towbar take it off or leave it on when trading in??

[yvonne6]

i went to look at an X-trail, i told the salesman what i had seen and we got to talking trading and money, i have a VW Touran which pulls my ranger 6 berth with no problems however when he told how much it was worth i was speechless (my husband said that'll be a first!!) i only bought it last year and it has lost 5,800 according to him. Surely i was being ripped off? he proceeded to tell me that i paid too much for it in the first place and VW werent that good anyway?? but i was buying it from the same dealer only different branch, i asked if the nissan was over priced which he took the hump at?. the sting in the tail was the tow-bar how long it had been there for who fitted it, and what did i tow (i told a little porky and said a trailer tent!!) i know that was wrong but my blood pressure was quickly going up. so what does everyone do when trading in take the tow bar off or leave?? any hints on buying a new car would be great. The nissan was priced at 14,995 with approx 20k on the clock and a 55 plate which i thought ok.

Yvonne

 

[seth1]

hello yvonne ,i think now,if the deal looked as though it was going ahead ,the bar would be comming of and being sold private.i,d have told him to mind his own business where the tow bar,s involved.the rule of thumb is a dealer is about a grand dearer than a private sellar.that is their wages.but you must have the attitude your doing them a favour not the oppisite way round .there,s a million more cars round the corner to look at.and they are desperate to sell,no matter what.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

The problem these days is that often the bumper has to be cut for the towbar to be fitted so leaving it on is often the only option.

 

[David_4967156]

I leave mine on. The problem is though they do tend to make it look bad that's it got a tow bar on. In some ways I suppose it is but in some way's it's not.

I do have the agree though with his comments on VW's they are overated and overpriced like alot of the German cars.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Any remarks about other makes by car salesmen usually show how little they know about cars other than that they represent a profit margin and you are there so that they can get the best deal for themselves even if this involves intimidation and belittling the customer.

The best way of dealing with this horse trading is to get a few quotes from rival garages and see their attitude change if they think someone is about to beat them to a deal and have better sales figures than them

The Freelander salesman who adopting a superior attitude when asked if the driver's seat was height adjustable replied that you sit up high in these vehicles they are 4 X 4s

My neighbour,who deals in cars,yesterday when the Honda CRV came up in conversation replied that it was "boring"

Never let engaging brain stop pushing brands that you can buy cheaply and sell with a good turnover.

 

[cliff_5040076]

Hi Yvonne

A couple of pointers for you.

1 Do some research -

Whatcar.com will give you a good idea what your Touran is worth as a trade in.

You can also find what price your prospective purchase is going to be bought retail.

Key in the make and model on Whatcar.com in Valuations and it will tell you what a dealer price for that model should be.

Nissan X-Trail 4x4 (01-) 2.2 dCi Sport 5dr =

 

[yvonne6]

Thank you for all the advice, i checked on What Car and they value the my lowly VW at approx 10,200 and after finding Glass's guide they have a 3 tier system below average, average and excellent condition so the price i was given was below average which is a d*mn cheek as its looked after and has had 1 VW service which is another rip off. I know that when we go and buy a car the customer never truly wins or rarely. I shall give it a rest for a while then take all my hints and go off searching again. We are off to the caravan show at glasgow - will probably buy a new van first!!

Yvonne

 

[Rod_5041370]

Sell your car privately and get a quote for a new one ( any make, any model ) from www.cars4charities.co.uk

Collect it from Bedford or have it delivered to your door.

Massive savings, just bought a new one for the wife.

 

[MONKEY1]

As someone who manages a fleet of vehicles with some 90-150 cars a week ending on dealers forecourts I would always suggest removing the towbar and tidying up the vehicle ready for sale.

It's the best way to preserve value with your type of vehicle andit will easily grace a premier dealership forecourt. However any dealer worth his salt wouldn't display a vehicle with the bar on. (except somewhere like a Land Rover Specialist where you may see as part of the kit so to speak).

A dealer will factor in any additional work in making the vehicle to his saleable condition he will also play the well it's be used as a tow car so it's been thrashed car in order to make margin.

regards

 

[Lizzie2]

Just on a slightly different line, if you leave your tow bar on remember to remove the tow ball if you have an AL-KO stabiliser fitted to your van and replace it with the old one, I have been caught by this twice!! The last time I remembered after selling the car and ran the dealer to ask him to remove it for me only to have him tell me the vehicle had gone already. Could have kicked my self! I had to have a new tow bar fitted to my new car and then buy the correct tow ball to attach to it! Luckily my friendly caravan dealer sorted it out for me.

Lizzie

 

[jinty0_0]

When my brother in law went to look at a 4x4 it had the tow bar on it, when he went back to make the deal the next day the tow bar was taken off and he was told he would have to buy a tow bar from the dealer most people that buy these cars are not wanting towbars on them. just by luck we knew one of the mechanics in the workshop and he managed to retreive it from the skip (what a con to get an extra couple of hundred pounds out of him)

 

[aaman]

Obviously it also depends on the car. Some, like my Mazda 6 can't have the towbars removed because it's actually also a replacement rear chassis crossmember and unless you specifically ask the towbar fitter to return the original it usually ends up in a skip.

 

[ian_374294599]

Obviously it also depends on the car. Some, like my Mazda 6 can't have the towbars removed because it's actually also a replacement rear chassis crossmember and unless you specifically ask the towbar fitter to return the original it usually ends up in a skip.

i`d take it off and remove evidence you had one on... i recently bought a car with towbar fitted and it put me off initially - i contacted the previous owner and asked him what towing duty he`d put the car through before being convinced it was an ok buy

if a car has been heavy duty towing then this is detrimental to the clutch / gearbox / transmission