18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Chat about your 2018+ AW/BZ model Polos here!
monkeyhanger
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by monkeyhanger »

There is a way of making PCP and bank loans equivalent products so you can take advantage of lower interest rates with the loan.

With a PCP you're covering 3 years depreciation and interest on what is owed on the whole car, on the assumption you'll buy it at the end e.g.:-

Buy a £20k car that'll be worth £10k at the end of 3 years.

Your payments will cover that £10k depreciation and average monthly interest on what is owed in any given month over the term. I month 1 you owe interest on £20k borrowed, in the last month you'll owe interest on £10k plus the capital part of your last month's payment.

If you have a car that would depreciate about 50% over 3 years and interest is low ish (between 2 and 4%), you'd have to buy the car, taking out a 5 year term loan to cover what would be owed under PCP at the end of 36 months and then sell the car to cover the remainder of the loan to be ready for the next one.

That 5 year loan figure is approximate, it could fluctuate a few months either way depending on the interest rate of the loan. Lower interest rate = less interest paid = less money per month to pay. Or pay the same as PCP monthlies to end up with a better level of equity (more capital paid than the PCP would have paid).

This extra equity is not always a good thing. Most salespeople are not good with numbers. Instead of offering you what it's worth (85% of used sticker price is fair), they ask what you owe and then offer you a nominal amount above it.

If you're maths savvy a d don't mind selling the car yourself rather than giving it back then you can make it work. VW have just lowered their PCP APR to about 3% on the Golf. The difference between a 3% PCP and a 2% loan isn't worth the hassle of offloading the car yourself.
Andy Beats
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by Andy Beats »

monkeyhanger wrote: Fri Jan 18, 2019 1:46 pm There is a way of making PCP and bank loans equivalent products so you can take advantage of lower interest rates with the loan.

With a PCP you're covering 3 years depreciation and interest on what is owed on the whole car, on the assumption you'll buy it at the end e.g.:-

Buy a £20k car that'll be worth £10k at the end of 3 years.

Your payments will cover that £10k depreciation and average monthly interest on what is owed in any given month over the term. I month 1 you owe interest on £20k borrowed, in the last month you'll owe interest on £10k plus the capital part of your last month's payment.

If you have a car that would depreciate about 50% over 3 years and interest is low ish (between 2 and 4%), you'd have to buy the car, taking out a 5 year term loan to cover what would be owed under PCP at the end of 36 months and then sell the car to cover the remainder of the loan to be ready for the next one.

That 5 year loan figure is approximate, it could fluctuate a few months either way depending on the interest rate of the loan. Lower interest rate = less interest paid = less money per month to pay. Or pay the same as PCP monthlies to end up with a better level of equity (more capital paid than the PCP would have paid).

This extra equity is not always a good thing. Most salespeople are not good with numbers. Instead of offering you what it's worth (85% of used sticker price is fair), they ask what you owe and then offer you a nominal amount above it.

If you're maths savvy a d don't mind selling the car yourself rather than giving it back then you can make it work. VW have just lowered their PCP APR to about 3% on the Golf. The difference between a 3% PCP and a 2% loan isn't worth the hassle of offloading the car yourself.
Yeah, you could do it this way, but you then have the hassle of 'guessing' what the car is worth and then the hassle of selling it.
I hate dealing with the public when it comes to selling cars/bikes, they can sometimes be proper idiots.
With PCP you don't have that hassle.
monkeyhanger
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by monkeyhanger »

No need to guess. I'd be looking at what they go for that age/condition/mileage on the forecourt and aiming for 10% under it in a private sale.

If you are going back to the same marque, you'll get a p/x value from them that should be 85% of the sticker price if they're being fair.

I wouldn't go through the hassle to save £300 vs PCPing, but I'd certainly do it to save £1000. Both my cars are owned outright. Saving about 1/3 of the monthlies that PCP would charge (as about 1/3 of your monthlies on a 6% APR PCP are interest). Of course i'm missing out on a tiny bit of interest by banking my money, but it works out a lot cheaper.

I've been given an April p/x value for my Golf R of £16k. It was £32k RRP, I paid £28k for it with broker discount, so it's lost £12k over 4 years (4 years old in May), or £250 a month. It's a £411 a month PCP with £4k down (or £4k discount).

