Kia Cee'd 1.6 CRDi £21k RRP WTF

[Colonial]

Lunablack said:

I take it that you think a brand new 1.6 diesel focus at over £20k brand new, offers value for money then??


I have a slightly different view, and for the life of me, I can't understand why a basic car like that costs as much as it does.

It's because of increases in wages, and people having more purchasing power.

Also the cost of materials has increased.

HTH.

[flatline84]

And the arrival of car finance

[sjg]

Lunablack said:

I take it that you think a brand new 1.6 diesel focus at over £20k brand new, offers value for money then??


I have a slightly different view, and for the life of me, I can't understand why a basic car like that costs as much as it does.

It offers value in the sense that the price is in line with alternatives.

As well as inflation, rising cost of materials, development and production employee wages, etc - every new generation of cars is inevitably safer, more economical and better equipped than those that preceded it. Not to mention growing in size to the point where you need to go down a size every few generations to stay the same. My Fabia is bigger in every dimension than a mk2 Golf, and very close to a mk3.

Just accounting for inflation, that £20k it costs to buy a Focus today (at list, at any rate) would have been £15300 a decade ago. The Focus had a facelift in 2002, and list prices for LX (aircon, alloys, CD player) apparently started at £14,595.

Of course, some cars get discounted more than others, and it's always the case that buying used is better value than buying new. It's not a big surprise though that everything (not just cars) gets more expensive over time.

[chris watton]

Colonial said:

Lunablack said:

I take it that you think a brand new 1.6 diesel focus at over £20k brand new, offers value for money then??


I have a slightly different view, and for the life of me, I can't understand why a basic car like that costs as much as it does.

It's because of increases in wages, and people having more purchasing power.

Also the cost of materials has increased.

HTH.

Wages haven't increased by any great margin over the past decade, as far as I can tell - generally speaking. Cost of living has, though.

[Lunablack]

Colonial said:

It's because of increases in wages, and people having more purchasing power.

Also the cost of materials has increased.

HTH.

Really.... That's odd, because virtually everyone I know, has substantially LESS purchasing power, and are having to watch the pennies, despite working their bks off...

The cost of petrol, heating the house, food, rent, clothing etc you know just the basics, have gone up far more than any pay rise the ordinary man in the street has had..... Hence why I don't know one single person who has, bought a new car for donkys years..

[Wills2]

Colonial said:

It's because of increases in wages, and people having more purchasing power.

Perhaps things are different in Oz, but back in the motherland wages have been stagnant for sometime.