RE: CAP: Consumers and traders baffled by model variations

[Sophie Williamson-Stothert 3]

It's interesting to hear the number of new model variations in the market is causing confusion in the used car trade. Are you struggling to understand all the different option packs, or worried that your valuations could be lower than they should be?

[umesh 336]

Models - Option packs - all very very confusing ! Even some of the 'main dealers' selling their own products don't know the options on the cars so what chance do rest of the industry have?

I've always said they ought to have a 'factory fitted' options list attached to the car i.e. door pillar to show full specification /options , would benefit customers AND dealers !

I bought a car few weeks back customer told me some of the options so valued the car with those... when the car arrived and I had the opportunity to get it spec checked by a dealer it had lot more extras making it even more desirable !

[Andy Entwistle 96]

I've heard a number of dealers being caught out by 2wd and 4wd variations of the Kuga and Qashqai. Thinking they have a 4wd when its a 2wd !

 

Most of them rely on HPI to tell them what it is as there is no other way of telling unless you get underneath.

[GreenGiant 287]

Models - Option packs - all very very confusing ! Even some of the 'main dealers' selling their own products don't know the options on the cars so what chance do rest of the industry have?

I've always said they ought to have a 'factory fitted' options list attached to the car i.e. door pillar to show full specification /options , would benefit customers AND dealers !

I bought a car few weeks back customer told me some of the options so valued the car with those... when the car arrived and I had the opportunity to get it spec checked by a dealer it had lot more extras making it even more desirable !

 

You were lucky, Umesh.

Ordinarily, you would find out that all those 'extras' were in fact standard equipment and you'd paid well over the odds. I do wonder why you didn't get the spec checked until after you owned it though? You don't list Russian Roulette as one of your hobbies!

 

It is a minefield and there's no sign of it getting any easier. eg How are we going to value the new breed of hybrids in 3 or 4 years? What effect will the battery condition and replacement costs have? What will battery replacement costs be?

 

Let's face it, the manufacturers don't give a toss about how we are going to value their cars several years down the line. They just want the new ones shifted..

[Philip Nothard 26]

The options debate is one that is certainly very important and very subjective, as we all know.  the point James makes reference the AWD and 2WD, is something I have highlighted previously, and I am sure that there are many drivers out there that bought the vehicle under the assumption it was AWD (I wonder whether the salesman knew?).

 

With regards the factory fitted options, the second issue is, if there is a value associated and would you have one option without the other.  We discussed recently the options that are relative to safety, which if they were highlighted better, I'm confident that the consumers would understand the value. 

 

Both the Mini and now the Adam are probably the worst culprits and not far behind are vehicles such as the Fiat 500 etc. 

[Jamie Edmonds 28]

We are seeing more and more cars fitted with options, the average for a car run through our Spec Check service is over £2k and on prestige brands it's far higher than that.  The average Porsche Cayenne has almost £10k of extras fitted at the factory, and I've seen them over £22k, of course this means if you buy one which 'only' has 20" wheels and regular leather seats it might look good in isolation, but when most of the others have 21" rims and higher grade leather it's not going to be easy to sell.

 

It's also not helped by manufacturers trying to reduce build costs by fitting the same audio systems/switch panels to all models, irrespective of what is actually on the car.  I was driving a new Rav-4 last week but pushing the 'Nav' button on the dashboard brought up the message 'system not installed' on the screen, and I know the F10 5 series is the same with the button being there even when the system isn't fitted.  My last 3 series (a 2010 325d) had a phone button but no Bluetooth, which I was monumentally annoyed about!  Even Ford are getting in on the option pack act with city packs, convenience packs, media packs and so on, all for a few hundred quid a pop when new.  Then there's Mercedes with Artico interiors, I could go on for hours....

[CJ Underhill 34]

Optional extras are always an issue, wasn't too bad in the day of the Glass's Checkbook, but i've been informed they no longer produce these.

 

Its the "packs" i find most confusing, as somebody said, even the main dealers can't tell you what these "packs" contain... climate packs, sports pack, chilli pack, comfort, drivers pack,smokers pack etc etc

 

 

I've also noticed over the last few years, many manufactures moving away from badging the vehicle spec, be it an S, SE, SXI etc etc