What would you buy if...

[Mutley75]

Brexit..? I think this needs a poll. What could possibly go wrong? 

[Panelpin]

Article in one of last week's papers mentioned Germany are crapping themselves over Brexit as they have 112 billion invested in UK business and economy, Holland are the same.

Keeping things specific here, how much of that is VAG?

What have VAG got invested in the UK apart from a sales operation?

As I said above, how does the UK Government do anything to protect VAG's sales operation in the UK from the exchange rate and the broader economy crash? "tariff free trade" won't do that will it?

Don’t forget VW own the bentley factory in Crewe and have pumped hundreds of millions into it in last 10 yrs

[mike roberts]

Default is 10% for motor industry, Porsche are already getting customers to agree to pay 10% more in the event of no deal.

[fredgroves]

Default is 10% for motor industry, Porsche are already getting customers to agree to pay 10% more in the event of no deal.

Yes, currently non-EU is 10% but that tariff is of course EU set, whether that sticks is up to the UK government... or the mythical "trade deals" you might see mentioned would be negotiated with particular source countries (or the EU which operates as a single bloc). And that would be on cars (not commercial vehicles).

A trade deal works like that - specific source, specific category of goods... its never usually a blanket tariff...

Have a look at HMRC's site to see just how many different categories of goods there are!!!

[mike roberts]

Indeed, it’s a quagmire. My buddy at Nissan has been told they’re to adopt 10% too.

[Mutley75]

I can’t see it happening. Even if there’s no deal... there will very swiftly follow a deal of some sort. Too many vested interests. There might be a load of uncertainty March through September though. Hence why I dodged that bullet and went with a March purchase even at the expense of missing out on the mk8. Which itself is full of uncertainty with regards to price and appearance.

[monkeyhanger]

The Germans and French want to keep selling us their cars. There'll be an agreement on that score, or they'll make cars in their non-EU plants for the UK market.

The Polo is now made in South Africa and shipped to Emden for "QC checks" which are probably enough to be officially partially made in the EU to avoid tariffs. They then get shipped to the UK from Emden. No deal would mean those Polos would likely not go to Emden first, but direct to the UK instead.

[fredgroves]

Oh everything will "find a way" once the actual scenario firms up into something solid. Companies want to make money and they will adapt and change to whatever comes along.

Its just a question of how long that process takes... you don't say build a car plant in the UK or somewhere else over night.

In the same way WW2 damage was repaired and we carried on... it happened... over decades... and in the meantime things were a bit miserable.

Looking at just buying German cars though is just a microcosm of the wider problem.

I'm less worried about that than other impacts - I can always keep my current car until it breaks or until the dust settles.

[P6GTD]

Aaaargh, what did I do mentioning B*****!?!?
Let’s stop and get back to the original poster’s question.
My answer is :
As a massive VAG fan (7 iterations of Audi, Skoda and VW in 14 years).........I have no idea what I would buy instead!

[fredgroves]

Ignoring the B word...

I wandered the car world for years before I finally got a Golf. I like my Golf a lot, not for being fast, but being everything I wanted - practical, big enough but not too big, reliable, the tech thats useful and helps me across hundreds of miles a week, comfortable enough not to leave me mangled.

What else fits the bill? I looked hard after the Mk7 and the choices were finally my own after being liberated from the company car scheme....

Could I find something else that fit the bill? Nope.

Its not even a particularly demanding list! Probably the hardest part is fitting the total cost of ownership into my budget. A cheaper car actually costs more in depreciation...

Choosing something not from the EU probably wouldn't help either, but if I did? Assuming they stay, probably the best bet would be a Nissan or a Honda of some kind.