I'm estimating I'll have to set aside £230 a month to cover the Polo GTI's depreciation.
Leif
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by Leif »

I also pay cash, it’s cheapest and IMO best but of course you have to have the readies to hand and I can understand that most people don’t. I was told to take out PCP then cancel it ASAP to get a £500 discount. Some say that is immoral, but VW finance is a big company acting in their best interests, not a small ‘mom and pop’ concern.

I can understand people taking out PCP for convenience but as both my parents hail from Yorkshire, I would suffer serious psychological illness were I to pay 6% pa. A cheetah cannot lose its spots. A work colleague has PCP and drives a new car every three years. He has a Citroen C4 at the moment. Another drives a BMW 5 series coupe on PCP.
mike sel
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by mike sel »

monkeyhanger wrote: Fri Jan 18, 2019 12:03 pm
mike sel wrote: Fri Jan 18, 2019 6:57 am The golf I have been loaned has 150HP. I have been playing on the way to work and home yesterday. The engine can cut to 2 cylinders to save fuel and it did that a few times on my 28 mile round trip to work. TBH I cant work out exactly what conditions result in the 2 cylinder configuration. It did that on duel carriage ways when I was up to speed and settled. it also did it on a roads when I was doing 40 and settled. It did cut back to 4 cylinders every time I braked.

The car is obviously larger and heavier than my polo. Its quiet and safe, very stable. there are more softer plastics and the door bins are lined with a felt type material. It does feel like a well bolted together bit of kit. I cant get used to the lower position for the screen set below the air vents in the Golf. I also find the Driver mode button is on the other side of the gear stick, I have to reach around and look down to find the button, stupid place for it. on my Polo it is right next to the driver, easy to reach.

So far I prefer the Polo Digi dash and higher screen. As for acceleration the 115 Polo is supposed to be 0-62 in about 9 seconds. This golf is about 8 seconds. TBH I don't feel the extra second.

Parking, width wise it does not seem to different, I don't know what the actual dimensions are. in terms of fitting on the front of my home im struggling. my front space is 3950mm to the pavement, the polo is 4050 long and just goes onto the pavement by about 10cm hardly caused a problem for users of the pavement. however the golf must be quite a bit longer as it seems to be a lot further onto the pavement, which to be fair to pedestrians, does cause an obstruction. I can see the car bonnet getting keyed in protest by someone at some point.

My partner likes both cars but is taken with the Golfs roomier interior and larger boot (more shopping bags fit in there im told).

Im on my regular 450+ round trip to Nottingham on Sunday I will be able to better report on fuel econ and comfort after that. Although I have to say I have not found My SEL polo to be other than Very comfortable and on average the Polo got 52-54 MPG on the Nottingham run. The golf will have to perform very well to beat the Polo.
The 2 cylinder deactivation kicks in under very low load situations. You can see low loading on the GTI - one of the media screen modes under "CAR" shows instant values for turbo boost pressure, G, and kW output. It's amazing how much the kW changes between cruising in 6th at 50mph (as low as 5 kW on the flat) and under light or heavy acceleration in the lower gears (maxing out at 150kW). If the Golf you are in now also has this function, you should be able to determine if it's a straightforward kW output threshold to change between 2 or 4 cylinders.

If this tech is truly effective at reducing fuel usage by meaningful amounts, i'd expect VAG to roll it out to all 4 or even 6 cylinder engine variants.

To your Golf/Polo comparison - as an owner of both cars, I can definitely say the interior is a smidge wider. I haven't measured it but I'd estimate the difference to be 3 or 4 inches. The central armrest at the front has a wider body - consistently the width of the lid, not tapered between the seats like the Polo, and the R's seats seem marginally wider between the side bolsters than my Polo. The central rear seat on the seat bench has a little more width on the Golf. Legroom is near-as-damn-it the same in both cars.

When I look at the 2 cars parked up next to each other from an upstairs window, you can see where the additional length comes in on the Golf - the bonnet is about 7 inches longer, and there's plenty of room to accommodate the R's 2.0TSI lump, the much bigger turbo and the battery. The Polo GTI's engine is a much tighter fit.

