Well the last 24 hours has been eventful, i've been dealing with all kinds of dealers today to try and get something sorted.
Tamworth Audi with the Turbo Blue S3 fiddled and farted on with considering my Born in part-ex and then another salesperson in the group sold it to someone else before they could make their minds up whether to get close to the quoted Motorway.co.uk price.
Contacted the 2 buyers directly that bought our 2 ID3s through Motorway. One wanted to seriously lowball me (he seemed so fair when I sold the ID3, he gave me an extra £200 for driving it to the dealership), and the other said he had loads of EVs that weren't moving while the World waits to see if Tesla drop their prices even more - and called Elon a twunt (how can you disagree with him?). Bearing in mind both dealerships are around London, you'd think that people driving into London daily would be wanting to avoid ULEZ and congestion charges and buy an EV to do so.
So back to the guys in Belfast. I have got a grand discount out of them, but with the bombshell that i'd have to come over to theirs twice - once to pay deposits and sign on the dotted line, then bugger off home, and then come back for the car about 2 weeks later. It was explained that NI cars heading to GB are manually taxed with the DVLA and if I took the car home as soon as it was taxed, i'd have every ANPR camera between Belfast and Newcastle flagging it as untaxed/unregistered on the way home and beyond before it got on the electronic system. Surely I could sign remotely with Docusign or Adobe, to save me the first trip, apparently not.
I can't believe that NI is left on the margins of UK systems to that extent - does no government system that works in GB function correctly when applied to NI? So as it stands, I would pay deposit on a car registered in my name, and then start my finance because it's officially mine, but have to come back again later?
Part of me thinks it's a sly ploy to make sure you don't get the car in your hands within the 14 day cooling off to withdraw from the finance should you choose to. I might be wrong on that point, but it seems that one of 2 things are going to happen:-
1. You effectively lose 2 weeks of your VED as the car is taxed 2 weeks before you can touch it.
2. You start your finance 2 weeks earlier than you get your car.
I hope that finance doesn't start before pick-up day. That's just inherently wrong.
Anyway, long story short, looks like i'm getting a Daytona Grey (Pearl) S3, with the 19" Trapezoid wheels, Comfort and Sound pack, and Red Calipers (£290 for a bit of paint, really?). It's built and awaiting a ship form Emden. Should be in NI within 4 weeks.
Saw and heard an S3 today, sounded great as it roared past my kids' school gates at 3:30pm at 40mph, which it obviously shouldn't have done, especially not at school finishing time.
