Motoring Discussion > BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Falkirk Bairn Replies: 26

 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - Falkirk Bairn
Lots of BMWs & other makes having a clear out of 2019 models ahead of the 2020s.

Whether it is pre-reg with a BMW dealer or bought 2nd hand, with ex-rental with a few thousand miles on the clock, there seems a lot of stupidity in the models available.

Just looked at 3 Series GT @ Motorpoint £23,000 6 mths old & around 5K miles. The car has a list of over £40K - some £300 over, some much more - either way it is £465 Road Tax for 5 years!

The list price of the car appears to be around the £36K figure but add Msport plus, bigger wheels, tints, reverse camera etc etc comes to over £4K & therefore £465 / year for the 2nd owners.

Surely, whoever specced the bulk orders from BMW, they should have a warning sign on the extras to watch the £40K limit.
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - Crankcase
If you think that's mad...the new Nissan Leaf in top spec comes in at well over 40k.

For a Nissan Leaf.

 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - Clk Sec
For a Leaf, good grief!
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - No FM2R
I don't really know how much road tax is, but you mention the higher rate is £465 so assuming the lower rate is half - £230.

A difference of £235 per year. £20 per month.

And the depreciation rate of a 3 Series GT is?
The running costs are?

How on earth can one consider a £40k car and give a FF for £20 per month tax? If indeed it is that much.
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - Crankcase
Tax rates are here - you pay a premium in the first year if the car is over 40k, plus another premium each year for the first five years, on top of the actual tax.

I think. We all know I'm hard of understanding.

Anyway, I'm not in that league and never will be.

www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - Zero
I have a BMW that was specced at near enough 50k, I paid just over 40k, I was fully aware of the road tax situation. Madness? dont think so, extravagant? yes but WTF, why not if you can.
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - Bromptonaut
I cannot see VED as a significant cost (ie one that might influence my purchase) at any level in car market never mind when depreciation and other costs of a £50k car are concerned.

It will not be part of my cost matrix for replacing the Roomie.

 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - tyrednemotional
>>
>> It will not be part of my cost matrix for replacing the Roomie.
>>

....so; over £40,000 it is then, Bromp.....

;-)
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - No FM2R
>> I cannot see VED as a significant cost (ie one that might influence my purchase)
>> at any level in car market never mind when depreciation and other costs of a
>> £50k car are concerned.
>>
>> It will not be part of my cost matrix for replacing the Roomie.
>>


This.
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - henry k
>> Madness? dont think so, extravagant? yes but WTF, why not if you can.
>>
I agree and carry on enjoying it :-)

I have never bought a new car and I cannot see that changing.
I pay over £500 on my 12 year old X type that is frequently only doing less than 10 miles a week on a supermarket trip.
Logic says I should change it but it is too low on my priority list.
Maybe an electric version of
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdgsj6tHYZg
which would give easier access for me and in a bold colour.
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - R.P.
Just dropped the 335 in for a bit of work and it won't be ready until tomorrow. They gave me a brand new 430i - it's a real hotch potch of spec. High spec radio and speaker combo. Electric seats - no reversing camera, no powered boot lid. The car has the uprated MSport brakes. Lovely car in essence, but the engine seems to lack the usual verve. Not sure how much they retail for but not for me.
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - Bill Payer
>> I have a BMW that was specced at near enough 50k, I paid just over
>> 40k, I was fully aware of the road tax situation. Madness? dont think so, extravagant?
>> yes but WTF, why not if you can.
>>
Sure, but I think the OPs point, which has occured to me in looking at Mercs around this level, is why just skim the £40K point?

I was hoping we'd get better equipped cars with more stuff as standard to keep the value under.
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - CGNorwich
Is there any significance in £40K apart from it being a round number?
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - Zero
It was just a suitable number HM gov thought of. Low enough to catch the overspecced cheaper cars, and lHigh enough to grab the poverty spec expensive cars.

Funnily enough my 465 quid road tax bill reminder arrived to day. The Beemer will be two years old in November. When you are talking buying 40k plus cars, if you cant afford to run it, you cant afford to buy it.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 9 Oct 19 at 16:51
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - henry k
>>When you are talking buying 40k plus cars, if you cant afford to run it, you cant afford to buy it.
A variation on " If you have to ask the price you cannot afford it !"
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - Boxsterboy
A little extra VED is nothing compared to the paper depreciation of that Motorpoint BMW - nearly 50% in 6 months!! So rather than have a high list price and discount (via subsidised monthly rates, etc.), why not just have a lower list price in the first place (and not have the VED penalty)? I guess old habits die hard!
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - No FM2R
>>So rather than have a high list price and discount

Because customers think that a £50,000 list price with a 10% discount is loads cheaper than £45,000 list price with 0% discount.

