Bye-bye GTi hello R

[matchboy]

Having done a few PCP's they are carefully designed to protect the company so they never lose, there will always be some equity but don't expect it to be more than about £1500 - £2000 max on a car like the golf GTI / R. Best to sell privately and settle the agreement.

This is the best way - sell it privately.  You'll always get more, and then you don't have to stick with a VW should you not want to.  I did this once and got considerably more than what the dealer was offering me on top of my GFV.

My reason for me changing is that the R isn't costing this much more, and just like Craig I start looking at other cars within 6 months of getting a new one.  And having only put a grand down on my GTI I'm more than happy to lose that as I've had the car for a year.  The R is the only car that excites me in that class at the moment, the S3 is a lovely car but it's too bland and not enough standard kit; the M235i is very tempting but having had a BMW before I'm not ready to jump back into one just yet; and the Cupra R is too 'flashy' for me in terms of my work.  The R ticks all the boxes for me.  Will I be bored of it in 3 years time - of course - but then hopefully they'll be something else that I'll want then! 

[p3asa]

This is the best way - sell it privately.  You'll always get more, and then you don't have to stick with a VW should you not want to.

That's the beauty of a PCP though you don't have to stick with the same manufacturer. You can easily trade it in elsewhere. Its exactly the same as every other car trade in. Although some folk do believe though that you are tied to that car manufacturer!

The only point of the GFV is, this is the figure the customer has to pay if they want to keep the car. Thats a good point Jammy1 has pointed out that its not a contractual agreement to give you that for the car. Although in saying that, if the car market crashes, and your £15k GFV is now only worth £12k and that is all they are offering then the beauty of one of the PCP options is to hand the car back and start again. So in effect they will give you that GFV.

[Daz_G6R]

One thing you find with the R is it never gets boring, there is always something to upgrade, change ect that stops any bordom setting in, I have a list a mile long to add to the R, then if I did them all at once, I probably would get bored, but the options of tuning setups are endless, it's a smile by mile car, check this build with Statllers.... Endless.  

[mikeok]

Im getting a R for the day from my dealer and seriously thinking of ordering one for next yr to replace my gti pp...

[monkeyhanger]

Add me to the R list - I placed my order with Pulman Durham today for a Lapiz 5 door. Once again I didn't do any extras, there really is no equipment I want that wouldn't be just a novelty for me (the cheaper stuff like reversing camera, keyless, park assist) or that i'd be willing to stomach an 80% loss on 3 years down the line (Leather/Nav Pro/DCC etc). Not a fan of the Pretorias, they look very fragile to me, I was happy with the standard wheels.

I took their nearly new white R (leather, DSG) from the used car lot for a 10 mile spin. DTUK GTD has a lot of shove, but the R was just phenomenal. The noise was nice but seemed a little loud, like a Tiger on the back seat leaning over to growl into my ear. It had the sh!tty Bridgestones on ( ), but grip was not an issue as I was prompted to floor it a few times by the salesman.

They are cheap for their nearly new GTDs, and equipment (which I don't have) does go some way to boosting used prices, so I was originally offered £19k for mine and not a mention of discount. I had checked with Burnley Lookers (they regularly supply the brokers) and they'd been willing to offer £18000 for mine in March 2015 (GFV is £16167 for an 18/24 month old GTD) as well as the Orange Wheels price for the R. I told the local dealer it was Orange Wheels price and £18500 offered by Burnley.

The dealer (I have bought the last 3 cars from him, and my dad bought one) knows the drill. He says that he'll try, with his boss but they've not given a discount on an R yet. He comes back, saying the Boss will come within £300 of the cost to change, and no further. I Say to him "what about my services, I have 2 left, can I transfer them?" He says not, they're stuck with the GTD. "in that case, lets shave £100 off that £300 in lieu of my unused services and we have a deal". Deal Done.

I am swapping a GTD for an R, with an RRP difference of £4670, for a price to change of £9200, meaning that my depreciation stands at £4530 over 18 months, or £252 a month - pretty good for a car only kept 18 months.

[monkeyhanger]

Certainly is. But to all those who are looking into chopping their GTI in for an R. This is how I understand it as simply as possible and i'm sure Monkeyhanger will correct me if i'm wrong.

Based on a PCP;

Exchanging your GTI for an R after 1 year will pretty much break even as far as equity is concerned. This means your'll hand your GTI back. Lose all the money you've paid so far on the car including your deposit and handing the car back will pay off the outstanding debt.

Exchanging your GTI for an R after 2 years and you should have a small amount of positive equity. Probably around £2,000 which you can put down on the deposit for the R.

