New car for wife...choice of 3
Discussion
Keep your options open. Buy the one that presents itself as the best value for money, with the best spec in the right colour. It would be easy for me to say the BMW is the obvious choice, but if a cracking deal turned up with one of the others - happy days!
The more open minded you cam be, the more chance you stand of getting a good buy.
Good luck!
The more open minded you cam be, the more chance you stand of getting a good buy.
Good luck!
Why don't you let your wife decide, after all she has narrowed it down thus far. I suspect she isn't the type of lady who will listen to the opinions of PH. Don't ask me how I managed to get my wife to sell her Fiat 500 and buy a Defender 110, but I will be making her breakfast in bed for many years to come.
I have a 123d and although I'd thoroughly recommend the 1 Series in general and the 123d in particular, I wouldnt contemplate buying brand new. There's loads of 6-12 month old examples in the BMW Approved Used (AUC) scheme because they as a company make having a company car very attractive to staff, and the cars are swapped out every 6 months or so, basically so BMW can register more cars and generate a big pool of cars for the AUC.
Second hand AUC prices have risen early 2009 when I bought mine but at that point you could get a 123d that was £30k new for under £20k as a 6 month old 6k mile car, so anyone buying new was looking at epic depreciation on their investment over the first year or so.
The other consideration with the 1 Series is how important is it for her to be able to get around should it snow? They are truly terrible in snow to the point where they simply won't move on a slight incline (think getting up a slightly sloped driveway) and will slide off the crown of the road when trying to drive in a straight line, so winter tyres are pretty much a must if borrowing another car or sitting at home for a week waiting for a thaw isn't an option.
Second hand AUC prices have risen early 2009 when I bought mine but at that point you could get a 123d that was £30k new for under £20k as a 6 month old 6k mile car, so anyone buying new was looking at epic depreciation on their investment over the first year or so.
The other consideration with the 1 Series is how important is it for her to be able to get around should it snow? They are truly terrible in snow to the point where they simply won't move on a slight incline (think getting up a slightly sloped driveway) and will slide off the crown of the road when trying to drive in a straight line, so winter tyres are pretty much a must if borrowing another car or sitting at home for a week waiting for a thaw isn't an option.
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