Especially fleet buyers.

 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - Manatee
And because they hope that somebody will pay the £50,000, which probably happens occasionally when they trade something in.
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - Boxsterboy
True. I know someone who paid full list for a Ford KA a few years ago!
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - No FM2R
>> And because they hope that somebody will pay the £50,000, which probably happens occasionally when
>> they trade something in.
>>

Right, and even if they don't pay the £50k, they don't necessarily get the full discount.
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - zippy
It's certainly annoying to know that there are discounts to be had and this negotiation practice gets right up my nose. It stinks of dishonesty. Some people are adverse to negotiation and will pay the sticker price.

Many, many years ago, a client said they were going elsewhere as the competition were cheaper. We said we would match their pricing. The client was livid, suggesting that if we reduced the prices years ago we would have saved them a fortune.

It's also an inflationary practice. A 5% increase on £50k is a lot more money than 5% of £25k.

My mobile contract is the same. It's £96 a month, discounted to £35. Of course the RPI increase is on the £96 and not the discount. Sharp practice.

I recall my folks going to a Honda dealer looking to negotiate on a Jazz when the old man retired. No luck. In fact the sales person was quite rude suggesting he came back when he could afford one! Dad has never darkened their door since.
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - Bobby
I have just priced up the cost of my X1 when it was new (list prices obviously)
£39930 (Sep 2016)

Not sure when the £40k list price threshold came in?

My road tax is £140.
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - R.P.
My 335d is September 2016 and I remember realising at the time that it just squeezed under the tax change. I think it was March 2017 - mine costs £200 pa
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - No FM2R
>Many, many years ago, a client said they were going elsewhere as the competition were cheaper. We said we would match their pricing. The client was livid, suggesting that if we reduced the prices years ago we would have saved them a fortune.

A point of view I share. My business would be gone.

>>It's also an inflationary practice. A 5% increase on £50k is a lot more money than 5% of £25k.

Only to people who don't pay attention. I've said this about motor insurance and no claims discount for years and years as well as cost of living indexes. I don't care what the gross figure is, I don't care what discount I get. I only care about the figure I must pay. Their calculations are of no interest to me.

Ditto cars, telephone services, utility bills or any other damn thing. Discounts are not my problem, I do not negotiate, I simply want to know the amount payable. And then I walk or I don't walk. That's it.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Wed 9 Oct 19 at 22:25
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - zippy
>>I simply want to know the amount payable....

I broadly agree. But there is nothing more galling to get a price for something only to find that someone else got it cheaper or they reduce the price next week anyway.

>>>Many, many years ago, a client said they were going elsewhere as the competition were
>>cheaper. We said we would match their pricing. The client was livid, suggesting that if we
>>reduced the prices years ago we would have saved them a fortune.

It is a simple example, but we had nurtured the client from small business (2-3 people) to a reasonably sized SME with about 50 staff and through a lot of financial turmoil. Our fees at the time reflected the work we put in to "knock them in to shape" for the borrowing they needed.

Of course, once they were "in good shape" the management had the time to look at alternatives and being a better proposition, they were offered better rates.

I guess the mistake was not reacting to the change in their business soon enough.
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - No FM2R
>> But there is nothing more galling to get a price for something only to find that someone else got it cheaper

The fact that someone paid less than me, or indeed that someone paid more, has no impact on my satisfaction.

I paid what it was worth to me at that moment.

Same as my salary, I am not more or less happy with it because someone else earns more or less than me.

>>I guess the mistake was not reacting to the change in their business soon enough.

Exactly. Periodic views to assess exactly that should be in place. Out of idle curiosity if the risk or workload had become heavier, would you have picked up on that and increased the price?
 BMW - Madness specifying cars at just over £40K - Mr Moo
Slight thread drift - related to the VED starting point, but a country mile away from the £40k threshold...

VED due letter for SWMBO’s eight year old Golf 2.0 TDi arrived earlier in the week. It’s Euro 5, so ‘dirty’ in the eyes of our enlightened leaders. However, the CO2 emissions are 114g/km, so it still falls into the £30/year category that it’s always been in.

Happy with that and didn’t feel the need to pay an additional £1.50 to spread the cost over 12 months! ;-)

...just seems odd that in these days of demonising diesel, they’ve not gone to town on some punitive increases here. We live in a village with off street parking and our local town hasn’t banned DERV yet, so at the moment, we’re still ok.

It’s likely to be replaced in the next 12 months by a petrol vehicle, but a house move is likely first and I’d rather plough money into that than a new motor. Famous last words, but so far it has been a paragon of reliability over nearly 90k miles.
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