Exchanging your GTI for an R after 3 years and you should be in a pretty good position. Your car hasn't plummeted too much in value and you should definitely be in equity and will likely have between £3-5,000 worth of Equity to put down as a deposit for the R.

As you see the longer you own the car the less of a hit your'll generally take on it. This is based on a 3 year contract with a healthy deposit to begin with. I can't imagine 4 years being that much different to 3 as far as equity is concerned as the market value should balance out and depreciation should slow down at this point.

As tempting as it is to follow suit and swap my GTI for the R early like others have it makes a lot of economical sense to hold out another couple of years until the end of my 3 year term is over and more of the car is paid off which will allow me a healthy deposit on the R400 on release.

Above depends how you see equity. If you overpay on a PCP (voluntarily paying more than the suggested monthly figure) you should end up with a healthy equity vs GFV and save some interest, paying off more capital (I have done this before, on a Scirocco). If you make normal monthly payments to end up at GFV after 36 months, you'll likely not see much more in p/x than GFV+£1500, if you get discount on the new one too. Some places don't officially discount, but give maybe £3k more than GFV as a result.

If you expect a 10% discount on the new car, I would not expect much more than GFV +£1500. If you end up with a £5k equity vs GFV on a 3 year old GTI, that'd give you around £18k for your GTI, they'll probably have it on the forecourt for £18-19k, and won't make anything from it.

Usually you are onto a loser less than 2 years, at 2 years is when monthly depreciation levels out after the huge initial hit. You are in for a much heavier hit if you've specced a lot of options. Maybe that's why for me and my vanilla GTD, i've had an acceptable depreciation hit at only 18 months chop-in.

[monkeyhanger]

Maybe the GTI is different but I found when I came to the end of my Mk6 PCP and went round various garages, when they put the details of my car in to their system, all of them more or less came back with only £1000 equity going to the new car.

Its almost as if they look and see your GFV and offer £1000 over it regardless.

One salesman said it was only really geared towards getting you a small deposit of £££ to put towards the new car but that was probably BS. Although he did only offer me £600 equity!!

The other thing you could always do is sell the car privately and anything over the GFV you make is yours to put down as a deposit.

The first thing the dealer asked me when talking p/x values was my finance details. I didn't take VW finance out, and asked "what has that got to do with what it's worth to you?". I'm pretty sure they just slap £1000-1500 on top of GFV. They (different dealership) tried this on once for an agreement i'd well overpaid on, making my GFV artificially low. I obviously corrected them. Always look at what they have on the used lot and expect 85% of the sticker price for a car just like the one you're chopping in (and still expect a decent discount) - they need to make something on your p/x, but don't let them be greedy

[virginVWman]

Another one bites the dust!!! Be interesting to see how you cope from a diesel to a peteol guzzler ha. Congrats though. Fancy doing same but bot even a year in myself and id be hammered. Dads best mate works for eastern western group so il badger him soon for another great deal on the r. When are you due for delievery? And did you go check out the s3?

[Misterp]

MH congratats two years you say I will look to chop then I think.

[monkeyhanger]

Another one bites the dust!!! Be interesting to see how you cope from a diesel to a peteol guzzler ha. Congrats though. Fancy doing same but bot even a year in myself and id be hammered. Dads best mate works for eastern western group so il badger him soon for another great deal on the r. When are you due for delievery? And did you go check out the s3?

Yes the change of fuel will be a shock to the system after 8 diesels in a row. It will feel weird taking the car past 4000 revs and having plenty of power left. It was a good thing the demo was a DSG, really confirmed my dislike of them, assuring me to stick to manual. The DSG does have lightning-quick gear changes, but the thinking time of the box seems a bit slow at times when you put your foot down but aren't hammering it. It's funny how long a wait seems when it's out of your control - waiting for stop start on a DSG to kick in from touching the accelerator seems like an eternity, but it's only the time it takes to dip the clutch in a manual.

I had a look at the S3, but if you walk in not looking like a stockbroker, they do seem to think that maybe you can't afford an Audi - do they not realise that their good residuals make them relatively cheap? Gave the usual patter of the S3 being massively different to the R and that VWs are inferior to Audi. If VW had the bottle to tread on Audi's toes by offering class leading interiors, you'd probably only be talking an extra £1000 for softer plastics on the lower dash, brushed aluminium inserts and sportier (more Recaro looking) seats. Was offered £18k for my GTD and 4% discount. The S3's nicer interior isn't enough to get over the lack of useful equipment and IMO the Golf does look better externally with 5 doors. I do think the omission of fog lights on the R is odd though. Badge snobbery aside, the R is the better overall package for me.

I'm only a year in, but it will be 18 months by the time I get the R, I stipulated I want it on a 15 plate.