Need some help making sense of something.
When I bought my Z4M I was working in London, getting the train everyday, and so it was a weekend car. Now I'm driving to work everyday and while it's fine for that, I can't cope forever and so in 2011 I will sell it.
So I've been looking at alternatives. It's not going to be a company car, but it is likely to be new or nearly new. Since the Z4M is a proper sports car I am tempted to do a total U turn and get something really nice, wafty and comfortable. And finally, I haven't yet driven/passengered in a diesel that I have been happy with, so I've been thinking about petrol autos.
Obvious candidate is a 330i/335i but I thought I would investigate the competition, that being the Audi A4 3.2 V6. Turns out that there's not a single demonstrator in the country, in any spec level/gearbox combination nor is there a single example of the current shape model in the Audi 2nd hand network. Why is this?
I understand that if you are getting a company car that the BIK hit on a big capacity petrol doesn't make sense. And that if you are doing upwards of 20k miles a year, a diesel would save you a few ££. But neither of those apply to me and I want a smooth, quiet engine with a bit of a rev range for the one day a year when the roads are clear. The road tax isn't that punitive and certainly the relative minor tax saving from buying a 3.0TDi (£300 year 1, plus £65 per year) doesn't off set the diesel's higher purchase price when new.
So does everyone just buy diesel now as a default? Perhaps people prefer them to drive - but surely I can't be alone in prefering petrol to diesel. Or maybe it's just that people don't spend their own money on cars likes this and instead prefer to spend them on something a bit more interesting? Or is it this car specifically, in that it's overshadowed by the S4?
What's your thoughts?
When I bought my Z4M I was working in London, getting the train everyday, and so it was a weekend car. Now I'm driving to work everyday and while it's fine for that, I can't cope forever and so in 2011 I will sell it.
So I've been looking at alternatives. It's not going to be a company car, but it is likely to be new or nearly new. Since the Z4M is a proper sports car I am tempted to do a total U turn and get something really nice, wafty and comfortable. And finally, I haven't yet driven/passengered in a diesel that I have been happy with, so I've been thinking about petrol autos.
Obvious candidate is a 330i/335i but I thought I would investigate the competition, that being the Audi A4 3.2 V6. Turns out that there's not a single demonstrator in the country, in any spec level/gearbox combination nor is there a single example of the current shape model in the Audi 2nd hand network. Why is this?
I understand that if you are getting a company car that the BIK hit on a big capacity petrol doesn't make sense. And that if you are doing upwards of 20k miles a year, a diesel would save you a few ££. But neither of those apply to me and I want a smooth, quiet engine with a bit of a rev range for the one day a year when the roads are clear. The road tax isn't that punitive and certainly the relative minor tax saving from buying a 3.0TDi (£300 year 1, plus £65 per year) doesn't off set the diesel's higher purchase price when new.
So does everyone just buy diesel now as a default? Perhaps people prefer them to drive - but surely I can't be alone in prefering petrol to diesel. Or maybe it's just that people don't spend their own money on cars likes this and instead prefer to spend them on something a bit more interesting? Or is it this car specifically, in that it's overshadowed by the S4?
What's your thoughts?
