A mark up of £1k is what I believe to be fair on both sides, If I knew my car was worth 12k to them when they come to sell it I would expect 11k for my car from them.
Then when you consider the flat rate they will then add over 3+ years that car they advertised for 12k soon becomes 15-16k for them over the 2-3 years so they are making a good amount off the said car, that is a fair deal.
The problem I have is when they try to go well below valuation on a car and genuinely hope people don't know there stuff and haven't researched the price to expect and rub there hands at the possibility of ripping them off, its shocking behavior! 

I recently part exchanged my 2013 595C competizione against a car of twice the value. I ended up accepting £15,000 for it although my Abarth dealer offered me £13,000 just to 'buy it in'. I had hoped that the resale value would have been higher, I was a little shocked that it had depreciated by so much in such little time but that's the nature of the beast I guess! 

They are still making their money without ripping their customers off though... a mark down of 1k is fair.
3k+ is scandalous in my opinion! 
But until the average person starts doing some research and demanding a better deal, they are always going to try ripping us off. 

Well from researching Auto trader... and I have pictures of said cars for the future trade in to show dealers, there are 3 SS spec Grande Punto Abarths, 2 years older than my own going for between 7.5k-8.5k on autotrader.
Come 2017 my car will be the same age as these 3, with less mileage than two of them and the optional sabelt seats so I would expect 7k minimum as my trade in and they will mark it up to between 8-9k, then they will make another few thousand with the interest they get, making the car a 10k+ car easy.

All the evidence will be there for them to see, if they don't come near that figure I will simply buy the car outright and sell it private, but will make sure they are aware I will take my custom to another Abarth dealership if they fail to meet my evaluation as I am intent on getting a new A500 or 124 spider as my next car.
I have never been ripped off in my eyes by a dealership in my 6 years of motoring, my last 3 cars were all P/X for what I was expecting, I don't expect to let that change with my Abarth.

With careful planning and saving money in case you need to buy the car outright, you can get a much better deal come p/x with dealerships! 

funnily enough I haven't seen my 595 advertised since I part exchanged it, either on the dealers website or any other website.....so I can't see what kind of 'mark up' they're attempting to make.

Saw one on Autotrader the other day, which was your spec...

Just checked and the number plate ends RFX? If so its up for £18,995 at an independent dealer.

Quote from: Gav007 on March 30, 2015, 12:15:25 pm

funnily enough I haven't seen my 595 advertised since I part exchanged it, either on the dealers website or any other website.....so I can't see what kind of 'mark up' they're attempting to make.

Saw one on Autotrader the other day, which was your spec...

Just checked and the number plate ends RFX? If so its up for £18,995 at an independent dealer.

well I never, that's her 

Hmmm... surely they must get a certain % of it, as each dealer only uses certain finance companies? there must be a reason for that?