[fixerman]

Had a test drive yesterday at my local dealer, Citroen London West.
Very disappointed that the salesman insisted on accompanying my wife and I. I was looking forward to a long thorough testing of all aspects of the vehicle before making a decision. As it happens he was as useful as a chocolate teapot as his knowledge of the vehicle was paltry to say the least. For instance he informed me that the sat nav map updates were automatically down loaded from the satellites free of charge. On returning to base he checked with his manger who informed me that all map updates are installed free of charge during routine servicing. I'm sure that neither are correct. He also would not accept that the transmission on the petrol version was 5 speed. Thankfully I was well briefed from reading up as much as possible on this forum. I took my time and we were out for about 90 minutes. I am looking at a Puretech 82 S&S ETG Flair in Sport Red. The best the dealer could give me for a test drive was a diesel version.
I am very impressed. Just a few niggles. Road noise is considerable more intrusive than on our C3 Picasso. May be it is less noticeable on the petrol version. The low seating position takes getting used to. I have no problem with the ETG transmission. I have it on the C3 Picasso and I have had it on previous Citroens. I cannot understand the negative comments on the transmission from so many motoring journalists.

They presented me with couple finance quotes but I refused to make a decision there and then. The deal is reasonable but the part exchange on my C3 Picasso is paltry to say the least. Top Exclusive Spec 10,00 miles.

So I shall order one, but I'm letting them stew for a day or two to see if they up the part exchange offer.

 

[Cactus4us]

I'm sure seat is height adjustable? Oh, you're comparing with Citroën C3 Picasso!
Petrol 100% 5 speed!

 

[The2ems]

So I shall order one, but I'm letting them stew for a day or two to see if they up the part exchange offer.

Best of luck on that

 

[Mrsstuzilla]

Yes the seat is height adjustable

 

[Rattlegun]

After running my own business for 20 years and working with professionals from all walks of life I was stunned how hard it is to buy a car from a dealer - they don't remember appointments, keep you hanging around needlessly even though they knew you were coming, leave you to take phone calls, have no idea on vehicle specs in general, conspire with colleagues to obfuscate facts and inflate prices, worst of all LIE LIE LIE about anything that they can. This was across many dealers and manufacturers. I can't believe it is still like this in 2015. One Citroen dealer even handed me a contract to sign (before I'd even said I'd buy a car, with his thumb obscuring the extras he'd added in). I have found them to be despicable on the whole and if I behaved like that I'd have lost my work years ago. I'm sure some of you are very happy but I fear that's probably because you've not noticed half of their bullshit!

In the end I found an online dealer who worked exactly as I expected, polite, straightforward with an immediate 15% discount (nearly £2k) and instant replies to my emails and calls. If you really know what you want then some of the online dealers will give you a much better price than the locals and behave like adults. It's even being delivered to my door for free exactly when they said it would.

For the original poster, you'll do much better money wise if you start a new order for a Cactus and then sell the C3 yourself whilst you're waiting for it. Not always the easy option I know....

 

[The2ems]

After running my own business for 20 years and working with professionals from all walks of life I was stunned how hard it is to buy a car from a dealer - they don't remember appointments, keep you hanging around needlessly even though they knew you were coming, leave you to take phone calls, have no idea on vehicle specs in general, conspire with colleagues to obfuscate facts and inflate prices, worst of all LIE LIE LIE about anything that they can. This was across many dealers and manufacturers. I can't believe it is still like this in 2015. One Citroen dealer even handed me a contract to sign (before I'd even said I'd buy a car, with his thumb obscuring the extras he'd added in). I have found them to be despicable on the whole and if I behaved like that I'd have lost my work years ago. I'm sure some of you are very happy but I fear that's probably because you've not noticed half of their bullshit!

In the end I found an online dealer who worked exactly as I expected, polite, straightforward with an immediate 15% discount (nearly £2k) and instant replies to my emails and calls. If you really know what you want then some of the online dealers will give you a much better price than the locals and behave like adults. It's even being delivered to my door for free exactly when they said it would.

For the original poster, you'll do much better money wise if you start a new order for a Cactus and then sell the C3 yourself whilst you're waiting for it. Not always the easy option I know....

That's a very synical view. The only new cars I have ever bought have been citroens. And I have never had a problem with dealers. Apparently they don't get paid on results, so have no need for the Arthur Daly approach.

 

[Guest]

That's a very synical view. The only new cars I have ever bought have been citroens. And I have never had a problem with dealers. Apparently they don't get paid on results, so have no need for the Arthur Daly approach.

I have to agree. In fact my dealer for the Cactus allowed me to take the paper work home with the complete quote including extras and the various finance options if I wanted to go down the finance route. My neighbour bought his Skoda Yeti online and had nothing but problems.

I'm not saying one is better than the other but there are good and bad in both.

 

[spinner]

If a dealer tells you he doesn't get paid on results he is telling porkies ( I was in sales, my best friend is a sales director for a large car dealership company) one of the tactics is to come out with that rubbish.

Online dealers/brokers are the way forward, I saved 3.5k on my cactus from list and had it built to spec and delivered for less than what my local dealer could sell an off the shelf pre-built.
And they offered a more than fair trade in.