Well you’ve also been hit by the October price increase. That was nearly €1k on its own.
Price of the GTE, a car that was not affected by VRT changes, December 2020 -> December 2021.
The removal of the grant for PHEVs accounts for €5000 of the increase but it looks like VW also snuck into a €2k price hike themselves.
Last breakdown they sent me when they upped the price but before vrt was 1.5k more. The options ticked went up along with the base increase.
Personally think it would be foolish to go for a gte now over full electric but each to their own.
Government policy it appears is now to push up vrt to make combustion cars so expensive to buy and then run that the consumer will have no choice but to go for electric alternatives.
it’s less carrot and more stick.
a performance golf should be an attainable car not a 60 or70 grand car.
V interesting- that's actually a €2600 increase. So increasing VRT on petrols/ diesels basically just leads to distributor lobbing massive increases on PHEV's and indeed EV's
just dipping in here after a long break - can anybody explain how we have got the point where a new GTI costs over €50K and an R is €70K. Fingers x my old Mark V will keep going because i certainly wont be getting a new GTI. Thanks
They were never cheap cars when new though. I bought a new one in 2007. If I recall correctly it wasn't far off 38k and that was for a 3 door manual with a relatively miserable spec compared to today's standards. That's nearly 15 years ago. Not sure what 38k in 2007 translates to in today's money...
Recent VRT hikes have really pushed it over the edge though and I'd say the sweet spot in terms of value was around 2015 when a new R could be bought for under 45k.
Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport Vs BMW 128ti | Hot Hatch Hoedown | CarsIreland.ie - YouTube
Not a bad watch, as Irish reviews go.
According to the Consumer Price Index calculator on the CSO website, €35k in 2007 would be about €37-39k in today's money
I’d have expected that to be much wider.
I'd agree with you. I'd say that's wrong.
Inflation has been very low / negative since the recession kicked in so it sounds right to me
Fair enough, maybe so, but I don't feel like I've much more purchasing power than I did 15 years ago despite earning quite a bit more now versus then. Actually - an RTE news headline popped up on my phone - inflation this year has risen to a 20-year high of 5.3%!
You can probably thank cars, property and kids for that :P
You could get a 3 door, manual, non-PP Mk7.5 GTI with no options for around 38-39k so they didn't change that much the best part of around 11-12 years then.
Yeah possibly. But add DSG (about 2k) and 2 more doors (~1500) and PP and you’re well north of €45k. I certainly remember you could easily spec a MK5 GTI well into the 40’s. Stuff that’s standard now used to cost obscene money to option up - spec Nav, xenons and climate control on a MK5 (or even an early MK7) and you’d be spending another €5k!
My point is, that while they’re mad money now, they were never cheap. The difference now is, there is no option to go bare bones with a skimpy spec’d 3 door.
Probably for the best that spec is good. I imagine there'd be a lot of poverty spec GTIs out there if people had to pay extra for options like ACC, digital dash, ambient lighting etc.
That's all fair but I wouldn't call a brand new GTI (no matter the spec or options) at 38k expensive. You didn't really need to add options to the Mk7.5, it came fairly well specced.
Thinking I might go with the below over my current order. The drive should be very good although I’ve not tested it yet. I like the style but imo not in the same league as the new golf inside and out. It doesn’t have heated seats or upgraded audio but the guy I spoke to says it does have active cruise which is something I wanted on any new car.
on the plus side it has more buttons for the essentials but in my short tests it didn’t bother me bar the climate in the mk8.
https://www.donedeal.ie/view/29455047
SEAT Leon 2.0tsi 290HP DSG Cupra 5D
That's a very nice Cupra. Not bad value too, relatively.
That doesn't have active cruise, there's no radar on the front grille.
I'm not fully up on Cupras but on the 7.5 Golf they moved the radar from the lower front grill to behind the VW badge, possible SEAT did the same?
It does have a cut out in the grille, it's just very hard to see in that photo
I think you're right... you can see it there alright in the lower grill if you look carefully !
They are a great car. I had one for a weekend, and it was lovely to drive - felt very light and performance was savage. Not a bad price either, given the times we’re in!
I had a 2017 SEAT LEON FR 184bhp diesel for a while, and it was well kitted out and lovely to drive.
I remember seeing that Leon Cupra being advertised by a dealer down in Cork in late summer/early autumn, they were asking 36k for then. It would be interesting to know why it's being passed between various dealers given it shouldn't be a hard car to sell these days.
Was it with a Seat main dealer in Cork? There was also a well spec'd MK8 GTI Clubsport sitting with Keary's supermarket/motorstore in Cork for months. Eventually a main VW dealer took it and it was gone within a week.
I don't think so, it was one of the O'Leary's dealerships, Opel if I remember correctly. They had it ages and then it just disappeared.
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