates etc..)
  • Carpet - uk price £250, german £232.41, 7%
  • Ancona upholstery - ukprice £310 , german £283.61, 8%
We only did this for Carthago as we had the information easily to hand and wanted to quantify our suspicions.
 
Hi dave
Just bought a new van a few weeks ago searched the country for the best deal and found after a lot of I can not afford that oh how much ! they gave me 5k off its still a bit more than i can afford so they called hymer who matched there 5k final saving 10k so in my opion if you haggle and haggle and are willing to walk away and wait for the right deal you can make big savings.
 
Just a thought regarding warranty work

Lets not forget the UK dealer is still getting paid by the manufacturer for any work done to your MH under warranty

The dealer doesn't do it on a charity basis, wether they sold the MH to you or not :)
 
Hi Kelv, I'm looking at hymers myself. Which dealer did you eventually buy from ? PM me if you don't want to advertise them.

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richr said:
Just a thought regarding warranty work

Lets not forget the UK dealer is still getting paid by the manufacturer for any work done to your MH under warranty

The dealer doesn't do it on a charity basis, wether they sold the MH to you or not :)
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richr said:
Just a thought regarding warranty work

Lets not forget the UK dealer is still getting paid by the manufacturer for any work done to your MH under warranty

The dealer doesn't do it on a charity basis, wether they sold the MH to you or not :)
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sorry dont know what happened there ! i totally agree with you richr but once again this is in theory and how it should work ! i am only speaking from MY experience, but a lot of dealers see warranty work as a curse, not as a business opportunity ! a lot of warranty work involves investigating annoying intermitant teething problems etc . obtaining authorisation and getting payment costs agreed [esp when in the case of a motorhome,the engine /chassis has been provided by lets say fiat and the hab body by swift for example ] takes them time and hence costs them money, in some cases this is not recoverable by the dealer . in the case of a vehicle they have supplied [ and made profit on ! ] they view the process as a neccessary evil and are prepared to absorb some of these costs . when it comes to vehicles they have NOT supplied, esp ones that have been outsourced outside of the uk dealer network[ in a lot of cases] they would rather not get involved ! judging by the amount of irate NEW motorhome owners on this and other forums complaining about recurring faults, shoddy workmanship and crap customer service they are getting from their UK SUPPLYING DEALER i think the dealers already have about as much warranty work as they need and can handle dont you ? regards garry
 
A friend of mine bought a Euramobil and picked it up from the factory. Has had terrible issues with the roof buckling and UK dealers won't touch it, so he has had to drive back to the factory three times now to get repairs done. It was either that, or pay himself in UK
 

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