New Family Car - what to buy?

[Jeremy]

Received this in an email, sounds like a bit of a deal.

Audi A6 Ultra SE 2.0TDi 190ps
Road tax for entire contract
Leather Upholstery
Sat Nav
Bluetooth

£219+VAT for 8k miles PA

I've always been an advocate of running something big engined and leggy for the key to cheap motoring but at these prices it sounds like leasing could be the way forward, thanks in part to the £500 road tax disc.

Regards,

Jeremy

[H8OAG]

Received this in an email, sounds like a bit of a deal.

Audi A6 Ultra SE 2.0TDi 190ps
Road tax for entire contract
Leather Upholstery
Sat Nav
Bluetooth

£219+VAT for 8k miles PA

I've always been an advocate of running something big engined and leggy for the key to cheap motoring but at these prices it sounds like leasing could be the way forward, thanks in part to the £500 road tax disc.

Regards,

Jeremy

That is a deal!

If you want small and petrol?
Amazing deals on Leons at the moment ( with Nav)

[rossybee]

Received this in an email, sounds like a bit of a deal.

Audi A6 Ultra SE 2.0TDi 190ps
Road tax for entire contract
Leather Upholstery
Sat Nav
Bluetooth

£219+VAT for 8k miles PA

I've always been an advocate of running something big engined and leggy for the key to cheap motoring but at these prices it sounds like leasing could be the way forward, thanks in part to the £500 road tax disc.

Regards,

Jeremy

Ah but what deposit?

[Jeremy]

Received this in an email, sounds like a bit of a deal.

Audi A6 Ultra SE 2.0TDi 190ps
Road tax for entire contract
Leather Upholstery
Sat Nav
Bluetooth

£219+VAT for 8k miles PA

I've always been an advocate of running something big engined and leggy for the key to cheap motoring but at these prices it sounds like leasing could be the way forward, thanks in part to the £500 road tax disc.

Regards,

Jeremy

Ah but what deposit?

6 months.

Regards,

Jeremy

[rossybee]

So £1577. Not bad.

[campbell]

Received this in an email, sounds like a bit of a deal.

Audi A6 Ultra SE 2.0TDi 190ps
Road tax for entire contract
Leather Upholstery
Sat Nav
Bluetooth

£219+VAT for 8k miles PA

I've always been an advocate of running something big engined and leggy for the key to cheap motoring but at these prices it sounds like leasing could be the way forward, thanks in part to the £500 road tax disc.

Regards,

Jeremy

A deal indeed. And its frugal as fook too. Have you signed yet!

[ryallm]

Received this in an email, sounds like a bit of a deal.

Audi A6 Ultra SE 2.0TDi 190ps
Road tax for entire contract
Leather Upholstery
Sat Nav
Bluetooth

£219+VAT for 8k miles PA

I've always been an advocate of running something big engined and leggy for the key to cheap motoring but at these prices it sounds like leasing could be the way forward, thanks in part to the £500 road tax disc.

Regards,

Jeremy

A deal indeed. And its frugal as fook too. Have you signed yet!

That does look an amazing deal, although the 8k pa mileage is really low and I suspect it would be a bit of a dull barge to drive. I have always liked the idea of contract hire (low hassle, fixed costs etc) but whenever I have looked into it in detail the figures don't seem to stack up. Attractive compared to buying a car new, but expensive compared to buying and running a good used motor. There are some pretty attractive looking contract hire deals on BMW 330d msports at he moment, until you realise you can but a mint one year old one for about 70% of the list price.

Mark

[Andy G]

The are some great leasing deals - if you know you are going to be looking for something well worth giving the dealer the heads-up.

My BMW contact in Edinburgh has come through with some mad deals!

That A6 one had me tempted for the wife and we dont need another car..........far from it!

[Jeremy]

It's impossible to say categorically that leasing is better/is not better. There are instances where clearly it is, and instances where clearly it isn't.

But I think if you are in the habit of buying new/nearly new and changing on a 2-3-4 year cycle, and (crucially) have an open mind about what kind of car you want then 9 times out of 10 you'll find it's better than buying.

