Economical / Eco-friendly car questions.

‘My’ manufacturer has, and has for many years, a dedicated ‘Academy’ devoted to improving the knowledge of its entire salesforce across Europe, including the training of the trainers who go out to each ‘national’ subsidiary and educate the dealer sales staff there as well as the generation of printed and electronic support material and training courses.

Moggy

Glad to see that Car Salesmen are getting some sort of training.

Well, what are the conclusions of the project Mogg C?

No conclusion will be drawn.

The project is e-learning scripts for car sales staff. We need to identify the sort of questions the buyer is likely to ask in order that the manufacturers’ tech bods can research the topic and provide factually correct answers. These will then go into the sales peoples’ continuing development training programme.

Nothing destroys the credibility of a salesperson more than either not knowing the answer to a question or worse still giving a factually incorrect one which is discovered to be so later.

The days of telling the customer anything to get them to buy a car have long gone.

Thanks for all your help, the topic is not closed, I’m sure using your imagination some of you could come up with questions you would ask in that situation, even if like me you buy your cars well after the initial depreciation has subsided and would never dream of buying factory new.

M

I saw my old Renault Twingo yesterday in the traffic ( I drive Volvo S40 ). It was good as new. Before I sold it I changed the mirrors to the new ones…that made big difference and a new set of tyres and a damper. I got 5 000 € of it eventough it was a 12 years old and new one was under 10 000 €.

Now that Twingo is 16 years old and apparently 5th or 6th owner.

In 1993 the model looked very sleek and aerodynamic and appealing in many ways.

I drove it even 155 km/h ( 11 years old at that time ) and it burned 5-6 liters per 100 km. It is now 160-180 000 km driven. Very compact also.

Well, what are the conclusions of the project Mogg C?

Why buy new in the first place. There are pleanty of good quality 2nd hand cars out there which have already suffered the initial depreciation a new car does + it is a form of recycling.

Aye, I never go into 4 figures for a car!

There is no question of buying a hybrid or electric, you are looking at petrol and diesel only.

Thanks in advance.

Moggy

http://www.funny-potato.com/aptera-cars.html

Put diesel on that => 60% less air resistance.

Actually that is a very interesting point…..why should you have to pay a €5000 premium because you care about the environment?

I have checked, and apparently, and either my memory’s failing, or the prices dropped, but: you pat 1800€ premium to have spoilers, firmer suspensions, and low resistance tyres… Which is still quite hefty for a little bit of plastic, I’d say.

And, that is exactly my point. I am NOT going to pay for it, even if I had the money to do it. (On a sidenote, this is, to me, similar to the carbon offset scam you are offered when flying)

Too much “eco” hype these days.

…..or is it only the relatively wealthy new-car-buyer that the manufacturers are interested in? :rolleyes:

I can’t speak on behalf of the manufacturer, I’m just doing a job for them.

But the fact is that they need to pick up sales from anybody that can afford to buy a new car these days.

The available discounts prove this to be the case.

Moggy

…if I bought the Econetic version of the Focus, I was paying around 5000€ more.

Actually that is a very interesting point…..why should you have to pay a €5000 premium because you care about the environment?

Do the environmental features of the ‘Econetic’ model actually cost the manufacturer that much extra to produce…..somehow I doubt it.

I’d guess in order of preference my choice would be:

1) Across the range

Sounds the best approach because if they can make environmentally better cars why should they make anything else…..unless there are large cost implications (and not just a showroom premium) or the performance of the vehicle is so much worse that the customer is put off. However a high across-range price is always going to be off-putting.

2) The featured model

A good approach but why such a premium for being environmentally aware…..does it really cost this much extra or again is customer guilt being used to hike prices?

3) The wider definition

Not really sure what benefit the customer would get here other than buying an already economical vehicle (presumably a reasonable cost) with a sticker on to say it is economical…..mind you it had better be economical because it has few other selling points.

I suppose the key is the three-year-old trade in…..people who trade in cars this new must be aware of how much depreciation cost they carry so the initial purchase price of a car is going to be less of an issue.

Sounds like only the relatively wealthy can help the environment…..or is it only the relatively wealthy new-car-buyer that the manufacturers are interested in? :rolleyes:

Thank you for that, but it really does fall outside the scope of my current project.

Moggy

Why buy new in the first place. There are pleanty of good quality 2nd hand cars out there which have already suffered the initial depreciation a new car does + it is a form of recycling.

Your right old shape, it’s time to go back on topic.
Here’s the aviation equal to a Prius.

Girls drive V8’s, go with a V10 or V12. Hummer would be a good choice for an eco vehicle, either that or a series one Landrover with the Merlin conversion. I’d go with the auto as well, yool get better milage with a manual but you have to pull your arm in from the window to steer when yoo change gears.

Hummers for the Army = a mans car.
Hummers for sale to the public = a hairdressers car. They really are rubbish.

Long way off topic now Moggs. 🙂 But you knew that…

Girls drive V8’s, go with a V10 or V12. Hummer would be a good choice for an eco vehicle, either that or a series one Landrover with the Merlin conversion. I’d go with the auto as well, yool get better milage with a manual but you have to pull your arm in from the window to steer when yoo change gears.

You need a big car with a big donk for this big wide brown land i’m afraid …those girly European putt putt things are just not suitable for the amount of distances you can chalk up in this country…i drive a 5 litre V8 and i make no apologies for it… i need it for driving interstate and for towing my boat

That’s a hell of a lump to put in a Mini!

You need a big car with a big donk for this big wide brown land i’m afraid …those girly European putt putt things are just not suitable for the amount of distances you can chalk up in this country…i drive a 5 litre V8 and i make no apologies for it… i need it for driving interstate and for towing my boat

Thanks to those who have actually tried to answer the question so far.. and thanks to Mike for riding his hobby horse, it just wasn’t a lot of help but I’m sure we all appreciated his view on the hybrid.

Any more?

Moggy

You forgot the option of a duel fuel, even though you did state Petrol / Derv only.
The gas option is as green as you like, and presently cheap. Once we all use it, it will be expensive, because the Supply/Demand curve works in reverse in rip-off Britain.
Back to the point. Your project is to buy a car. In a recession, the environment is, IMO, what effect it will have on my wallet, therefore my environment of wife and kids. And no, this is not selfishness…..If it’s cheap to run, surely it must be greener by default?

The prime example of the wrong thinking that has gone on with “green” cars is the Toyota Prius. Yes it is eco friendly but only around town, as soon as it gets about 35mph and the petrol engine kicks in it has higher emissions than many cars with a larger engine, or the same size engine but more power. To my mind that is a good reason to avoid it like the plague.