Buying a New Car

[quote=“smellybumlove”]As for selling my Yeti, its a hard choice but I have to carry alot of stuff, so much that i cant take passangers or leave baby seats in the car, need a bigger boot.
Also I do tons of highway driving and the Yeti is not very good MPG-wise on the highway, so a lower and more powerful car is needed.
Octavia combi is what I am getting.

Reason why somebody will buy mine for 800k, skoda ran out and wont have any till next year, price is 938,000nt new without alloys :roflmao:
Thats a $138,000nt knocked off plus a nice set of wheels thrown in :thumbsup:[/quote]

You’re basically going for the Skoda I’ve always recommended then, aside from the Superb, which is a bit on the fat side for my liking.
You have lucked out on the price of the new Skoda which is why you can sell yours for more (privately). This isn’t to say that European cars hold their value as well as Japanese cars, because on the whole, they don’t. You mention in your final sentence that the other way of looking at is 938,000nt minus 138,000nt. That’s quite a depreciation for a car less than ten months old and one in the same model year if you look at it like that. Your purchase and sale smellybumlove is not a reflection of how European vehicles fair in price on the used market. There are always deals from time to time which luck out. They don’t however count for the majority of sales, and should not be taken as a rough guide to motor purchasing.

I enjoy hearing/reading of people being offered XXXX amount of money for their car as if it was well above expected value. The bottom line is, if these offers are so amazing, why not sell the vehicle for the insane price offered and move on to the next investment? Smelly, have you sold your car or are you hoping for 800k?

llary, why didn’t you take the great offer and move on? A 3 or 4 year old Audi is bound to eventually develop some sort of cancer and prove to be a costly repair…or, realistic depreciation will catch up with it…

[quote=“Captain Stag”]I enjoy hearing/reading of people being offered XXXX amount of money for their car as if it was well above expected value. The bottom line is, if these offers are so amazing, why not sell the vehicle for the insane price offered and move on to the next investment? Smelly, have you sold your car or are you hoping for 800k?

llary, why didn’t you take the great offer and move on? A 3 or 4 year old Audi is bound to eventually develop some sort of cancer and prove to be a costly repair…or, realistic depreciation will catch up with it…[/quote]

Just advertised it now, dealer offered under 800k and they told me the last one they sold went for just over that so i should get AT LEAST 800k.
In high demand right now due to the long waiting list and slow delivery, i also have the all important ‘rs’ steering wheel which i only got because i ordered it about 6 months early… so technically speaking i have a higher spec.

Its a bit sad really, i was going to remap the car (gets over 180ft-lb of torque at under 2000rpm alot for a 1.2) and keep it until the wheels fell off or i leave the country whichever was sooner.
But all this delivering and highway miles is really showing up the weaknesses of the car, this was never the plan for it, so a octavia combi with its huge boot and bigger engine is more idealy suited now (more boring though).

Well spotted Captain. I was fooled into believing it had been sold already due to grammar:

[quote=“smellybumlove”]Bought my car for 868,000nt selling for 800,000nt… [color=#FF0000]so i lost 68,000nt in 1 year [/color]:roflmao:
depreciation is minimal on the right model euro car (small engine models mostly).[/quote]

I’ll be very interested to hear if the car can be sold for that amount.

[quote=“smellybumlove”]
Its a bit sad really, I was going to remap the car (gets over 180ft-lb of torque at under 2000rpm alot for a 1.2) and keep it until the wheels fell off or i leave the country whichever was sooner.
But all this delivering and highway miles is really showing up the weaknesses of the car, this was never the plan for it, so a octavia combi with its huge boot and bigger engine is more idealy suited now (more boring though).[/quote]
So you’d have been better off if you’d kept the Teana eh?

Just playing devil’s advocate here… :wink:

both cars I mention don’t have DSG gearbox and that price is the quotation from VW garage…obviously you never change your VAG car’s gearbox oil in VAG dealer taiwan, so go check yourself…at independent VW garage, it costs about $7000

hmmm, delivering and highway miles?..so why not get diesel car?
I had a chance to drive a “replacement car” passat CC 2.0tdi bluemotion for 2 days…it’s like I dont need to go to gas station, ever :smiley:

[quote=“Captain Stag”]I enjoy hearing/reading of people being offered XXXX amount of money for their car as if it was well above expected value. The bottom line is, if these offers are so amazing, why not sell the vehicle for the insane price offered and move on to the next investment? Smelly, have you sold your car or are you hoping for 800k?

llary, why didn’t you take the great offer and move on? A 3 or 4 year old Audi is bound to eventually develop some sort of cancer and prove to be a costly repair…or, realistic depreciation will catch up with it…[/quote]

I nearly did, the owner of the car washing outfit I go to had driven another customer’s A3 and really liked it, he knew I had been looking at the Q7 and offered $700k to buy my A3. I said I was not really interested because we were going to sell the WRX and replace it with the A3 as my daily driver. The offer was raised to $1m eventually and in the end it was my wife who stopped the deal because she really likes the car.

Also $1m is a good price but not insane, the lowest price for this model year from private sellers is around $700-800 which is a 50% discount on the price of a new car.

Think about it… if I sell the car what I am I going to replace it with? I decided not to buy a Q7 or anything else because I think it’s a waste of money since the A3 has run perfectly without a single problem. I think it has a lot of life in it yet.

