UK car dealers are great!

[Jamie Edmonds 28]

I thought it might be interesting to share my experience of buying (or attempting to buy...) a car here in Switzerland, and show how from a customer perspective the UK market seems to be far more advanced that it is out here.

 

First some background, I live in Zürich in Switzerland, having relocated here from the UK at the start of the year, my current car is a 2013 Renault Koleos diesel which I'm bored of and want a change (tried to be sensible when buying a car when we arrived here, big mistake)!

 

I'm in the market for a small-mid size 'premium' SUV, up to 3 years old and ideally with a decent size petrol engine, which is typical bread and butter stuff out here and given that I (like 10-15% of the population of Zürich) don't speak especially brilliant German I sent off a few emails.  Most didn't even bother to reply, including the Land Rover garage in one of the biggest ex-pat areas 5 minutes from where I live.  Being Switzerland everything is shut on a Sunday, but closing at 4pm on a Saturday, and only offering test drives on weekdays feels a bit like we're in 1982.

 

When the discussions of a part exchange began some dealers just said 'no' while my favourite response came from my local Mercedes dealer who offered the princely sum of CHF 18,000 within 5 minutes of me sending the email - book trade is 23,000, the cheapest one on our equivalent of Auto Trader is 23,500 with 25k more km and I have an underwrite from Renault of 21,000 so you can guess how much effort he put into getting that price....

 

As I write this post a leasing price has just arrived for a GLK from the other Mercedes dealer.  Which he said he would send last Wednesday.

 

Talking to colleagues here this experience is far from unique, and seems to be similar for both Swiss and ex-pats.

 

Thankfully Land Rover dealer number three seem to be rather more helpful and keen to do business, so all being well I'll have a deal put together on a 2 1/2 year old Evoque Si4 this week, but it really makes me appreciate how much easier and more pleasant it is buying a car back home!

 

 

[James Baggott 227]

Dear oh dear... not good