I have recently sold my 2013 Mk3 1.4 elegance and was quite surprised how much I got for it. I got a sizable discount on my new car so doubtful it was buffered by discount. I thought I would be paying thousands to get out of the pcp but £300 down and I was a free man. I am wondering if I was just lucky with timing as I was genuinely pleased with the outcome. I've been watching the values of the mk3 lately and have seen them for less than £10k at my local dealer now, which shocked me as there was mk2's on the same forecourt for more money with comparable spec.

I can remember years ago when the Vectra 3.2 GSI was out, that was a 24k car and was worth £12K trade in at 1 year old.  50% depreciation..... Nothing is a bad as that!

I can remember years ago when the Vectra 3.2 GSI was out, that was a 24k car and was worth £12K trade in at 1 year old. 50% depreciation..... Nothing is a bad as that!

TBF given Vauxhall have always been renouned (to a lesser extent today perhaps) for unrealistic OTR prices I'd like to think not that many people went and paid 24k for a Vectra GSI.

Big problem with that car was that it was big, thirsty and really not that quick....also didnt drive well enough for a 210hp car. Lot of year old car for the money of course if you could put up with the low 20's/late teens real world MPG but a right bummer new.

I have recently sold my 2013 Mk3 1.4 elegance and was quite surprised how much I got for it. I got a sizable discount on my new car so doubtful it was buffered by discount. I thought I would be paying thousands to get out of the pcp but £300 down and I was a free man. I am wondering if I was just lucky with timing as I was genuinely pleased with the outcome. I've been watching the values of the mk3 lately and have seen them for less than £10k at my local dealer now, which shocked me as there was mk2's on the same forecourt for more money with comparable spec.

Did you put down much deposit Pumatron? Also I guess your car was knocking on 2 when you traded, if a reasonable deposit and 2 years worth of payments made that'd make for a less terrible get-out. Also some dealers do offer discount in the form of a strong trade-in to entice a sale; dont know whether perhaps MB may have been reasonably generous on the trade in. As you can imagine lots of variables. Someone like me with minimal deposit, 0% and just over 1 yr in are mostly a bit stuck id have thought :-) Also more importantly hope you are doing well?

Head over to the Golf GTI forums and you will find that members are also shocked by how little their getting come trade-in.

Head over to the Golf GTI forums and you will find that members are also shocked by how little their getting come trade-in.

Yep this is v true....mate of mine has a lovely 63 plate GTI 5 door manual in Limestone Grey, leather and keyless as options. 12k miles there or thereabouts...nigh on 30k car offered 19k for it. But that wasnt from a VW dealer, who I expect would have probably paid 20-22k for it perhaps.

I think the performance Golfs are getting a bit pricey new and is part of the problem.....I dont think a new basic GTD ought to command 28k for example but then I guess people do pay it :-)

Its the way.  New cars lose a lot of value in the first months and all cars have thousands of pounds difference between dealer sale price and dealer p-x price.  Add the 2 together, and moat people buying new aren't going to sell privately soon after, and the first owner feels on the end of a bad deal if forced to chop it in quickly.   Things will look less bad at ~ 3 year point.

All this talk of cars losing 20% in VAT when driven off the forecourt, I'm sure that's a myth. Anyone heard of the VAT margin scheme?

For me the advent of PCP deals being the most common method of new car buying , the prices of new cars has just got too high. A golf GTI with a few options is not worth £30,000, a VRS with options is not worth £27,000 yet, because all car manufacturers are doing this there is no way around it - I saw an advvert for the standard golf hatchback a few days ago and it said "buy a new golf today for £17,500" (ish) which for a bog standard golf is ridiculous!

Of course brokers like drivethedeal and carfile give us an option, when you have £3,000 off the list price, a new car becomes much more appealing.

The alternative to this of course is to buy 1 year old and try to get as close to your desired spec as possible.

Did you put down much deposit Pumatron? Also I guess your car was knocking on 2 when you traded, if a reasonable deposit and 2 years worth of payments made that'd make for a less terrible get-out. Also some dealers do offer discount in the form of a strong trade-in to entice a sale; dont know whether perhaps MB may have been reasonably generous on the trade in. As you can imagine lots of variables. Someone like me with minimal deposit, 0% and just over 1 yr in are mostly a bit stuck id have thought :-) Also more importantly hope you are doing well?

