After our trials and tribulations with hire cars, MrsC finally picked hers up on Friday and was pleased to discover she had been bumped up to a Golf 2.0 TDi Sport. She says it is a thoroughly great car (bear in mind our history...) and out of purely academic interest I looked to see how much you pay for a new Golf these day. I was not unduly surprised to find that it's more or less a £20k car, even though my mind is stuck in the days when £10k was a normal new hatchback price.
It seems a pretty decent car, with 0-60 in 8.something and 70mpg. Decent, but hardly exciting.

However, I wondered to myself how much you could pay for a VW Golf and was staggered to find that you can be parted from a fiver under FORTY GRAND for a nearly new model.

This one, or one like it.

Who in their right mind would pay this much money for a tarted up family hatchback? I mean, I'm sure it has been fettled and "sorted" and all the rest, but IT IS A GOLF.

To illustrate my point in just one way:

Just sayin'

Or if you must have practicality:

More space, same pace.

And there must be many, many other ways to spend that much on something seriously nice and... special!

No they wouldn't. BUT bear in mind you could (a month or two ago) lease these over 3 years for £10K or less. The cost is £12K now. So if you work on buying a car from a dealer then part-exchanging 3 years later, the comparison should be with a new car costing £24K, not its list price.

Things have moved on. It wouldn't be my choice as it doesn't sound great, and as you state it's a Golf. I have a MK5 R32 but to me it's special with its 3.2 V6...

However for many:

- it's more economical
- costs are known- warranty etc
- as quick as the Porsche in reality and not that far behind the BMW. Unless it's being used on our roads, then the 4wd of the Golf comes into play. Many only care about 0-60, and it's quicker than both in that respect.
- people like remapping cars. The performance remapped is at another level when combined with the DSG gearbox- 0-60 takes 3.9 seconds.

Of no interest to me, but it is to the target audience.

I'd say to make it a fair comparison in cost terms, it needs to be a £20K used prestige car, as you have to factor in the real overall cost.

Times are changing, take a look on Pistonheads for the level of interest this car is generating...

You wouldn't be an accountant by any chance, would you Jonny?!

I see your point - we have spoken before about the undoubted charms of the R32, but I still think it is a colossal amount of money to pay for a Golf in one lump; I didn't realise the difference in leasing, but then how much would you be able to buy one of these for second hand? And if everyone is getting excited about modifying a Golf, why not mod an M5 and retain the performance differential.

To an extent, the dynamics argument is irrelevant; as you say, in the real world the Golf may well be the faster car from A to B, though it won't be the fastest possible for that money, I doubt, as someone will have built some equally mad special.

It's more that someone, somewhere, has so much money that they will spend £39,995 on a bastardised version of a middle-class school-run icon.

Nuts!

It's all relative. High purchase price, high residual. I paid £12K for my 5 year old Golf. But it'll probably be worth £9K after 3 years. Only the same as £5K a French vehicle say, and then selling for £2K three years later. It's just the outlay at the start.

Leasing is simply based on residuals, but manufacturers work closer to their realistic new sale price vs their realistic used sale price. You can lease a new E Class 'worth' nearly £40K new for £300+VAT a month. Mercedes discount hugely via leasing.

A 2008 M5 costs more like £5000 than £500 to modify with any discernible difference. With the proliferation of the 2.0 turbo these days, gains are cheap. However saying that everyone, new M5 included are moving over to a turbo power unit.

Maybe it's because you see value in something (subjectively) pretty or different (Porsche/M5) whereas others like to follow the herd. Just look at the ridiculous (IMO) Dub scene or whatever the kids call it.

All excellent points. I can't help wondering who - eventually - is going to pay for all the discounting and credit and leasing still going on...

As for the "dub" scene, I wish I had a pound for every time my 15-year old stepson exclaims "SICK! Look at that SLAMMED dub!!!" (Normally, one exclamation mark is quite enough for me, but it doesn't communicate the frenzy with which he launches himself across the car/his siblings to lick the closest window).

I did once see a funny sticker on a "slammed" Golf VR6, driven by a generic youth. It said something along the lines of "Actually it's a 1.4 and I have a massive penis".

Don't often see irony in that particular fraternity.

ETA - Regardless, I still maintain that if you have £40k to spend on a car, you should be legally barred from handing it over for a Golf. Even if it is covered in diamonds and goes faster than Mach 5.

It's hard for me to understand too jim, especially from a vag perspective! They have audi and the s3 / rs3 so why create a golf to compete?? You now also have the seat Leon which is also vag, as good as the golf but miles cheaper.
Once I understood the golf gti and vr6, the big bumper edition 16v was the pinnacle - now they are a generic platform shared by 4 diffrent badges with only 'trim quality' to tell them apart.
On the other hand vag are doing a sterling job of living off past briliance and selling it in to todays market at a massive premium. Ford do the same with their RS badge, nothing to do with duckworth or costine anymore but still trying to live the dream......

I almost used the Audi as an illustration of why the Golf was nuts, but it also felt mad to pay 40 grand for an A3 on steroids.

Just not special enough for THAT MUCH money.

To me. YEMV...

35 grand.....for a ' Golf?

Madness

Anyone else laugh in their head when they read 'vag' ?

