Post by racingteatray on Sept 9, 2022 18:53:11 GMT
My brother in law recently changed job which meant giving back his company car, a highly-specced Passat GTE estate. His new job comes with a car allowance rather a company car, so he’s been hunting for a new second-hand hybrid family bus for around the £35k mark.
Rang me mid-week to say he’d settled on a XC90 T8 and had seen one he liked north of London (they live near Christchurch) and so as designated family car guru would I go to see it with him today.
So he took the train up to London and then we zoomed up there in the Mini and took a look. It was a 17-plate with 67k miles looking a teensy bit dreary in standard Momentum spec and in dark metallic blue. It had clearly been absolutely filthy before the selling dealer had cleaned it because the deeper crevices were manky and the boot area was very scuffed and scratched. It had had some paint on the front pax corner and the rear drivers corner, and the charging cable was AWOL, as was the second key. On the plus side, it had full service history, and seemed to drive ok, and the asking price of £32k seemed relatively keen. The selling dealer also had two similarly priced T8 R-Designs that were a bit leggier but equally just a touch scruffier than you’d like when spending £30k+ on a car.
I could tell that, without being blown over, left to his own devices, my brother in law would have just bought it, but the selling dealer wasn’t budging an inch on the price and I wasn’t particularly convinced, so I suggested we repair to a nearby pub for lunch to think it over. During which I discovered there was a Volvo main dealer 10 mins away, so I rang their parts dept to enquire on the price of (a) a new key, coded, and (b) a tow hook (which he needs to tow their boat and it didn’t have). By good fortune, the parts dept didn’t pick up, so we decided to go over in person and whilst my brother in law was talking to the parts dept, I spotted that they had amongst a line of used XC90s on the forecourt, a silver 2017 T8 R-Design with 60k miles stickered at £36k and looking pretty immaculate. Moreover the spec sheet in the window said it had a tow hook (which apparently cost £1250 from Volvo if you want to fit one to a car that doesn’t have one - and a new coded key is about £250).
Turned out to be a one owner car that they had sold new, always serviced and just taken back in. Being R-Design it was sharper-looking and had rather nicer grade leather inside, plus it had both charging cables in the boot.
A bit of haggling later and he got it for £35k, which seemed rather better than £32k for the previous blue one. Yes, it cost £3k more, but a new proper charging cable (not the domestic plug sort) is £365 apparently, so if you add that to the cost of a new key and a tow hook and a years warranty, there was actually little in it, plus there was the not inconsiderable appeal of the approved used peace of mind, plus one owner and a higher spec. Frankly it was a no-brainer.
Drove it away then and there. Job, as they say, jobbed.
Rang me mid-week to say he’d settled on a XC90 T8 and had seen one he liked north of London (they live near Christchurch) and so as designated family car guru would I go to see it with him today.
So he took the train up to London and then we zoomed up there in the Mini and took a look. It was a 17-plate with 67k miles looking a teensy bit dreary in standard Momentum spec and in dark metallic blue. It had clearly been absolutely filthy before the selling dealer had cleaned it because the deeper crevices were manky and the boot area was very scuffed and scratched. It had had some paint on the front pax corner and the rear drivers corner, and the charging cable was AWOL, as was the second key. On the plus side, it had full service history, and seemed to drive ok, and the asking price of £32k seemed relatively keen. The selling dealer also had two similarly priced T8 R-Designs that were a bit leggier but equally just a touch scruffier than you’d like when spending £30k+ on a car.
I could tell that, without being blown over, left to his own devices, my brother in law would have just bought it, but the selling dealer wasn’t budging an inch on the price and I wasn’t particularly convinced, so I suggested we repair to a nearby pub for lunch to think it over. During which I discovered there was a Volvo main dealer 10 mins away, so I rang their parts dept to enquire on the price of (a) a new key, coded, and (b) a tow hook (which he needs to tow their boat and it didn’t have). By good fortune, the parts dept didn’t pick up, so we decided to go over in person and whilst my brother in law was talking to the parts dept, I spotted that they had amongst a line of used XC90s on the forecourt, a silver 2017 T8 R-Design with 60k miles stickered at £36k and looking pretty immaculate. Moreover the spec sheet in the window said it had a tow hook (which apparently cost £1250 from Volvo if you want to fit one to a car that doesn’t have one - and a new coded key is about £250).
Turned out to be a one owner car that they had sold new, always serviced and just taken back in. Being R-Design it was sharper-looking and had rather nicer grade leather inside, plus it had both charging cables in the boot.
A bit of haggling later and he got it for £35k, which seemed rather better than £32k for the previous blue one. Yes, it cost £3k more, but a new proper charging cable (not the domestic plug sort) is £365 apparently, so if you add that to the cost of a new key and a tow hook and a years warranty, there was actually little in it, plus there was the not inconsiderable appeal of the approved used peace of mind, plus one owner and a higher spec. Frankly it was a no-brainer.
Drove it away then and there. Job, as they say, jobbed.
