Chris/mcmaddy: If you already have the car, then your deal will remain the same as that's what you signed up for, they can’t touch your GFV. If the GFV drops (well it has dropped by a grand on the GTD just now) and your car is worth less to the dealer than the GFV, you walk away at the end of your term with no equity.
Dubber 36: I don’t already have the car, but I have an order form. I’m not sure if the GFV in place when the order was struck is solid or whether the finance numbers are drawn up when I pick the car up and I decide to take their finance (I suspect the latter). If I were to still buy it outright the GFV is out of the window and the car will probably be worth as p/x £16700 (£1k over current £15700 GFV, if it doesn’t fall any further) instead of the expected £19600 (£1k over the £18600 on my proposal).
I have checked all the dealership emails and order forms and there is nothing in there stating the higher GFV that was in place on the finance examples.
Looking at Audi finance, they have a limited number of models with finance examples, and the one they have (the lowly 1.2TSI A3) has a GFV of 52%, The S3 has to be higher than that and it was 56% last time I looked, with no dirt cheap lease deals out there.
It looks like I have 3 options:-
1. If I can get finance on the old GFV terms (doubtful, I have nothing documentary to back it up), the interest to pay vs leaving money in the bank will leave me £2300 worse off than I thought, but I will be able to get the 3 year service pack for £199, leaving me about £2k worse off.
2. Get finance on the lower GFV rate (worst option IMO) and leave the money in the bank.
3. Buy R in cash as planned and be about £3000 likely worse off on p/x as the GFV has fallen by that much.
4. Cut my losses and go for an S3, paying £2500 more on the top end to add Driver assist pack (Light and rain sensors, Audi park plus, high beam assistant, lane assist, ACC), Folding/heated door mirrors, Auto-dimming rear view mirror, hold assist, Sepang blue paint. The S3 comes with fine nappa leather seats and a few other bits and bobs not standard on the R that I wouldn’t normally buy. £2500 more on the top end and at least £2000 more back in p/x (judging by the GFV being at least £2000 more if my last conversation with an Audi garage was anything to go by).
5. Wait for the next bargain lease deal to come through on the R and jump to that, handing the GTD over to the missus when she eventually learns to drive (she’ll be bussing it to work if she hasn’t taken and passed her test by next July).
The S3 is looking the more tempting option right now (option 4) on the assumption I can’t get the higher GFV on finance (option 1) to mitigate the £3k loss I would suffer on option 3. I prefer the exterior looks of the R overall, but the more aggressive front of the S3 does redeem some of the estate car looks (I would likely be going Sportback) and I like the interior more (although previously not enough to pay what would have been an extra £3k for the privilege). I will have to learn to cut people up and not let people out at junctions etc if I do get behind the wheel of an Audi. There won’t be as many S3s out there either.
I do wonder what the motivation is for the Decimation of the R GFVs and significant step-down in those for the GTI and GTD too:-
Too high for the market to bear vs the competition? Too many out there/ordered to satisfy projected used market demand? VWFS not happy about the lease deals competing too aggressively with the dealership PCP route and so stiffing the lease companies (and the rest of us are just collateral damage) so they’ll make nowt on the deal when the car gets sold at end of lease term and won’t repeat? Audi kicking off about VW’s high GFVs potentially cannibalising too many sales to VW from Audi? VW just trying to dampen the market because they can’t keep up with demand or are seeing the lower spec car sales suffer (as they’ve traditionally had significantly lower GFVs – you could get a GTD cheaper than a 150ps TDI GT on solutions as a result).
