720S - what to look for?

[LooneyTunes]

I was persuaded into the local McLaren dealership (first time) a couple of weeks ago and I will confess to being rather taken by the 720S.

There seem to be some decent discounts available from new but also used stock with very low mileage which seem appealing. Not driven one yet (local dealer doesn't have a demonstrator but will allow a test drive of a used one if we're close to a deal) but think it would complement with the other cars I have.

If I can find a spec that I like then buying used isn't an issue for me as I tend to put miles on whatever I own but I am keen to understand if there are any issues with earlier cars that would make a later vehicle preferable or that should have been fixed as part of warranty work.

Any thoughts/comments or things to look out for would be really appreciated!

[LooneyTunes]

Thanks to everyone for the comments. A couple of things there that I wasn't aware of and would have missed, but don't seem to be any showstoppers (I can't imagine that the satnav is worse than the embarrassment they fit to the FFRR!). I'll keep eyes open and see what comes along.

As for depreciation, a good friend once pointed out to me that the ultimate depreciation you experience is with your life. Try putting a monetary value against that depreciation curve and you'll find that you can justify any car you can find the cash to run...

[LooneyTunes]

355spiderguy said:

But here is the thing...a new specialised dealer has opened up in Aberdeen and have an amazing looking napier green 2019 720s for a smidge over £180k...has that really lost that much from list or can a large discount be negotiated on new / unregistered?

Anyone offer a genuine answer from personal experience rather than the usual internet hearsay?

I have been given some indicative discount figures from a dealer on new cars. I was surprised about where they were opening the conversation. I'll be back for a further discussion with them.

That said, if this article is accurate there has been a bit of a drop in sales: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/sports-car-sal... (Motoring Research are UK based, so I assume they're UK figures?)

[LooneyTunes]

MAC 720S said:

isaldiri said:

What limiting of supply? mclaren's stated aim is to reach a production target of cars that is ever higher than before.

I understand it is the UK only, not international.

FWIW, I got no sense that there were any issues with ordering a new one. Personally I’m not sure I understand why McLaren would want to to constrain supply when the economic outlook doesn’t exactly look great.

[LooneyTunes]

Cheib said:

MAC 720S said:

LooneyTunes said:

I have been given some indicative discount figures from a dealer on new cars. I was surprised about where they were opening the conversation. I'll be back for a further discussion with them.

That said, if this article is accurate there has been a bit of a drop in sales: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/sports-car-sal... (Motoring Research are UK based, so I assume they're UK figures?)

That fits in with what I understand to be McLaren's intentional throttling back of sales in the UK to counteract oversupply. Maybe it’s why the lower end used prices appear to be holding up and there are less for sale than a few months ago? I hope so.

Not sure that figure is accurate in that article...according to howmanyleft new registration figures for 720s are

2017 126
2018. 274
2019. 128 (end of Q2)

So less than 10% drop 2018 to 2019.

It’s very, very expensive for car manufacturers to really scale back production...massive fixed costs which can’t be cut back without redundancies (you would still have a lot of other fixed costs though) and then most of the suppliers will be working on contracts which are relatively long term to get the best pricing for McLaren...so it’s much cheaper to keep producing cars which get sold at a significant discount rather then stop making them. Obviously very damaging for the brand though...

Even with discounting, I'd be stunned if registrations for this sort of vehicle were linear throughout the year, especially after a couple of years of production. I'd expect March - May to be the peak season, with very few getting registered Sept - March. With fewer sunny days, why would you take delivery late in the year and then take the resale hit in the future for a car you'll probably get little use of?

I was speaking to a specialist dealer (not for McLaren) about another vehicle who indicated that the market is pretty flat right at present.

I'm going to have a look at a couple of cars over the coming weeks but it's increasingly tempting to hold off until I see exactly what I want or there's a tempting offer on stock that's hanging around.