In a bit of a quandary at the moment.  I can't decide whether to get rid of the Yeti or not.

 

I have a 2009 1.2 TSi Elegance with 85k miles.  I've owned it since 2012, and have really enjoyed my ownership.  Trade-in price seems to be around £3k at best right now, and I can't help but think if I keep it much longer that "collateral" I have will disappear (I own the car outright).

 

I'd intended to hang on for a Volvo XC40 but, since their release, I've been shocked at the price of them, and would have to wait another year or so before the model I want would fall within my price range (1.5 R-Design Auto) . I'll pay up to £25k for the right car, but would prefer around the £20k mark.  I tend to finance cars by means of a loan.

 

Anyway I've been thinking about alternatives and happened upon the Mercedes C-Class Estate which is available as a (very) mild hybrid glued to a petrol 1.5 engine.  This definitely allays my fear of buying a car that will be worthless following the 8-10 years I'll keep it for.  Problem is it's £25k at best, which if I'm honest is a little bit of a push.

 

...just thought Id share my current situation and invite comments from those who are/have been in a similar position.

 

P.S. I just don't like the Karoq enough!

The price of your Yeti is likely to have flat lined on a private sale - now more related to condition. You could keep it until the Volvo comes into reach in a couple of years, risk is of something expensive going wrong then value is total loss. Depends on your capacity for risk really.

Have you looked at the new VW T-Cross? More of a Yeti replacement than the Karoq in size and format. Price in low £20k's for a well spec'd version.

 

My thoughts...

 

Pay £25k for a new car, and in twelve months time it might be worth £20k - i.e. £5k loss.

Keep your £3k Yeti, and in twelve months time it might be worth £2k - i.e. £1k loss.

I know which I would do!

 

P.S. I'm not that keen on the Karoq either!

Keep the  Yeti until you can change comfortably. It is hardly depreciating at all now, you've got as close as you'll ever get to free motoring, so enjoy it while it lasts. 

Our Yeti has only done 33k. and am only changing it because we want a petrol auto. Never really been convinced by the Karoq though the interior is nice and the version I tried drove well. But the killer has been the issues around the 1.5 petrol and the long term reliability of the DSG and I'm not willing to take the gamble on either. 

 

So have an XC40 on order which we should be picking up in a few weeks time. Really love the Yeti and will really miss it but I've been forced to look outside of VWG really for its replacement. With the Volvo I've been able to have 2.0 petrol, 2WD and no panoramic roof.

Yeah it's difficult once there's a seed planted and trawling Auto Trader becomes part of your daily routine!

 

Good advice on the fact that my car's value is pretty much flat-lining, and if I'm honest I do enjoy the "zero-cost motoring" thing.  My resolve will be tested no doubt when new tyres are needed, or indeed in the event of any large failure.

 

I don't think the T-Cross is quite big enough for me.  I love the Yeti size but if anything would prefer something slightly larger...I have 2 young kids who, along with their things, are only getting bigger.  Maybe the T-Roc is worth a look, but it just looks a little gaudy for me.

 

Appreciate the advice/comments :)

The crunch usually comes for us with my wifes car when it is worth around £1k and I can forsee costs exceeding that in the next year for tyres, exhaust etc, usually at around 11 to 12 years old. I am sure our old car goes straight to the auction!

However just done the cheapest change ever for us from a good condition 63 reg fabia SE to a 68 reg unused Citigo colour edition. Really forced on us as the fabia diesel was suddenly only doing very short trips with no chance to clear out the emission system.

For the first time ever our old car is for sale on the dealers forecourt and looks great - for nearly £2k more than we got for it in px. However even that was £1k more than I expected.

 

I don't know how they are making any money on Citigo Colour Edition at around £8.5k for an unused car? This would have been £12k ordered new, but even that is dragged down by the Skoda contibutions to finance offered. Doesn't anyone pay cash for a car now? That used to be the way to get a discount.

Edited 14 June, 20197 yr by kenfowler3966

1 hour ago, kenfowler3966 said:

Doesn't anyone pay cash for a car now? That used to be the way to get a discount.

