Be Excellent To Each Other

That's just numbers and letters. I don't really care.

You did a second ago.


See?

Yeah, but they're words.

Fair do's mate, but I guess the Fiesta and Focus will account for a fair chunk of that (and there are no BMW equivalents to these - yet).

Anecdotal stuff of course, but the motoring mags have been talking for ages about the rise of the premium brands over volume equivalents; I remember the days when the roads were full of Ford Granadas and Vauxhall Carltons, but there aren't even any large volume cars at all now, pretty much (C6 excepted and they are as rare as rocking horse shit).

I'd have a Ford Mustang Boss over a BMW 1 series diesel.

Fo' sho. Isn't the 1 series Fiesta-sized, though?

Here's 2010's figures. Only one 'premium' model in there:

That's not even sort of an answer to the question.

No Mondeo, though.

[edit]Qashqai? Qashqai?
Stupid bloody country.

It was a silly question.

It was a silly statement

I dunno though mate; according to my interpretation ( ), those stats actually bolster my case - many more people chose the smaller, more cramped, more expensive 3-series than a Mondeo, Insignia, Laguna or indeed any volume larger family car? Surely this says that badge snobbery is alive and well in the UK; this would never have been the case in the 80s/90s - Sierras, Cavaliers and Mk 1 Mondies were *everywhere*. (Indeed, the term 'Mondeo Man' was coined politically).

I'm not saying this is necessarily right, of course. In fact, objectively speaking, it quite probably isn't, although having said that, a premium brand will tend to depreciate less - sometimes much less - than the volume equivalent. So when it comes to chopping in after 3 years, you're actually quids in overall. I certainly found that with my TT - it only lost 28% of its value in this timescale despite covering fully 60,000 miles. The Cayman lost only a mere 17.5% - albeit over 2.5 years and only 35,000 miles covered. By comparison, you're not going to sell a £20k from new, 3-year old Mondeo with 60k miles on the clock for £14.5k - Auto Trader suggests only half that amount at best, if it's a petrol. So, £7k+ in additional depreciation after 3 years is one hell of a hit.

In my case, I'm a sucker for a great badge. Cars are not a rational purchase for me, any more than motorbikes. I'd take a Ducati over a Honda any day, even if it's slower and more expensive. It may be wrong, but that's the kind of guy I am. You pays your money and you makes your choice etc.

I can't see that Zarz, but I'm guessing the 'badge knob jockey' filename isn't good news for me.

EDIT: Ah right. Soz.

The North West may not be representative of the rest of the country in that regard. It seems that every 3rd car here is a fucking Audi.

Popular fleet cars, and there's decent lease deals, I would have thought.

EDIT: A3 is about £50 a week. TT is £65

EDIT2: Cayman is £125 a week.

The image messed up then someone popped over before I could sort it, got you another one now.

Does the sales include fleet?

I have done a survey in the most scientific way available to be. I have looked out of my window and counted the car makes I can see in the car park and surrounding road.

Thusly:

6 Ford, 4 Toyota, 3 Citroen, 3 Mini, 2 Fiat, 2 Peugeot, 2 Vauxhall and 1 each of Renault, VW, Alpha, BMW, Honda, Kia, Saab and Rover.

I have disproved my sweeping statement. That was fun.

Can you check our carpark too

Sure, I agree - "no Mondeo" meant "so it was outsold by the 3-series".

The next troublesome thing comes with identifying if they had a family to fill the car with, of course

Yes, and ironically Mali, it is precisely because such cars tend to be worth much more after 3 years than volume equivalents (i.e. their residual value, which isn't financed, is much greater), this means they are (relatively) cheap to lease.

For many people, this makes the whole thing a bit of a no-brainer. Nice new Audi on your drive for £50/week and no hassle having to sell at the end etc. seems like a reasonable proposition for many, I've no doubt. (By way of example, £13k depreciation over 3 years on a £20k car you've bought yourself amounts to £83.33 per week!)

Actually, have you got links for these please mate?

I think I would lease a car if I had too rather than buy one.

http://www.leasingoptions.co.uk/audi-car-leasing

It's about £500 a week for an GT3, to save you looking

I get the peons to pre-depreciate mine for me.

Heh. Cheers mate.

Actually, you can have a brand spanking new TT for £58.84/week, according to that, which seems like one heck of a bargain to me.

EDIT - plus VAT, mind, and also an £1800 initial payment. *Still* seems cheap though, even taking these into account.

Interesting that the Leaf is far cheaper to lease than the i-Miev. Wonder if that's down to residuals.

Me too.

I fucking hate cars, I'd be rich if I didn't need one.

Just wait till Autumn they'll drop even more then.

Talking of 'leccy cars, the Formula E racing car has arrived, as I heard this morning:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/ne ... 675473.stm

Sounds pretty interesting - just as fast as an F1 car, with 850bhp and rwd. Yummy.

I do, as most of you know. As does Craster.

The lease on the Mundano is up in April

So? Get another one!

From memory, the Mk1 Mondeo outsold the equivalent 3-series (E36, I guess - possibly the E30 depending on when the Mondeo was first released) but from the Mk2 onwards the 3-series has trounced it worldwide.

Petrol says no. We're going to get a diesel. Now that the Grimlet has grown up a bit we don't need a hulking great boot, either.

It's really sad, this is going to be the first time I don't simply point at the bottom of the list of engines and say "that one"

We'll probably get a Focus Diesel.

I'm looking at the 1.6 TDCi Fiesta Zetec S for when I have to get a car again. £20 road tax!

Obviously road tax isn't an issue with leased cars, but the fuel consumption is.

I may go down the leasing route. What are the drawbacks?

Not many.
You have to give the car back, so it's dead money. I always assume a car is dead money anyway, so that's okay.
It's not yours, so you can't drop a new stereo in or wire your SatNav through the dash or anything like that. And in some cases it's more expensive than buying second-hand (YMMV, of course). Depending on the supplier, you may have a mileage limit. You probably won't be allowed to smoke in the car, if that bothers you.

I'm not sure if that's the same engine that's in our 1.6 Diesel Titanium, but if it is, it's very efficient. Still averaging over 55mpg after 22k miles.

Which is what I'll be doing.



It's not cheap, to my mind. It's great value if you were going to buy a brand new car anyway, but not really compared to buying one that's a year old or so.

Other than that, what Grim... said. It's just not your car, so you can't do a lot to it.

Yeah, I always assume cars are dead money as well (much like my house, lolzorz!). I don't give a shit about modding it, and I usually like to change mine every few years anyway.

What are the most reputable leasing companies? I have precisely zero knowledge of this.

One of the guys here leases his and got it via one of the *worst* websites I have ever seen

http://www.lingscars.com/

However the price worked out for him and he's had it about a year so far with no hassles

ARG! MY EYES!!

Grim... leases his from some shady place that doesn't even have a website.

Jesus, that's actually a real company? Cripes.

And will continue to do so for a fair while.

What about you?

He's pretty expensive, from looking at a couple of examples.

He is a she, and she is bonkers. The website is designed that way on purpose...