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Model specific boards => Golf mk7 => Topic started by: MrBinks on 03 June 2014, 11:55
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Hi guys,
I've had a quick search around the forum and couldn't quite find what I was after so am creating a new topic. Please go easy - I'm new around here!
I'm soon to be in the market for a Mk7 GTD.
I've never owned a VW before, and I've never purchased NEW before. I've always been told it's pointless and that you should always buy nearly new "bla bla bla". However, I intend to own the car for a long time. I'm not the sort of person that chops and changes ever 2 years. Realistically I see myself buying a car (this time round) to last me 8-10 years. The GTD is so well equipped and ticks so many boxes that I felt it could be the sort of car that could well last me that long.
Anyway, my questions are mostly to those that have experience in buying brand new (although, I'm happy to heed any warnings or advice to the contrary).
1) I've heard that no one ever pays the price on the card in the window. Is this correct? If so, may I ask what sort of prices GTD owners have been getting for their new cars? List price on the VW website for a stock 5dr GTD is currently £26,985. What sort of figure should I realistically be aiming for?
2) I'm looking to buy in Feb next year. I have to scrape a deposit together first. I've been reading around here that there is rather a long lead time on GTDs (as I say, I've never bought new so no idea if this is normal?) Considering I want one early next year, would I be better off ordering at the end of this? If so - what sort of deposit can I stick down, generally speaking. Would it normally be the full whack, or maybe a percentage of the deposit?
Just trying to set some realistic expectations for myself - and of course I will eventually go speak to the dealers, I just wanted to go in educated.
Nice to meet you all.
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Biggest tip I'll give you based on location is get to JCB Medway - you will get 10-12% discount - just quote them the Drive the Deal price and they will give you it (or possible better) as they have a lot of DTD customers. You will prob have a 5-6 month lead time with them though as they do quite a volume. More discount with a few options.
JCB asked for a £1k deposit (was a cash sale) other dealers vary and can be 5%
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If you are prepared to wait until Feb, I’d wait until March for the new plate (you don’t want a 1 month old car looking 6 months old at plate change, and it’ll hold its value a little better being a new plate rather than a late old plate at trade-in time). You probably won’t be in a position to place an order until Sept for March plate though. Pointless ordering nearly new rather than new when you see the used forecourt prices and the discounts you can get. I take it at that RRP quoted you are talking DSG gearbox too? Do you normally drive a DSG? If not, get a comprehensive test drive, it’s not for everyone (me included), although my dad loves his.
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I shall take a look at JCB, thanks. I've also been looking at a website called carwow which seems to also point towards a 10% discount. 6 month lead time. Wowzers.
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I take it at that RRP quoted you are talking DSG gearbox too? Do you normally drive a DSG? If not, get a comprehensive test drive, it’s not for everyone (me included), although my dad loves his.
Nope, that was a manual!
re: plate change - quite agree. The difference between Feb/March is negligible.
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Ah, I forget that there's probably been a price rise or 2 since I bought mie and yours may include metallic paint. Due to the residuals, the 5 door premium will all be got back at trade-in if you were only keeping it 3 years - if your financing through VW you'll find a negligible monthly difference between 3 and 5 door.
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I shall take a look at JCB, thanks. I've also been looking at a website called carwow which seems to also point towards a 10% discount. 6 month lead time. Wowzers.
Yes there are a number of car broker sites - I would say get the cheapest quote from one of them and JCB Medway (not Ashford) will match/better.
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Carwow is a good site to try, also Orangewheels and as others say use this to negotiate with a local dealer to see what they do. Any discount below 10% isn't really enough, up to 12% seems possible. Usually the bigger discounts mean a longer lead time for order which for you isn't an issue.
Deposit on ordering of £500 to £1000 is pretty normal, any more I would refuse as its a car they can sell easily if you back out.
Going brand new with a GTD does make sense because residuals are strong due to demand and long deliveries. Means the ex demo and used cars often are pretty expensive as dealers seem to price them at nearly new prices to tempt someone wanting a speedy delivery and who maybe isn't aware that they can achieve a decent discount on a new car.
GTD is well specced but its always tempting to add a few little options and toys when ordering new.
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Due to the residuals, the 5 door premium will all be got back at trade-in if you were only keeping it 3 years - if your financing through VW you'll find a negligible monthly difference between 3 and 5 door.
Has to be 5 doors for me, as we're a family of 4 (2 + a 4 year old and a baby). I'm actually tempted to go with the VW financing as it gives me an option to walk away after X years. Not that I expect to, but you never know what life might throw at you. The plan (at the moment) was to go for the 3 years and then pay the final payment (possibly at the expense of another 3 year loan from a bank). It would probably be cheaper to find the best loan, but over the period I wish to take it, it makes sense to have that back-out option.