 

I have definitely found that dealers want to "play ball" a little more if you're going down the (in house) finance route

And the likes of Carwow make a big difference. Despite being relatively new and a good seller I got about £2500 off the Volvo which was over twice what my local dealer offered and another fairly close dealer wouldn't offer any discount.  

I'm in the same boat.  2 daughters getting ever bigger.  I've just bought a VW T5 though.  Plenty big enough!

 

Cant quite bring myself to sell the Yeti though, 2012 4x4 diesel, with some nice options.  I keep telling myself I'll get a toy car instead of the Yeti, but nothing seems good enough on a limited budget...

A tip about carwow from the dealer I bought my Yeti from using Carwow.

 

Apply to Carwow in your wifes name, decide who offers you the best combination of deal and location. (I went for the third lowest as local, didn't want to drive to Scotland to save another £100 or so)

 

Then actually buy the car in your name. Dealer will match and may beat the Carwow quote he has made to you as he no longer has to pay any commission to Carwow.

Remember even if you end up buying a different spec car, once introduced by Carwow to the dealer you are stuck with that contract to buy through them.

..good tip. I recently tried car wow and got a good price off a new car (£3k+ off rrp), but the dealer was 100+ miles away.

 

Went to local dealer and asked if they could match it which they did...

Yes, that's the good thing about Carwow etc. the prices give you a good idea of how much you can get off and is great for seeing if your local dealer can match it or at least be in the same ballpark. It's a good starting point.

 

One of the dealers didn't offer any discount on the XC40 citing it was a recent car and in high demand. If that had been the only dealer I'd gone  to  I would probably have accepted that or maybe have gotten a small discount. But another dealer offered a pretty good discount so that's where I've gone even though it's about 30 miles away. 

On 01/07/2019 at 08:44, kenfowler3966 said:

A tip about carwow from the dealer I bought my Yeti from using Carwow.

 

Apply to Carwow in your wifes name, decide who offers you the best combination of deal and location. (I went for the third lowest as local, didn't want to drive to Scotland to save another £100 or so)

 

Then actually buy the car in your name. Dealer will match and may beat the Carwow quote he has made to you as he no longer has to pay any commission to Carwow.

Remember even if you end up buying a different spec car, once introduced by Carwow to the dealer you are stuck with that contract to buy through them.

 

Having bought through CarWow too I don't really understand the final sentence.  The buyer has no contract with Carwow at all.  The contract is between the buyer and the dealer.

 

Maybe you can clarify.....are you saying that if you were introduced by Carwow via a quote to buy an SE (say) from the dealer and then decided you wanted an L&K that the dealer can only sell you an SE?  Surely that's in nobody's interests, as you would just go to another dealer? 

 

The dealer is clearly not obliged to offer the same discount on a different spec car but that's surely little to do with Carwow?   

 

No if you had a quote for an SE and you wanted an L&K the initial discount % quoted for the SE would be used for the L&K. This happened to me as I ended up with a different spec and more extras on the car I actually ordered.

As you have been introduced by Carwow, if you buy a car there he has to do a deal based on the same percentage discount, and pay Carwows commision, out of which you get the £20 back.

The dealer made the point, that had I gone direct he could have done even better than Carwow as he would not have had to pay their commission for the introduction. Had i gone to a different model where the % saving offer was different, I am not sure what would have happened.

 

Not sure if you went back a few weeks or months later if that would still have been an issue, as the Carwow quote must have an expiry date to allow things to change..

Had I had the initial Carwow quote under my wifes name, he said he could have done better for the deal with me.

 

I had to chase Carwow for the £20 refund, it did not come automatically.

12 hours ago, kenfowler3966 said:

No if you had a quote for an SE and you wanted an L&K the initial discount % quoted for the SE would be used for the L&K. This happened to me as I ended up with a different spec and more extras on the car I actually ordered.

As you have been introduced by Carwow, if you buy a car there he has to do a deal based on the same percentage discount, and pay Carwows commision, out of which you get the £20 back.

The dealer made the point, that had I gone direct he could have done even better than Carwow as he would not have had to pay their commission for the introduction. Had i gone to a different model where the % saving offer was different, I am not sure what would have happened.

