I would like to see if anyone can come up with the "killer" argument for my current quandry.
In February we ordered a 1.8TFSI Audi A3 sportback which arrived in time for the 09 plate registrations. It replaced a Saab 9-3 and at that point we planned to make this our only car by also retiring our old Mazda 323 when its MOT expired in September (as I was taking the train to work).
When the scrappage scheme came out we went and replaced the 323 with an i10 - which is a surprisingly good car and the Mrs is delighted with it.
The thing is that the A3 is now getting occasional use but otherwise sitting in the garage looking lovely but also sitting in the back of my head saying "lot of car money doing nothing".
The A3 is fantastic - fast, quiet, comfy but gave me 52MPG on a recent trip to Peterborough. I have no financial pressure/need to sell it, but I am aware that to keep the car I will need to shell out just over £16k (including the balloon) over the next 30 months, which would buy me a lot of car fun elsewhere while also saving me 10k into the bargain.
A chat with the Audi garage this morning has yealded an offer for the car of just £2k less than I paid for it - which was about £1,500 more than I expected.... This has made the decision even harder....
So - is anyone able to help with a practical method for deciding whether I should go heart or head?
|
|
Head, The A3 is only a stamped out sheet of steel and some oily bits, your heart will always fall in love with another car.
Edited by Old Navy on 20/09/2009 at 17:41
|
swell it and buy some cheap car fun.
XJS anyone?
|
|
|
Here's my tuppenceworth. Feel free to completely ignore it if you like :)
Don't hesitate: sell the A3. Buy some cheapie banger if you need new wheels, and chalk up the £2K loss as a very cheap way of learning what could have been an expensive lesson.
And then go use the money to do something completely different. That's do something, not buy something. Learn gourmet cooking, fly a microlight over the Alps, take some out as a Buddhist monk, do an immersion course in Swahili, hire a whole week on a test-track in a top-whack Porsche, or walk naked across Germany pushing a wheelbarrow full of Maggie Thatcher china dolls. Whatever floats your boat.
Look at it this way. When you're old and frail and your ungratfeful sprogs have stashed you away in a care home, which is going to give you more pleasure: the memory of the time you did something right out of the ordinary, or the fact that you had expensive gadget gathering dust in your garage?
|
NW has the handle on it. Best post of the year.............................so far.
MD.
|
Not you too, MD... It's a little worrying, this expansion of the NowWheels fan base!
Here's my tuppenceworth.
Two penn'orth, surely, NW :-)
I think you should note that (a) both head & heart are clearly metal-oriented in this case, and (b) a £2k deficit doesn't seem to be an issue for the OP. This is in fact an exercise in what is known as man-maths, where the solution necessarily involves buying another car. Sigh...
Wish I had an A3 to, um, sit and meditate in.
|
|
I favour heart. But I'm not sure my heart would be conquered by a diesel Audi. I think a nice Alfa worth a third of the Audi, and more costly to run give or take the odd dmf failure, would have a better chance.
|
buy an old Mustang with a whopping great V8 for half the money the A3 would have cost, put that in the garage and drag it out on sunny days and half your town will be drooling when you fire it up and take it for a spin...and if anything it'll appreciate
|
|
|
|
I can't actually see the point of selling (as there is no financial pressure currently) or changing, unless and until the OP has a firm objective in his mind. Psst Lud: 1.8 TFSI ain't a diesel.
|
1.8 TFSI ain't a diesel.
Oh dear. I think it's the same engine I have praised in a friend's Octavia 1.8T.
Hangs head in shame, but doesn't wholly change mind...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hi NW,
I like your style to the point that we sort of did this in 2005. Sold the house, went to Kenya, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Japan and Australia. We then did China on a much smaller scale (and without selling the new house) in 2007 (and saw the Roewe 75 as the latest car to hit the streets! I still have the sales brochure somewhere).
I have been sitting here this evening looking at what I could buy outright for £4k that isn't a Ford, French or just rubbish....(no flames please - I know lots of you like Ford but I haven't had a good one yet in 4 go's). Without taking a huge punt or getting lucky with a real gem the answer seems to be "not a lot" - which probably explains why the depreciation on the A3 is really relatively low.
Perhaps I should just enjoy the A3 while I am still young enough to and worry about boring things like depreciation as, if or when kids arrive.
|
BM, you sound a relatively young at heart and adventurous fellow.
I wasn't sure until your second posting but i think the same as most here, sell the Audi, it's the right car for someone much older, you i believe should enjoy the last few years of the pleasure something really juicy can give, before the green wellie tree loving brigade get them outlawed forever, especially as you can afford it.
Get something that makes the blood run fast, with power to thrill and an engine to die for, you shouldn't be worrying about 50mpg, you should be worrying that your V8 thunder machine is getting nearly 20mpg are you getting past it..;)
|
|
|
|
![2023 Volvo XC90 2.0 T8 [455] RC PHEV Plus Dark 5dr AWD Geartronic](http://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/url/crop/90x60/https/assets.heycar.co.uk/t_default-export/f_auto/application_assets/vehicles/pictures/4c55a07152c5019050fd1baf59d170ee/40c204443b1447131095c5532a27eb67.jpg)
_COLON_no_upscale()/cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/59ea7aca27121b78c454213772e4bd33/2e3f883550494c26d7e61fa88aa84a8d.jpg)
