Possible switch to a GTI

[caprigreen]

Seriously. I think broker sites are (currently) used by a pretty small percent of the car buying public in general.

Spot on here. My Wife's Aunty thinks she's got a great deal if she pays list then gets free mudflaps, rubber mats and a full tank of fuel when she picks up a new low end Peugeot 206/207/208 every 3 years.

Do the right thing and let your Aunty in on the broker secret just don't tell anyone else 

[monkeyhanger]

Seriously. I think broker sites are (currently) used by a pretty small percent of the car buying public in general.

Spot on here. My Wife's Aunty thinks she's got a great deal if she pays list then gets free mudflaps, rubber mats and a full tank of fuel when she picks up a new low end Peugeot 206/207/208 every 3 years.

Do the right thing and let your Aunty in on the broker secret just don't tell anyone else 

I've tried, but she thinks that salesman she always deals with is her best mate. Admittedly he gives a decent p/x price - i've told her more than once that I could probably make her at least a grand better off for the £9k car she buys.

[caprigreen]

Seriously. I think broker sites are (currently) used by a pretty small percent of the car buying public in general.

Spot on here. My Wife's Aunty thinks she's got a great deal if she pays list then gets free mudflaps, rubber mats and a full tank of fuel when she picks up a new low end Peugeot 206/207/208 every 3 years.

Do the right thing and let your Aunty in on the broker secret just don't tell anyone else 

I've tried, but she thinks that salesman she always deals with is her best mate. Admittedly he gives a decent p/x price - i've told her more than once that I could probably make her at least a grand better off for the £9k car she buys.

Similar story with my My Dad who is 80 and has a love for the Skoda Yeti. He has bought three so far and if he gets a reasonable trade in he thinks he has done a deal . He does not get any discount on the new car. Told him I could save him three grand but if the salesman is a nice guy he does not worry.

[Mark V GTD]

Some balance needed here - if you get a fantastic trade in and no discount you are doing sort of OK. If you get a fantastic discount and lousy trade in you are doing sort of OK.

If you want an 'amazing' deal you will have to get both - but thats going to be at two different places - one of them most likely being a private buyer....

[caprigreen]

Some balance needed here - if you get a fantastic trade in and no discount you are doing sort of K. If you get a fantastic discount and lousy trade in you are doing sort of OK.

If you want an 'amazing' deal you will have to get both - but thats going to be at two different places - one of them most likely being a private buyer....

Yes of course. Its the cost to change that you need to consider. I have always sold my cars privately, then approached the dealer. Most people like the convenience of exchanging on the same day at the dealers as don't want to be left without a car for a period of time , fair enough; but you are unlikely to get the very best deal.

My Dad is 80 , older people become invisible to society , unless of course they are spending money . Was that too cynical . A nice friendly dealer makes us feel good.

[monkeyhanger]

Some balance needed here - if you get a fantastic trade in and no discount you are doing sort of K. If you get a fantastic discount and lousy trade in you are doing sort of OK.

If you want an 'amazing' deal you will have to get both - but thats going to be at two different places - one of them most likely being a private buyer....

It does seem though that this loyalty offer is being negated by ridiculously low GFVs. Ffrank has been offered in effect the GFV that early GTDs had at 3 years old, for a 2 year old example, and with a raft of options on it (which admittedly would retain only 20% of their initial value at best). And who has ever just got GFV when they trade in? I usually expect £1500 more than the published GFV.

The current GFV for a 2 year old GTD 5 door manual is £14967 on the finance part of the website. With that in mind, accounting for £500 expected for the extras and expecting at least £1000 more than GFV, Ffrank should be looking at a realistic £16500 p/x price (not including the loyalty discount) considering the current circumstances that VW face (the GFV quoted takes that into account) To be offered £15250, that's no deal at all.

If the VW garage expect him to hand his car over for £15250 and sell it for any more than £18k, they're being exceedingly greedy - I doubt it will be up on the forecourt for less than £21k with a view to accepting £20k.

