Buy new? The gap’s not nearly close enough

www.uk-car-discount.co.uk has a brand new Mazda6 listed on their site at a reduction of £3,389 off list, making an on the road price of £13,626. Docklands Mazda has an 08 example with the exact same spec and 10k on the clock for £10,995 (guide price £9,500) which is a further saving of £2,631 (holiday in Florida anyone?)

So much for the big saloon fleet cars, there’s always going to big savings on used with those but what about the flavour of the month small, economical hatchbacks? How are nearly new prices holding up against new? Is the gap closing enough to tempt people back into brand new cars and get the factories working again?

Well the same site has a brand new Vauxhall Corsa 1.4i 16v Club at an OTR price of £9,773 and claiming a saving of £1,882 on list while Corner House Garage in Nuneaton has the very same model on a 2008/08 with 9k on the clock for £7,995 (guide price £6,500) so a further saving of £1,778.

Maybe a VW polo holds up better? The same site has a brand new 1.4 Match 80 3dr with an OTR price of £10,501 claiming a £954 saving from list while Harrogate VW is selling an 2008/58 example with just a 1,000 miles clocked up for £8,850 (guide price £8,000) saving a further £1,651 on the discounted price.

OK how about a Mini Cooper Chilli Pack brand new? OTR is £16,780 and uk-car-discount.co.uk can’t offer anything off list but we found the exact same model on a 2009/58 and 5k miles at Sytner Coventry for £13,650 (guide price £12,500) a whopping saving of £3,130.

If you were in the market for a Mini Cooper and knew you could save over £3,000 on a nearly new example would you still insist on buying brand new?

Although the gap is closing we reckon even on some smaller cars, where you may see the gap between new and used being much smaller, the saving is considerable. Despite late plate cars across the board being not only more expensive in the trade but also harder to come by, the difference may still be enough to make a nearly new, low mileage, pre-owned car the one to go for.

We will continue to monitor the situation closely and when the gap closes you will hear about it here first.