New car discounts fall as prices go up
* Discounts have fallen over past year * Average discount 248 less than a year ago * 60 deals for 60-plate cars...
New car discounts have dropped by over 12% over the past 12 months, while most list prices have shot up.
According to the What Car? Target Price (What Car?'s monthly mystery shop of thousands of new car deals), the average discount car buyers should be able to haggle off a new car this September is 1779, 248 less than September 2009 when the average discount was 2027.
However, there are still some great deals out there for anyone willing to do a bit of research before they buy. What Car?'s deal-hunters have been sniffing out the best deals on 60 new cars to coincide with today's 60-plate change. Savings on the 60 most searched for cars on whatcar.com total more than 158,000.
Car buyers rate a big discount ahead of any other incentive, according to a poll on whatcar.com 58% of car buyers would rather have a bigger discount than an extended warranty. Low rate finance was a bigger temptation than long warranty cover, too.
Steve Fowler, What Car? editor-in-chief, commented: 'Even though discounts are down, it still pays to sniff out the best car deals online before you go shopping. You might not want to shop online, but sticking a print out under a car dealers nose is a sure-fire way to get them to up their own discount'.
