New proper UK spec GTI at dealership

[monkeyhanger]

I got sent a "VIP event" card by Benfield VW, Scotswood Road (Newcastle upon Tyne) during the week, for being a previous customer (my first Scirocco in 2009 was bought from there). They promised discounts off every new car ordered, and as we were going to the Metrocentre anyway, it was only a few miles out of the way.

I was intrigued to know if they could've given a better deal than I was getting with Pulman.

When I got there and was shown around the GTI they had, I realised it was a different GTI to the one they first had. They now have 2 GTIs, one a showroom model and one demonstrator for the test drives. The test driver is their original GTI (suspected Irish spec with no ADC), the one in their showroom was a full and proper UK spec, with ADC (cloth seats) and it's on sale at £29k. Not sure what it had to bump up the full £29k, it had Santiagos and Pure White paint (why did they buy in 2 white ones?), so it must have had about another £1300 of options, none that were obvious with the quick look that I had.

Anyway, what struck me is that if genuine UK models only got built from BW22, and it is now BW24, then a delivery within 2 weeks is very possible. They apparently got this one in on Friday, so assuming this car was built on the monday of BW22 and took 2 days to build, it was shipped/arrived within 9 days.

The bottom line with the VIP offer was that they were giving 2.5% off the car (more off other cars in the VW range), and if you were buying their £398 GAP RTI policy they were giving you Supagard ("worth" £299) for £1.

They valued my px currently at £14700 and got a settlement figure of £12798, giving £1900 equity. Here's the funny thing. They wouldn't give me £14700 now, they said they'd reappraise my car at delivery time against CAP valuation and would give me a guaranteed £1900 towards the new one, but actual figures for worth vs settlement may give me a little more (I should hope so, that car is depreciating at about £250 a month, and i'm paying about £340 capital a month off my settlement figure after interest). Delivery was Sept/Oct. That was a damn sight better than Silverlink Benfield are offering, as 3 months ago they valued mine at £15000, just £300 more.

I'm still better off with Pulman as my equity in the Scirocco will have opened up to about £3400 (was £1700ish at point of order) for an early Sept delivery with BW33, and my free GAP and servicing negate their 2.5% discount (if you consider the GAP to actually be worth £400, which it isn't). The lass was very keen for me to sign today and I kept deflecting the issue, so she hinted that maybe a small further additional freebie could be offered "if there was just one little thing stopping you from signing today". They will undoubtedly be phoning me up  for a few weeks to get me to change my mind.

For anyone that wants a genuine UK spec Pure White GTI with Santiagos, cloth seats and £1300 of other options (my money is on ACC with a mystery £500 option to make the difference up) they can go there and buy it right now, probably being able to score the same 2.5% discount and maybe free servicing if they play their cars right.

Sorry, I didn't take any pics, the missus was sat in the Scirocco in the car park waiting to go to the metrocentre and I didn't have a mobile with me (I don't have one, I usually rely on the wife to take mobile pics).

[JoeGTI]

Your demos aren't Irish spec cars. For one thing, we are KMH, not mph clocks.
Secondly, the base Irish spec is awful (no xenons, 18's or climate).

[monkeyhanger]

Your demos aren't Irish spec cars. For one thing, we are KMH, not mph clocks.
Secondly, the base Irish spec is awful (no xenons, 18's or climate).

The ones seen so far aren't standard UK spec with the omission of ADC, I assumed they were Irish spec with extras. For the hassle of selling them on later for the lack of ADC, not sure why they didn't build them to proper UK spec from the off.

[mcmaddy]

They are full UK spec but with a full honeycomb grill. When the demos are going to be sold they will replace the full grill with the proper one including the ADC sensor.

[Snoopy]

I love Benfield, 2.5%
What was i saying about white been the most common colour in the north east. Thats why they bought another white one 

[monkeyhanger]

They are full UK spec but with a full honeycomb grill. When the demos are going to be sold they will replace the full grill with the proper one including the ADC sensor.

The second one with ADC is ready for sale, might be worth it for someone who can't/won't wait. If they have their first "for sale" one in already it says to me that they had that ordered so as not to waste their allocation and their first genuine "order to spec" customer didn't put an order in until that first allocation order was in "build confirmed" status.

I still wonder why they made the demos without ADC if they are going to fit it retrospectively - were they worried about the aesthetics on the demo models? Wouldn't surprise me if these can't be fitted retrospectively without a lot of hassle - VW have umpteen different wiring looms depending on your spec - they leave nothing spare for easy additions. One of my mates dads bought a Passat 2 years ago and regretted not having the fog lights. The loom fitted to his would not accomodate them.

[mcmaddy]

The sensor is already behind the grill. it sits just slightly recessed back. I think they probably just wanted a demo but makes you think if Pulman have cancelled the demo gtds if they new anything like the ordering fiasco was on the cards.

[Snoopy]

Ordering fiasco and VW new models go hand in hand. Been there, done that, more than once 

[JonnyG]

Out of interest was the one for sale 3dr or 5dr ?

and DSG or manual ?

[Jimble]

The sensor is already behind the grill. it sits just slightly recessed back. I think they probably just wanted a demo but makes you think if Pulman have cancelled the demo gtds if they new anything like the ordering fiasco was on the cards.

Have you actually seen the sensor behind the grill? Below is a bulletin that Lee posted a while back which says cars built before wk22 would just have cruise, not ADC.

VW0401-13

We can now confirm that pricing and specification for GTI and GTD are as in the below price list and that Automatic Distance Control (ADC) is standard on both cars.

We delayed the open for order date by a day to make sure we published the correct prices and specifications. Customer orders will be built from week 22.


Only market entry and function cars will be built before the week 22 (27 May) model year 14 change; these will be built without ADC but with cruise control instead.