My new car, as yet unbuilt, is already in love with me

[whole diary]

[Marlburian]

This morning I ordered a new car and on my return home found several emails from the dealer including this:

"I'm so excited. When I heard you'd placed an order for me my heart jumped a beat; we're going to have such fun together.

Before we can start our adventure, the lovely people at [dealer] will do lots of things and they've asked me to explain. You will see a timeline above of next steps and in the box below they have detailed what they will do to get me ready (looking forward for that bit

[JayMac]

Anthropomorphising (that took several goes to spell correctly!) a new car purchase? Nothing new under the sun when it comes to marketing. Although it seems a little bit OTT^▸ (Open Train Times website, or possibly 'over the top', depending on context) when the dealer has already (presumably) got your money.

[Marlburian]

Oops, I omitted the last part of the cutesy letter and my comment, and I can't modify my original post. It should have continued:

... ) and the things you will need to do.

If you have any questions, just call; they are a friendly bunch.

Missing you already!

Your New Car"

Yuk? I do hope that the car won't be too upset because I opted out of £800+ of bodywork & interior protection and chip repair insurance. In a moment of weakness I agreed to pay £332 for an extended warranty, but may cancel that. The  dealer's trade-in offer for my car was disappointing at £8000; the day before another dealer with whom I'd discussed another car offered £8,500. Webuyanycar offered £9,200, increased a day later to £9,410, though they're unaware of a couple of bodywork blemishes that the dealers know about. The Road Fund was a bit of a shock -I gather there there's a hefty premium for the first year. And I wasn't amused by the fact that it runs from June 1. Delivery is estimated for early August (four weeks before the MoT, Road Fund renewal and service for my existing car fall due).

[Western Pathfinder]

Glad to hear that you have avoided being seriously overcharged by the dealer,for your protection packages,however they are a good idea especially the interior treatment,especially if the process comes with an inspection and re application after a period of time has gone by,as for the exterior bodywork,many reputable firms offer a ceramic paint coating service which I find makes life much easier especially when it comes to keeping the vehicles appearance up to the desired level,so it's worth having a shop around locally to see what's on offer .
As for extending the warranty,if what is offered by the dealer is backed by the manufacturer of the vehicle then it may well be worth considering,however if it's from a third party operation,then  caveat emptor ! after sales warranty is not a guarantee,it is an insurance policy against mechanical failures,and in my experience and that of my customers,most offers leave a lot to be desired......
Good luck with your new purchase,and many happy miles/ years of trouble free motoring.

[Marlburian]

Thanks. With my low mileage the protection plans offer poorer value than they might for other drivers.

An irony is that I've never been too keen on cars and could almost cope without one. I do about 400 miles a year on necessary chores, such as the weekly Big Shop (though I've successfully used Home Delivery several times). In fact I've only motored 10,100 miles in 45 months (it would have been a bit more but for ill-health), and much of that was to get out into the country for walks - which I could do by public transport as I live conveniently close to a railway station serving five different routes.

Another curiosity of the quotation, noticed only when I got home, was a £750 delivery fee. The salesman, in his third week in the job, seemed to think that car, a Vauxhall Corsa, would be made at Luton, 56 miles away; in fact production is in Zaragoza, Spain.

I did some token havering, on the lines of "thinking about it over the weekend", but succumbed to the sales talk about the need to get my order in for an August delivery. Previously I had done some on-line comparisons and reckon that the deal I signed up to wasn't too bad - with the convenience factor of having the dealer less than three miles away.  And no doubt those website prices would be lower than any final quotations.

[Timmer]

Another curiosity of the quotation, noticed only when I got home, was a £750 delivery fee. The salesman, in his third week in the job, seemed to think that car, a Vauxhall Corsa, would be made at Luton, 56 miles away; in fact production is in Zaragoza, Spain.

As far as I’m aware Vauxhall only build vans in Luton. I don’t know if that’s always been the case and that Vauxhall did once build cars at Luton as well. If they did it was a long time ago.

[Marlburian]

I've threads on two other forums about this, and on one someone has replied "Luton has always been a van plant, not car - it started off as a Bedford truck factory. The only cars ever assembled there were Frontera 4x4s from 1992 to 2004, but it closed completely two months ago. Stellantis' only UK^▸ (United Kingdom) assembly plant is Ellesmere Port - and that stopped assembling Corsas in 2020 and Astras in 2022. It now assembles electric Berlingo/Partner/Doblo/Combo small vans and their car equivalents."

[matth1j]

Previously I had done some on-line comparisons and reckon that the deal I signed up to wasn't too bad - with the convenience factor of having the dealer less than three miles away.

This lot appear to offer some decent discounts; never used them though. Probably useful if you want to use your dealer but need some haggling ammunition.
https://www.carfile.net/buy-your-car/vauxhall/corsa.html