[ffrank]

Some balance needed here - if you get a fantastic trade in and no discount you are doing sort of K. If you get a fantastic discount and lousy trade in you are doing sort of OK.

If you want an 'amazing' deal you will have to get both - but thats going to be at two different places - one of them most likely being a private buyer....

It does seem though that this loyalty offer is being negated by ridiculously low GFVs. Ffrank has been offered in effect the GFV that early GTDs had at 3 years old, for a 2 year old example, and with a raft of options on it (which admittedly would retain only 20% of their initial value at best). And who has ever just got GFV when they trade in? I usually expect £1500 more than the published GFV.

The current GFV for a 2 year old GTD 5 door manual is £14967 on the finance part of the website. With that in mind, accounting for £500 expected for the extras and expecting at least £1000 more than GFV, Ffrank should be looking at a realistic £16500 p/x price (not including the loyalty discount) considering the current circumstances that VW face (the GFV quoted takes that into account) To be offered £15250, that's no deal at all.

If the VW garage expect him to hand his car over for £15250 and sell it for any more than £18k, they're being exceedingly greedy - I doubt it will be up on the forecourt for less than £21k with a view to accepting £20k.

Yes, thanks for doing some figures Matt - exactly my thoughts. I was likely a bit ambitious with what I was expecting, but what I have been offered really is low - I am off to another dealer tomorrow for a GTI test drive (looking forward to that!) and will see what they suggest as a P/X price. But as Mark suggests - getting a broker deal and selling to highest bidder (private no doubt) would likely be the best combo.

Dan

[ffrank]

Test drive day!

Choosing my GTD was easy - I needed a lot of practicality whilst maintaining some sportiness and the driving experience, wanted low running costs and planned on eating a lot of miles. It was a perfect compromise, and I didn't at the time think anything else came close (1 series remains on the ugly shelf for me).

Now that I am thinking of doing low miles and switching to a petrol, it's a bit tougher and slightly dangerous...

I went out to drive a GTI today (booked with local dealer), and decided to drop in on BMW and Jaguar to compare their higher end petrol offerings (which with discounts are R money near enough).

GTI Manual, Non-PP
The biggest difference for me against my GTD (with DTUK), was that sweet revving engine. It was really good, as many of you obviously know! The car felt at times quicker but at times like I had caught it off guard - but this is simply learning a different driving style and nothing more. On one occasion I slipped past a slow vehicle on a 2 lane motorway joining ramp, and slipping from 2nd to 3rd gear and revving to the redline was very sweet and smooth - grin inducing indeed. Also, accelerating through the gears from 1st-4th is very smooth with a much more linear feel than the GTD, which is likely as quick with the DTUK - but the GTI felt quicker as the linear and high revving engine just provided a bit more drama. This was in normal mode too, so soundakter was off.

If I went for a GTI I think I would be tempted to go for a PP manual and quite possibly a DTUK box (I would no doubt be re-reading some threads on here / bugging people for their recent experiences with this combo!)

The roads were damp today but traction was ok for me, I'm aware traction could be an issue with the above - but I'm not too worried about this, I'm used to being a little careful with the current car in the wet (for 1st and 2nd gear), and hopefully I would get decent tyres from the factory (not sure what is being shipped currently?)

I love the heritage of the GTI, I haven't owned one but I was bought up in a house with my Dad going through a series of Peugeot GTI 205 1.9's and the idea of continuing the tradition in all but marque is very appealing!

R Manual
This was a last minute decision, but they had one and it would have been rude not to? Driving the GTI felt like my car in all but the engine, just driving through the carpark in the R and the car felt different (unless this was just the turning circle!) you could tell something was going on with the 4 corners - and it felt awesome. I did the exact same route as the GTI - 10 miles of dual carriageway and A roads.

This car is an animal  As I think Monkeyhanger said somewhere, there's initially not a lot under 4000rpm (felt quite flat to me when I first prodded the gas after getting an oil temp), but once going it is amazingly fast. Red lining and then changing gear takes your breath away a little, as the next gear just eats up the road in front of you. I reached very naughty speeds very quickly.

