Drive the Deal

[Richard&Michaela]

As anyone used these for a California recently? they seem to be offering better discount than our local dealer. What was your experience? any idea which dealer they use? I have been told South West but we are in the north midlands so it could be a serious drive to collect.

 

[jMacdent]

As anyone used these for a California recently? they seem to be offering better discount than our local dealer. What was your experience? any idea which dealer they use? I have been told South West but we are in the north midlands so it could be a serious drive to collect.

DTD usually use JCB Eurovans Crawley for Californias. Near Gatwick Airport. Usually 9% discount without any haggling. I have bought a VW ID.3 through them this January, using JCB VW Gillingham. 20% discount virtually. Great experience. Ordered a Beach through them last month, again a good experience. I originally had an Ocean order through Autoebid (Sept 2020) which (buying a California) was with Listers Droitwich. With Listers, the contact was through their fleet services local business development manager rather than a one-to -one salesperson.
n.b - you are not tied to Crawley for your servicing or warranty work. You can use your local dealership. re. delivery - Vans driven to you free of charge or trailer delivery for a fee.

 

[SusiBus]

Loads of people use DtD. Vans are delivered from Eurovans, Crawley, Sussex. Most VW Van Centres will deliver to most of UK. Give your local van centre a chance, because we do need a network of dealers to survive, so that we have some back-up for our vans. You don't want to be driving all the way back down to Crawley if you haave a problem.

 

[66tim99]

As anyone used these for a California recently? they seem to be offering better discount than our local dealer. What was your experience? any idea which dealer they use? I have been told South West but we are in the north midlands so it could be a serious drive to collect.

I have an Ocean on order from Eurovans Crawley via DtD. They are hopeless communicators (but to be fair to them, the factory practices dark programming arts) but it is worth 9% to me. Essentially all my options were 'free'.
When I call them they do answer, but they never call me. Others on this forum suggest you may (by luck) receive your order quicker from non-DtD dealers (for quota reasons). I doubt that, as have seen orders coming through Eurovans much quicker than mine, so suspect mine is held up (10 months since order) because of spec shortages.
Whoever you use, get your order in, get and order number from the dealer (essentially proving the order has been accepted by the factory), get in the queue, and then scour the options list again, you can change options until you have a provisional build week. I respectfully suggest you may have overlooked the larger fuel tank for £80 for instance. Many do, but why wouldn't you add it? (unless you're getting a 4motion when, ironically given it is thirstier, you can't add it for weight reasons!).
I've rattled on enough. Enjoy the anticipation.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

Personally I would go for as many Factory Fitted options as your budget allows. Many items CANNOT be retrofitted. You may regret not specifying some items?

Factory fitted towbar is worthwhile if you want to tow and/or fit a bike rack. Factory fitted towbars are fully integrated into the van’s electronic systems. Some after market towbars are not.
Electric side door is for us useful, it can be disabled if you want to use it manually.
Media Pro system is great.
Driver Assist is more useful than I thought it would be. ACC IS excellent.

We left off the Chrome Pack and 4 keys and now regret that. Also went for 2WD but maybe 4Motion would have been worthwhile?

We bought ours through DtD and it was fulfilled by Eurovans in Crawley. No complaints about either company.

Don’t expect regular updates from Eurovans though. Best source of information on your van’s journey through production and subsequent shipping is VW Online Chat.

 

[Perfectos]

Could try Autoebid as an alternative to DTD

 

[Flintymutt]

I have an Ocean on order from Eurovans Crawley via DtD. They are hopeless communicators (but to be fair to them, the factory practices dark programming arts) but it is worth 9% to me. Essentially all my options were 'free'.
When I call them they do answer, but they never call me. Others on this forum suggest you may (by luck) receive your order quicker from non-DtD dealers (for quota reasons). I doubt that, as have seen orders coming through Eurovans much quicker than mine, so suspect mine is held up (10 months since order) because of spec shortages.
Whoever you use, get your order in, get and order number from the dealer (essentially proving the order has been accepted by the factory), get in the queue, and then scour the options list again, you can change options until you have a provisional build week. I respectfully suggest you may have overlooked the larger fuel tank for £80 for instance. Many do, but why wouldn't you add it? (unless you're getting a 4motion when, ironically given it is thirstier, you can't add it for weight reasons!).
I've rattled on enough. Enjoy the anticipation.