Yup, but I've had a funny old day...!

They would have to pay me............

Not a fan of the golf but for practicality, pace and economy its the best of the 3 Jim.
Neither the BMW or Porker can do 40 mpg. (I suspect the golf would struggle too!)

If you buy a £40k Golf then drive it to achieve 40mpg, you are even madder than if you cane it!

If you are worried by the economy (above, say 25mpg) of a performance car at that price, you're in the wrong market!

I always have to point this out to clients. They'll think nothing of spending £5K pa just on depreciation/leasing, but then they worry about 40mpg vs 50mpg over 10K miles. £300 difference...

But the mpg could be a factor in choosing a car and this would see considerably more than the other 2 options mentioned.

Indeed, but if the answer is a Golf for this money, I maintain that you are asking the wrong questions!

If you absolutely must have a car that is sub-5 seconds to 60mph and seats 5, then I'm pretty certain you won't be looking at the MPG section. Ever. It might be a rather peculiar bonus, but it really won't sway your decision.

I think this is actually the nub of my argument; generalising colossally, you buy a Golf because a) it is economical, practical, retains its value and, OK, it's dynamically pretty decent. OR, you buy a Golf because b) you're 19, can't work out which way round a baseball cap goes, think a chip and a dump-valve equates to tuning, buy suspension parts that are too small and wheels that are too big and think Dappy is "well leng, fam".

I'm just not sure that if you are in group a or b that you will actually buy a forty grand Golf. You might aspire to it or lust after it, but that's it!

A generation summed up in one sentence.

And I agree 100% with J_C and OS. Been a while boys

though the golf was supposed to be the next level up from a saxo or corsa for them boy racer meet things they have...

usually followed by the worst driver competition by seeing who can wreck there car first into a building, passing car or other lol

I did wonder whether I should have put 22, not 19. For the more mature German number plate user...

Confession time, I have a 2001 v6 Golf 4Motion as my other daily drive.
Some parts of it are brilliant, others are seriously bad, (The electric's for example are far worse than any Italian cars, it has blown various fuses and the cooling fans and their control module area unbelievable).

It wallows a bit/lot into corners BUT, is it fun? Hell yeah and is a serious Q-Car.
If only the electrics were Coupe quality and if only the Coupe had the same paint quality.

Does VW deserve it's build quality reputation? No way....

Oh and servicing the Haldex unit is fun.

But on a dual carriageway/motorway it's a great tool for covering miles quickly and without fuss, I am tempted to get an R32 now

I'd love a VR6 or an R32; I'm not genuinely having a pop at VW or its owners or products in general. Just... A Golf costing £40k!

Isn't the Golf R the 4.x 0-60, 40mpg super cheap leaser which everyone is raving about?

You can get it for about £200/m or something.

You can get the 0-60 down to 4.1s after a remap, which is quite ridiculous.

So, to sum up.so far:

No one would pay actual cash for one but would lease one for half what a reasonable size loan towards one would cost, then map it and return it in an incorrect state and get a massive bill to put it back to standard?

It seems that Piers and Jonny both understand the mystical world of leasing. However, as BigMuzzie points out there is probably some pretty vicious clause about modifying a lease car.

And what about insurance? Although I imagine it's less on this preposterous Golf than an M5 or a 911.

There will be, but do they ever check? You never hear about it. Clocking is a huge issue in the leasing industry which they're probably more concerned with.

Insurance will be relatively cheap I'd imagine. I've just renewed my R32 (very high ins rating) for £340. My Mazda 6 MPS (1/3 value of the Golf) was £600 and a bog standard 1.8 petrol Civic after it was £450. Something to do with the overall low claim rate with the Golf in general maybe?

I assume you have your no claims bonus on the R32?

The lease deals on these were stunning (and the same applies to a lot of Merc's current range too as the monthly costs are manufacturer supported) but used prices for ex-demos are a joke. However I remember the same happened with the Mk5 R32 - dealers were offering ex-demos at above list price for a while before sanity caught hold.

Yes 9+ years for all the above, so a direct comparison really.

Just had a browse on PH for a used R32; £6.8K for a car with 147,000m on the clock......cripes I think not.

I have the Scirocco R which I bought from new and was just slightly cheaper than the Golf R. I chose the Scirocco because I don't like 4 door cars and I preferred the nose on the Scirocco.

Don't just look at the price and attach it to the car alone, the cars come with a 4 or 5 year warranty (depending on dealers), 4 years free servicing, a years free insurance, I'm sure that whole warranty, service and insurance package is worth a few quid.
Yes you can buy a Hyundi with a 5 year warranty for half the price but then you'd be driving a low spec nasty shit box.
The VWs are very well put together, the interiors are great and behind the wheel is a really nice place to be. They will cruise and archive 40mpg if you like or if you want to have fun they will keep up with and in a lot of cases destroy some much more expensive exotica. This is from a standard car, no need to tune it, just put petrol in it and go.

The spec is good, leather, adaptive cruise control, side protect, voice controlled nav/phone/radio etc etc, it's a long way from the Golf GTI's of old.

The Golf R is probably appealing to the guys that possibly owned the R32, it's a huge improvement on the R32! It's not for everyone but the guys I know who own them absolutely love them.