If you want a very specific model of car or if you keep cars for 10 years and run them into the ground then chances are it won't be for you.

It's a simple bit of arithmetic to figure out if it's a good idea or not. For me, taking into account what I pay on road tax, maintenance costs, depreciation costs and fuel means I can run a new £40k car AND be massively better off financially each month. Then when I factor in what I could do with £25k cash (pay off my mortgage) it means I'm a complete moron if I don't go for it.

The most common mistake people seem to make, myself included, is that their bought and paid for £10k daily shed offers free motoring. The hidden costs can be quite frightening if you add them all up.

Andy, who is your BMW source if you don't mind me asking ?

Regards,

Jeremy

[Andy G]

HI Jeremy

Info below - good guy and Vardys seem to have some insane deals, as Scott R found out a few weeks ago!

Craig Macqueen
Local Business Development Manager
Peter Vardy Ltd
19 Seafield Road East
Edinburgh
EH15 1ED

T: 0131 669 0900

[ryallm]

The leasing deal on the A6 above really got me thinking so I did some Googling around to see what other offers might be available. Confirmed what a stonking deal that really is - for sub £250 per month you are normally looking at Vauxhall/Ford fleet fodder. What really seems to kill the whole leasing thing for me though are the mileage restrictions. All the best deals seem limited to 10k a year - as soon as you go up to 15k the prices go up very sharply. I am doing about 16 to 18k a year - the costs for leasing with that kind of mileage look prohibitive.

[tonyg]

We keep getting junk e-mail at the shop offering Merc C220 leases at about the same price as that A6 offer, so i suspect that's about the norm ?

[Jeremy]

HI Jeremy

Info below - good guy and Vardys seem to have some insane deals, as Scott R found out a few weeks ago!

Craig Macqueen
Local Business Development Manager
Peter Vardy Ltd
19 Seafield Road East
Edinburgh
EH15 1ED

T: 0131 669 0900

Thanks Andy I'll pop in for a chat next time I'm up in Edinburgh

The leasing deal on the A6 above really got me thinking so I did some Googling around to see what other offers might be available. Confirmed what a stonking deal that really is - for sub £250 per month you are normally looking at Vauxhall/Ford fleet fodder. What really seems to kill the whole leasing thing for me though are the mileage restrictions. All the best deals seem limited to 10k a year - as soon as you go up to 15k the prices go up very sharply. I am doing about 16 to 18k a year - the costs for leasing with that kind of mileage look prohibitive.

Not sure what the terms of this Audi agreement are but I have a friend with a Passat estate on lease and he pays 6p per mile for going over and that seems fairly typical. If you bought a Passat estate with solid cash, would you be penalised to the tune of 6p per mile above average come trade in time ? Someone with Glass could give a definitive answer but I don't think that would be too far wide of the mark so for me that all seems fair and reasonable. I think you have to just research thoroughly and take each deal on it's own merits. If the car is going to be worth less in 3 years time due to your usage pattern then you're going to have to foot the bill for the difference.

We keep getting junk e-mail at the shop offering Merc C220 leases at about the same price as that A6 offer, so i suspect that's about the norm ?

There is no norm, or obvious logic, in leasing. A Fiesta ST costs more to lease than that Audi but less than half the price to buy. Ford are obviously selling enough of these retail at the moment whereas Audi (and Mercedes) must have huge surplus stock to shift. Rather than put some bunting outside the Audi dealership with "Brand new Audi A6, Half Price, Roll Up Roll Up" they quietly and discretely slip them out into the marketplace by heavily subsidising these fleet offers.

I also spotted a Golf R for £219+VAT which could be quite interesting.

Regards,

Jeremy

[ryallm]

Yes, certainly plenty of evidence of 'premium' manufacturers shifting stock. How about this: Volvo XC90 for £235 a month, presumably because the XC90 is very long in the tooth now so they have trouble selling them anywhere near the £40kish list. Similarly some very cheap deals on the outgoing Merc C class.

[rossybee]

Both XC90 and C-class are due to be replaced shortly, so as above it's a less garish "bunting" or special edition method of shifting remaining stock.