Hi All,
Hopefully, this information will be useful to those considering buying a 2019 e-Golf...
I bought a 2019 e-Golf SE with DAP (Drivers Assistance Package, which consists of Automatic Cruise Control, front and rear accident avoidance and adjacent lane change warning). I paid $26,500.00 (not including tax and license fees!) in the Sacramento area. Quite honestly it was relatively easy to get that price, which is $7K off the MSRP. I may have been able to get a lower price, but I didn't want to push my luck and they only had one SE with DAP on the lot. Another dealer in the Sacramento area had online pricing of $5K off the MSRP. I notified my local salesman of this and asked him if he would "sweeten" the deal and take $7K off the MSRP and he did.
Oh, yeah; the dealer insisted I had to use VW Financing to get this "special low price". So, I did that and after the 1st payment I refinanced through a credit union at a lower interest rate. As long as you refinance within the year you bought the car you can get "new car" finance rates.
Some may scoff at this but I purchased the VW 7 year, 100K mile, zero deductible bumper to bumper extended warranty for $1600 (after extensive negotiation to reduce the price). Yes, the high voltage battery is already warrantied for 100K miles, but there is a lot of other stuff that isn't. Such as the electric motor and the gear reduction/ differential which is made in China; the charging circuitry, the motor controller and the cooling systems for all these major components.
Note; the Out The Door price (which includes tax and license fees) will vary depending on the state and county you live in (some counties have much higher sales tax than other counties especially in CA). The dealer should charge you the sales tax for the county you live in not the county the dealer is located in! You have to pay sales tax on the full price paid, in my case $26,500.00.
Be sure and check if your county has any additional rebates. For example El Dorado County, CA has a $1K rebate. Also, PG&E in Northern CA has an $800.00 rebate. The $2500.00 CA state rebate is currently taking 2-1/2 months to receive. The BS is that they have so many people requesting rebates that they are 2-1/2 months behind!!
If you can qualify for the $7500.00 Fed rebate, then buy a 2019 e-Golf, as others on this thread have said it can actually be cheaper than the used ones. Besides, the new ones have more safety features, nicer wheels, etc, etc. I started out looking at used ones, but for some reason the dealers just won't drop the price much. I guess they have more room to drop the price, when it starts out at $33K+.
I did some research on the VW iDE (the replacement for the current e-Golf) and decided not to wait for it for the following reasons;
1) The base model still has under 200 miles of range and will cost $40K - $50K. My "Guess-O-Meter" has shown 140 miles of range several times after a full charge after combined freeway, and city driving.
2) The battery is still passively cooled.
3) VW has indicated they will sell it in Germany 1st, then China and then the US, so what year might we see it here??
4) The current administration could end the $7500 tax credit at anytime. I just hope it lasts for the 2019 tax year!
5) The $2500 CA rebate is funded by some mumbo-jumbo carbon credits scheme, which could end at anytime.
6) The sooner you acquire a Full EV, the sooner you can start saving $$. This is especially true if you have sufficient solar electricity generation on your house to charge your EV, or you take advantage of PG&E's Off Peak electricity rates; last time I checked they were $0.10kWh.
Thanks for reading and Good Luck!
