Buying a new car can sometimes be quite hard due to the Uk having the highest taxes and duty in Europe making it not only expensive but difficult for a lot of people.
In recent years many consumers have realised that the price of new cars is just way too high in UK and consumers have either made the cross over the Channel to either Belgium, France, Denmark or the Republic of Ireland based on favourable sterling pound exchange rates. But for many of us the task of calculating VRT, removing tax, then paying duty again on return to Uk is too complicated! Not to mention the trip itself may not be practicable or the waiting list may be several weeks escalating to several months till delivery (depending on car!) This is where car hypermarkets stepped into the market..such as Motor Nation.
Motor Nation is a car hypermarket launched in 1996 which stocks a large quantity of almost new cars which the company has imported from outside the UK, hence lowering the price to the UK consumer. I found out that the company imports most of its cars from Southern Ireland..now theres a surprise!
I had seen a lot of adverts for this company on TV last year, but this weekend I decided to investigate the company further in pursuit of an almost
new car (after losing my own car recently).
First port of call, was the company’s website. It allows you to do a basic car search from the company’s two sites. Motor nation’s first site was established in Birmingham and later they opened a secondary site in Cheshire. I chose the Birmingham site. The company claims to have over 500 cars in stock.. wow!
The website is simple and the search is very basic, you can choose from an available list of only 20 manufacturers, such as Ford, Vauxhall, VW, Nissan (but no Honda..strange!) and Alfa Romeo (woah! For those who do not already know I have a soft spot for Alfa’s.. ) I did a search for alfa romeo and it only came up with 3 models. Only one was the model of my choice, though no price was showing. So I decided to call the company to double check this information. The model I was interested in had been sold a week ago so obviously the site’s information is not updated on a regular basis. If you try searching for popular cars such as VW golf , you will find many more hits.
Nonetheless, I made a visit to the Birmingham site at the weekend to check out the other stocks of cars. Finding this national company is not so easy as its located off a narrow winding road in a residential area somewhere I’d least expect a large car hypermarket to be! Getting to this place is via M42 J6, then take A45 towards Bordesly Green/Coventry Road. Its advisable to look this up on the map and phone beforehand before making a special journey to Birmingham. The site is open 7 days a week , which gave my ample time to go for a viewing on a Sunday afternoon.
When I got there there was ample customer parking amidst the mass of mostly new cars. All the cars were neatly parked outdoors in the car park in parking slots and it was easy to view them all. The staff in the reception were friendly and helpful without being pushy. I was guided to the cars of interest which sadly were way beyond my price range!!
To take a popular example I was shown a brand new VW Golf 5d Hatchback 1.6S, with just delivery mileage at a price of £11,995, the UK retail price on the road is £12830. I had a look inside the Golf, didnt test drive it as it wasnt the car I was looking for. The interior was the standard black solid as you'd expect from german build, no cheap aluminium cheap thrills here! I found the gear stick small, but then its a small car..and I'm used to driving something with more build and character. MotorNation's price does not include Uk road tax, so you will have to add about £155 making the Golf £12150, now this only offers a saving of £680 which isn’t great.
My best advice to you on this occasion is to get the best written quote from a VW dealer, for example, most probably they can easily do it for £11,995. You should be able to negotiate 5-10% on a new car deal in Uk especially if its coming up to the end of a month, as most car dealers work on bonuses and commission and have monthly targets, so if the price is too high for your pocket (especially as you can pick up Golf’s for less than £10K in Europe)come prepared - "do your homework". With the quote in one hand approach Motor Nation again and maybe they would be able to sort out an amicable sale, but do ensure you make a telephone call to Motor Nation first so your journey will not be wasted should you be travelling some distance to get there.
As there was not much money saved in buying a VW golf, I looked at other savings they had for other cars. Now this is purely for illustrative purposes, as I cannot afford this car!! as much as I would love the executive saloon: Alfa romeo 166 4dr saloon 2.5L V6, New with only delivery mileage, at £18995 (plus car tax = £19,150), whereas the retail price or this car on the road is £23,203, that’s a potential saving of £4053!
So there may be a higher margin of savings on some models of cars, but the initial price is higher too! They did have some alfa 156’s at much lower prices as the 166 is the top saloon model in alfas so is the most expensive, but all the 156’s were sold out!
Since the new cars were too expensive, I enquired about any second hand cars, there were only a few, and I personally found them too expensive! E.g. Peugeot 206 T reg (bright turquoise!!) at £8000.
All of Motor Nation’s car’s come with 12 months warranty and whatever warranties the manufacturer includes. The company also offers the usual car dealer facilities such as part exchange, finance and insurance, in addition it offers a 30 day exchange plan which I presume allows you to exchange the car for another one within 30 days if you are not happy with it. Unlike some car dealerships, once you have found your ideal vehicle at the price you can afford, all they ask is £200 deposit (not 30% which is what many of the main dealers request).
Overall, although I did not find what I was personally looking for it may be worth looking at this car hypermarket if you are looking to buy a new or almost new car without the added sales pressure of main dealer sales persons and prices.
I did not feel it was very competitive on price or variety of 'second hand' cars. I would also not recommend the site if you have no knowledge of the car you wish to buy as you will not receive a pep talk outlining all the features of the car as they sell cars from at least 20 different manufacturers.
On a positive note, you can explore to your hearts content..and you dont even have to take your brolly on a wet rainy day -as they provide their own.. now isnt that thoughtful! It may not be the cheapest but you will not know until you try!
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That V6 Alfa 166 sounds nice - the kind of car that can snap knicker-elastic at 50 paces! But £20k is waaaaay out of my league, I'm gonna have to stick with my nasty, old Ford muscle-cars. Don't suppose they had any 2.8i Capri's, did they? Fab op!
Excelle 31.03.2001 03:47
I suppose I should have expected no less than a brilliant motor-orientated review from you CH! Nice one!
jonwhite 28.03.2001 11:43
A very useful opinion, bookmarked to my 'Useful ops' folder for future reference. Regards Jon.
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