hmmmmm skoda...subaru...skoda...subaru......no contest really the subaru wins hands down every time

 

In comparicon, you could have a Golf 1.6 S 5 door, doesn't even have electric rear windows

 

Thank God for that! Given you have just told me I must either be rich or a mug to buy a new car I am going to take a huge leap of faith in the moderators and suggest that you must be either unusually poor or a total idiot to not see the value in this deal.

If you stood up in front of a judge and gave that reply to my question everyone in the courtroom would scream "IRRELEVANT!!" at the same time. If you want to start another thread about "new vs used" or "what is the most car I can get for £X000 Pounds" then I'll gladly contribute. But when I pose the question asking for a better deal on a similar performance car and you reply with a diesel Skoda, you just end up looking stupid.

The fact is that all performance models are staring down the barrel of savage depreciation. Just look at what people are being offered for their trade ins. Forecourts are full of top-of-the-range models while small petrols and diesels are flying off the shelves. But all that is irrelevant because if someone wants a performance saloon/hatch and has £15-25k to spend on a NEW car they are going to look at this deal and really struggle to find anything that is better value.

This is probably going to wind you up, but I don't care. I kind of feel sorry for you in a way because there is something uniquely pleasurable about speccing and picking up a brand new car. It is abundantly clear you are totally incapable of looking past future depreciation (which only matters if you are selling relatively soon) and will never get to experience that. Sad really .

 

I'd say you are right about the pleasurable part of spec'ing up the car, but the pleasurable part about buying a new car lasts less than 12 months - in my experience at least. The realisation of how much it has lost in the 12 months and that you're paying interest on that loss, usually prompts me to have a little cry.

£14 on that WRX might seem a deal, but coupled with running costs, its questionable exterior, insurance and suspect taxation, I would seriously consider whether it is a good value 200bhp car that can carry the kids (I carted my nephews around in a 3 door, with no probs).

I did own (and enjoyed) a Megane R26 which I bought with 8k on the clock for £15k. You could probably get one brand new for the same price in the current climate, or even a pre-reg, nearly new. I would rather have that than that WRX. The build quality wasn't that bad in the Reno, nice seats and a limited slip diff, brembo's etc - not a bad unit.

I'm just on the way out, but would guess that its cheaper to insure, service, tax and probably the same depreciation wise.. plus its the top end of the range if you discredit the R26R which is a very limited run. What do you think?

It was a good debate that you two guys were having, it ended up getting a bit personal based on strong opinion, but I agreed with points you were both making.
If I wasn't on the way out, I'd have a crack at your challenge to find a better motor for under £14k - instead, I have a wedding night do - which is just going to be sh*t.

 

Just checked my figures I have been given a 3 year GFV of £7033 on my new WRX which was a UK dealer supplied one which was far more than £14K though it did come with extras that would probably need to be added to the £14k EU import. MY last 05 EU import was worth £1k less than a UK one when trading in. So I would suggest that at £14K you would probably get around £6 or £7K back in 3 years which can't be bad. I would be interested seeing if anyone would get a new clio sport for 14K and even if they do I didn't find it compared well with my new WRX. I would also say that at present with a poor economic climate powerful cars mmay not be much in vogue but in a few years time when things have improved there will probably be a demand for such cars. Having had mine for a few months now I like it as much if not more than the 05 WRX I had. If prodriive bring kits out too then that will address the needs of the petrol heads and no doubt will also help to make the standard cars more attractive in 3 years time. Finally as said before there are no comparable 4wd performance cars on the market for £14K and not many cars available for 14K new that are that good.

 

Good point . Maybe this is the best time to buy a performance car. There won't be many second hand ones around in 3 years time, that's for sure.

LOL - you might prise me out of my diesel if you keep that kind of logic going.