You can have it with the 4motion. I think as I’ve got the sports pack that does away with the spare wheel so saves weight. When we had the emissions gate earlier this year all I had to remove was the uprated battery.

 

[pjm-84]

I believe they deliver as part of the process. Ordered a new Defender through DTD and going with the trailer delivered option.

 

[Poodlehat2222]

Ordered through DtD on Monday and spoke to Eurovans same day.
Will need to go to Crawley to collect or pay for delivery.
They said they delivered during lock down, but it's collection only now.

 

[reserves]

AutoEbid offered a better discount last time I looked.

 

[jMacdent]

Ordered through DtD on Monday and spoke to Eurovans same day.
Will need to go to Crawley to collect or pay for delivery.
They said they delivered during lock down, but it's collection only now.

That's good information to put on the forum. Another point of interest is that when I placed my original order through Autoebid with Listers Droitwich last September, it took the best part of a month for it to be accepted at the factory!? When I placed an order through DTD last month with JCB Eurovans Crawley, the order was accepted at the factory in less than a week?

 

[jMacdent]

AutoEbid offered a better discount last time I looked.

I've always had the opposite experience with three recent orders. Autoebids quote for Californias is through Listers Droitwich VW commercial fleet services. I was told that for a £750 higher quote it would be through a normal dealership "salesteam". DTD was cheaper at the time but I went with Autoebid because they were more prompt. A mistake in hindsight. Although Autoebid were great, the Listers experience was miserable.

 

[reserves]

I've always had the opposite experience with three recent orders. Autoebids quote for Californias is through Listers Droitwich VW commercial fleet services. I was told that for a £750 higher quote it would be through a normal dealership "salesteam". DTD was cheaper at the time but I went with Autoebid because they were more prompt. A mistake in hindsight. Although Autoebid were great, the Listers experience was miserable.

I got a quote at the end of July from DTD & Autobid, Autobid was better priced.

However I used this quote and got my preferred VW Dealer to match / beat it so went with them anyways.

 

[the_Sion]

Ordered my Ocean California via Dtd, few options, they were really helpful. They had an issue with pricing on their site due to the road tax being wrong, made them look more expensive than auto e bid, in fairness they called me once to let me know the actual price and again to let me know the price increase was on its way end of July.
Was going to use them for a car also but managed to get a ex demo for a bit cheaper so didn’t in the end.

I found their site a bit easier than auto e bid.

Dtd did beat our local dealership by 2k, for me if it was within £500 I would have gone local but any more than that justifies the travel for pickup.

 

[reserves]

For anyone who's ordered recently, I heard a rumour that the order price is only fixed for vehicles delivered before March 31st 2022, after that time VW can push the price up to whatever price increases have occurred....

I haven't had anything in writing stating that though

 

[jMacdent]

For anyone who's ordered recently, I heard a rumour that the order price is only fixed for vehicles delivered before March 31st 2022, after that time VW can push the price up to whatever price increases have occurred....

I haven't had anything in writing stating that though

The same rumour was floating around last year after I ordered in Sept 20. Despite two subsequent price rises, the price agreed at the the time of original order was honoured.

 

[reserves]

The same rumour was floating around last year after I ordered in Sept 20. Despite two subsequent price rises, the price agreed at the the time of original order was honoured.

Good to hear

 

[larrylamb]

As anyone used these for a California recently? they seem to be offering better discount than our local dealer. What was your experience? any idea which dealer they use? I have been told South West but we are in the north midlands so it could be a serious drive to collect.

Some dealers will match your DTD quote, try Lancashire Van Centre at Preston, a chap called Guy Vincent.

 

[66tim99]

For anyone who's ordered recently, I heard a rumour that the order price is only fixed for vehicles delivered before March 31st 2022, after that time VW can push the price up to whatever price increases have occurred....

I haven't had anything in writing stating that though

I don't think so. If you've put a deposit down for a Cali at a certain price, they can't change it. There have been 3 price increases since I ordered, and Eurovans confirm my price still stands.

 

[reserves]

I don't think so. If you've put a deposit down for a Cali at a certain price, they can't change it. There have been 3 price increases since I ordered, and Eurovans confirm my price still stands.

Apparently it’s a new thing, so won’t apply to you.

 

[Nate73]

Ordered through DtD on Monday and spoke to Eurovans same day.
Will need to go to Crawley to collect or pay for delivery.
They said they delivered during lock down, but it's collection only now.

Sounds like we could be collecting ours at the same time. Crawley here we come. #roadtrip