Hi @jon87
Good topic as that is how I’m thinking in terms of my next car and I’ll be looking next year (2024)
Fred has hit the nail on the head in terms of 7.5 …now or 8.5 …sometime in 2024 or later.
Over on the 8.5 thread someone has mentioned November 2023 for an unveil of facelift. My past record isn’t great on guessing VW but I can’t help thinking that 50th Anniversary date in 2024 will be marked by something from VW (I thought I’d seem a date of first debut of Mk1 in Feb 1974 , but can’t find it now and only see that production started in March 1974. Geneva motor Show anybody….yes it is happening in 2024.
But Autumn unveil of facelift and then cars in Jan or April next year is in line with previous models.
VW have been stung by the (rightful) criticism over infotainment performance. Choosing my words carefully as a lot of touchscreen may appeal. I believe from new release of Passat and Tiguan we have a pretty good idea of what infotainment on facelift will look like and it’s also pretty much confirmed that buttons are back on the steering wheel.
Interior trim wise, the car magazines talk about VW wanting to up quality in the cabin and I think they will use a “fake” alcantara (from recycled something or other) which the ID3 has received in its facelift. I think it looks ok (and with some nice red stitching will be perfect😂😂)
Price wise, I think that gap could be a little bigger than you estimate. I’d say with GTI (base) facelift will be over £40k before options). You mention DTD and that’s where my car came from but there is something on the horizon which may throw a spanner in the works.
Been meaning to start a topic to see what people think about “Agency Model” which Manufacturers all seem to be heading towards. The info across several publications is that VAG are changing by end of 2023.
What I don’t know is how this affects people like DTD which are using Fleet side of the business, if I am correct.
Agency model is where manufacturers set a price for everyone and pay dealers a single handling fee for any sale/delivery. So there isn’t any haggling with Dealer (Merc introduced it in UK at start if this year). The OEMs say well it’s a single transparent price across all dealers, but it Looks to me as a crafty way to maintain high prices. So hopefully DTD etc can continue as before, but perhaps discounts will reduce… but I saw Whatcar had said discounts last month had increased as supply came back. So we’ll have to see.
So your car price comparison might actually be a gap of £15-20k for the 7.5 to 8.5
The wheels… I think they are genuine GTI option wheels but they have been sprayed all black. I’m just trying to locate a match via autotrader.
