Not A3/S3 related but....

[marriedblonde]

Lexus G37 vs. A5/3 series coupe anyone??!

Nice looking car that, had quite a good review in Evo but they still said the BM was the better car. But the infiniti will have the rarity value...

 

[Amchlolor]

FWIW, Audi's latest grills remind me of Bender from Futurama.

 

[L60N]

IM staying in here!

Please dont judge me by the clothing!

 

[L60N]

FWIW, Audi's latest grills remind me of Bender from Futurama.

I can take that on the chin Bowfer. Surely you can see that green beemer is cross eyed though?

 

[marriedblonde]

IM staying in here!



Please dont judge me by the clothing!

LOL...Brilliant

 

[PNH80]

Sorry to interrupt the photo's of little girls closets and cartoon characters lol, but just briefly back onto topic...

I've been collecting lease quotes on said vehicles and it's quite astounding...

I've had £490 p/m incl VAT on a very well spec'd A5 quattro sport, upgraded stereo, parking plus etc etc. Yet no one can get ANYWHERE near that for the beamer. I'm talking £650 +. Bearing in mind the beamer as i've spec'd it is actually a cheaper car than the A5....So why is this??
Does the BMW suffer with much greater depreciation or what? It really is busting my noggin.

 

[L60N]

Daft question, but is the deposit a factor?

 

[Amchlolor]

Sorry to interrupt the photo's of little girls closets and cartoon characters lol, but just briefly back onto topic...

I've been collecting lease quotes on said vehicles and it's quite astounding...

I've had £490 p/m incl VAT on a very well spec'd A5 quattro sport, upgraded stereo, parking plus etc etc. Yet no one can get ANYWHERE near that for the beamer. I'm talking £650 +. Bearing in mind the beamer as i've spec'd it is actually a cheaper car than the A5....So why is this??
Does the BMW suffer with much greater depreciation or what? It really is busting my noggin.

£650.00 sounds a lot.
FWIW, my D3 (list price £28350) is £498.00 per month, through BMW contract hire.
Arnold Clark were willing to do it for £480.00 per month.
Both + VAT, of course.

Your £490 including VAT sounds really good...

 

[Kontraband]

GT coupe isn't it. Designed for eating up the miles so it's got to have some 'girth' and road presence to it.

Girth... its FAT! hAHAHAH


Agreed tho, as does my cousin who is in the same test boat you are right now.


and yeah, £490 does sounds good.

 

[PNH80]

£490 incl. VAT surprised me, although i did haggle him to the point of blackmail. This is based on a downpayment of £2500 instead of approx £1400 (my choice to keep payments down) I really want to take him up on that offer but this whole S-Line issue has ****** me off.
I'm waiting for a few quotes to come back including the option to order a euro spec S-Line A5from Audi and get them to ship it to a UK dealer. Not sure how that'll go down. Probably being optimistic there!

Honestly though, the Audi is consistantly a lot less than the 330d.

 

[PNH80]

Just got an e-mail response:

"Hi Paul,

The Audi has a better resale (residual) value than the BMW and so you are financing a smaller amount, that is the differece in the rentals."

Just as i thought. Christ, those beamer coupes must make a cracking second hand buy...

 

[Amchlolor]

I find that explanation hard to fathom.
The difference in payments is £650.00-£490.00, which is £160.00
36 x 160 = £5760.00
So they're saying an A5 will be worth £5760.00 more than a 330D coupe, for the same(ish) original purchase cost?
That's ******, IMO.
It's far more likely that the A5 is just being 'pushed', whereas the BMW isn't.
Not that you care, because you're scoring.

 

[PNH80]

I did take that with a fistful of salt.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if Audi are doing very favourable rates on the sport models pre release of the S-line. Lets be honest, sales of the Sport will go through the floor when the S-Line arrives (if it does).

 

[Kontraband]

Yeah, likeBowfer says;

Each broker reckons to have their own suggested RV for the car, offset against how friendly they are with the dealers in the first place which offsets their total 'loss'. Basically they are probably getting audis at a better price than the beemers.

Go elsewhere and you might find the opposite result.

 

[PNH80]

Well i got the £490 quote elsewhere, and this company says they aim to beat any written quotation... So we'll see what they come back with. Any lower and it's not far off the price i am/was paying on my A3....Which is insane.

 

[Amchlolor]

There are some pretty amazing lease deals out there though.
I mean, you can lease a Lexus IS220D for £260 a month.
That's practically giving it away.

 

[PNH80]

There are some pretty amazing lease deals out there though.
I mean, you can lease a Lexus IS220D for £260 a month.
That's practically giving it away.

That is very low cost executive motoring isn't it.

Alan Partridge ruined the Lexus image for me though lol

 

[L60N]

I've looked at Lex'i in the past

 

[Amchlolor]

I looked at Lexus this time round.
Their Co2 is too high for a company car buyer (must hurt them, that).
Outstanding stereos though.
Mark Levinson, 14 speaker and 5.1 surround, around £1500

 

[marriedblonde]

I looked at the lexi when I was contemplating a grown up car... I quite like the look of the baby lexus in sport trim. Not much room in the back though...

seperate note: loving the C63 AMG Merc, me like a lot

 

[PNH80]

I looked at the lexi when I was contemplating a grown up car... I quite like the look of the baby lexus in sport trim. Not much room in the back though...

seperate note: loving the C63 AMG Merc, me like a lot

Agreed, it does look quite pornographic in white, gunmetal or black.

 

[marriedblonde]

I went to look at one on sunday in black with the optional 19" anthracite rims... Now if I could just live with mid teens economy... Oh and the small matter of having £55K to spend on car of course... How much do toddlers fetch on ebay now a days...

