Yes, I can see the unionised Germany heading the same way

as the Unionised Britain of the 70s... Sorry for you, there

are people prepared to work for less, just that they live

on the other side of the world.

I don't understand all this talk about 'unionised' - unions haven't got much to do with it. Neither has China in this particular case. I can only describe a lot of what appears in the UK press (and no doubt in other Western countries) as 'propaganda'.

I have been to China, specifically to look at the automotive component supply sector. It is bedevilled by problems. In some cases there are terrible infrastructural problems (intermittant supply of water and electricity, for example). Chinese companies will often not honour contracts (if their costs unexpectedly rise they simply tear up the contract!). The extent of pollution in the industrialised corridor stretching out from Shanghai has to be seen to be believed. There is little freedom and staff are often hired for a month and then not paid.
Much of the profit being generated in China is actually repatriated to companies in the West.

My prediction is that the Chinese economy will go 'pop' in the not too distant future (many of the Chinese managers we spoke to are expecting it to) and then there could be large-scale civil disturbance.
For all but the middle and upper classes (still a tiny percentage of the population) industrialised China is a pretty miserable place to live.
I say thank God for the EU imposing all of those environmental standards on us and thank God for unions who've helped most of us enjoy a standard of living that the average Chinese person can only dream about.

The 'globalised economy' only works because transnational companies are able to exploit the big differences in living standards between different parts of the world. They manufacture at developing world cost and sell and first-world prices - its not difficult to make a profit when you adopt that approach (i.e the approach Dyson has taken). The snag comes when your customers in the first world can no longer afford to buy you products or your costs turn out to be higher than you expected and the quality of the product is poor (e.g. the Rover 'Indicar' debacle).

Amboy,

have you purchased yet?

As a result of reading your ( & other) comments over the last few weeks I had a drive of the 2005 model 2.2 Dci SE today and I went with the intenion of hating it as its so pug ugly so that I could discount it but I think it's a brilliant package and unbeatable if I can get it down to circa £12K.

Have you (or anyone else) found a good deal as a trahet price at least?

This may by now be a little bit out of date and it's possibly not done to quote your own posts but www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=19...9 is a fairly thorough explanation of how PCPs work and how they make money for the dealer quite nicely, thank you.

And I suppose if you fancy a lot of change from your 14K, and you find the Citroen Berlingo comfortable (it is certainly spacious), that might be an option.