A similar car to that in HJ's auction report was slated by clarkson in The T**** recently! He reckoned the back end didn't know which way the front was going and the scuttle shake was phenomenal! (There being too much not that there was so little of it!)
Hmmmmmm! Can't wait for the new Saab 9-3 convertible myself. Yummy!
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[I would prefer we did not see meaningless notes littering the threads. Given that you have decided to return here, having once stated you would never darken our door again, please try and be sensible. Mark]
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Fair point, Mark. Transllate to 'dashboard rattles' caused by the vehicle body twisting as a result of having lost the stiffening of its roof. But Watcher, if you're watching, what did you think of the 'provisional' top bid? What could you get an identical car from Germany for (after taking a modest profit, of course)?
HJ
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The 48k was far too rich for my blood HJ!
I don't know the exact spec of the car in question but a very rough idea for sourcing an M3 convertible with the following spec :
hard top in body colour
19" M3 style 67M alloys
6 cd autochanger
harman kardan 10 speaker system
driver\passenger seat lumbar support
front heated seats
climate comfort windscreen
all other M3 UK standard spec
Price £41,250, UK equivalent £45,841, both prices UK taxes paid. Delivery to London from Germany £400 extra.
Delivery is a lengthy 12 months Im afraid and with that time frame, the import price may go down considerable if the pound strengthens. For the last 3 or 4 months, it has beenweak so if it is going to move, it should be upwards!
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£48K. The M3 is a Mazda???
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The price has to be for the car as per Watcher's spec, plus satnav and SMS gearbox here, now and in the metal, not at some vague time in the future. People will pay a premium for the car they want if they can have it straight away. That's what premiums are all about. But yesterday the man or woman prepared to pay the premium wasn't there and I was wondering if the sort of excess wealth that generates a willingness to pay premiums is starting to evaporate.
Too right, a 320D SE is a much more sensible car. It's less than half the price of a flash M3.
HJ
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Evaporating excess wealth?
Working in financial services, that theory would certainly hold water HJ. The catch phrases at the moment are 'sit tight' and 'wait and see'. It's not that wealth is evaporating so much, but those in the stockmarket don't want to realise losses, those in property have a copper bottomed investment at the moment.
Of course had this offer been available in April someone could have lost their hand at £50k, but next April, who knows?
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Actually HJ even the M3 at auction would have been ordered at least 9 months ago for it to be new and available now on import.
9 months ago the pound was trading around 1.65 (beginning of Jan 02) so the price paid then, gauranteed by forward contract, would enable a greater saving than I can produce now.
Just thought I'd point that out.
Myself, I think paying nearly 50k for a car is way too much.
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