I recently went to a garage to enquire about changing my FR2 for another car (new VW golf - I know does not compare) but the wife is fed up with running costs (2.2D GS auto - Urban 22mpg) , parking (been scrapped twice by 3rs parties in the supermarket) and now first service cost of nearly £400 (only done 6kmiles).....cost of car 25K with options ...VW starting point 13.5K!!!!! what 50% depreciation in 15months. Joke

There are couple of other threads running about secondhad values.

If you want to get a measure of where prices are take a look at Autotrader and search Freelanders with a minimum price of £12000, you should find majority or results are FL2's. It doesn't make pleasant reading.

You'll see there are a lot of FL2's for sale which is why the VW dealer probably doesn't want it. Stornoway Grey GS ... What a fine motor ... but not any more ... ... psst look at my gallery!
Company cars ... a thing of the past - May 2013.

I'm not trying to wind you up, but I have to point it out that you've made 3 serious mistakes, firstly buying an auto (poor mpg) and secondly buying a new car (depreciation) and thirdly having an auto fitted to a low spec. model (not as desirable as an HSE auto). I really do not understand buying a new car I got my FL2 XS when it was 12months old with 9k miles on the clock. It still looked, smelt and drove like a brand new car, but I saved £9k. If you buy a new golf, all you'll do is lose another £4k driving out of the showroom, then you're £17.5k down in 15months? OK, VW's depreciate slower (partly due to overpricing) but I'd think pretty carefully about your next move.

Like I said, not trying to wind you up, but don't buy another new car to compound the situation!

Its not just FL2s, its pretty much all used cars. I sold my 21month old TT in December and it had lost 40% of its value. When I originally bought it, it was predicted to retain 65% after 3 years, how times have changed.

I might have been shafted on selling the TT but I got a cracking deal on the FL2. HSE, 1 year old, 10k miles. I paid £19k, thats a £13.5k saving from new and I could never tell someone had owned it previously (apart from the stale cigarette smoke which was gone after I cleaned and treated the leather).

I echo Podcast's view. Buying new was always expensive because of depreciation. Now its even more expensive because depreciation has escalated and trade-in values are a joke.

Buy nearly new, its the only sensible way.  TD4, HSE, Santorini Black, SS side protection tubes, clear side repeaters, chrome wing mirror covers

Great deal on the HSE, well done, sadly somebody else took th pain on that! Glad to see I'm not the only one who doesn't buy new! Although I did do once, got a Ford Focus for £11k and kept it for 6 years, sold it for £3k, so only £1300 depreciation a year...but it was a Focus!

Just did a quick mpg test today & pretty good results. I drove to about 18miles, dropped my girlfriend off at her work, then filled up with Diesel and reset the computer & drove to work (town driving), with the following figures...

Trip 5.6miles
Av. Speed 23.1mph
Temp. -3C
Fuel Economy 41.9mpg

It was up to 44.8mpg, but the multi-storey at work took it's toll

Thanks for the input

Unware FR2's were that bads for consumption - when I bopught it they claimed 37.7 MPG but that is combined. using it for the school run and sticking a auto on it (wife won't drive a manual) then it should be 25...but we get in reality 22

I agree with what you say about buying new cars. Our reason for buying new...WIth a new car you are sure of its complete history and with new you can order the spec (and colour) you want. Agree expensive way of doibg this but for us its the only way to accomplish both
For FR2's, now I know a second hand one is very very cheap but but for a second hand golf you only save about 4k on a 18K car ...for that difference I would buy new.

Glad you took it in good spirit, not trying to wind anybody up!

I think the 37.7 is manual combined (I think the Auto is 33mpg?) and to get that going over 2,000rpm is out of the question when commuting! However, 42mpg is possible on a decent run!

Each to their own but at the end of the day £4k is £4k which means you either have to earn £6k to get it or borrow £4k and repay £4.5k just to lose it in depreciation. If your boss gave you a £6k pay-cut, you'd probably be , but you're volunteering for it? I personally couldn't justify that for an exact colour/spec...but i'm a tight northern Ref. vehicle history, my XS had one lady owner, 12months service was done & 2 years of warranty left so absolutely no sleep lost on it!

Good luck whatever you decide!

I'm afraid I can echo the fact that it's not just the FL2 that is depreciating very quickly, a friend of mine tried to part ex a 3 year old low mileage mint x-trail and was offered £6k against a new one!! Dealers just don't want anything that's not a small diesel...

I have an auto and the worst I've had using it round town over the Christmas period and not being particularly light footed is 29 mpg and including motorway driving usually average 32-33mpg...

I have never kept a car longer than 2 years before but this one will be iin the family for as many as it needs to be to avoid the depreciation pain.


Good luck whatever you decide!