The roof is marginally longer on the Golf, to accommodate The slightly deeper boot.

So the boot and bonnet are bigger, the interior is the same size save for a little width that the 5th occupant in the middle of the back seats would appreciate.

The only real advantage of plushness that my pre-facelift Golf R has is in the door cards ,- the interior door grab handles are made of nicer plastic, and the top edge of the door cards have that rubbery feel plastic. The door pockets having felt lining, the glove box has a light and the switch for the external lights has a chrome trim. I believe the last 2 points were removed for facelift by penny pinching VW bean counters. The dash of the Polo with digital dash and infotainment looks much better on the Polo. The touch screen on the pre facelift Golf is much less responsive too.

I prefer the interior of my Polo to my Golf R, despite the minor door card differences.
You are so full of info there fella.

This regular 450 mile round trip I do will certainly tell me IF I should have chosen the golf or not. So far about town, ease of parking, and interior (front layout and ease of use) I am happy with my Polo, I wouldn't choose the golf at this stage.
mike sel
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by mike sel »

Just my 2p worth. having just driven the Loan Golf 1.5 match on my monthly 400 mile round trip. Question would I have to Golf or my Polo SEL 115.

Both cars have DSG and ACC,

my Polo has heated seats, blind spot warning climate control and DIgi Dash. the golf has none of there options.

I have done the drive in the Polo about 4 or 5 times. (a couple of weeks ago I did the drive in a loan Polo SE manual no CC let alone ACC).

The Golf was good, MY Polo is good the SE was not so.

I am happy with MY Polo SEL 115 DSG and I now would like it back in full working order please VW.

Nothing wrong with the golf, it did 44MPG over all (I set the car at usual outside lane speeds) it was absolutely fine. on the A43 A car raced me away from roundabouts for 3 or 4 of the roundabouts, In sport mode they had no chance. ITs not super quick just quick enough. So it I had the Golf I would not be disappointed however I have the Polo and the actual one I have I would Keep even if offered the swap.
Andy Beats
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by Andy Beats »

monkeyhanger wrote: Fri Jan 18, 2019 5:16 pm No need to guess. I'd be looking at what they go for that age/condition/mileage on the forecourt and aiming for 10% under it in a private sale.
Of course you're guessing, looking at what the equivalent car is worth now is no indication of what a new one will be worth in three years from now.
The car market is changing at an incredible rate, more and more cities are going to introduce low CO2 city centres etc.
I'm damn glad we PCH'd our diesel Sportage, god knows what it would be worth in a couple of years given that diesel has become the devil.
Not my problem. :D
monkeyhanger
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by monkeyhanger »

Andy Beats wrote: Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:18 am
monkeyhanger wrote: Fri Jan 18, 2019 5:16 pm No need to guess. I'd be looking at what they go for that age/condition/mileage on the forecourt and aiming for 10% under it in a private sale.
Of course you're guessing, looking at what the equivalent car is worth now is no indication of what a new one will be worth in three years from now.
The car market is changing at an incredible rate, more and more cities are going to introduce low CO2 city centres etc.
I'm damn glad we PCH'd our diesel Sportage, god knows what it would be worth in a couple of years given that diesel has become the devil.
Not my problem. :D
Save for some unforeseen disaster in the car world or massive correction in used prices for something suddenly unfavourable, your bought car will be worth at least GFV as stated in PCP finance examples. When I used to PCP, I always came away with some equity against the next one.

Even in the face of dieselgate, I got 55% of RRP back by selling the wife's A1 1.6TDI to the supplying Audi garage. Sell a VW to a VW garage and a Honda to a Honda garage and you'll get at least GFV back. So base your sums on that.

Selling privately to a member of the public when the car is worth more than £10k is a massive PITA though - most people don't have access to that cash and expect a finance option to be conveniently available.

Even my Golf R, with a GFV of £15.5k at 3 years is going to be worth £16k in p/x at 4 years old to the dealership supplying GTI number 2, and I would've had £18500 at 3 years old. The list price of the R has gone up £2k since I bought mine, which always helps used prices.

