Not quite sure how the S3 can be almost half the price?
Its surely got to depreciate the same amount of pound notes, albeit with a higher starting point.
Sounds more like some other factor at play, or you've compared a discounted price with a VW list one?
You get these weird anomalies with PCP's and leases sometimes where you just happen to land at the right time and get a bargain.
The original round of early 7R's had very high projected resale value as the trade used the previous generation car to base the figures on.
Obviously once the cheap leases headlines broke and all hell broke loose the mk7 R was doomed to massive depreciation taking the rest of the range with it. The mk7 Golf still has respectable depreciation in general but it ain't great.
The S3 originally also had very high projected resale value, again going on the desirability versus the low numbers available on the second hand market. That will provide decent PCP monthlies if you can get a headline discount off the car on top of the high GMFV.
I'll have to agree with some of the thoughts on here. Yes, the performance VW's are getting very expensive but so are Polos, which kind of points to the way the market is heading - high prices, big discounts and plenty of elbow room for attractive PCP deals for salesmen/women.
The equipment levels on performance Golfs used to be paltry until you raided the options list so you have to take that into account now.
MK2 Golf GTI's, mk3 VR6's, mk4 R32's etc all used to be expensive but tended to hold their value well so you got a lot of your investment back meaning you could afford another at the end of your tenure. The headline figures change depending on the market but at the end of the day VW know they have to be just about affordable as well as desirable if they want to sell the darned things as it's not as if there's no competition out there.
