Popped into local Audi dealer today, sat in new A3.

Very impressed!

Nice leather seats, beautifully finished…..mmmm, I might be interested; 2 litre diesel, should be economical.

But then I checked the price. Over £36,000. Couldn’t quite believe it.

I know it’s packed with extras, but even so, £36,000+ for a 2 litre diesel hatchback.

Ran out quick, feeling very old and out of touch!

Wait until you star adding options.

Last time I bought a new car it cost £8030 and I thought that was a bit steep at the time. Was 20+ odd years ago mind….

Two of those or a flat? puts car prices in perspective.

£36k which one is that as they start £18,900?

Due to order a new one in a few months time as they have a long lead time.

A flat for £72k, where are they that cheap?

£250k for a bedsit round these parts….

A3s start at £18-20,000 that one must have had a massive spec. Maybe you should have looked at the sensible models before running off.

What’s more scary is that I got quoted £500 a month for a ford focus! I’m not paying five hundred pounds a month for a bloody ford!

you could get a very very nice flat in converted mill in Bradford for £72k

this would be the same world where SC only make 8,000quid bikes and nothing else.

If your serious look at the price of the one you want, or look at 1 year old ones for a healthy discount.

£250k for a bedsit round these parts….

Where are you living, Mayfair?
😯

Who the hell buys cars new? Madness. 🙂

flat in in Bradford for £72k

*Pops to Audi and orders two A3s*

Where are you living, Mayfair?

Cambridge is expensive.

£250K won’t buy you a parking space in Mayfair.

Nothing wrong with buying new cars. Mrs Weeksy bought a new Fiesta, £11,000…. fitted the bill, it’s cost £0 since apart from fuel.

I bought a Mondeo which was (then) 2 years old.. i’ve been lucky and it’s cost £0 apart from fuel (and tax)…

We both are happy and both did OK.

The problem I have with new cars is the depreciation, just scary to think how much it costs.

A few people I know buy new cars every 3 years so they avoid the cost of MOT’s and service/repair bills. To me that is madness, spending thousands to avoid potential bills of 100’s.

For £36k it must have had every conceivable optional extra fitted. The S3 is ‘only’ £30k without extras.

In fact – are you sure it wasnt an S3 with all the extras fitted that you sat in, that would make more sense?

Where are you living, Mayfair?

Cambridge is expensive.

The “London Borough of Cambridge” if you don’t mind!

Price of second hand cars though must be at an all time low. My first car a very long time ago was a rather scabby Hillman Imp in many different shades of blue. It was 500 quid which in those days was a lot. That’s apparently about 3k in today’s money for which I would now expect something far better.

Mind you, I learned a lot about car maintenance.

The “London Borough of Cambridge” if you don’t mind!

We prefer “Royal London Borough” actually.

Have you met my neighbours?

cars these days come with far too many creature comforts.
all I want is a comfy seat, a punchy economical reliable engine, seating for 5 and some load capacity.
I’m sure someone could knock that out for £5k new.

brakes – Member

cars these days come with far too many creature comforts.
all I want is a comfy seat, a punchy economical reliable engine, seating for 5 and some load capacity.
I’m sure someone could knock that out for £5k.

Nearly, you can get a Dacia Sandero for £5995.

Buying new cars is a mugs game and yes they are expensive. £27k for a Golf GTI for example seems a bit mad

I can sort of see the point of a lease, you want something new and shiny for a fixed monthly amount. You give it back at the end of the lease and get something else new and shiny.

Find something 3 years old that has relatively low mileage and save yourself a fortune

Most feelers will give you a full years warranty as well on something that age

The car market is the pits at the moment.
They are all getting more toys, electrical, economy and safety gubbins and when something goes wrong its a big bill. Because of that people are scared and want something with a warranty and pay a premium for it.

Second hand prices outside of main dealers are rock bottom and it will only get worse.

Give the classic cars are back to free VED on a 40 year old rolling basis, I think classics will start rising in value again.

A bedsit in Cambridge well not what I call a bedsit.

