Buying advice please!

[bjacks]

They will certainly move cars between dealers, I have seen a Misano RS6 start up in Birmingham (actually got offered it myself from Listers Worcester), then end up down in London.

If you get a decent sales guy he'll be able to tell you how long it's been in stock, in fact, it may even be 60 day maximum I think. They are unlikely to actually "own" the car, will have been financed so will be costing them money.

As far as GAP is oncerned, may be a good idea as the 6+ is bound to loose a fair bit of cash soon, so if the unmentionable happens a year down the line, you'll be quids in

Cheers

Ben

[rs666]

Bob, why not go for a non- +Plus RS6 and spend a lot less in the period to the RS4 delivery? There are some good 2 year old examples at much less than £54k

[bobjebb]

May well do just that, in fact that was the way to go until they came back with a considerably better deal on the +. Nice Mugello blue ones in Edinburgh and Poole. Trouble is I live 1 minute from AMD...

[rs666]

Mugello Blue, nice choice

I know what you mean, I've just moved from Woodstock and my wallet is feeling the benefit of the distance from AmD

Off topic: Have you thought about playing cricket this year? I can put you in touch with my old club.

[bobjebb]

Looking to move to Woodstock myself... Cricket, how did you know? Did you work at AMD? Or are you Derren Brown? Actually I'm in the nets tonight, not sure about getting back into it seriously, but would love the odd game...

[rs666]

I was the guy who dropped you and your wife at Bicester Village whilst you had your Stage 3 done (and gave you the duff explanation about your RR chart )

I would recommend http://www.obndcc.co.uk/ although if your only going to socially the Sunday cricket is very 'social' i.e. crap std

Woodstock was great, half price Champagne on Weds in the Kings Arms is very popular.

[EuroSag]

I have been discussing one of the cars and thier Audi Solutions has been suggested. I wonder if anyone could on advise on this as a buying option:

deposit £17,000
monthly payment £1,000 for 18 months ish

sell the car for ??? in summer 2007, for new RS4



Bearing in mind that there is no such thing as a 'good deal' when buying a car like this, any thoughts gratefully received...

I personally wouldn't touch Audi's finance, I think there are a lot better deals out there if you are prepared to do a bit of leg-work.

When I bought my RS6 I put a hefty deposit down and financed about 40k over 3 years, with a balloon of £25k at the end. The monthly cost is under £550 p/m.

I did this through Capital Bank who are part of Bank of Scotland, and when my new RS4 eventually arrives, i'll be using them again - probably using the same kind of figures too.

Just on another note, a friend of mine has just bought a new lotus exige and he got the finance for 3.9% apr, which works out at about 1.8% flat-rate!!

[Wolverine]

Would you know which company provided that finance or is it a Lotus deal only ?

[bobjebb]

More info on that deal please!

I've re-jigged my figures, to put down a larger deposit, circa 35k. It makes sense for me to finance the other 20k, so I can keep some in the bank for emergencies. What is the advantage of this balloon thingy? There must be some, but I never like the idea of selling a car (at a loss!) and then having to hand over another lump of cash...

I'm sure there are better rates, but being self employed it becomes a pain, I presume doing it through the dealer cuts out some of the agro and admin? Having said that I would ideally like the option to repay the loan at any time, which I think comes at the cost of penalties with the Audi product...

Sorry thinking aloud here! But any clever folk with advice gratefully received!

[EuroSag]

Would you know which company provided that finance or is it a Lotus deal only ?

The rate is so good - its probably a Lotus subsidised deal, but its basically through blackhorse (Lloyds), so I guess you could ring them up independently and see what kind of a deal they would do on Audi's, etc.

[EuroSag]

More info on that deal please!

I've re-jigged my figures, to put down a larger deposit, circa 35k. It makes sense for me to finance the other 20k, so I can keep some in the bank for emergencies. What is the advantage of this balloon thingy? There must be some, but I never like the idea of selling a car (at a loss!) and then having to hand over another lump of cash...

I'm sure there are better rates, but being self employed it becomes a pain, I presume doing it through the dealer cuts out some of the agro and admin? Having said that I would ideally like the option to repay the loan at any time, which I think comes at the cost of penalties with the Audi product...

Sorry thinking aloud here! But any clever folk with advice gratefully received!

I'm self-employed too and its never been a problem.

I understand your concerns about the car finance, but the way I play it is, get the car finance rate at a lower % than you can get on your savings in a bank account/investment. That way you don't shell out all your savings, but at the same time its not really costing you anything to do the finance.

With regards to the balloon payment, I personally think it is unlikely that late 04/54 RS6's or new RS4's will be less than £25k in 3 years time (as long as the mileage is sensible), and to be honest if they are, sod it - i'll just pay the balloon payment and keep the car!! For £25k it'll be a bargain.

Anyway, all cars are just a money pit full stop, but if you're a petrol head like most of us, you just have to accept it.

On a final note, I used to own a 550 Maranello which was 150k new, after 6 years and 14,000 miles it was worth about 50k. I depressingly worked out that it cost me almost £15k a year in depreciation alone!!

[rs666]

I've not had any problems getting finance being self-employed. Lenders are getting used to freelancers etc. running through their own ltd. companies.

The balloon payment allows you to get the monthly payment down whilst you build up the reserves in your company ready for the big dividend that pays of the the balance of the finance early.

That's my plan anyway....