Options from new

[former member]

Tourer: yep you are mostly right and I’ve had supposedly low depreciation cars drop like a stone while others have hung onto their money surprisingly well.
Our last Cali wasn’t bad but it was still a big hit.

I’m sort of halfway house; add a few bits you need but keep it sensible.

The most essential for us is 4motion; some don’t want our need that.

Mind you a Cali Ocean isn’t badly specced anyway; but needs parking sensors, window tints and an awning. Anything else is just window dressing really.

Depreciation wise, I valued ours at a year old; £2k MORE than we paid for it thanks to a great discount and two big price hikes from VW since we bought it.

 

[BognorMotors]

Not all dealers are the same! We value the extra’s and price as such on part exchange - Sat Nav, LED’s.

Buy options for yourself, not for others, although then correct specified vehicle will always attract more buyers, and a higher price, when the time comes to sell.

Enjoy

 

[former member]

Yes and dealers also make much bigger margins on selling options...

There was a fairly infamous article where some mag specced a 2.0 diesel Audi A6 up to £70k with a crazy amount of options. The car was worth roughly the same as a no option A6 3 years later. The car lost about half its value, the options lost nearly all of their value.

Clearly many are you are so wealthy it doesn’t matter but to the more money conscious among us, spending £1000s on stuff we don’t actually need is a little pointless.

Get the best engine you can afford, make it a bit more comfortable if needed but to me a bare Startline and a fully optioned Cali or Caravelle are all just T6 vans. Those that bang on about their “fully loaded” (hateful phrase) or cars are rather tiresome.

 

[Loz]

The thing that annoys me most about options is you are forced to pay lots for factory options because there is no way to add most of them afterwards.

Ps. Now you have all had a little pop at each other, I’m going to take out all off topic posts. As it is not becoming of us..

 

[former member]

You also can’t test options; our £1200 satnav on the old Cali? Cr4p.
On our BM; worth it.
And many other examples. There’s nothing else where you “risk” such a lot of money not knowing if it’s any good or not.

 

[maxdefrost]

Tourershine has it spot on, buy for your own enjoyment not the next owners! I wonder how many caravans & motorhomes he visits with the plastic still on the seats and carpets “to keep it nice”..... for the next owner!

Sat Nav is an interesting one on forums with newer vehicles - because the poster has paid so much for it, they will never tell you how poor it is, try and find a Mercedes review knocking “Command” (MB nav) you won’t. (It’s absolutely awful by the way).

 

[former member]

Well that’s what we did; overdid it on the last one, specced more appropriately on this one.
And spent more wisely as a bonus.

No plans to sell this unless it becomes a PITA like the last one. We had no plans to sell that one either...

 

[Tourershine]

Tourershine has it spot on, buy for your own enjoyment not the next owners! I wonder how many caravans & motorhomes he visits with the plastic still on the seats and carpets “to keep it nice”..... for the next owner!

None that i've noticed, but we are Exterior specialists, and don't really take much notice of the insides, unless it's something new and different.
On that subject though, my mate and I have that chat all the time. We keep our vehicle immaculate to then sell them to a person that isn't really that bothered, and ruins them as soon as the novelty wears off. So I get your point.

 

[former member]

Ahem; our rear bed mattress still has the plastic on it
But mostly because the last one got a bit mucked up by stuff under it in the boot.
And we use a topper so don’t feel it.

 

[Tourershine]

Pffft... That's not a Caravan, or dare I say it, a Motorhome, so not in my remit.

 

[former member]

Pffft... That's not a Caravan, or dare I say it, a Motorhome, so not in my remit.

Caravan Club member?

 

[Sturge]

I judge options for the pleasure I get from them. I've spent the last 20 odd years driving top of the range Peugeots (initially) then Volvos ( a number of the 850 T5 and Volvo V70 T5s) and lately the original Discovery 3 HSe and lately the discovery 4 HSE luxury. Yes they depreciate, but when you are spending hours each day in them, then they are worth the money, like a nice office is.

I judge the extras as the cream on a cake that is the result of working very hard to make a succesful business. others spend money on luxury holidays or designer clothes (which is fine). I spend it on enjoying the cars.

I doubt that there is a higher specced van out there than what I have, but I know that money wont be recovered if i sold it tomorrow.

Each to their own!

 

[BognorMotors]

Like yourself, I tick every box, but I don’t get options that I don’t use. I use everyone of the options, and am glad of them. There are certain must-have’s in my option; app connnect, LED Lights, twin side doors, side airbags, rear camera, soft close, sunroof to name a few. And then there are the nice options to have, which I’ve got used to having as a ‘standard spec’; electric side doors and tailgate, high beam assist, side scan, front sensors etc. I always advise my customers of all options and run through them one by one. We sell lots of very high spec Transporters, that people don’t think twice at ticking every box. Options are a personal thing, and only you can decide what works and what doesn’t, not what someone on a forum can tell you, that you should and shouldn’t have. Options make a van/kombi/caravelle/California a very personal thing.

On our rental calis, we now run the following as standard spec as we have learnt over the years, what customers prefer to have when buying one of our ex rentals; privacy, sensors, 5th seat, safe box, Nav, LED Lights, comfort mattress, side awning and metallic. You can of course go mad on a Cali, options wise - I've sold a couple of new ones at near on £70k!! And then added a few dealer options - leather, alloys, sidebars etc.

It’s your vehicle do what you want with it