Personal shopping isn’t a new phenomenon – as long as department stores have been around, so have personal shoppers. Now personal shopping has moved on to the internet, and so has shopping for cars. Car brokers or car shoppers offer consumers convenience and significant savings compared to retail. So how do they help you buy a car?
A broker casts a wide net
A car broker is a licenced motor car trader (LMCT) that offers to find your car, buy it, and deliver it to you in exchange for a fee. This fee is usually taken from the final sale price, which means you don’t pay up front (i.e., you don’t pay the broker before the car is delivered.) Some brokers do ask for a service fee to start, however.
Once engaged, a broker will then search the market for the car of your choice, looking through dozens, if not hundreds, of dealerships to find the car you’ve requested. A broker might buy a bulk of vehicles to receive a fleet discount. This discount is then passed on to the customer.
Signed, sealed, delivered
If you’ve ever gone car shopping before, you know the pain of running around to different dealers (or even private buyers, who are less reliable), asking for prices, haggling, test driving, and so on. The entire process could take weeks, especially if you are time poor. If you don’t have oodles of free time on your hands, a car broker takes care of the entire car buying process for you. They search on your behalf, negotiate with many dealers at a time, and work on securing the lowest price possible for you. Once that’s all done, the broker notifies you of their success and the vehicle is delivered to your door. All the on-road costs, rego, and CTP are done for you, added to the overall cost of the car. Sounds simple? It is!
Finance included?
Some brokers also offer car financing along with their personal car shopping service. They can arrange finance for you in a seamless process. It would make sense to use a broker who also has a close relationship with a lender – or better yet, a car finance broker, who uses the same principle to find you a lower cost deal on finance.
Some brokers offer salary packaging
Some brokers deal almost exclusively with salary sacrificing, otherwise known as novated leasing. Novated leasing is an agreement between you, your employer, and the broker, so you may pay off your car using pre-tax income. This salary sacrificing may bump you down into a lower tax bracket, so you pay less tax overall.
For more information, contact Vehicles Direct on how we can help you find your next car, hassle free!