2.5 T5 Transporter or New 132kw Transporter ?

[The_Hawk]

Yep, the 132 had the same lag and I have to say that it was either the fact I was driving in an area I didn't know (a dealer about 40 minutes away) so was being very careful so didn't get a chance to let the turbo spool up and power the van, or the addition of the 4 motions just saps all the power. Bottom line it just seemed underpowered.
The 103 I drove around the local area (local dealer) and it just seemed to go so much better. I'm also a little put off by the lack of feedback in the pedal, these are all drive by wire now?

To the OP, go and drive both of the new engines and see what you think of each.

But back to me , soon the family will be cruising in this:

[Transporter]

Congratulations and nice choice of colour too.
Me thinking, I should go and take one for the testdrive, but I like mine more now than 2-3 years ago, so it would be hard to for me to get rid of it.

So, when are you expecting it?

[TDI DSG]

Thanks for everyones feedback.
The_Hawk congrats on your purchase. The lag is just a DSG thing. Our Golf 5 has it but you get used to it pretty quick. Drove a Golf 6 recently and the DSG was a bit more intuitive - wanted to drop back a gear going down hills - not sure if I liked that part, but overall it was a more refined DSG eperience.
Did you find there was much negotiating on the price, or was it a case of if you want it thats the price ?

[The_Hawk]

Did you find there was much negotiating on the price, or was it a case of if you want it thats the price ?

As it's a lease car the deal I got was pretty good, essentially got the options for nix.

I know I could have got a "better" deal if I ordered one new out of the factory, but that would have been a 4 - 5 month wait and the savings would have been lost in what it will cost me to re-register the car it will be replaing. Also being that there is (or should I say was) only one red one in the country and I'm travelling interstate to get it, my negotiationg position wasn't exactly the best, still I'm very happy with what I'm paying... I just want it NOW! (just a little excited).

[TDI DSG]

As it's a lease car the deal I got was pretty good, essentially got the options for nix.

I know I could have got a "better" deal if I ordered one new out of the factory, but that would have been a 4 - 5 month wait and the savings would have been lost in what it will cost me to re-register the car it will be replaing. Also being that there is (or should I say was) only one red one in the country and I'm travelling interstate to get it, my negotiationg position wasn't exactly the best, still I'm very happy with what I'm paying... I just want it NOW! (just a little excited).

Did your local dealer try to locate one for you ? Or did you have to chase it up yourself ?

[The_Hawk]

The local guys were fantastic, but given the short supply of stock of Multivans (read there is very few around in any colour let alone red) the dealer with the colour we wanted didn't want to do a stock transfer. While I got the local guy to do a quote up for a new order I had a ring around and found the car in Melbourne and got a quote from them and tossed up which would be better.

In the end it came down to slightly cheaper vs 4 months earlier... I don't wait well

A trip to Melbourne isn't terrible since I get a road trip (which is always fun) and being a lease car if I do more KM's it actually gets cheaper

[brasstinman]

The local guys were fantastic, but given the short supply of stock of Multivans (read there is very few around in any colour let alone red) the dealer with the colour we wanted didn't want to do a stock transfer. While I got the local guy to do a quote up for a new order I had a ring around and found the car in Melbourne and got a quote from them and tossed up which would be better.

In the end it came down to slightly cheaper vs 4 months earlier... I don't wait well

A trip to Melbourne isn't terrible since I get a road trip (which is always fun) and being a lease car if I do more KM's it actually gets cheaper

I'm also thinking of getting a 2010 Multivan, stopped into the dealership and they said there was a wait until 2011 for any 132kw model with 4-motion but after reading this thread I'm thinking the 103 might be more than enough.

A mate told me to look into leasing the van but I've never leased a car before so I'm not how it all works and I've been trying to read up on it. Had a quick look at the novatedleasedeals web site and it talks about the money paid for the lease is taken out of pre-tax and the more kms you do means the tax breaks are greater.
Does anyone have a good calculator that I can input my current gross salary into and the cost of the leased vehicle and work out what my fortnightly pay would be if I was leasing the van?
Basically just want to know how I'll be out of pocket each fortnight.

[The_Hawk]

Here is the calculator from the company my work uses: - calculators

As I understand it works like this: (assuming your employer support salary sacrifice)

If you pay everything before tax (including all running costs) you then have to pay Fringe Benefits Tax at the end of the year. at >15,000km it's 20% at >25,000km its 11%. For me that means that even through servicing/maintenance and fuel costs go up to cover 25,000km my fortnightly payments actually go down

To offset this you can "co contribute" to the costs throughout the year which then reduces (hopefully to $0) the FBT liability. That means you pay some of the costs before tax and some after tax.

I ran the numbers and the annual savings weren't huge, but every dollar counts. One of the biggest benefits was not having to pay GST which gives you a decent saving upfront.

[brasstinman]

Hi, thanks for the calculator. My employee does salary sacrifice things for us, i.e. on site gym membership and MBF health fund etc. I'll need to speak to them about vehicle sacrificing but I'm thinking it should be ok.
Looking at the calculator it looks like I get more money each fortnightly pay period by leasing the van than not leasing it as I do about 30,000km a year.

[brasstinman]

Update, work won't salary sacrifice a car lease but they'll do everything else... Go figure... I'm not very happy with them at the moment.
Is there any reason why a leased car can get such a great deal that you can't get at the end of the quarter when the dealer needs the sale to make up the numbers?
Why is it only a lease can get a vehicle GST free and then score a great deal on a car. I guess if I rang around and kept trying I'd get a good deal.

Going to start calling around and see if any of the dealers in Sydney have a 103 and a 132 models in stock to take for a spin. We plan on keeping any new car we get now for a loooonnng time but in saying that I want to make we aren't ripped off and can get the best deal possible.