They've gone up in price a few times, especially in the last 6 months.
Car shopping for the first time in 20 years
- Thread starter Vertigo
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They've gone up in price a few times, especially in the last 6 months.
That's list price for the S-Tronic version with about £4k of options.
The Golf R is mechanically almost identical. Handles a bit better but isn't as nice a place to be.
Even a no-options Golf-R DSG (which doesn't come with the new dry 7-speed box) is £34k OTR.
You've got to remember that there is no saloon equivalent in the Golf, nor does it have things like magnetically adjustable suspension.
Hatch and Sportback S3's are cheaper.
Basically I have no idea on finance options or costs. As I said, I've not bought my own car for 20 years now.
Leasing is obviously the easiest choice but, if I were to look at purchase instead, how exactly would I go about financing it so I could calculate my total costs. Leaving aside the "is it worth it argument" for a moment, let's say I can get the car I want new via Carwow or similar for circa £35k. I'd be looking to keep it for four years at 10k miles pa and then get shot. Obviously I have no car to sell or use in part exchange so say I was prepared to put down a £5k cash deposit. What are my options?
I know I could walk into a dealer and go for a PCP deal, as many people I know have done, but something tells me I'm not likely to get a good deal that way and sorting my own finance is the best option but I have no idea how that would work.
Leasing is obviously the easiest choice but, if I were to look at purchase instead, how exactly would I go about financing it so I could calculate my total costs. Leaving aside the "is it worth it argument" for a moment, let's say I can get the car I want new via Carwow or similar for circa £35k. I'd be looking to keep it for four years at 10k miles pa and then get shot. Obviously I have no car to sell or use in part exchange so say I was prepared to put down a £5k cash deposit. What are my options?
I know I could walk into a dealer and go for a PCP deal, as many people I know have done, but something tells me I'm not likely to get a good deal that way and sorting my own finance is the best option but I have no idea how that would work.
Bonkers money IMO! I'd personally take the M140i over the S3 (I did buy the M135i when I was in the same position as the OP). It's cheaper and has a much nicer engine, plus it's RWD.
All that aside (because that's personally taste) my maths still stands, and I wouldn't consider a lease without carefully considering the TCO. Also don't think that a lease is "hassle free".
All that aside (because that's personally taste) my maths still stands, and I wouldn't consider a lease without carefully considering the TCO. Also don't think that a lease is "hassle free".
Soldato
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The new facelift Golf R has a 7 speed DSG box and has always had the option of adaptive suspension.
Not read everything in detail so apologies if covered already but don't assume a lease will cover service and maintenance costs the same way a company car does. A maintained lease would but would also cost much more.
Your allowance sounds larger than mine but having looked into recently where I am, I'd struggle to run a brand new equivalent car myself for what a company car costs. Once I started totting up things like tyre costs, insurance, tax it wasn't miles in favour of your own car. It obviously also depends where in the tax bands you sit and how many miles you do.
There is also definitely something to be said for the value a company car provides in terms of zero hassle, no worries about breakdowns because the company just sort it all out etc. that you struggle to match with your own vehicle.
Your allowance sounds larger than mine but having looked into recently where I am, I'd struggle to run a brand new equivalent car myself for what a company car costs. Once I started totting up things like tyre costs, insurance, tax it wasn't miles in favour of your own car. It obviously also depends where in the tax bands you sit and how many miles you do.
There is also definitely something to be said for the value a company car provides in terms of zero hassle, no worries about breakdowns because the company just sort it all out etc. that you struggle to match with your own vehicle.
It's not the fancy magnetic adaptive type on the Audi though, which uses an electromagnetic responsive damping fluid whereas the Golf just adjusts a couple of valves.
When buying brand new the manufacturer's own finance is almost always the lowest cost option because of the additional discounts they often give (in the form of "deposit contribution" and similar), which you won't get as a cash buyer.
The TCO is easily calculated. It's the cost of the thing you're buying, less it's value at the time you plan to sell it, less any costs involved in financing the purchase (interest, arrangement fees etc.)
When financing the purchase you have several options:
Cash
Personal finance (loan)
Dealer finance (HP or PCP)
These are ranked in ascending order in terms of typical cost (cheaper to more expensive).
Cash is the lowest cost option because if you have it available you don't need to pay any interest cost on the purchase, but you will lose interest you could have earned on the cash.
Loan is normally the cheapest solution to borrow the money but it does have its limitations. You can now obtain personal loans in excess of £25k but they begin to get expensive after this point, often more expensive than the finance offered by the dealer.
Dealer finance is the final one, often the most expensive, but not always, and also often a cheaper way to borrow >£30k than a personal loan. This is because the lending is secured against the car so the lender can seize the asset in the event of non payment which goes a long way to mitigate the risk of lending the money in the first place.
The other factor you should consider is monthly payments.
With a personal loan of HP agreement you are paying back the total amount borrowed over the term of the agreement. With a PCP you are only repaying a portion of the total amount over the period of the agreement, which makes the monthly payments lower but the total cost of the finance is higher.
Also worth considering is that with any finance secured against the car itself (whether provided by the dealer of your own source) means that you are not the legal owner of the car until you have made the final payment.
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Fair enough, I'll drop in and have a word at some point. Been driving Audis for 14 years - they know me well lol
Well yes I think I could work that out
What I was asking was what other options are there besides PCH or PCP that I may not have considered. I understand how each of those work but the general advice I've read is that, if your intention is always to renew at the end of the term then straight PCH leasing is usually cheaper than PCP.
I've also always had the feeling that PCP is a bit of a con, in that their guaranteed future value is always a good chunk less than it'll be worth in reality, with the sole aim of providing you with some equity to be used as a deposit when they convince you to start all over again each time. Meanwhile you're basically financing the deposit on the next car as you pay for the current one, or am I misunderstanding?
I extensively edited my post above to give more detail, but as a general rule the cost of the dealer provided finance options (from most to least expensive) is:
- PCH (lease)
- PCP
- HP
In terms of monthly cost (not to be confused with total cost) it's the same order but from lowest to highest monthly cost.
- PCH (lease)
- PCP
- HP
In terms of monthly cost (not to be confused with total cost) it's the same order but from lowest to highest monthly cost.
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That's the way with all loans and finance.
Cheers.
Of course there's a balance to be struck between TCO and managable payments. If you're financing a £35k car over only 3 or 4 years then whilst you can obviously sell it at the end and the TCO may be better, the monthly payments are going to be stratospheric compared to PCH or PCP.
I just came from having a company car for the past six years - handed in back today 
- and after considering the options I have ordered a Seat Leon. Went on Drive the Deal got a price about £3k less than my local deal quoted me and also got a 50% down, 50% 0% finance HP deal. Could have got a bit more discount with PCP but I have the cash so it worked out cheaper for the HP.
The dealer btw had some ridiculous deal on HP that made is miles more expensive, something like 10% intersest vs 5.9% on the PCP and less dealer deposit contribution.
- and after considering the options I have ordered a Seat Leon. Went on Drive the Deal got a price about £3k less than my local deal quoted me and also got a 50% down, 50% 0% finance HP deal. Could have got a bit more discount with PCP but I have the cash so it worked out cheaper for the HP. The dealer btw had some ridiculous deal on HP that made is miles more expensive, something like 10% intersest vs 5.9% on the PCP and less dealer deposit contribution.