The never ending saga of what to replace my old Passat with continues. Having read in another thread what one get for £12K I am now reviewing my choice of cars and my eye has fallen on an Avensis. There are 2 cars I quite like the look of. Both are 1.8 T3 S 5 door, 03 plates, registered in 2003. Both have very similar mileages but differ a bit in displayed price. One is £11,995 (silver and 12,800 miles) and the other is £10,445 (grey and 14,500 miles). Different Toyota garages of course but both are close enough to where I live to make it worthwhile travelling for a look. (55 miles tops). So, some advice please.
Why should there be such a large difference in price?
What should I look out for on the cheaper one (ie is there anything likely to be wrong with it. Import perhaps? both specs on t'Internet look similar)
What sort of money should I reasonably expect to pay for either of these cars? I suppose I could get the more expensive one for about the same price as the cheaper one by waving a print-out of the details at the salesman but what could I get the cheaper one for?
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Robin,
I too am looking at the Avensis. I find a search on Autotrader is useful. The cheapest one listed (under 20k miles) is £10,995, so if the £10,445 is genuine, then it looks like an excellent buy. There are at least 10 listed at £10,995, so I wouldn't see any point of paying £1000 extra. Other points, I expect you have considered, is to make sure that it is the hatchback version, as I have heard the saloon is less desirable. Also the T3-S spec tends to be cheaper than the T3-X (although I believe they retail at the same price) as the spec is not so desirable. Look at the Toyota website for exact specs. If it is a true T3-S, it will have cd-based sat nav.
I have tried the price-waving tactic and it didn't work...good luck with your search.
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Nick,
I've been doing a bit more looking. Not sure I should name the towns so I'll call them A and B. In A you can get an 03 Avenis T3-S 5 door for 11,995, In B you can an 04 Avensis T3-S 5 door for 11,995. Similar mileages at ca. 12,000. An 03 Avensis T3-S 5 dr will set you back 10,495. (I've sen 2 of these so far) There are a number of Toyota dealers in B (big city) and they all have similar cars for similar prices. Market forces I suppose.
I spoke to the dealer in A and told him about B and was told he could not match the prices. His loss.
Think I might be getting an Avensis this weekend.
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Ahh the Avensis - my specialist subject!
£10495 doesn't seem a bad price - i've got some 04 1.8 T3x's up for £12495. T3x's and T3s's are the same price when new but the X is prefered by most customers.
The only down side is that it's in doom (sorry metropolis) grey! Silver is a better colour for resale value, possibly why other one is more expensive.
Not many Avensis available as imports so not too much worry about that and most dealers won't have an import on their forecourt anyway.
Tips? haggle hard! Most dealers are for desperate units so they should do you a good deal if you tell them you are ready to put a deposit down today for the right deal.
They will probably try to sell you paint protection, GAP cover, MOT insurance etc and whilst they're not bad products the prices the dealer will try are ridiculous - if you are interested in one of the products haggle this price down as well, regardless of what they tell you these prices are not fixed!
If you've got any other queries before you buy drop me a line and i'll try to answer them!
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My brother has just purchased a T3X. He got an extra £1000 trade in (Toyotas Avensis for Avensis scheme) + he got £1000 towards his finance (Toyota scheme) +he haggles an extra £800 discount +mats +full tank.
Not sure how much a new one is and how that discounting above would make a 2nd hand one such a good buy.
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That sounds like a pretty good deal your brother got Tack.
The £1000 extra trade in is funded 50/50 between toyota and the dealer so he got best part of £1400 discount from the dealer, thats pretty much full margin for the dealer.
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Oh Bother.
Just got back from the Toyota dealer having just bought an 04 T3-S. Today was a good day for a dealership with a couple of garages in the NE. I arranged to go drive an 03 T3-S in one of them tomorrow. They phoned this morning to say it had gone. No probs: there was another one nearby. Quick phone call to arrange a drive and off we went to Newcastle. Just about to get in the Avensis when a sales guy comes running out shouting he'd just flogged it. So, we had a drive in an 04 version. Sales guy gave me the keys and said 'see you later'. I was amazed and a bit worried about getting lost. Still, had a nice unaccompanied drive, decided we liked it and went back to do the deal. We had a choice of 2, red or silver. Went outside to check out the silver one. A Sales guy comes running out, shouting he'd just flogged it. (we saw the folks who'd bought the 03 so I have no reason to doubt the veracity of his claim). So, we bought the red one. 3 cars in an hour - not bad I guess). The price on the screen was £12,295 but they knocked off 500 without even being asked. A bit more for paying the deposit on the spot (I offered to pay the whole lot on the spot but it made no difference)and a year's tax thrown in as well and it was mine. The price to change from my Passat was exactly what I was looking for so I guess I'm happy. No hard sell on any insurances either. No mention of MOT insurance. I see there is a post below that mentions mats - are these not standard? I did not even think to mention them. Probably too late now?
Looking at the Toyota website I notice that the other dealership in the group has loads of 04 T3-Ss. Black and grey are all £300 less than other colours. Fascinating.
So, why Oh Bother? Well, I would have preferred a T3-X since I prefer climate control to sat nav and I like a centre console and electric rear windows. There are none about in the large area I've been looking in. Sales guy explained this thus: Ss are bought by fleets so get changed at 1 year or less; Xs are more family orientated so not so many 1 yr ones about. Sort of makes sense.
Am I happy? Guess so. Would I have driven to Mr. Haddock's showroom for an X? Probably not as its a bit too far.
However, a much better experience altogether than I had last week at a VW dealership (nowhere near Newcastle, BTW)
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Sounds like your reasonably happy with the deal you got. Price sounds about right as a new 1.8 T3-S is £16395 and the ones T3-X's we've got are up for £12.5k
It's funny what you say about that dealer only having T3-S's as all i've got are T3-X's! Like you i prefer the X version as i find the sat nav fiddly and when i've had them as demo's i've very rarely had cause to use it.
Mats aren't standard on any toyota apart from specials like the Yaris Blue. If you want a set of mats they're about £40, speak nicely to the salesman and he may still be able to throw a set in.
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Did they sort out the diff problems on this car?
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Steve
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