How much is my car worth??

PandaPants_2

markelock wrote: »

so £7500 in total against a brand new or a used 1 series?

Brand new, i change a lot so im going for one of their "special deals". I owe about 6k on the car though, so need as much as possible as a deposit to keep my monthly payments down.

Viking - thank you for looking that info up for me! My car is in excellent condition so i might try a few more places for trade-in before selling privately.

markelock

the bm is a nice car. rear wheel drive though, rubbish in the snow (which may or may not be relevant)

lovely cars to drive. can you calculate how much you would lose against the car you are trading in against how much you are saving off of the bm? might be easier to trade it in.

wish I could afford a new car!

PandaPants_2

markelock wrote: »

the bm is a nice car. rear wheel drive though, rubbish in the snow (which may or may not be relevant)

lovely cars to drive. can you calculate how much you would lose against the car you are trading in against how much you are saving off of the bm? might be easier to trade it in.

wish I could afford a new car!

I can't afford it. I just REALLY hate my current car! :mad:
The beemer is slightly more than i want to pay each month, so im shopping around a bit.

GoRossi46

There is a free 'Whats your car worth' service on the home page of Auto Trader

AdrianHi

markelock wrote: »

the bm is a nice car. rear wheel drive though, rubbish in the snow (which may or may not be relevant)

Not these days with DSC (Dyanmic Stability Control) which can be backed off a bit to a DTC (Dynamic Traction Control) which allows a bit of wheel spin in the snow to get moving. In all seriousness my BMW 320d is the most stable sure footed car in the snow I've ever had which was a surprise to me, and have had good FWD cars in the past.

On the 1 series purchase, especially as finances are tight I would strongly recommend looking at cars 3 to 6 months old or up to 2 years old (get at least 12 months warranty). The first 6 months is when a BMW looses the biggest chunk of depreciation, the monthly / annual depreciation bill is fairly consistent for some years after that. Also try and get an efficient dynamics model which is around 10% to 20% better on fuel and better performance than the slightly older models.
BMW AUC (Approved Used Cars) are a good option provided you are prepared to travel for the right car and haggle a 10% to 12% discount on the advertised price. You might have to run around a bit to get it and all AUC cars come with 12 months warranty regardless of age.
What ever image this car may or may not convey they are exceptionally good to drive, even my 63 year old mother notices this and she loves it. Will be ordering a 120i convertible for her soon.

bargepole

markelock wrote: »

the bm is a nice car. rear wheel drive though, rubbish in the snow (which may or may not be relevant)

What rubbish! Any proper driver knows that rear wheel drive is the best way to go - when someone wins the Formula 1 championship in a fwd car, I'll believe otherwise.

It's such a shame that most manufacturers joined the front wheel drive bandwagon around 20 years ago, just to appease the muppet drivers on our roads.

markelock

i'm not saying rear wheel drives are rubbish per se, but I am saying that you see a lot of rear wheel drive bm's by the side of the road when we get heavy snow.

as adrian says, with the new dsc, this may now be corrected, but I've driven a 1 series in the snow (albeit it when they first came out), and it wasn't that handy.

i've also had a maserati, which was by far the best car i've ever owned (when it wasn't being repaired)

AdrianHi

markelock wrote: »

as adrian says, with the new dsc, this may now be corrected, but I've driven a 1 series in the snow (albeit it when they first came out), and it wasn't that handy.

That early 1 series should have had some form of DSC too.
I think the other part of getting RWD to work in the snow is tyre choice.
Winter tyres or if conditions are more extreme snow tyres make the world of a difference. On the continent people switch to winter tyres as a matter of course, it's just not in the culture over here. The "Summer" tyres we are using all year round are only at their best over 7 DegC, below that and we need to be aware they are not performing as well regardless of snow / ice.
On North American / Canadian car forums you can find people with a lot of snow driving experience saying the RWD is hardly any worse than 4WD in the snow provided you use the appropriate tyres and the snow has not become so deep you need the ground clearance of an SUV.

markelock

not sure what they were, but they were run flats (again this is now standard I think, and could well have been then)

noticeably different to fwd though, although I would imagine it also comes down to learning to drive the car in the conditions a bit too. sure the 911's suffer from snow control too