I'm buying a new car for virtually the first time in my life, any tips/tricks?
Vague plan of action is
1. Get list price with options from manufacturer site.
2. Look up the indicative discount available on Broadspeed web site.
3. Go for test drive.
4. Ask dealer if they will match Broadspeed indicative price, if not get full quote from Broadspeed.
If it makes a difference, car is a Mercedes GLA, base price about 27K, but I'll be adding 5K worth of options. Paying cash. (Well, not literally, I mean paying with debit card.)
The GLA is a new model, so likely not much discount available. (Broadspeed indicating about £500, I think.)
The Broadspeed indicative prices don't take into account 5K of options, so I wonder if the indicative quote will over-estimate what I'd actually have to pay.
...
Second issue, choosing navigation, high quality traffic info for navigating through London rush-hour is the priortiy, options are:-
1. Continue with current TomTom HD that sticks to windscreen
2. Mercedes Command navigation (£1000 option, apparently now does/soon will use TomTom traffic info.)
3. Becker device in glovebox that displays on built-in screen, from memory something like £500.
4. Mercedes Drive Kit plus will allow selected iphone applications to display on car screen, selected navigation app is from Garmin. Cost about £500, in reality a lot more as I'd also need to buy an iphone.
Becker is ruled out, no traffic.
Mercedes Command - even if they get traffic info from Tomtom, is the sofware any good? Does it re-route automatically based on traffic info? Does it even do 3D display? I suspect the software is inferior to TomTom, but willing to be informed otherwise.
The Garmin software - it's not actually clear what Garmin iphone software they are talking about, what reviews I've found of Garmin for iphone have said it's not good, and similarly reviews of Garmin traffic info say it's not as good as TomTom HD. So unless someone can tell me otherwise, I guess the Garmin is out.
I can't believe that the best Satnav option for a 32K car is a £150 device stuck to the windscreen, but at the moment that's what it looks like.
Vague plan of action is
1. Get list price with options from manufacturer site.
2. Look up the indicative discount available on Broadspeed web site.
3. Go for test drive.
4. Ask dealer if they will match Broadspeed indicative price, if not get full quote from Broadspeed.
If it makes a difference, car is a Mercedes GLA, base price about 27K, but I'll be adding 5K worth of options. Paying cash. (Well, not literally, I mean paying with debit card.)
The GLA is a new model, so likely not much discount available. (Broadspeed indicating about £500, I think.)
The Broadspeed indicative prices don't take into account 5K of options, so I wonder if the indicative quote will over-estimate what I'd actually have to pay.
...
Second issue, choosing navigation, high quality traffic info for navigating through London rush-hour is the priortiy, options are:-
1. Continue with current TomTom HD that sticks to windscreen
2. Mercedes Command navigation (£1000 option, apparently now does/soon will use TomTom traffic info.)
3. Becker device in glovebox that displays on built-in screen, from memory something like £500.
4. Mercedes Drive Kit plus will allow selected iphone applications to display on car screen, selected navigation app is from Garmin. Cost about £500, in reality a lot more as I'd also need to buy an iphone.
Becker is ruled out, no traffic.
Mercedes Command - even if they get traffic info from Tomtom, is the sofware any good? Does it re-route automatically based on traffic info? Does it even do 3D display? I suspect the software is inferior to TomTom, but willing to be informed otherwise.
The Garmin software - it's not actually clear what Garmin iphone software they are talking about, what reviews I've found of Garmin for iphone have said it's not good, and similarly reviews of Garmin traffic info say it's not as good as TomTom HD. So unless someone can tell me otherwise, I guess the Garmin is out.
I can't believe that the best Satnav option for a 32K car is a £150 device stuck to the windscreen, but at the moment that's what it looks like.
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