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Well my commander in chief's Panda Lounge is coming up to three years old and she wants another car.
As we've three Pandas at the moment, it been decided that perhaps a slightly bigger car with a tiny bit more space and comfort might be better rather than a straight Panda to Panda swap.
Her must haves:
Bluetooth Hands free phone connection
A higher riding position.
Places to dump stuff she'll never ever use.
Places to hang annoying trinkets from.
Her must haves (that I think)
15 or 16" Steel or at least non diamond cut wheels for ease of repair.
Lots and lots of body cladding.
Parking sensors, maybe with camera.
Easy clean interior.
Easy clean exterior.
My hopefully haves (not important to anyone but me)
Smallish petrol engine, probably turbo charged.
Sat nav.
Cruise.
Low road fund and decentish mpg.
99 years warranty, but more would be better.
Small enough to park on our crowded street, but not flash or tempting to all the toe rags.
We've had a look at a few cars already and dismissed some others (Nissan Puke for one)
Fiat 500X.
Nice, but neither of us are sold on it's looks and seeing as they've priced it and aimed it at the "looks" market, it's a bit more expensive than we both think it should be.
The deals on them are quite poor, we managed a healthy discount, but still the PCP deal was coming out expensive, probably due to a much higher interest rate.
The three year depreciation doesn't look great either, which adds to the higher deal cost.
Skoda Yeti.
Quite the opposite of the 500X in looks, you only need to squint a little and it could be a small van. (not a bad thing in my book)
Again it's £20k ish for the right model, PCP deals are ok but discounts are hard to come by.
The depreciation rate looks better and that does help with the PCP deal.
Skoda/VW seem to have sorted their small petrol engine woes out.
Renault Captur.
All the kit is there or available on lower, cheaper models as cheap options (whether it will still work in a week in another matter)
Prices are very keen £3k lower than the above 500X and on top of that we've been offered £3200 discount at the dealer or 19% off through NHS-Blue light card.
This all makes the PCP nearly half the price of the 500X even factoring in their depreciation and apart from the odd reliability niggle in the back of my mind, they look rather good.
While we were in the Renault dealer, we had a look at the Dacia Sandero Stepway, it wasn't on the look at list, but when in Rome!
While it's easy to dig a bit and see some of the cheaper trim and paint, it isn't really that bad.
I saw them advertised and due to my age, immediately though 1980's Skodas, Yugos and Ladas, cheap and nasty cars with expensive never never repayments, but the Dacia doesn't come across like that at all, just a tidy cheap car that looks fairly good.
It's the same engine and gearbox as the Captur, in top trim it has all the kit (probably the same parts fitted to the Renault) and ignore the badge and the "STEPWAY" graffic on the door (better than penguins and hopefully will come off just as easily) it doesn't look bad.
The new grill and lights really do pick up the car's looks.
Space inside, particularly the boot and elbow room is good and it comes with 5 years warranty.
But what's really bugging me is this:
We could lose the total cost of the Stepway in three years
(but it's more likely it would be around 75%, well ok 80% after she's ramraided Tesco once a week )
and still lose less money than what we'd lose on the 500X over the same period and for 70% less than the monthly PCP payment of a 500X.
I've even managed to find a deal with 9% off list and they tell us they don't do discounts!
SWMBO isn't even aware of the concept of bagde snobbery so I'm going to line up back to back test drives and keep my mouth shut!
Anybody got any other Crossovers that you think we should consider?
As we've three Pandas at the moment, it been decided that perhaps a slightly bigger car with a tiny bit more space and comfort might be better rather than a straight Panda to Panda swap.
Her must haves:
Bluetooth Hands free phone connection
A higher riding position.
Places to dump stuff she'll never ever use.
Places to hang annoying trinkets from.
Her must haves (that I think)
15 or 16" Steel or at least non diamond cut wheels for ease of repair.
Lots and lots of body cladding.
Parking sensors, maybe with camera.
Easy clean interior.
Easy clean exterior.
My hopefully haves (not important to anyone but me)
Smallish petrol engine, probably turbo charged.
Sat nav.
Cruise.
Low road fund and decentish mpg.
99 years warranty, but more would be better.
Small enough to park on our crowded street, but not flash or tempting to all the toe rags.
We've had a look at a few cars already and dismissed some others (Nissan Puke for one)
Fiat 500X.
Nice, but neither of us are sold on it's looks and seeing as they've priced it and aimed it at the "looks" market, it's a bit more expensive than we both think it should be.
The deals on them are quite poor, we managed a healthy discount, but still the PCP deal was coming out expensive, probably due to a much higher interest rate.
The three year depreciation doesn't look great either, which adds to the higher deal cost.
Skoda Yeti.
Quite the opposite of the 500X in looks, you only need to squint a little and it could be a small van. (not a bad thing in my book)
Again it's £20k ish for the right model, PCP deals are ok but discounts are hard to come by.
The depreciation rate looks better and that does help with the PCP deal.
Skoda/VW seem to have sorted their small petrol engine woes out.
Renault Captur.
All the kit is there or available on lower, cheaper models as cheap options (whether it will still work in a week in another matter)
Prices are very keen £3k lower than the above 500X and on top of that we've been offered £3200 discount at the dealer or 19% off through NHS-Blue light card.
This all makes the PCP nearly half the price of the 500X even factoring in their depreciation and apart from the odd reliability niggle in the back of my mind, they look rather good.
While we were in the Renault dealer, we had a look at the Dacia Sandero Stepway, it wasn't on the look at list, but when in Rome!
While it's easy to dig a bit and see some of the cheaper trim and paint, it isn't really that bad.
I saw them advertised and due to my age, immediately though 1980's Skodas, Yugos and Ladas, cheap and nasty cars with expensive never never repayments, but the Dacia doesn't come across like that at all, just a tidy cheap car that looks fairly good.
It's the same engine and gearbox as the Captur, in top trim it has all the kit (probably the same parts fitted to the Renault) and ignore the badge and the "STEPWAY" graffic on the door (better than penguins and hopefully will come off just as easily) it doesn't look bad.
The new grill and lights really do pick up the car's looks.
Space inside, particularly the boot and elbow room is good and it comes with 5 years warranty.
But what's really bugging me is this:
We could lose the total cost of the Stepway in three years
(but it's more likely it would be around 75%, well ok 80% after she's ramraided Tesco once a week )
and still lose less money than what we'd lose on the 500X over the same period and for 70% less than the monthly PCP payment of a 500X.
I've even managed to find a deal with 9% off list and they tell us they don't do discounts!
SWMBO isn't even aware of the concept of bagde snobbery so I'm going to line up back to back test drives and keep my mouth shut!
Anybody got any other Crossovers that you think we should consider?
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