To add,

Motability own the car upon it's return from it's 3 year lease and they have an awful lot of them - their 'fleet' is massive. The dealer has an opportunity to buy at the point of return but due to the volume most end up a the auction, thus they need to sell quickly.

The added beauty of these is that you generally know it's all been done (service, repairs, tyres) as these things are all covered by the lease and they're all one owner.

JJ

Hi --- Only that his confidence has been backed up by your own research and that he seems to be buying his stock at rock bottom prices, probably because he has some form of contract with Motability where he can buy at such low prices on condition that he takes most of the stock or a high volume of vehicles that are offered to him.

It is good to haggle a deal, but you have to admit defeat when you cannot find the identical spec car any cheaper from any other source, you could always try for the, "icing on the cake" and try get a few freebies thrown into his non-negotiable price such as extended warranty, full tank of fuel or free service to make the deal seem sweeter, if they are prepared to meet you partway.

At the end of the day he is standing by his prices and giving prospective customers the ultimatum.... take it or leave it ... or go and find it cheaper, which is his prerogative and a business approach that must work for him, otherwise he would not be standing so firm.? (unless he is a good Poker player).

Went to investigate a local independent dealer http://www.roseisle.com

who had a lot of relatively new used cars particularly lots of Astra hatchbacks which I was wanting (2004-6) . He said he dealt especially in low-mileage cars obtained from the Motability scheme, Sure enough lots of his cars are low mileage for the age (10-20K for 4 years) It was a preliminary look as we wanted to see several different Astras before deciding which sort suited us. I asked him about his price policy (I reckon I'm quite a decent bargainer with experience of travel in distant countries) and he said, unexpectedly that the price u see is the price u pay. So I said, if I wanted to buy a car today, but I offered say, only £200 below the asking price, he wouldn't take it? He said no! He told me to check his price and I'd find them the lowest anywhere around. He did not like the whole haggling process and had had enough of it.

I was not expecting this. I did check his prices attempting to compare identical models of the same age (I've used Autotrader online). A 1.6 16V club Astra ( 2004/54) was selling at 5995 from him (11K only). From others I saw £6295, 6495, and 6995. Whatcar's advised price for this 6870. So what he says seems true. Has anyone come across this and is there anything I'm missing?