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Carwow is a good site to try, also Orangewheels and as others say use this to negotiate with a local dealer to see what they do. Any discount below 10% isn't really enough, up to 12% seems possible. Usually the bigger discounts mean a longer lead time for order which for you isn't an issue.
Deposit on ordering of £500 to £1000 is pretty normal, any more I would refuse as its a car they can sell easily if you back out.
Going brand new with a GTD does make sense because residuals are strong due to demand and long deliveries. Means the ex demo and used cars often are pretty expensive as dealers seem to price them at nearly new prices to tempt someone wanting a speedy delivery and who maybe isn't aware that they can achieve a decent discount on a new car.
GTD is well specced but its always tempting to add a few little options and toys when ordering new.
Excellent - so it sounds like these broker websites are a good place to start, then walk into a decent dealer and ask them, kindly, to match it.
It also sounds like ordering in August/September may be prudent!
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I negotiated with a couple of local dealers via carwow, achieved 10% discount but none could get within £750 of the drive the deal price. Takes me a long time to earn £750 so went with DTD and supplying dealer was JCB Medway. Completely painless process, James @ JCB was great. I live in the midlands & collected the car myself but the dtd price includes driven delivery to any address in England if u can't collect.
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I ordered through drivethedeal.com and the best deal they could get me was with JCB Kent so I reckon they would easily match what the brokers are offering. If not just go with drivethedeal and the chances are you'll be directed to JCB :grin:
carwow was also not a bad site for me for quotes. Give them a try.
I was also told 20 weeks at least with JCB but I ordered in February and picking up this week so 16 weeks all in. The lead time seems to be coming down.
Good advice if wanting it in February, to wait until March for the new reg but in the grand scheme of things if your keeping it for 8-10years it won't make that much of a difference. Just the initial driving about in what in theory looks like a possible 5 month old car :grin:
VW do minor tweaks here and there but these don't tie in with the new registration so its not as if you would be waiting on a slightly different feature on the car. These happen in week 22 (end of May) for example this kind of thing changes http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=266414.msg2447926#msg2447926
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I ordered through drivethedeal.com and the best deal they could get me was with JCB Kent so I reckon they would easily match what the brokers are offering. If not just go with drivethedeal and the chances are you'll be directed to JCB :grin:
I was visiting the area and just popped in to JCB Medway (didn't know they were involved with DTD at the time) and presented them with the DTD quote which they immediately matched/slightly bettered so I'd say you would have no probs getting a good deal from them if you go in with the broker figures.
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Some great help coming from you guys, thanks everyone!
It does sound like it will be worth my while ordering in August / September if I want it for 1st quarter next year. Basically, my current car loan finishes in August and I was going to put that money away to save for a GTD deposit (get me with my sensible hat on). It sounds like from what everyone is saying, I can pay a partial deposit with the balance upon pick up next year?
That does make things rather exciting, I must say. Might have to book a test drive soon!
Out of interest what GTD options do people recommend when ordering?
What do people consider as Must Haves and what are Nice To Haves?
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It sounds like from what everyone is saying, I can pay a partial deposit with the balance upon pick up next year?
Out of interest what GTD options do people recommend when ordering?
What are Must Haves and what are Nice To Haves?
yes you will only need to pay £500-1000 now and balance on delivery.
Options - I'm pretty loaded with them and wouldnt do without any of them but I'd have to say Keyless and dynaudio are my fav, reversing cam (if still available) is useful and pretty cheap. Everyone has their own opinions on options though.
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What about something like Dynamic Chasis Control?
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Options are very subjective. What I would want / need you might not.
Dynamic Chassis Control has been spoke about a lot on the forum and by the sounds of it not everyone can actually feel the difference yet others swear by it. Its probably one of those things you would need to try out yourself.
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Completely loving keyless - best 350 quid I've spent in a while....
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Completely understand that options are a personal choice. I just wondered if there was anything people considered indispensable.
Also - and this is quite important (because it was bloody awesome) was the darkened cabin in the GTI a standard, and does it come on the GTD?
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Hi MrBinks, welcome to path to owning the awesome car that is the MK7!
As everyone has said, try local dealers with the broker prices and see how you get on, but with your timescale going through DTD may work well for you. I used CarWow but used the DTD quote to get the best quote on CarWow down a bit. It was £200 more than DTD but a local dealer which was handy.
As said, options are a subjective matter, but to add my subjections :)
Keyless - Hope to have this on every car in the future, it's amazing. I think it's perfect for the GTD, you walk to the car, get in, foot in the clutch or brake (manual or DSG), press the starter button - and as the car figures out if the coils are warm enough yet to start the engine - put your seatbelt on, by which time the car has started and you zoom off. It's fantastic.