I think it’s safe to say such buyers may only own such flats / make such comparisons if they are the landlords or developers.

Give the classic cars are back to free VED

VED is irrelevant for most people surely in comparison to the costs of depreciation, fuel, insurance. A couple of tanks of fuel or less for my cars. I don’t really see that car tax has any significant bearing on peoples’ behaviour when choosing cars.

mtbmatt – Member
people are scared and want something with a warranty and pay a premium for it.

Thats my point. People are scared of a £1000 bill that they may get to repair something big if it goes wrong but will happily pay £10k over 3 years in depreciation.

The other one that makes me chuckle is a colleague who got a new £23 odd grand car because road tax is only £30 a year and his old one was £180. Seems the irony was lost on him when I pointed it out…

maths says it shouldnt clubber – but the fact is people do base their purchases on tax cost…. there was a boy on here last week whos main criteria was it had to be 30 quid to tax as 200 quid is expensive on his current car…..

he was willing to spend 6 grand to save 170 quid a year….

I must admit – i fancied a subaru forrester and was somewhat put off by paying 475 a year in tax to tax a 2.5XT – even though to buy them was cheaper than the 2.0 which was 230 a year….

VED is irrelevant for most people surely in comparison to the costs of depreciation

I completely agree. Take the (albeit probably poor example) of the £36K A3. It would probably be worth £15K in three years time come trade in. That’s about £580 a month depreciation. That why people lease new cars, it’s usually cheaper and a fixed cost.

he was willing to spend 6 grand to save 170 quid a year….

My MD bought a brand new 11k Fiat Panda to run around in because he wanted to save fuel – this is go alongside his big Merc, Porsche 911 and 3 series BMW!

go and look on an audi dealer’s forecourt. their SH prices are eye watering too.

I agree that new car prices are crazy – I’ve just got a new company car – Basic ‘Bluemotion’ 2.0D Passat Estate – the invoice was for just short of £26k.
When I was looking I had a go at speccing-up a top of the range Passat, and got to over £40k pretty easily!

If it was my money i’d have been looking at a 3 year old Skoda Superb…

there was a boy on here last week whos main criteria was it had to be 30 quid to tax as 200 quid is expensive on his current car…..

That mentality is not unique by any means, we see this all the time with our customers (Telecoms operators), they have certain fixations about CAPEX and OPEX and will make all sorts of seemingly irrational decisions that cost them more in the longer term just to meet a arbitrary rule.

A bedsit in Cambridge well not what I call a bedsit.

That’s not in Cambridge, Fen Ditton is a village just outside and one of the few affordable places left. A CB1 postcode would mean inside. Probably £180k ish for a 1 bedroom flat about a shop.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/general-motors-reports-record-sales-of-new-disposa,1491/

Last car I bought new was back in 1988 I think, 205 GTI, got nicked, since then it’s been s/h every time.

In fact have had current car 14 ? years, don’t change cars (or houses) that often!!
Only bought three properties since 1984, too much hassle 🙂

its not all bad if you want a people carrier!

http://www.pentagon-vauxhall.co.uk/offers/new-car/new-vauxhall-zafira-exclusiv-mpv-offer

To clarify, it wasn’t an S3, it was a 2.0 TDi SLine with plenty of extras.

Looking through a motoring magazine in WHSmiths the other day, they seemed to think that the average price of a new car purchase in the UK is £21k. My last five cars together haven’t cost £5k, let alone that much.

Then I don’t know much about cars or the purchase mentality. Have known quite a few people buy a new car because the road tax is slightly cheaper or the first MoT is due. Find it hard to think they do it only to save a few pounds – has to be showboating surely?

As for a £36k hatchback; must be either a company car, PCP or motability scheme surely? You’d be mad to lash that amount of cash to a depreciation monster.

How many of these blinged up cars do dealers sell in reality? Or are they some kind of loss leader? Our local Ford dealer has a little showroom with a hand-full of new cars; Fiestas at £17k, or £23k Focus’s. Yet his forecourt is chock full of “bargain” year old, low mileage £11k same model cars…..