Audi, Focus, advice please

yop

Gentlemen

A bit of advice please.

I have a 3dr Focus, 2001, 84k miles, 1.6 zetec, worth anything between 9-10k euro.
I am dumping about 55 euro of petrol per week, that is if i do very little travelling at the weekend. Doing 440 miles to this fill.

I am been told of a garge in the UK selling a 2001 Audi 1.9tdi (130 bhp) for 7500 straight cash deal.
there is 96k miles on the clock.
Now it is the same year, better mpg (58 I have been told), it has alloys, cd, air con, alarm, rcl. Lovely car, black.
Would land it here for 16.5k euro including the VRT.

Now I am in 2 minds, would I be daft to pay the guts of 7k extra for a car the same year, higher mileage, but miles better economy, stumping more power and looks and a price difference of about 4k compared to what I would pay here.

What do u think?
It is been bought from a garage in NI, so no flights etc.


Cheers

KO

If you keep the car for 7/8 years, do you think you'll recoup the 7k from your cheaper fuel costs?

I'm sure you could calculate it. I'd guess you'd come up short, what with the extra tax you'd be paying as well but then again, you'd be driving an Audi instead of a Ford so it's bound to cost you a bit more.

kluivert

Yop

9-10k for a 1.6 Focus with 80+k miles. I dont think so. If you get that for it then my astra's worth that 99 1.4L 71K and i bought it for 6900e.

On the other front get onto autotrader.ie and ull find a better Audi than that. Why are you going for an Audi. If you wanna save can i recommend the VW Bora 1.9TDI. There's one there 2003 Bora Black 130bhp 1.9 TDI 39k on the clock FSH for £8995.

2001 Bora 1.9TDI 48K £7550.

Check the rest, if you buy in the North get the mileage checked, feckers for clocking cars.

yop

thanks lads.
I have checked CBG for the focus 2001 and they are plenty over the between the 9k-10k with roughly the same milege.

Not been smart but look at CBG for your motor, you are talking about 6k, fair difference between a 2001 & a 1999 and definately between a 1.6 and 1.4.

The bora is not for me, took boring to be honest, very common motor also.

Good point about the mileage though

kluivert

CBG is full off overpriced dealers who inflat the price of cars because its "DUBLIN" your buying the car in.

No offensive what so ever but i would not buy a the Focus for 9k with that mileage for a car that is 4 years old. And i am a big fan of the Focus i love the new ones. The new 1.6 deisel Focus is meant to be a gem.

Dealers do that as well. This is an exaggeration ok, but here's what they do ok.

2004 car with 60k on the clock = 20k
2001 same car with 20k on the clock = 10k

The base it on age rather than mileage.

You ever notice that the warranty says something like 3 years or 60000 miles which ever comes sooner. Thats because wear and tear is associated with mileage and age and/or a combination of both. In the above case its mileage.

I cant believe a person would buy that for that price, hey if you get it great like but in my opinion another example of Rip of Ireland, God Bless the mug that buys that off you.

Hey check out Parkers book on Car values, the little red one.

As for the Bora, mmm...i like Audi alot but if i was looking at trying to save a penny or two i wouldnt waste it on a BADGE.

bazz26

Did you look at the Skoda Superb 130bhp TDi. It uses the same engine as the A4 but alot cheaper. A 2002 can be got in the UK or NI for half silly money even with less mileage. The rear leg room and standard specification on them is very good. The down side is that they are very scarce to find even in the UK and they suffer from badge snobbery. Ideal if you are holding the car for a long time, either way if you buy the Audi by the time you go to sell it will be worth very little anyway with adding your mileage to a car with 96k already on it.

As for the value of your Focus, well not sure how much it is worth but compared to an equivilent Astra, the Focus will be worth more as they hold their value better than the Astra.

I know someone who sold his 99 Astra for €6k privately a couple of months ago. His girlfriend sold her 99 Focus for €6,900 with higher mileage and that was the less desirable saloon model.

yop

Bazz - thanks lad, so you would not go for the Audi if in the same position?

optiplexgx270

Is it an Audi A4?

if so there is a fair diff in the class of car even if its an A3 there a quite a diff.

Focus is a great car drove the exact same one you have 3dr when i was 17 and the handeling is great for a car in its class (having driven Astra / megan / corolla) if i was in anything else there is more than once id have come into trouble.

Have had a short spin in an A4 a few years back nice car too but didnt really get to "drive" it.

One thing to note will be the higher tax

1.6 = €293
1.9 = €384

optiplexgx270

good review

http://www.ukcar.com/road_tests/Audi/audi-a4-tdi/

bazz26

yop wrote:

Bazz - thanks lad, so you would not go for the Audi if in the same position?

Yop

What is your average yearly mileage?

If it is low then maybe but if you are doing say 20k miles a year and buying a car for €16,500 with 100k on it already, that means if you keep it for 3 years then that means that there will be around 160k on the clock. Generally the VW Tdi engine has no problem with this mileage but other parts may not take that mileage easily. From a resale point of view you will be hard pushed to get any sort of decent money back on the car with 175k on the clock so might as well drive it into the ground at that stage.

Really depends how long you are going to keep the car and what mileage you doing. The A4 is a very nice car but they are overly expensive new or used.

If it were me I would not as I do about 24k miles a year so there would be 150k on the clock of that Audi after 2 years so the best part of the €16,500 would be gone.

But hey that is just my opinion.

Did you try looking for another Focus or even a Mondeo in diesel maybe? €16,500 would get you a fairly newish low mileage one in NI/UK with higher spec than the ones here. The one to go would be the Tdci in Ghia spec with 115bhp.

yop

Thanks optiplex for the advice. Focus are a nice car, had a megane before it and it did not touch it, same with the Astra, had one on rent, only 1.4 and it was dead.

Bazz,
I am averaging about 27k miles per year, my plan was to get this Audi, then keep it for the year, sell it down here and go up and get another Audi at the end of next year,
I was looking at it that if I got this motor for 16k euro, keep it a year, they are now retailing here for between 20-22k euro, IF I got between 18-19k next for it, then I am up anything from 1.5k to 3k.
Is my logic up me ar*e???

On the Focus or Mondeo front, I did a bit of looking, I was looking for a "nice" focus or mondeo (both diesel) I would not get a TDI of either, prefer the TDCI, I checked the UK for both and the VRT on a 2004 Mondeo was 8k euro which would take it to 24k euro which I could not justify.

You know yourself, the Audi I spotted is a very stylish model with all the trimmings and it maybe a case of "I need one" when if I take a step back I might not need it!!

Decisions, decisions!!!