Dynamic Chassis Control - If someone doesn't feel the difference I think there must be an issue with the car, or it's more noticeable on 18" or .. etc etc. Everyone has felt the difference in my car, even my Wife who isn't big into cars could tell what was different before I even told her. Comfort is great on the rubbish roads around here, and sport is much much firmer - I can see the car bonnet scuttle up and down over the road bumps. It's obviously pricey, so ideally test driving with and without would be the ideal I guess. Just bear in mind DCC Normal mode is still using adaptive dampening, so is different to a non-DCC car, but by how much I don't know.
Dynaudio - wouldn't be without this either, I haven't heard the standard speakers but I love the dynaudio. It's so clear and very loud (50% is plenty loud enough for me), on the right song the bass punches you in the back.
Nav - If you need sat nav and don't want the wires etc, the standard nav is great. The directions appearing on the MFD screen are very cool. Goes very well in hand with the keyless for quick getaways. The Nav Pro is obviously very nice, but personally I don't miss the bigger size and additional features.
Panoramic Sunroof - it adds great light, nice ventilation (on tilt) and on summers a-road it's pretty nice to have open and hear the birds as you cruise around, if that's your thing. Sunroof open and shade closed is a good combo for very hot days too.
Sport and Sound Pack - as you may have read on here, the VW description is rubbish. You get red brake callipers and a new exhaust design included a sound actuator in the exhaust. It turns on with sport mode, and it is very loud and mean. Reminds me of a V8 note, which is hilarious on a 2.0 diesel, but great fun - sounds amazing at 4-5000rpm. It's great for cruising around town (and getting a look in the Tesco carpark) and great for when you want a bit of accelerator fun, but nice that you can turn it off when you are relaxing or on a longer journey.
Winter Pack - The heated seats are brilliant. I've had a bit of back ache recently and putting the seat on level 1 or 2 is great for it, so I'm seeing the use of it even outside of frosty mornings. But then, this is the UK.
Rear View Camera - still not totally used to it, but using it more and more along with mirrors/shoulder checks. I thought it was a no brainer as it could save me a rear dent one day, plus it does work well on bay parks.
Rear airbags - probably not compatible with kids in the rear? But I frequently take my 28 yr old big kid brother in law out in the back, so was requested :)
I'm not sure which I would say are must haves, other than I would miss any of these options as they are very well designed and executed by VW - the whole car is just quality.
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thanks for the carwow info, I'm thinking about chucking in the lease car and buying my own as it seems cheaper to do so, even with the upfront deposit.
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Dark headlining is standard on the GTD too. My GTD is completely standard, I don't need/want any of the options enough to add £3-4k to my car that I won't see more than 15% of back at trade-in time, other people will go the whole hog, but it will probably add nigh-on £100 a month to your monthly payments.
Here's the cynical guide to them from someone who never bought any:
DCC - Some people say they won't be without it, but the GTD/GTI standard set-up is extremely forgiving for having 18" wheels and lowered suspension.
SatNav - VW want way too much for the integration. The standard satnav is just a module that plugs into the existing screen set-up, and the pro is a ridiculous £1700.
Leather - Very pricey, only around half of it is actually leather, feels hot in the summer, it sags, it takes away some of the interior identity of the GTI/GTD.
Rear View camera - it is frequetly bought because it is cheap, but the standard sensors pick up absolutely everything, I really don't see the point.
Dynaudio. Yes it's better than standard, but in a car with lots of external noises filtering through, your typical audiophile will already concede that car audio is compromised.
Keyless: £350 for something that is standard on many lesser cars (my wife's mate's Renault Captur has it), i'm sure it'll become part of the spec in future.
Quick clear windscreen - great, if you could buy it on it's own for £250/300, but you can't you need to get a telephone prep with it as it interferes with the signals (stop using your phone in the car I say, even a hands free conversation is a distraction at the wheel).
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I don't think the Nav is much good (think the routing choices are poor and not a big fan of how it handles traffic) but I think it's an essential option to make the most of the screen. Complete rip off though when, in my opinion, it performs worse than a £20 Co-Pilot app.
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Some great feedback here, thanks guys and keep it coming! All really useful.
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The options I went for were nav and leather. Leather I love as it adds a bit of luxury to the interior and is easier to keep clean, also heated seats comes in the option pack. Nav I like as it adds a feature to the dash, hate stuck on nav units and will add something at resale, certainly should add some desirability. Other features would be nice but to my ears the standard stereo is very good and comparable to the Bang & Olufsen setup in my other car.
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To al those advocating using broker prices to negotiate direct with dealers:
If people keep doing this the brokers will not be in business and we will all pay more. If DtD or whoever offer the cheapest deal - use them!
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Agreed , Drive the Deal are awesome . This GTD I have on order is the 5th new car Ive had through them and all have been pain free. Im not sure how much they make per deal but Im happy for them to earn it :cool:
I consider leather to be essential but many dont. Other than that I think the car is well spec'd up already .
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Definitely sounds like DTD is the way forward. I shall look into that further. Already had one quote from them with a saving of 3.5k!
