Half-price crackers | Six of the Best
Festive shopping that's actually interesting? Right this way
Mercedes-AMG GT S, 2017, 38k, £61,500
Who doesn’t love a half-price cracker at Christmas? Sure, you can buy them early and pay full price - but wait long enough, and the asking price falls through the floor. It isn’t quite the same with cars (more’s the pity), yet for all but the exalted few, time eventually does the trick. And it’s most certainly quicker for some than others. Take the AMG GT S. At launch, Mercedes’s V8-powered, 510hp coupe cost from £110k. This one had £13,765 of extras ladled on back in 2017. But now, just six years and 38k later, you can drive it away from St John’s Wood for a little over £60k. Expect to feel a million bucks doing it.
Jaguar F-Pace SVR, 2019, 47k, £39,028
Of course, famously there’s not much room for presents or little people in a GT (Mercedes-AMG has just gone to the trouble of fixing that). So how about a Jaguar F-Pace SVR from what seems like 10 minutes ago? Granted, a 2019 model won’t blag you the updated interior, but it most definitely includes the delectable 550hp 5.0-litre supercharged V8 - and that’s really all you need for less than £40k. This was a £75k car before options, lest we forget, and (with due respect paid to the F-Type) was probably Jaguar’s best car to drive when it launched. For the price of a hot hatch - thirst notwithstanding - it’s still a heck of a car now.
Bentley Bentayga V8D, 2017, 25k, £67,500
If running costs are a concern, how about a Bentley? No special prizes for finding a half-price Bentayga, we’ll grant you that - but you do have to work a little harder to find a suitable oil burner because back in the day the starting price was wound back to £137k to tempt those thrifty souls who knew it was basically an Audi SQ7 underneath. Still, it's very much a Bentley on top, and a stonking good one - which will do 600 miles between top-ups. And while £67k might seem a wee bit strong when you can have said Audi for less than £40k, the latter does not have a winged B on the bonnet, nor a cabin crafted by artisans. ‘Nuff said.
McLaren 650S Spider, 2014, 19k, £89,995
Fabulously well-appointed SUVs aren’t for everyone, though. If it must be a supercar to scratch the itch, how about McLaren’s middle child? Vicious depreciation is too often the stick used to beat our friends in Woking, so it’s worth remembering that the 650S is ten years old next year and it certainly isn’t the first slice of mid-engined exotica to have shed more than half its value in a decade. And any way you slice it up, you’re left with an astonishing amount of car for a fiver less than £90k. Not least because it buys you a Spider - and McLaren-built convertibles are the best in the world to drive fast. There. We said it.
Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, 2017, 60k, £31,970
If you’ve got this far and spluttered out a half-eaten mince pie at the apparently willful absence of a truly affordable half-price cracker, then how about this? The Giulia Quadrifoglio was a prince among paupers at launch: supple, lithe, fleet of foot and heartwarming on song. Unarguably there were some issues - although who buys a 510hp Alfa with the expectation of teutonic reliability? We suggest you grab one while you still can and rejoice at the fact that someone has let you drive away from the showroom in one of the last truly great saloons for a measly £32k - especially after someone paid £62k for it six years ago.
BMW M8 Competition, 2020, 13k, £63,940
The M8 will not go down in history as one of the truly great BMW M cars. It simply isn’t good enough to drive. But for misplacing at least £60k in just three years, it has to go down here as the pennies-for-pound hero. The one we drove back in 2020 cost £143k with options, and while we didn’t fall in love with it, we did not question the appeal of its 625hp 4.4-litre V8 nor its status as an imperious A-road rocket. Now, just 36 months (and 13k, in the case of this one) later you can have a Brands Hatch Grey Metallic example for less than £65k. Does it have further to fall? Probably. But what a companion for the descent.
The alfa QF was a car I almost bought brand new but there were initial teething troubles and depreciation worries which have proved to be about right losing half its value in 6yrs or less. Stunning car to drive though if you want a saloon so a lot of car for the money now.
Either of the above will give you some fabulous thrills.
2)ragged up and down Crosshills bypass by muppets
3) broken
Pick two..
2)ragged up and down Crosshills bypass by muppets
3) broken
Pick two..
if you know (and seemingly we all do), you know. Mercedes please. The M8 still seems overpriced (it's not, it's just that they were so damn expensive to begin with).
Relative to the price of comparable VAG products, the Bentley almost has some appeal. I imagine it’s pretty opulent inside despite the grotesque exterior. That said, the F Pace would be my choice of SUV but the Alfa Romeo my choice of family transport.
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