So without a crystal ball to foresee something that the car finance people don't see with their historical forecasts you can never be 100.000%, but you can be 99.9%

It is as close to a cert as you can be to say that if you get a cheap loan at 2.5% rather than a 6% finance deal, you'll end up saving money, either at the front end of the deal by working out how much less to put per month and adjusting your number of payments, accordingly - or paying as much as you would on PCP you'll end up in greater positive equity.

On a 6% 3 year PCP for a VW with decent residuals, the total paid out amounts to about 115% of the price of the car. If you buy a £20k car (after discount), you'll pay about £3k interest over the PCP term. You'll be about £50 a month better off with the bank loan.

Diesels will soon be cleaner that petrols again - they're already better on CO2, and now people have cottoned on to the fact that petrols chuck out plenty of particulates we have GPFs. Bosch have some new diesel tech that hugely reduces the amount of NOx a diesel puts out, as well as adblue. Small petrols that are worked hard also put out NOx. Diesel prices haven't collapsed.
mike sel
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by mike sel »

monkeyhanger wrote: Mon Jan 21, 2019 6:25 pm
Andy Beats wrote: Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:18 am
monkeyhanger wrote: Fri Jan 18, 2019 5:16 pm No need to guess. I'd be looking at what they go for that age/condition/mileage on the forecourt and aiming for 10% under it in a private sale.
Of course you're guessing, looking at what the equivalent car is worth now is no indication of what a new one will be worth in three years from now.
The car market is changing at an incredible rate, more and more cities are going to introduce low CO2 city centres etc.
I'm damn glad we PCH'd our diesel Sportage, god knows what it would be worth in a couple of years given that diesel has become the devil.
Not my problem. :D
Save for some unforeseen disaster in the car world or massive correction in used prices for something suddenly unfavourable, your bought car will be worth at least GFV as stated in PCP finance examples. When I used to PCP, I always came away with some equity against the next one.

Even in the face of dieselgate, I got 55% of RRP back by selling the wife's A1 1.6TDI to the supplying Audi garage. Sell a VW to a VW garage and a Honda to a Honda garage and you'll get at least GFV back. So base your sums on that.

Selling privately to a member of the public when the car is worth more than £10k is a massive PITA though - most people don't have access to that cash and expect a finance option to be conveniently available.

Even my Golf R, with a GFV of £15.5k at 3 years is going to be worth £16k in p/x at 4 years old to the dealership supplying GTI number 2, and I would've had £18500 at 3 years old. The list price of the R has gone up £2k since I bought mine, which always helps used prices.

So without a crystal ball to foresee something that the car finance people don't see with their historical forecasts you can never be 100.000%, but you can be 99.9%

It is as close to a cert as you can be to say that if you get a cheap loan at 2.5% rather than a 6% finance deal, you'll end up saving money, either at the front end of the deal by working out how much less to put per month and adjusting your number of payments, accordingly - or paying as much as you would on PCP you'll end up in greater positive equity.

On a 6% 3 year PCP for a VW with decent residuals, the total paid out amounts to about 115% of the price of the car. If you buy a £20k car (after discount), you'll pay about £3k interest over the PCP term. You'll be about £50 a month better off with the bank loan.

Diesels will soon be cleaner that petrols again - they're already better on CO2, and now people have cottoned on to the fact that petrols chuck out plenty of particulates we have GPFs. Bosch have some new diesel tech that hugely reduces the amount of NOx a diesel puts out, as well as adblue. Small petrols that are worked hard also put out NOx. Diesel prices haven't collapsed.
That's interesting. last Jan when I decided against Diesel and went for a 1.0l petrol car I did think Diesel would lose out on retained value by quite some margin. Interested to hear that not the case, I think last Jan I could have purchased a like for like diesel car much cheaper and easier than the petrol equivalent. But I have noticed that euro 6 diesels seem to he holding values.
mike sel
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by mike sel »

Quick update on my Polo.