I did suggest that Claire could go out to work... Didn't go down to well...

 

[Amchlolor]

I don't know what it is with Merc, but they're a make I just never, ever, consider.
I've never even set foot in a Merc dealership.
I read some favourable reports on the new C-Class, but I still ignored them.
Strange.

 

[marriedblonde]

Old man image! Or girly 2 seaters...

 

[PNH80]

The problem with Merc is they do have an image crisis. Buyers under the age of 40 will almost always go Audi/BMW maybe Lexus. Their cars are too 'classically' designed for a younger market, not contemporary and sporting enough....In my opinion!

 

[Amchlolor]

You're probably right.
I've owned the likes of Saab before though (old bloke image), and I like Jags (old man image).
So quite why I single out Merc as particularly off-limits is baffling.

 

[marriedblonde]

Their new design that started with the S-Class is to counter that though and the new C-Class in my eyes looks quite striking.

But they are considerably slower when compared to their equiv BM/Audi counter parts. Ok so the AMG ones seem to be on the pace...

J.

 

[L60N]

[ytv]Km11Cb5NDp0[/ytv]

 

[bacardi]

Their new design that started with the S-Class is to counter that though and the new C-Class in my eyes looks quite striking.

But they are considerably slower when compared to their equiv BM/Audi counter parts. Ok so the AMG ones seem to be on the pace...

J.

Merc's are a bit of an anomoly to me too, not sure why either.
I looked at the small coupe a couple of years ago which seemed to be trying to hard if you know what I mean.

I may take a look at the new C class next time round, they're really quite smart/mean looking or a 4x4 - Hows the ML going MB?

 

[marriedblonde]

Ah man the ML is lovely thanks Bacardi, really, really happy with it! Kinda hope the mpg would have been a better but fortunately Claire doesn't do a lot of miles each week!

I can understand the attraction with them now, the high driving position is really cool, plus it's pretty rapid and you can chuck it around quite a lot. The only thing that always catches me out is the amount oflocks turn to turn compared to mine, I seem to flail my arms around a lot.

J.

 

[Amchlolor]

'Sport Auto' (German car mag) has just awarded the 335D and D3 coupe 1st and 2nd place in their 'diesel over 35000 euros' category.

Diesel über 35.000 Euro
1.BMW 335d 39,5 %
2.BMW Alpina D3 Biturbo 26,9 %
3.Audi A4 3.0 TDI quattro 13,6 %

Some other results that may be of interest.

Kompaktwagen
1. Audi S3 23,0 %
2. BMW 130i 19,5 %
3. Subaru Impreza WRX STi 16,6 %

Diesel bis 35.000 Euro
1.BMW 123d Coupé 50,5 %
2.Audi A3 2.0 TDI 12,1 %
3.Alfa Romeo 159 2.4 JTDM 9,7 %

 

[PNH80]

Interesting indeed although no surprises regarding the BMW 335d. That engine is superb... If a tad pricey. The D3 is obviously great value for money and the A4 is basically the same car as the A5 3.0TDI so i'd catagorise them the same....Although looking at those percentages it was a long way behind.

I knew BMW diesels were better anyway so i can't say i'm shaocked by those results.

 

[mfspen]

There are some pretty amazing lease deals out there though.
I mean, you can lease a Lexus IS220D for £260 a month.
That's practically giving it away.

It's always surprised me that Lexus haven't produced a car in the A3 / 1-series class. I'm sure it would be brilliant.

 

[Amchlolor]

It's always surprised me that Lexus haven't produced a car in the A3 / 1-series class. I'm sure it would be brilliant.

Word is they are working on exactly that, along with a smaller 4x4 to compete with Rav4/Freelander/CRV etc.

 

[marriedblonde]

Their current 4x4 isn't exactly large as it is though or are they planning on bringing out a bigger version of the current one?

 

[Amchlolor]

Their current 4x4 isn't exactly large as it is though or are they planning on bringing out a bigger version of the current one?

Word of a 7 seat SUV, so it looks like it.

 

[PNH80]

Lexus has the potential to be a very 'cool' brand. The new coupe looks lovely and if the new small hatch and 4x4's are nicely styled and as technically good as the rest of the fleet they're onto a winner.
They seem to be doing the right thing by keeping their cars quite japanese looking and not like german rip-offs.
They've also achieved what VAG haven't... Kept the Toyota and Lexus brand totally separate. I personally don't really make any comparisons or connection between the two at first thought whereas Audi does suffer a little from the whole 'posh VW' thing.

 

[Amchlolor]

They've also achieved what VAG haven't... Kept the Toyota and Lexus brand totally separate. I personally don't really make any comparisons or connection between the two at first thought whereas Audi does suffer a little from the whole 'posh VW' thing.

Totally agree.

Part of this must be helped, IMO, by Lexus' decision to go RWD, which completely contradicts Toyota FWD.

 

[bacardi]

Ah man the ML is lovely thanks Bacardi, really, really happy with it! Kinda hope the mpg would have been a better but fortunately Claire doesn't do a lot of miles each week!

I can understand the attraction with them now, the high driving position is really cool, plus it's pretty rapid and you can chuck it around quite a lot. The only thing that always catches me out is the amount oflocks turn to turn compared to mine, I seem to flail my arms around a lot.

J.

Cool - agree on the high driving position, something the wife wants to carry on with the next car, easier to put the baby seat in and out of apparently
She's was liking the idea of a Freelander but I'm going to stop by a merc dealer (There's one right next to Kiddiecare so I can look thoughtful at the same time!)

 

[marriedblonde]

Yep perfect for chucking Sam in and out of the car. With the added bonus of having a huge boot at the right height for changing Sam's nappy if we are out and about!

J.