This week's EV bargain that I'm not buying

A friend of mine who lives in Belfast is going to see that car this afternoon. One thing is there's no mention in the ad of whether the car has the 64kWh or 39kWh battery. I'm pretty sure there's a way to check that on the car itself, rather than just asking the salesperson, but can't remember what that might be - is it the first digits of the VIN or something like that? Or will it be printed on a door pillar/under the bonnet etc?

To be clear I wasn't lambasting anyone, just documenting my own anecdotal experience.

If I can't trade in I can't buy a new car, so that dealer lost the sale. If (and I havent watched the video) they would prefer that than taking an EV in then so be it

The gist of the video is that the leasing/finance companies projections for depreciation were too low and as a result they are now looking to claw that back from new customers which is affecting the used car market and trade ins.

Thanks for that, have passed it on.

Had a chat with my friend explaining all that and a bit more. She's a 70 year old woman who has never driven an EV before, but was quite taken with the couple of short spins she had in our eNiro and at the fact that we've been able to do a few long trips without incident - it goes against the FUD stuff she'd been drip-fed before. "But how did you manage to charge when you weren't at home? I thought that was really hard, finding a charger." "I wouldn't like to be too slow pulling out of the junction where I live going onto the main road, is there enough power to nip into a gap or is it like a milk float?" "What do you do once the battery fails?"

She regularly drives the 60 miles/100km between Belfast and Ballycastle, sometimes twice a week (and currently spends over £100 a month on diesel), but even the smaller battery Kona would suit her fine for that. She has talked about wanting to do a few more trips around the country now that she's retired, maybe 5 or 6 times a year, so I did warn her that if she's planning on buying this Kona then it would need to be rapid-charged a bit more often on those trips and that my own preference would still be the bigger battery version for that reason. But she didn't mind that at all once I explained that there are multiple charging hubs on the motorways she'd be using (A1, M1, M6, M7, M8) and that she should be able to charge at or near her destination easily enough, even if it might take 30-45 minutes at a time - she'd rather stop 2 or 3 times on a trip where I might only stop once. She's on her way to see the Kona now, so I'll see how she gets on!

https://www.adverts.ie/car/mg/zs/2020-mg-zs-ev-exclusive-44-5kwh/33003327

Here for anyone interested. Posting on request from OP as they're having some trouble posting the link. They'd take 14k from someone on boards if interested, but will be going for trade in in the near term if no interest.

I would replace "cheap" with realistic. Used cars have been overpriced for a while now. Basically, if it's priced right, it will sell

My friend has bought that Kona! 😃 Apparently it had been a little-used mobility car, which even still makes me wonder how the miles ended up being so low, averaging out at around 3 miles a week - maybe there was a stage when the previous owner didn't get any use out of it at all for a while due to health reasons, or something like that. Anyway, she was able to trade in her 7 or 8 year old Renault, either a Kadjar or a Captur (whichever the smaller one is?), which she said herself wasn't in the best of nick, for £5600, bringing the cost to change down below £10k. Last month a dealer only offered her something like £3400 for the Renault, so even with the Kona being the smaller battery version I still think that's a serious bargain she has bagged! Thanks again @Exiled Rebel for putting it up - another nail in the ICE coffin …

My pleasure.

Those cars were about £35k new.

Managing to offload an old Renault and bagging an EV with 200 mile range with less than 1k miles on the clock for sub £10k is a bargain in my book.

There was a comment above where a poster thought it was trading a Cupra into another marque's garage, but actually it's trading a Born back into a Cupra dealership that doesn't want to know?

I'd be moving dealers pretty damn fast - that's a bit cheeky to be honest - they're happy to del with you 12 months back on a new car but now don't want to know? C'mon.

If it's any help, Brady's Cupra in Castleknock in Dublin seems to be a sales outfit you can trust, and they have a healthy used Born stock that regularly turns over.

Yeah as a regular seller of petrol/diesel cars in the €7000 to €15000 price bracket, the market is pretty much as good as its ever been. Obviously Covid times were crazy but generally speaking it’s still fairly busy out there.

That being said, I did manage to sell a €19k EV privately the other day within about 2 weeks so that says something.

just to add - I also traded in my Cupra Born recently with no issue and a higher price than expected - though was into a Cupra garage for a new Cupra Tavascan.

hyundai-ioniq-premium-100kw-38kwh2022

Looks like good value if the VRT is zero

nissan-leaf-2019-62kw-ev-sve-black

€12500

That's as good a deal as i've seen on the 62kw version. I picked up one this time last year but with half leather seats and a towbar and it's a brilliant car. I like the look of the full leather and lighter interior in that one and would be tempted to buy it and sell mine but the towbar is really handy for the bike rack and gets used almost daily.

I've done a 320km round trip from kilcoole to kilkenny and got home with 10% left in the battery - admittedly limiting the speeds to 100km or less most of the time.