Its still with my VW dealer. Yesterday I am again told it has been escalated, this time to the factory. quick recap. they took the car in on 24 Dec with water ingress in the passenger side and loaned me a SE Polo. the fixed the leak two weeks and then replaced the underlay carpet and other items with new. they then apparently have it up and running, they state everything works with the exception they cant get it to lock. this is now the sticking point. the work escalation is used a lot by them, it went from mechanic to senior mechanic to master mechanic to VW UK. VW UK have had two goes at it. It still wont lock. so now they have contacted VW factory (which one I have no idea).

At the moment I am driving a Golf 1.5 Evo so im putting my miles on their car I will stick with it for a while st see if the factory can fix it. Surly its something simple that they are missing. after all it worked and locked perfectly when I took it in on 24th Dec.
Muldoon
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by Muldoon »

mike sel wrote: Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:54 am Quick update on my Polo.

Its still with my VW dealer. Yesterday I am again told it has been escalated, this time to the factory. quick recap. they took the car in on 24 Dec with water ingress in the passenger side and loaned me a SE Polo. the fixed the leak two weeks and then replaced the underlay carpet and other items with new. they then apparently have it up and running, they state everything works with the exception they cant get it to lock. this is now the sticking point. the work escalation is used a lot by them, it went from mechanic to senior mechanic to master mechanic to VW UK. VW UK have had two goes at it. It still wont lock. so now they have contacted VW factory (which one I have no idea).

At the moment I am driving a Golf 1.5 Evo so im putting my miles on their car I will stick with it for a while st see if the factory can fix it. Surly its something simple that they are missing. after all it worked and locked perfectly when I took it in on 24th Dec.
Sorry to hear it's taking that long. Surely it's an electrical issue or a connector they have not fitted back properly or perhaps it has upset the control unit by disconnecting things. You may end up keeping the Golf and doing a deal if the SEL is not fixable?
Muldoon
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by Muldoon »

Just thinking about the issues with some of the 2018 Polos - maybe we are experiencing normal faults from very early build examples - mine was registered in March 2018 so must have been one of the first to leave the factory. Hopefully the 2019 build models will improve and iron out the niggling faults, I expect in 2 years or so they will do a facelift model and improve things with a styling tweak or two.
Leif
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by Leif »

Muldoon wrote: Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:45 am Just thinking about the issues with some of the 2018 Polos - maybe we are experiencing normal faults from very early build examples - mine was registered in March 2018 so must have been one of the first to leave the factory. Hopefully the 2019 build models will improve and iron out the niggling faults, I expect in 2 years or so they will do a facelift model and improve things with a styling tweak or two.
VW do not have the best reputation for reliability, they are around the middle when compared to other makes. The VW UP had gearbox issues, eventually solved by upgrading the gearbox, I think they took the Polo one. And as you indicate, early adopters usually pay a price, one I'm prepared to pay.
Andy Beats
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by Andy Beats »

If it's a totally new model, some of the problems may well be down to that.
I didn't even know mine was a new model when I got it, I wasn't bothered either way.
mike sel
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Re: 18 plate polo with no problems to date!

Post by mike sel »

Muldoon wrote: Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:43 am
mike sel wrote: Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:54 am Quick update on my Polo.

Its still with my VW dealer. Yesterday I am again told it has been escalated, this time to the factory. quick recap. they took the car in on 24 Dec with water ingress in the passenger side and loaned me a SE Polo. the fixed the leak two weeks and then replaced the underlay carpet and other items with new. they then apparently have it up and running, they state everything works with the exception they cant get it to lock. this is now the sticking point. the work escalation is used a lot by them, it went from mechanic to senior mechanic to master mechanic to VW UK. VW UK have had two goes at it. It still wont lock. so now they have contacted VW factory (which one I have no idea).

At the moment I am driving a Golf 1.5 Evo so im putting my miles on their car I will stick with it for a while st see if the factory can fix it. Surly its something simple that they are missing. after all it worked and locked perfectly when I took it in on 24th Dec.
Sorry to hear it's taking that long. Surely it's an electrical issue or a connector they have not fitted back properly or perhaps it has upset the control unit by disconnecting things. You may end up keeping the Golf and doing a deal if the SEL is not fixable?
Cheers. Its not too bad I am driving a nice car on loan for free so I guess if I rack up the miles on the dealers golf then its their problem. I suspect I will get my car back soon enough. Just trying to stay patient.
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