I'm surprised the amount of people advocating Keyless Entry as a great option to get. I wasn't even considering it. Sounds like one of those little perks that once you have it, it's had to imagine life without out it. Like, Sky + or something similar.
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I'm surprised the amount of people advocating Keyless Entry as a great option to get. I wasn't even considering it. Sounds like one of those little perks that once you have it, it's had to imagine life without out it. Like, Sky + or something similar.
Likewise, my main problem is the cost. £350 for something that comes for nothing on many lesser cars. A friend has a 5-year-old base Clio that came with it as standard.
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Today I specced up a GTD in carbon.
Winter pack - Golf GTI/GTD/R - £360.0
Dynamic chassis control - £815.0
Keyless entry - £360.0
Discover navigation + European map data - £750.0
With Drive the deal it came to:
New Golf 2.0 TDI GTD 5dr £25,738
Now I need to see who wants to lend me some money :D
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Today I specced up a GTD in carbon.
Winter pack - Golf GTI/GTD/R - £360.0
Dynamic chassis control - £815.0
Keyless entry - £360.0
Discover navigation + European map data - £750.0
With Drive the deal it came to:
New Golf 2.0 TDI GTD 5dr £25,738
Now I need to see who wants to lend me some money :D
Yep when I got mine last year I got a load of options added on and still paid less than the basic list price of the standard car, saying that most dealers around me were giving little or no discount I was well happy
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Great spec :D
I'll lend you a fiver :rolleyes:
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Result, I won't say no to that! ;-)
Pretty sure that's the spec I'm going for. As I said in the opening post, I'm not someone that buys cars often and have never bought a new car, so have been going through budgets with the mrs. It's weird how on paper there's plenty of room for the purchase. Doesn't always feel that way at the end of the month though!
Less rum more driving, perhaps.
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The nav pro is a good piece of kit especially in conjunction with the rear camera. Anyone who says the nav doesn't work properly needs to play around with the settings. It gives you three different routes and will also calculate routes based on current traffic info. All options are subjective though as I can't see the point in keyless entry :whistle:
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Do you still use the 3 routes mcmaddy, any good?
One of the first things I did was turn off eco and shortest, so it just calculated fastest (to speed it up) - but maybe I was too hasty if it works well.
Well yes, I was a bit dubious about keyless and got it on the basis of others regretting not getting it I guess, but now I have it I wouldn't want to go back to a key. First world problem I know!
MrBinks, same here - this was my first new car purchase which is why I went to town a bit, and planning on keeping it awhile - 4yr VW finance and these great discounts works out very reasonably for so much 'car'. I added the 4yr warranty and 3yr service pack, so it should be pretty trouble free motoring.
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Jeez, Beadles really don't want a sale do they. Asked them twice to organise a test drive for Sunday and have had nothing but radio silence. You'd think they'd want 25k?
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Finally got a mail back. Wow, they didn't even try to help me out or try and offer something!
Thank you for your email, unfortunately we do not have a GTI available, I believe our Bromley Branch may have a GTI free to test if you wanted to give them a call?
In all honesty, we are unable to compete with Drive the deal, they probably give double the discount over us, so I'm sure it will be a no brainer on where to purchase it!
Thank you once again for your time and good luck with your purchase.
Kind regards
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I'd be avoiding that garage forever more!.
@ffrank I've just left all three routes on but have changed what the preset was to quickest. It does give you a choice if it has one but on some occasions all the routes are the same.
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Thanks to PeterDoherty, I went down to JCB Medway today for a chat. So much more accommodating than Beadles. Had a good chat and managed to do things like listen to the stock stereo, and check out lights and things. Test drive booked for next week.
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I'm very tempted by a GTD or GTI on pcp via Drive the Deal. Only thing I'm not sure about is the 7.2% finance rate - this seems a bit high compared to other manufacturers. Any way of getting it down a bit?
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Just as a note, that GTI that Beadles Bromley have available is in fact the GTI that they ordered with the incorrect spec for me that I rejected! They are actually a very nice bunch of people, and although they are not playing when it comes to the DtD discounts, they are friendly and helpful in my experience and the sales manager at Bromley, a chap called Pat, is very straightforward and easy to deal with. :smiley:
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Hi All,
It has been interesting reading the thread regarding best place to but and what options.
I have just placed an order for a GTI with DTD as CarWow or BuyaCar quotes were all at least £600 more, the dealer
is in Liverpool though for me.
I have added the performance pack, Basic Nav, 19 wheels, DCC, Keyless, Winter Pack and Dynaudio so starting to think I have gone a bit mad with the options, no confirmed delivery yet but quoted Late Sept/Oct. Initial impressions of DTD are very good.
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Maybe drop the DCC - that will save loads - not like the car even looks any different with it - you don't even get a physical button!