Looking at the prices recently I'm glad that mine will be worth 9.5K in 18 months time when I trade it in.  ______________________
2011 Full Fat RR 4.4 TDV8
2012 FL2 SD4 Auto HSE
2013 Kawasaki Versys 650

bilen,

As heavy as the running costs are (at least the fuel price has eased at the moment - 94.9 here), I'm sure if you crunch the numbers you'll find its less expensive to keep the FL2 and deal with the costs than change at this stage. As for future vehicle values we're in uncharted waters who knows when the downward slide will stop. Although the recently reported December new car sales were down but not down as much as had been anticipated.

I'd feel confident that as a % the depreciation will ease as the months go by, (however thats just my humble opinion, but not one I'm willing to back with a blank cheque!), so I'm sure that the numbers would suggest holding on. However there's another issue with cars which is emotion, which has no relationship with common sense or reason; sometimes we make a decision that a change is needed and the only thing to do (for peace of mind) is make that change.

I'll roll the dice for you if you want  Stornoway Grey GS ... What a fine motor ... but not any more ... ... psst look at my gallery!
Company cars ... a thing of the past - May 2013.

the mpg's / kpl's quoted in sales brochures are complete cock.

First of all - everying in the car is switched off ; the air-con, radio, lights - everything.

Also (and get this) - "urban" is not actually driving through a city, but simulated by the manufacturer on a test track !

What a joke !

On the subject of depreciation, my next door neighbour has just bought an 07 plate Aston Martin V8 Vantage. It's 15 months old and has 12000 miles on it. £89000 list price, he has just paid £44950 for it!

I normally buy new as I like the thought of no one else having used it, but times change. I bought our Freelander 2 2nd hand back in August 2007, so it was at the time 6 months old, it is an HSE 2.2 TD4 manual with the following :-

Zenon Adaptive headlight
Privacy glass
met paint
Full size spare

It had a list price of about £33/£34000 and I paid £25995 with 10000 miles on it. I know you can get the same age car for less now, but at the time the FL2 was not that common. Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........

jimmy wrote:

the mpg's / kpl's quoted in sales brochures are complete cock.

First of all - everying in the car is switched off ; the air-con, radio, lights - everything.

Also (and get this) - "urban" is not actually driving through a city, but simulated by the manufacturer on a test track !

What a joke !

Sorry Jimmy don't fully agree .....

The last four cars I have owned have all covered significant miles in my ownership (40-50k miles or more). I am completely over the top in maintaining records (fuel fills & miles travelled etc) and have always recorded an overall consumption figure within a couple of percent of the official quoted 'combined figure'. I am just about to change and will use the official 'combined figure' as a guide to my expectations for my next car and I don't expect to be far wrong in doing that.

For the record the best ever single tank range I achieved was driving with the radio on, the headlamps on and the aircon on. I achieved 656 miles on a single tank. When filled up this represented 44mpg. Stornoway Grey GS ... What a fine motor ... but not any more ... ... psst look at my gallery!
Company cars ... a thing of the past - May 2013.

avtur wrote:

jimmy wrote:

the mpg's / kpl's quoted in sales brochures are complete cock.

First of all - everying in the car is switched off ; the air-con, radio, lights - everything.

Also (and get this) - "urban" is not actually driving through a city, but simulated by the manufacturer on a test track !

What a joke !

Sorry Jimmy don't fully agree .....

The last four cars I have owned have all covered significant miles in my ownership (40-50k miles or more). I am completely over the top in maintaining records (fuel fills & miles travelled etc) and have always recorded an overall consumption figure within a couple of percent of the official quoted 'combined figure'. I am just about to change and will use the official 'combined figure' as a guide to my expectations for my next car and I don't expect to be far wrong in doing that.

For the record the best ever single tank range I achieved was driving with the radio on, the headlamps on and the aircon on. I achieved 656 miles on a single tank. When filled up this represented 44mpg.

Avtur - I know you keep great records, but the FL2 is by far the worst car for variance between manufacturers quoted figs and actual driving I've experienced in over 20 years of driving. In fact as per the previous post mpg figs are not even calculated on a test track, they are done on a rolling road which means no wind resistance so they can't get close to being right. BMW seem to be the manufacturer who got closest in my experience. Even with the lightest right foot I've not managed to get 500 miles out of a tank in over 12,500 miles. Best mpg for an individual journey is 36mpg. LR quote more than that as combined figure! 08 Santorini Black HSE manual with DAB and privacy glass

The Land Rover quoted firgures are not at all right, when I bought mine, the salesman even told me to ignore the stated combined figure of 37.7mpg and expect more like 33mpg combined.

Thats what I have been getting. There is always some one who claims to get more than the manufacturers figures  Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........