And how much of a difference per month will that 3k be on a PCP deal? Not a great deal I imagine
At Audi's 6.8% over 36 months? Let's see.
£1k deposit, GFV of £17k... An extra £93 a month. £3348 over the term. Enjoy those slightly different lights and wheels.
8P looks barely any different from the 8V? Might need your eyes checked if you really think that
The differences are deliberately minimal. Audi no more wish to undermine the used value of their cars than you do, or else they get a reputation for poor residuals that's sees the repeat customers they wish to snare into a new purchase go elsewhere. Hence the 8V is very clearly an evolution of the 8P. Not a revolution. The facelift will be subtle in the extreme.
It may be a one year old Audi but at least it'll be the latest shape. As I said before, it's not like an iPhone when you know the day you buy it that in 12 months it'll be replaced by a newer model. You have at least 4 years of it being the latest model.
Bravo, you are the marketing departments wet dream and have taken the Audi bait hook line and sinker. It's still current "shape", and it's an old car the second you drive it off the forecourt.
The extra tinsel of a facelift is a little more than a cynical marketing ploy to re-invigorate interest in an old model and sell more cars, make more money, and flog the dead horse that will be the 8V a few years past its sell by date by pretending it's in some measurable way "new", "improved" or "better". It is a stopgap. A bodge up to get a bit more cash out of the old girl whilst they prepare the proper replacement that must inevitably follow if they are to retain any kind of credibility and market share. If they can get some customers to fall all over themselves in a mad rush to pay 10 or 15% over the odds in the meantime for the same tired old design in a different frock, then they've done rather well for themselves.
In the meantime it doesn't address the real problem, which is that anyone buying a facelift version in the next few years, or paying rather more for it in the immediate future, must surely one day have to address the issue of totally new car coming out whilst they own it. To me that is a bigger issue. A facelift is the same shape, a complete re-engineering of the entire product is a different prospect, and does indeed carry the danger of crushing residuals of older designs if not done sympathetically. Thank the financial gods for the GFV then...
Your analogy to the mobile phone is flawed in many many ways, most clearly in the fact that the phone is usually subject to some appreciable upgrades in its performance and not just last years model rehashed with a slightly different keypad, or painted a slightly different shade of grey. The tricks that work in the automotive world don't work quite so well in consumer electronics where genuine progress is expected, née demanded... The trend of updating phones does share one thing with facelift in gold cars though, it's not done out of a need or desire to push technology to new levels of achievement, it's done solely and exclusively to sell more phones.
You buy a brand new car because you want the latest car
You may buy a new car for this reason, but it's one of many possible reasons, not the only reason. Other reasons for buying new include;
Avoids having to buy used, with all the potential for grief that can entail.
One stop shop to get the car you want, and to not immediately have to worry about getting tyres, servicing, MOT etc.
Warranty. No quibbles, no messing about warranty.
Safety. When the safety of loved ones is at stake, the desire to put them into a newer, safer model in case the worst should happen is extremely compelling.
Function. Ultimately a car is a tool. New tools often work better than old tools.
Finance. Fixed monthly costs with no chances of "surprise" repair bills are a boon for some households.
A desire for the very latest thing is a desire than can never be fulfilled. Things change quicker than you can hope to keep up. If you are buying a warmed over hatchback as some kind of status symbol and absolutely "need' the latest thing, then I'm afraid you have rather missed the point. It's still a hatchback, and hatchbacks, no matter how over endowed they are in the horsepower department, are decidedly not sports cars, not super cars, not future classics, and definitely not some kind of vaginal lodestone that's guaranteed to improve your chances with the opposite sex. Enjoy it for what it is. A capable, very fast, practical, and versatile car. It's not a life, or a lifestyle. It's just a car.
