I am screwed!

I have got used to the big boot and find it invaluable for my fishing gear..the new focus and astra vxr will not offer me the space

Simply buy a one year old car

I reckon its only a good buy new if a company are buying it (not that we didn't buy Jane's fabia vRS brand spanking new ) and you are not using your own money.The depreciation has improved an awful lot.I reckon they would maintain far more of their value than mondeo/vectra

It's only the top topspec cars that are too expensive.Still some very good prices on plenty of other damn fine models in the range.My agreement with Adrian was on the basis that

Just out of interest the Octy II came out top on fleetnews comparison costs for cost of ownership beating the Mondeo, Avensis, Accord and Vectra. Came out very well overall

I think that depressiation fails to be an issue when buying privately as long as you can get a decent discount and are prepared to run the car for a good few years.

I think that depressiation fails to be an issue when buying privately as long as you can get a decent discount and are prepared to run the car for a good few years.

That depends on the amount of mileage that you do.

If you are doing 30k a year or more then you'll need to change the car more frequently , and at 3 years and 90k miles it's always going to a big factor no matter what you buy

(not that I wasn't astonished by a mate telling me his company mondeo estate was nearly

That's part of Ford's prolem at the moment, fleet users are gettig put off because they get tax'd on list price not on what the dealer actually sold it for, in many cases discounts on Mondeo's exceed 20% which means the driver pays far in excess of what the tax benefit really is. Skoda seem to have this right with list prices more realistic and smaller discounts, the driver benefits and therefore the encouragement to select the Skoda over the Ford is there. I am actually going to pay