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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Latest new car 2010

Our automotive money-saving guru Mike Rutherford writes about a Ford dealership offering a huge 37pc off a new Ford Focus 1.8i Zetec five-door.



According to a slightly scary media organisation which monitors such things, I've written about BMW, Fiat, Ford, General Motors, Government, Labour, London, Toyota, VAT and Vauxhall more than anything else in recent years.
Apparently, of all the firms in the world, Uncle Henry's Ford Motor Company is the one I mention most. I didn't know this until the monitoring experts informed me.

Ford is still, in terms of sales/registrations at least, Britain's number one car company. However, that's very different from saying it's the biggest car maker in Britain. Fact is, it's not even a small one, because no Ford-badged cars have been made here for years.

That's worrying, but of even greater concern is Ford's official but bizarre pricing philosophy, its absurdly optimistic published price lists, and the colossal discounts the retail customer must secure before he or she gets the desired car at the appropriate price.
I don't believe there are prospective buyers in Britain who genuinely think that a modest family car such as the five-door Ford Focus 1.8i Zetec with a few added extras is appropriately priced at - wait for it - just under £21,000. Such an official price isn't just excessive, it's an insult to the consumer.

But what sort of discount is appropriate... and achievable? A couple of months ago in this column I advised Telegraph readers to haggle for discounts of about 28 per cent (the "going rate" at the time) when negotiating for a new Focus.
Within the last few days a leading franchised Ford retailer, Evans Halshaw, has blown my suggested percentage discount out of the water by loudly claiming that it will give buyers of the Focus 1.8i Zetec five-door a full 37 per cent off.
Better still, this colossal price drop represents a saving of precisely £7,721 which is enough to buy a brand new supermini as an additional urban runaround.

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