Was over at the opening of the new megane

Sean Quagmire

the old man and myself went over to have a look at the new megane in liffey valley renault last nite. he's was keen to see the new one as he has been driving Meganes for years.

its shocking what they offered him, an existing customer for years, 12,500 for the car he purchased last year for around 23,000.
the new car itself is nice, the normal new gadgets that was expected but nothing special although the Coupe version is gorgeous in the flesh. The daddy however is the Laguna coupe almost looks like an aston and the gadgets are great too even though im not a huge fan of Renaults

kc66

The Laguna Coupe looks lovely. What price do they start at?

jimbo19162

12.500 :eek: thats dericulous i bought a 06 vectra in february and i hate it with a passion now i paid near 19 for it in main dealer and they now sell o8 ones for that :mad: so i gonna lose a fortune no matter what i do plus i hate the car i have to say though im not a fan of renault at all though never owned one or anything but just always hated them

Sean Quagmire

The laguna starts at around the 38,000 mark if i can remember right.
the angle the salemen are going for is that its competing with the new audi a4 which starts at over 50,000.. as much as i dont like the detatched feel of driving one they have come a long way with interior and the styling of the new cars.

thats bad news about youre vectra mate but unfortunatly everyone is in the same boat...best thing to do is try sell private because on a trade in you know yourself, you will need to bring some KY with you!

-Chris-

Sean Quagmire wrote: »

its shocking what they offered him, an existing customer for years, 12,500 for the car he purchased last year for around 23,000.

Tell him not to trade in so soon - the market has collapsed, he'll lose his shirt.Existing customer doesn't matter at the moment, the won't take the car in for more than it's worth.

Sean Quagmire wrote: »

the Laguna coupe almost looks like an aston

From certain angles maybe - the rear "shoulders" are very similar, but the nose and the boot don't look as well proportioned.

It's a pity really, Renault need a flagship car that gets your pulse racing. Something to give a halo effect to the rest of the range.

-Chris-

Sean Quagmire wrote: »

The laguna starts at around the 38,000 mark if i can remember right.
the angle the salemen are going for is that its competing with the new audi a4 which starts at over 50,000..

I presume they mean A5. It's an interesting angle from the salesman, but I don't see many people choosing between a Laguna Coupe and an A5, it's more likely that they'd be looking at the Passat CC or 407 Coupe I'd expect.

Just had a look - you'd also get an Alfa GT or 1-Series Coupe for €40k-ish. There's some healthy competition in that price bracket.

Sean Quagmire

probably did mean the A5. but i would agree with comparing it at a higher level, they didnt take a lot of risk's with the styling but to sit in one the quality and attention to detail is very good. its not bland like the Passat can be.

black & white

Had a look at the Megane yesterday, it had just been delivered so can't drive it until tomorrow or Sunday. The one I saw was black and it looked lovely, I was really impressed.

They don't have the rear parking sensors as standard on the more expensive model any more, it's cruise control instead.

My current model is an 06 diesel dynamique so have a better chance of shifting it than a bog standard petrol.

Sean Quagmire

the diesels do look really impressive even in the lower bhp cars there putting out a lot of torque and pulling power and some of them are 6 speed.

E92

Sean Quagmire wrote: »

The laguna starts at around the 38,000 mark if i can remember right.
the angle the salemen are going for is that its competing with the new audi a4 which starts at over 50,000..

A4s start at €50k, what are they smoking:eek:?

It's €35k people, €35k.

Even a 170 bhp TDI, which is the nearest equivalent to the Laguna Coupé starts at €39,400, which is a very similar price.

€50k would get you a 2.7 TDI SE.

Sean Quagmire wrote: »

the diesels do look really impressive even in the lower bhp cars there putting out a lot of torque and pulling power and some of them are 6 speed.

The base diesel has only 85 bhp, meaning that performance will be leisurely at best. That's poor compared to most 1.4 petrols these days.

The more powerful 105 bhp model should be decent enough though, 105 bhp is close enough to what a 1.6 petrol delivers. The 1.9 dCi 130 is a wise buy though, and will have plenty of go yet is in VRT band B, so will be cheap to tax and it now means that at last you can have a family hatchback with a bit of power and still will be desirable to sell on.

What is absolutely unforgivable is the absence of a diesel particulate filter on all paraffin stoves coming our way, and no ESP on all models is disgraceful in this day and age, especially from a make that talks about safety as much as Renault do.

Thankfully air conditioning is standard on all models, at last a step forward(since that's always something car makers love leaving out for Ireland), and once you move off the basic model you do at least get ESP.

If Ford can fit ESP as standard to every Focus, then why can't Renault?

Lex Luthor

AudiChris wrote: »

Just had a look - you'd also get an Alfa GT for €40k-ish. There's some healthy competition in that price bracket.

or a 2yr old one for a lot less

-Chris-

Lex Luthor wrote: »

or a 2yr old one for a lot less

There's a question - if you were buying new, would you rather take the depreciation on an Alfa GT or on a Laguna Coupe?

:eek:

Darsad

Why such shock at derisory trade in values this is the new reality and cars are now more than ever in the same catagory as white disposable goods , Just look at the levels of second hand stock in any dealer why would they offer anything but insulting prices.

Hobart

AudiChris wrote: »

There's a question - if you were buying new, would you rather take the depreciation on an Alfa GT or on a Laguna Coupe?

:eek:

Alfa GT. If re-selling privately you are a lot more likely to get somebody who "wants" a GT as opposed to a Laguna.

Owen

38k for a Renault? Anyone who spends that will get an enormous shock when it comes trade in time - you could wake up in the morning, glance out the window at it, and in the 30 seconds you were looking at it, it probably dropped another 100 Euro. And I'm not on a BMW/Audi/Lexus are better than anything else rant, I just think it's a horrific way to loose a lot of money quickly.

Biro

AudiChris wrote: »

There's a question - if you were buying new, would you rather take the depreciation on an Alfa GT or on a Laguna Coupe?

:eek:

Actually the GT doesn't seem to be depreciating more than anything else in it's class.
Look even at the 159. VW dealer laughed at someone I know when they were thinking about the 159 saying they couldn't give them away 2nd hand, so they bought a Passat instead. Thing is, they can't give the Passat away now, so I reckon a 159 would have depreciated less. An Alfa with a better residual than a VW? Imagine that!!

bazz26

New Laguna is such as sales success they are giving it a facelift in early 2010 already:

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One of the appeals of buying a Renault up to recently was their French styling, now they no longer have this.

pepperds

guys - would anyone know what the music is on the new megane advert on the TV. I can't find it anywhere and it's been wrecking my head since it came out.

thanks in advance

Speedy007

Laguna Coupe is beautiful looking and just rang Renault garage, prices start at 36590.

I'm still surprised at people's reaction to trade in values - I would think that considering the tough year dealers have experienced and the tough times ahead, they are pricing cars at what they can sell them on for instead of having them sat on their forecourts for the next 6 monhts depreciating on an almost weekly basis. Friends of mine had to go to Drogheda to be given a price of 10K for their 06 Passat (petrol, I think) 3 VW dealers in Dublin wouldn't even give her a price, wonder where they afraid of insulting or simply don't want trade-ins?

Anybody who has religiously changed their cars every 1,2 or 3 years for X amount can be assured that those days are long gone - simply put you can either afford to accept the depreciation on your car or you can't so you stick it out for another couple of years - its all about choice.

Thats just my two cents - sorry for the rant.