My friend always asks me to help her get a new car. Her last 4 have been Civics. Guess what top of the list was this time?
However she also has a friend that has a v40 which she likes so went to see both cars today. She loved the V40 and just did not like the new Civic at all!
Now I know nothing about Volvos, they have never been on my radar, couldnt tell you the last time I was in one? Maybe my boss's 760 Estate in the late 80s!!
The car she is looking at is this
www.taggarts.co.uk/volvo/used-cars/9237495-volvo-v40-t3-152-r-design-pro-5dr/
Anyone any experience of recent Volvos that can give any feedback? They dont seem to have done what other manufacturers do and have low powered petrols, this is a 2 litre petrol. But comes loaded with toys.
Personally I still dont like their "phone keypad" centre console with all the buttons around it but the car isn't for me!
Any feedback appreciated!
|
|
I owned a V40 T5 Cross Country - Lovely car to drive. Great "R Style" seats added to the mix. They try to aim for BMW type "premium" feel and largely succeed. Boot space is limited. Dealer was very good.
|
|
For a 256bhp sub £200 insurance was remarkable. Not fond of the auto box on mine. Ergonomics were very good. Instrument pack had a nice feel- interior on tis one seems premium.
|
If I were looking to buy a V40 & looking to spend nearly £18K I'd be heading
for a broker.
Current offers for a manual/petrol are around 25% off making them in the region of £18/£19K
|
If she were to venture south of the border, she would get the same car for 1k less. The V40 is the last of that version of Volvos, new generation due in 2019.
She would be more than happy with the one in the add tho.
|
The V40 is less practical than the Civic - for example the boot is relatively small. However, as a Mk9 Civic owner and fan, I can't warm to the latest model.
So if the V40 is big enough for her needs its worth considering. They hold their value very well but are well-discounted by brokers (just checked one, Carfile, at random and the T3 is £21k) so might be worth shopping around if she can stretch to new.
|
The car was registered at the end of Dec 2017 , has done 6000 miles and has been untaxed since the summer.
I am guessing that usage is probably too little for hire companies and more likely to be Volvo staff?
The £2k price reduction may well suggest that they have had it sitting since summer time - don't know as we only started looking this weekend!
Interestingly, she went in yesterday to see it, we are going back tomorrow for a test drive but salesman had over £1000 of additional costs on the finance quote he gave her for all the warranties, paint protections, GAP etc.
She has now made it clear that she will be taking none of these and will be using an RBS loan at 3.4% compared to their double digit figures they quoted!
Re brokers etc, she is keen to get a new car within the next week so this is ticking lots of boxes for her.
Martin, interesting on your Civic comments, I am also a Mk9 owner (she is Mk8) but neither of us warm to the new model. I just think the externals are too "over the top" although they may be trying to drive the age of owners down with their graphite alloys etc.
|
Bobby - get a quote from a Broker & go in with the quote - he/she might not want to buy via a broker BUT hitting them with a new car for very little more might find them sharpening their pencil. They have come down £2K on their original price why not come down another £1,000?
Also get a WBAC quote for the trade-in & see if that can get more.
Price of 2nd hand car down, trade-in value increased or he/she walks - that's the threat.
Present the facts then walk to the door as you have an urgent appointment elsewhere & ask them to give you a call.
|
Carfile is £23k before I add the options that I have just realised this car is loaded with (£900 paint, sunroof . park distance control etc.
DTD was £23550 with the options (that I am sure it has but there may be more)
So I think that won't be a good bargaining chip.
We'll see how it goes, I normally get a few hundred off any final deal by doing the "make it this amount and here's my chip n pin card ready" argument....
On a side note, it does actually look a lot of car for the money and not too bad economy or emissions for a 2 litre petrol engine!
|
Bobby, you are correct re Carfile. In my earlier post I overlooked the "pro" bit which adds £2k.
On that basis its not much of a tactic to use the Carfile price.
Using Autotrader to create a dummy ad suggests a private seller price of £16k and that is about £1k over trade in. So the dealer price is not bad but suggests some room for movement maybe.
The car was registered 22/12/17 so, as you suspect, its probably a Volvo staff car or pre-reg. Few other buyers would buy so late in the month/ year.
I see it lists one previous owner so that could mean two owners in total. No big deal but its a negotiating point if it has had two.
The other thing in the buyer's favour is that the car is just a few weeks away from looking like a 2 year old car (2017 versus 2019). A good reason not to register a new car in late December! It wouldn't actually worry me but there's no harm in sowing the seed with the salesman that its an issue. He can't change the reg date but he can reduce the price.
i assume November is quite a slow sales month, just a pity we're not a week or two later when sales targets might need to be met.
|
Thats a different spec of car - cross country, 1.5 petrol auto as opposed to hatchback, 2.0 petrol manual.
Will do some comparisons on it though, cheers.
|
|
The like for like comparison on that site is £19228 + around £3500 of options
|
Hi Bobby,
I have had a few of these as courtesy cars, and the T3 engine is great (so much better than the lower performance D2 and T2's).
Nice bit of power and good brisk performance. Fuel consumption in the real world is good, and from memory I was getting early 40's on a trip from Sussex to Devon and back.
Comfortable too. Rear visibility isn't great, and the boot has a high lip, but in both cases I think this is for strength / crash protection maybe..
Some of the spec can be great and some poor. The local dealer has these as courtesy cars and none of them ever had parking sensors (none..), and having not driven a car without them for over 10 years makes you very careful indeed!
I thought on a long run that it would be noisy / less sophisticated than my then V70, as it is a lot smaller, but it was absolutely fine and I was impressed.
I never fell in love with these cars, but worthy of consideration for sure.
|
Just had a look at the pics. Nicely spec'd car!
TFT dash (which is sooo much nicer than the basic one), plus sunroof, parking sensors front and rear I see, plus reversing camera.
I guess it was an ex-demo or staff car as they load these with goodies..
Time to haggle!
|
Ok, she has bought it!
We managed to get equivalent of 6 months road tax free but reality was when she had declined all the add -ons and took her own finance there probably wasn't much left in it for the dealer.
Car is very impressive, having never sat in a Volvo since the 80s it did feel premium quality and materials. Absolutely loaded with toys and interactive menu settings for nearly everything.
Made me wonder how do you guys who hire cars often deal with this sort of thing? Before you think of driving away you need to set lots of features?
|
|
I hope she enjoys it - the broker discounts for new cars would have been my preference. But this sounds like it has a lot of optional extras.
|
Why go to a broker when she has a trade in, been to her dealer , got a price and got a cracking car.
Any broker was going to be several £k more and way above her budget.
Any anyway, you wouldn't have went to a broker, you would just have got a company car :)
|
>> Why go to a broker when she has a trade in
Because she could have got a new car for the same price.
And colleagues have got cracking deals on cars recently. One has a Volvo V90 R-Design for about £220 a month for 2 years. No upfront fee. If I can get similar in the future I'd go for that.
That Volvo V90 is NOT a PCP. It is a straight personal lease. End of 2 years and less than £5.5k of payments he hands it back. No service needed and probably no tyres. Bargain.
|
>>Because she could have got a new car for the same price.
I looked last night as posted further up the thread, could not get the same car and spec new for the same money.
|
|
Bobby, looks like the right decision for you. Well bought I'd say.
|
Congratulations!
Sounds like a great buy and I think you will be very pleased. I have always had good service from Volvo dealers, so look forward t enjoying many years with it :)
|
Volvo - volvo v40 - thoughts? - R.P.
