Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

I'd never seen one in the flesh until I moved to Canada but they seem to be a pretty common sight at cruises and car shows. Odd looking thing. From some angles I think they look quite striking but I see them from others and they look fugly. Certainly nothing I have any interest in owning.

@danstuff they were the fastest production car when they came out, apparently reaching 178mph at bonneville!

Have been down a Granada and Cortina rabbit hole the last few days, this was quite a nice find this evening.

https://youtu.be/ItwYe59Kdhc

when I didn't recognise it, and glimpsed the whitewall tyres, was pretty sure it was a yank. been reading about them since and nothing but impressed. not something i would want to own or even drive, but a special car all the same.

Quick bit of help please

There is a car on a forecourt that we might want. It's ex-demo, 2.5k miles, the shelf price is £21,999

If we had cash, is it the done thing to go back to them and say "we can offer £XX,XXX" for it?

If so, what kind of offer would be appropriate? -10%? Having done a bit of pricing research, it's priced fairly, but it's not going to fly off the forecourt at the headline price.

Given that I shouldn’t imagine that they’ve not had a great deal of cash through their till in the last 2.5 months...
I reckon they’ll be happy to get it shifted, I’d chance a lowball offer.
If they say no they’ll probably tell you the lowest they’d take for it.

generally, you will get a better price if you take their finance as they get a kick back on it. it ends up being a bit swings and round abouts.

if the finance is reasonably cheap then it can be worth considering.

In my experience sales people are often as much if not more incentivised to sell a finance product with a new or nearly new car as they are for the car itself. Cash is no longer king in this scenario. I've actually got a friend who recently took a finance product as part of buying from an Audi garage and paid it off in full in month 1 as it worked out far cheaper than buying in cash.

Obviously important to check there aren't any early repayment fees.

Thanks. Trying to weigh up leasing a new car for two years or buying nearly new then flipping it in two years. Unless the nearly-new comes at a great price leasing wins it I think.

Great thing with leasing is the guaranteed future value. Right now, with the transition to electric (or alternative fuels) as well as the pandemic / future recession, i wouldn't be buying a car, i'd be leasing.

Yep - the uncertainty around whether anyone would want a petrol estate with 20k miles on it in two years time and the ball ache of actually selling it is pushing me to leasing

Swap for a 325i hahaha

How's things with your car?
Did you get anywhere in the end or still "in progress "?

I think once it's fixed I'm going to put it up for sale at a price I want and just wait until it sells at that price or very close.

It's been a very very fun 2 years and I've had some amazing experiences, but I need something with zero stress and much more reliability.

Think I'll get a 340 or 540 touring, get it mapped to about 360-380, won't quite be as quick as the Volvo but will be a little more usable.

I liked your tip of an Octavia Estate for less than £200/ month,,,, now you wanna drop £21k on something,,????.thats a lot of watches or bikes Howard

Hi Tony! I'm looking at the total cost over two years - the car that's bought outright would be sold at the end of the two years.

Obvs I would rather spend that money on wa... I mean putting kids through college.

Hard to see how you wouldn't end up with more than £5k in depreciation on the £21k car.

It's being collected by ML on a flatbed next week with their commitment to get it fixed, following a registered letter to the owner.

New 540i msport touring on my road, probably all the car anyone really needs.

Yeah. If it could be had for £19k then there might be some money left over at the end but I’m not sure it’s worth the hassle. It is a slightly nicer car than the lease job though - leather interior.

I get my car soon... so in my excitement... have some brochure photos of it.

Clearly white is the colour for an estate :D

2 Attachments

very smart ! nice choice

When you have 3 kids and a dog but race car is life

3 child seats though? Nah. Wish there were more options for us breeders.

That aussie Stagea with a turbo 4l v8 is the ultimate dad wagon. Think it did an 12 second quarter mile with a roof rack on