WITH the biggest single month of the year looming large for new car sales, buyers are being warned to box clever to secure bargains. The list price of new cars has soared by thousands of pounds in some cases in recent months as manufacturers try to combat the effects of the sales slump during the worst of the recession. This has made a nonsense of the usual lucrative target-related bonuses for dealers, who have been largely left to fend for themselves for a year or more. Their only saviour has been the scrappage scheme and the VAT reduction - both of which are about to end. However, for as long as scrappage and the reduced VAT last, the savings can be massive, if only for a few weeks more. The savings are illustrated in the case of one of the UK's best selling models, the Vauxhall Astra that can be bought for virtually £6,500 below the list price. There is currently a straightforward 2.5 per cent saving before the VAT rate goes back up by 2.5 per cent, or possibly even by as much as five per cent as some doom-mongers are predicting. Key models come with free finance, free insurance and free redundancy cover to overcome the fear of job losses plus a £2,000 scrappage allowance. This means that with a further £560 discount for what Vauxhall calls a Scrap & Save discount on the Corsa 1.0 Life three-door model, the saving is £2,560, which brings the price down to £7,950. The more you spend the more you save, so in the case of the Meriva 1.4 Life mini MPV there is not only the £2,000 scrappage allowance but an additional £3,155 discount, making the actual transaction price just £8,295. The biggest saving of all is on the best-selling British-built Astra 1.4 Life model, which attracts discounts totalling a whopping £6,410 to give it a transaction price of £8,995. Buyers without scrappage cars to trade-in are being urged to shop around and to add up the value of the various alternative deals that collectively can be worth a significant amount of money. For example Active Plus versions of the Astra, Meriva and Zafira get alloy wheels and electronic climate control and are now available with four years' free finance and free redundancy cover, while the Insignia gets free finance over three years plus the free redundancy cover. For younger drivers the obstacle of crippling insurance is overcome with free insurance for 19-year-olds buying a Corsa SXi plus the free finance and redundancy cover. Most manufacturers are prepared to match these offers but, in many cases, buyers have to ask for them. Retail Motor Industry Federation spokesperson Sue Robinson, says: ``The quality of new cars and current deals such as free insurance and free finance from some manufacturers add up to a package to satisfy buyers across the spectrum but it is extremely important to use a reputable dealer.'' | 
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