Yes pipsyp I put down what was left over from my previous vehicle after selling that privately and paying off a loan I had on it, so about £3k. Yes right again for two years of payments on a 42 month pcp. MB offered me a huge discount so there can't of been to much left in the pot to prop up the Octavia's trade in value. It was initially worked out as a lot more to pay to get out of Octavia but I'd forgotten about the interest rebate so it knocked it down to £300. There is a lot of variables, the APR on the Octavia wasn't brilliant when I bought it, as never got 0% finance. I think if I sat down and worked out the money I've lost over the last 20+years on cars, I'd need someone ready with a defibrillator. Oh the joys of motoring!

As for my health, it's hopefully going in the right direction but I've some way to go before I have an all clear. Fingers crossed. I hope all is well as expected at your end.

All this talk of cars losing 20% in VAT when driven off the forecourt, I'm sure that's a myth. Anyone heard of the VAT margin scheme?

Depends on the car. Vauxhall's, Renault's, Ford's etc can easily lose much more than that, but Mr Bean's Mclaren F1 recently sold for £8m (more than 1000% of new price).

Depends on the car. Vauxhall's, Renault's, Ford's etc can easily lose much more than that, but Mr Bean's Mclaren F1 recently sold for £8m (more than 1000% of new price).

Yes but that's nothing to do with VAT though is it? That's because of desirability or demand.

 

It's the value of the car that dictates the amount of VAT due, not the other way around.

With my sale, i have had cash offers around £16k - as far as equity goes this would return almost my entire deposit as I only put in £1k on a 0% deal.

 

I currently owe £15062 to SF, so you could argue that 18months is a good time to sell and upgrade...

Yes pipsyp I put down what was left over from my previous vehicle after selling that privately and paying off a loan I had on it, so about £3k. Yes right again for two years of payments on a 42 month pcp. MB offered me a huge discount so there can't of been to much left in the pot to prop up the Octavia's trade in value. It was initially worked out as a lot more to pay to get out of Octavia but I'd forgotten about the interest rebate so it knocked it down to £300. There is a lot of variables, the APR on the Octavia wasn't brilliant when I bought it, as never got 0% finance. I think if I sat down and worked out the money I've lost over the last 20+years on cars, I'd need someone ready with a defibrillator. Oh the joys of motoring!

As for my health, it's hopefully going in the right direction but I've some way to go before I have an all clear. Fingers crossed. I hope all is well as expected at your end.

Worked out well in the end then Pumatron; C250 is a better car and MB do seem to be stepping up to the plate with great deals like BM. Glad to hear you are on the mend too. Things so-so this end as you can imagine; up and downs.

A while ago I worked out a comparison of ownership costs over 6 years between buying two new cars changed at 3 years or three one-year-old cars changed at 2 and 4 years.  In the first method the average age of the cars during ownership would be 18 months and for the second method 2 years.  In both cases the cars are always within the 3-year warranties.  The second method, by avoiding the initial large depreciation in the first year, was substantially cheaper assuming my typical 12K miles/year.  However, I can see the attraction of buying a new car of the exact spec you want, but for me I would rather save money by buying one year old cars.  As the standard spec of cars steadily improves I don't miss out on many 'must haves' by not purchasing new cars.

 

My local dealer is trying to get me to consider PCP on a new car when I change my car.  How does the total cost over 3 years of a PCP compare with paying cash (no loan involved)? Up until now I have paid cash for every car I have owned - overpaying to clear the mortgage and saving for the next car have always been part of my financial planning.  With the current low interest rates on savings my thinking is 'pay cash'.

 

In my cynical view (greatly influenced by having tight Yorkshire born father and father-in-law) PCP is used by some people (not on this forum of course) to drive a car that they can't really afford.  As my Dad was fond of saying, "If you can't pay cash then you can't afford it". 

 

Looking at the prices of used cars in France and Germany it seems that depreciation is much higher in the UK.