The A3 is a better made vehicle anyway. The Q7 is put together in Slovakia. The fuel mileage is also not soo good. The 3.6engine only gets 14 city and 19 freeway. However the new 3.0 engine is a big improvement. I forget what the mileage is but its much closer to the diesel version then the 3.6 was.

Heres a good site for checking vehicle mileage at least for cars sold in USA

fueleconomy.gov/

[quote=“tommy525”]The A3 is a better made vehicle anyway. The Q7 is put together in Slovakia. The fuel mileage is also not soo good. The 3.6engine only gets 14 city and 19 freeway. However the new 3.0 engine is a big improvement. I forget what the mileage is but its much closer to the diesel version then the 3.6 was.

Heres a good site for checking vehicle mileage at least for cars sold in USA

fueleconomy.gov/[/quote]

I’m not sure about the Q7 but generally build quality in Slovakia is much better than German. This is also why the Skoda Octavia is more reliable than both Golf and A3.

both cars I mention don’t have DSG gearbox and that price is the quotation from VW garage…obviously you never change your VAG car’s gearbox oil in VAG dealer taiwan, so go check yourself…at independent VW garage, it costs about $7000

hmmm, delivering and highway miles?..so why not get diesel car?
I had a chance to drive a “replacement car” passat CC 2.0tdi bluemotion for 2 days…it’s like I don’t need to go to gas station, ever :smiley:[/quote]

I got offered a deal on the VRS diesel octavia, but quoting jeremy clarkson:
‘all the fun and excitement of the petrol VRS… without the fun and excitement’

Diesels these days just aint no fun, the PD diesels from 5 years ago were a hoot, but then VW decided to adopt the common rail injection and now they feel like a petrol with a narrower torque band and less revs :laughing:

I disagree in the case of the Skoda Superb. That’s the best diesel car I’ve ever driven in terms of cruising around and overall driver feedback and response.

I’m looking to buy a nice and reliable 5 door. Given the cars I’ve seen so far, I have the choice of a 2007 Toyota Yaris or a 2007 Ford Focus. The Yaris is an automatic gearbox, but there are two Focus’s, one is automatic and the other is manual. Now, the Focus is about 30k cheaper than the Yaris. So just comparing the two cars without taking into account any possible existing problems, which car is generally more reliable and a better drive. I am basically looking for a car for city driving and perhaps driving to the beach and back with my dogs. Any input would be appreciated.

in any choice between Ford and Toyota, i would always go for the Toyota. We have a 105,000 km Vitz (Japan spec Yaris) which has never missed a beat. Ever.

the suspension is all worn out, and we’re about to sell it to get something a little bigger, but even at 100,000 km the wee little 1.1 liter still revs out cleanly and never complains.

I have a Yaris here. Think its a 1.5. I drove one in my home country for 5 years. Not one problem ever. Before that I always had Toyotas, You wont get a better car.

Edit: I remember I had a VW Golf once. Got it new. Problems from day one. Cylinder head went twice, gearbox replaced, rust, would not idle. Crap.

go for the yaris. despite toyota’s recalls, most of them hasn’t affected taiwan’s production.
ford as never been able to make a reliable vehicle under cylinders. period.
i love their trucks, but any ford with a four cylinder is garbage.
look how many yaris’ there are on the road. they are selling like hotcakes. just like the altis did way back when. good value. practical. reliable. good resale value.

What is the best locally made crossover from a quality and reliability perspective ? I want to buy a new or one-year old SUV here, but am looking for the equivalent of Consumer Reports, JD Power Ratings, etc. for Taiwanese car manufacturers. I’m not interested in import vehicles b/c of duties, tax, etc.

Anyone know of a good summary of locally manufactured (or assembled) brands (in English) ??

DS

[quote=“DesertSpider”]What is the best locally made crossover from a quality and reliability perspective ? I want to buy a new or one-year old SUV here, but am looking for the equivalent of Consumer Reports, JD Power Ratings, etc. for Taiwanese car manufacturers. I’m not interested in import vehicles b/c of duties, tax, etc.

Anyone know of a good summary of locally manufactured (or assembled) brands (in English) ??

DS[/quote]
Around a million :

  1. CRV 2.4 (local)
  2. RAV4 2.4 (import?)
  3. Forester 2.0 (import)

cheap SUV : escape 2.3 2wd

[quote=“StreetSpec”][quote=“DesertSpider”]What is the best locally made crossover from a quality and reliability perspective ? I want to buy a new or one-year old SUV here, but am looking for the equivalent of Consumer Reports, JD Power Ratings, etc. for Taiwanese car manufacturers. I’m not interested in import vehicles b/c of duties, tax, etc.

Anyone know of a good summary of locally manufactured (or assembled) brands (in English) ??

DS[/quote]
Around a million :

  1. CRV 2.4 (local)
  2. RAV4 2.4 (import?)
  3. Forester 2.0 (import)

cheap SUV : escape 2.3 2wd[/quote]

How about next size or two up from those ?

By next size u mean bigger than those? 7 seater?

I think there are no suv (local made) bigger than CRV…In my head, the suv bigger than those are touareg, Q7, CX9, M class, X5…all imported