All Change

We seem to have finally agreed a deal to change our cars for shiny new ones. The prime mover for this was the realisation that the ML was too big a car for Karen to drive around on short, local journies.

Once we had decided the Merc had to go, then we really needed to change my BMW for something with more "boot" (of the in-boot rather than boot-in meaning).

As is typical, we thought for months about the general idea of changing (i.e. Karen re-reminded me for ages before I agreed to do anything) but the actual change happened very quickly in the end.

As is also typical, we thought about going for 2nd-hand or lower-spec cars to reduce the cost (actually it would have been a cash-positive trade in that case) but as we came closer towards decisions, the spec and newness of the cars drifted upwards till they were both brand-new factory-ordered cars with the top spec available. Hmm.... actually Karen's is not the top listed spec, but that is only because Ford are not taking orders for that derivative!

What was interesting is that CO2-emissions, fuel-economy and green-taxation actually did play a part in the choices. It is really the first time I can remember being genuinely influenced by the tax-treatment of cars.

The first influence was that the motivation to change the cars at all was given impetus by the imminent hike in excise duty for our two high-CO2 cars, and the new £25 congestion charge proposal.

Secondly, when looking at models, we really did reject many cars on a CO2-basis. In my case, it meant I did not consider the biggest engines and I opted for a manual gearbox. In Karen's case it led to the choice of a particular kind of dual-clutch semi-automatic which has manual-type emissions.

I have to say that whilst we were looking quite closely at the emissions data, I doubt we would have stuck to the choices without the tax factor. Of course, the total CO2 effect of our choice is minimal especially as we do low mileage but one can see how the virtuous circle can start to take effect.

I can imagine that used-values for high-CO2 cars may tumble as people start actually paying the new bills.

A word or two on the selling-side of the equation. As usual, I was frustrated at the myth of high-residuals for prestige cars. The Merc is 2years old and has done <10k miles, but the dealer bid for the car was still only 60% of new. In fact, it was hard to get them to make a price on it at all.

BMW was even worse - they literally did not return my phone calls when I rang up to get a price.

I had no valid excuse for not trying to sell the Merc privately, despite the hassle. So, autotrader.co.uk .... got zero calls. However, did get a call from a car-broker who did a deal between us and Mercedes in Reading - for a considerable increase over the p/ex value. The car is being picked up this morning and so long as the cheque doesn't bounce, all's well that ends well.