 

Not sure if you went back a few weeks or months later if that would still have been an issue, as the Carwow quote must have an expiry date to allow things to change..

Had I had the initial Carwow quote under my wifes name, he said he could have done better for the deal with me.

 

I had to chase Carwow for the £20 refund, it did not come automatically.

 

So you are actually saying if you use the Carwow service and get introduced to the dealer then the dealer is obliged to pay Carwow commission if you buy a car. That doesn't seem very surprising and certainly isn't unreasonable?

 

Of course that means there's a little more on the deal you could have had (or more likely shared with the dealer) but if lots of buyers find a way to help dealers avoid paying Carwow then Carwow will go out of business. 

 

It's kind of killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

 

Just to add......when we bought our Superb around 3 years ago, we bought through one of the various new car brokers....discounts were significantly higher than those we got via Carwow.

On 30/06/2019 at 21:57, Andy Sayle said:

I'm in the same boat.  2 daughters getting ever bigger.  I've just bought a VW T5 though.  Plenty big enough!

 

Interesting, am just considering going down this route myself, either a T5 or T6 Kombi.

 

What model have you got, SWB/LWB ?

 

I want something we can just quickly chuck bikes or camping gear in the back of.

I'd love a 204ps 4motion but not certain it'll get budgetary approval....

32 minutes ago, muddyboots said:

Just to add......when we bought our Superb around 3 years ago, we bought through one of the various new car brokers....discounts were significantly higher than those we got via Carwow.

 

Carwow is quite dependant on your postcode. Not all dealers will quote nationwide or even out of a fifty mile radius.

 

So my tip for Carwow would be to get quotes based on more than one address. Just by chance I ended up with two Carwow accounts one based at my current Oxfordshire address and one based on my previous West Sussex address. I got quotes from different dealers with a better price from my old address. 

 

Not really sure why that is. I could understand if it was from a Marshall's branch for example where they could potentially be stealing business from their own group but it wasn't a big dealership chain. Maybe there's a different commission rate for quoting nationally.

 

Agreed that Drive The Deal is usually a better quote, but the dealer might be in Aberdeen or Penzance and you don't know that in advance, whereas with Carwow at least you know where the quote is coming from. 

Edited 3 July, 20197 yr by juan27

Re using brokers .... our last 5 family cars bar one have been through CarFile .... CarWow could not get close ... we have been using them since 1993 .... from the days of FAX and telephone, to the present via the interweb, Jonathan Lawless and previously his dad Pat have always been extremely helpful and extremely competitive. ..... not a plug, just feedback from over 26 years.

 

Hope it helps

4 hours ago, juan27 said:

Agreed that Drive The Deal is usually a better quote, but the dealer might be in Aberdeen or Penzance and you don't know that in advance, whereas with Carwow at least you know where the quote is coming from. 

Ours was delivered to home by trailer, so location of the supplying dealer was unimportant...local dealer happily sorts all warranty and servicing.

From memory I think we got 22% off list price.

5 hours ago, muddyboots said:

 

Interesting, am just considering going down this route myself, either a T5 or T6 Kombi.

 

What model have you got, SWB/LWB ?

 

I want something we can just quickly chuck bikes or camping gear in the back of.

I'd love a 204ps 4motion but not certain it'll get budgetary approval....

T5.1 kombi short wheel base.  180bitdi 4motion with difflock, because why not!  Currently in many pieces as I start up the insides with carpet lining, insulation and adding stuff like lighting, parking sensors and stuff.

4 hours ago, TruckbusUK said:

Re using brokers .... our last 5 family cars bar one have been through CarFile .... CarWow could not get close ... we have been using them since 1993 .... from the days of FAX and telephone, to the present via the interweb, Jonathan Lawless and previously his dad Pat have always been extremely helpful and extremely competitive. ..... not a plug, just feedback from over 26 years.

 

Hope it helps

 

I've placed my third new car order through Carfile. Jonathan has been a pleasure to deal with, always remembers me from before and is very efficient and reliable.

I've not found CarWow able to get close to his prices either. Drive The Deal and Orange Wheels were within a hundred pounds or so but I chose Carfile again purely for the reasons above.