New car depreciation?

jenny-wren

Can anyone give me an idea of how much a small family car would depreciate after 6 months with average mileage?

I'm specifically interested in buying a nearly new 1.4 or 1.6 petrol Seat Leon, VW Golf or BMW 1 series and want to make sure I'm not paying a dealer over the odds for it.

Thanks.

motorguy

jenny-wren wrote: »

Can anyone give me an idea of how much a small family car would depreciate after 6 months with average mileage?

I'm specifically interested in buying a nearly new 1.4 or 1.6 petrol Seat Leon, VW Golf or BMW 1 series and want to make sure I'm not paying a dealer over the odds for it.

Thanks.

I assume because you want to see how much you should be being charged for one that age, as opposed to selling one in six months time?

The best way to check would be to use the national searches that each would have - for example, on BMW's website there is a quite detailed search engine on there. Plug in the details of the car in question, do a search and then sort by price. Be prepared for some surprising results as prices vary greatly, to the extent it may well be worth your while travelling for the car you want, given its warranty will be honoured by your local dealer anyway.

nullogik

Best way is to scour the classifieds, such as AutoTrader, EBay, Motors.co.uk and look for cars that match the specification and age that you want to go for.

Out of the three cars you mention in your post, the Seat Leon is the one that will loose the most value.

jenny-wren

The Golf is top of my list to buy. I checked prices online and there seems to be a huge variation in prices, especially for the newer TSI engine cars.

I wondered if there's a rough figure that most small family cars would lose once they leave the showroom or in the first six months, say 10 or 15%. I've been offered a 10% discount on the new price by a dealer and that's not enough to persuade me, even if it is a popular model. I'm concerned that he's asking too much and if I plan to sell it in around 3 years I'll lose out in terms of resale value making a different car (such as the Leon) better value.

hollie.weimeraner

jenny-wren wrote: »

I'm concerned that he's asking too much and if I plan to sell it in around 3 years I'll lose out in terms of resale value making a different car (such as the Leon) better value.

Car Supermarkets such as Motorpoint or Trade Sales are the best sources of nearly new cars. Don't think you'll find many TSi Golfs though as VW couldn't make enough TSi engines to keep up with demand last year.

Most new cars will lose a large proportion of the 3 year depreciation figures as soon as you drive them off the forecourt. To be fair if you're looking for a large discount off a brand new car have a look at online brokers such as drivethe deal or www.uknewcars.com

10% discount at the moment is pretty good from a VW dealer though.

motorguy

jenny-wren wrote: »

The Golf is top of my list to buy. I checked prices online and there seems to be a huge variation in prices, especially for the newer TSI engine cars.

I wondered if there's a rough figure that most small family cars would lose once they leave the showroom or in the first six months, say 10 or 15%. I've been offered a 10% discount on the new price by a dealer and that's not enough to persuade me, even if it is a popular model. I'm concerned that he's asking too much and if I plan to sell it in around 3 years I'll lose out in terms of resale value making a different car (such as the Leon) better value.

As someone else has said, you might have to try some online brokers - try to find one that supplies UK cars from a UK dealer so you can compare like with like - try broadspeed.com

I'd say you're doing quite well getting 10% off from a main dealer, i cant imagine there being a massive variance from this.

A lot of the cars in the supermarkets are ex hire cars, so you might want to bear that in mind.

A Leon should cost less, but it will be worth less come resale time too.

I'd stick with the golf.

motorguy

again, as i said, you WILL get a massive variance on price between dealers, so i'd be prepared to travel for the car you want. Lets put it this way, if someone asked you to make a 200 mile round trip for £2000, you'd do it, so why not with a car?

jenny-wren

pgilc1 wrote: »

again, as i said, you WILL get a massive variance on price between dealers, so i'd be prepared to travel for the car you want. Lets put it this way, if someone asked you to make a 200 mile round trip for £2000, you'd do it, so why not with a car?

I've also got to contend with crossing 12 miles of water to get to the mainland and then getting the car back again!

Hintza

No deals in the Republic then?

jenny-wren

Cars are more expensive and, even if I could get a deal, I assume there'd also be some sort of import tax.

The discount I've been offered is actually only 3% of what the car would have cost new at the time. Scandalous.

mahesh_on

Hi Jenny
I used to live in Norn Irlnd -well around Belfast anyway:) I'd say based on the prices i saw round Boucher road that they do mark up a bit more!
A lot of ppl use online brokers who hook you up with a main dealer giving a fleet discount. If the saving is close to a grand a day trip to pick it up and a nice relaxing drive while bedding the car in can be most fun:) So you'd get the ferry either to Liverpool/Stranraer and back again -but as its the car you're after you'd also be able to test it out on a "proper" motorway so that it beds in I've used Ukcarbroker and can recommend them highly for the VWs..