In traffic and driving sedately it feels just like another Golf, so it really does provide the best of both worlds and I can see it's great appeal to the many converts here.

For me, I'm not sure - it almost felt too fast for me. Is that possible, I don't know. But I guess it's the fastest car I have ever driven, so would probably need a longer drive to come to a real conclusion about owning one.

I would have one in limestone grey with prets.

DSG vs Manual
The only DSG (an R) was at home with a manager so I couldn't compare DSG and Manual today. All I have to go on is my wife's 1.2 TSI DSG Polo, which drives like a go kart! But I must say I did love the gear changes in both the GTI and R, and as I am looking for a fairly low mileage replacement car a manual does tick the boxes for me. I often wish I had a DSG (pootling around town or in traffic) but for sheer engagement a manual still does it for me. I think on balance I would likely save the £1400 and stay manual for now.

BMW 340i
Hmm, my local BMW told me they rarely have anything above a 320i in the petrol stakes. They did have a rather stunning (but pretty brash) M3 in the show room, but nothing worth driving. "Will call me if anything comes in", we'll see. The 340i can be had for under 30k as a manual with no options (broadspeed), so I do want to investigate this a bit further as it's a lot of car for the money.

Jaguar XE R-Sport 240bhp
I wanted to drive this and the XE S 3.0 V6, but this car was with a customer for the day. The 240bhp variant was a really good drive - felt very flat through the corners (and saleperson-handle-gripping roundabouts), it also had what seemed to be the tiniest lag and picked up rev's in no time. The initial lurch forward took me by surprise a few times, and the car reached unrepeatable speeds joining the motorway in seemingly no time at all - but it was all rather undramatic. The refinement belies the speed you are going. Although strangely, as refined as the car is it does have more wind noise than the golf (unless it's just more noticeable due to the rest of the noise being more detached).

The biggest problem with this car for me is the engine sound, and lack of any exhaust sound in the cabin. The engine sounds quite whiney - I know it's a 4 cylinder, but maybe I have been spoilt to the rather sweet sounding VW engines (with and without soundakter/sport and sound).

The 240 with a sports exhaust (I think after market is only option), could be nice - it's a very competent drive.

The cabin is nice but I'm not sure I like it as much as the Golf, the plastics look kinda cheap around the centre consoles? What I do like about the cabin is the large bonnet hump in front, you feel like you are driving a muscle car - although a V6 under the hood would complement this feeling rather better!

Again, I'm not convinced an auto box is for me - which is the only option for this car. The engine note may have put me off (you kind of will it to change gear a bit quicker and put the engine out of it's suggested misery), so will be interesting to see what I think of the box in the V6 when I get a chance to drive that.

Other showroom highlights of the day:

V8 F-Type and BMW i8, 2 of the most beautiful cars in recent years I feel!

I'm just waiting on trade in prices from VW and Jaguar now, which will help show what might be possible without going too silly with losing money on my GTD.

[Watts]

Nice write up! Sounds like the GTI is doing well so far. I could be tempted by an R but I do still think my GTI has enough performance but key for me, as you have also mentioned, is the heritage and especially the tartan seats! What finally convinced me were the red LEDs in the doors - after that the test drive was a mere formality!

[monkeyhanger]

ffrank - i'd be looking at the R if I were you, otherwise you might be getting a PP GTI and wishing you'd got an R in 6 months time! That car is insane above 4k revs. I overtook 2 cars and a bus uphill in 1 maneuver on a very long straight road (could see 1/2 a mile ahead) the other day, it was as if they were standing still. 35 to 85mph (for the momentum, drifted back down to 70 as soon as I was clear of the bus) was achieved very quickly.

For me at least, unless mine gives me further (major) trouble, I could see myself keeping it a fair while, knowing i'll not get anything quicker or better equipped at its price-point, and I have my 5 year warranty to fall back on. Might wait it out until the MK8 before changing.