Purchasing a Used eGolf?

[joe77]

Hello everyone,,
Almost all of the sources I have consulted state that for the time being it's best to lease EVs only. Do not purchase as their value plummets. I tend to agree and when I look at used EVs it seems very evident that this is the case. Now, I just saw this '15 eGolf SEL with 7k miles for 20K on CarMax. An attractive price for an SEL pounds to dollars. Would you consider this deal? The problem is that in a few years this vehicle 384 miles will be worth probably half the purchase price. Is that a problem...maybe not if I am keeping it for the long term.

How many of you have purchased your eGolf?

 

[JoulesThief]

4 year old 2015 SEL. I bought it new, purchased outright. Still have it. 26.5k miles on it. Located in Southern CA.

Really not too concerned what it's worth. When new, it showed 129 miles of range on a full charge. It's now showing 112 to 114 miles of range on a full charge, in the middle of winter. It usually shows another 3 or 4 miles of range during the warmer seasons of the year here in So CA.

You are paying for transportation, a car isn't an investment.

For certain, if you take care of your e-Golf, the cost per mile traveled will be exceedingly low. It may or may not be offset by depreciation rates.

I don't consider a 4 + year old 2015 SEL with 7 k miles on it for 20k a good deal at all. I'd be more inclined to find one with 25 to 40k miles on it for maybe close to half that price, $10 -13k.

 

[f1geek]

The lease vs buy decision is a very personal one for any car. It depends on what you expect from the car's performance, how much you are willing to pay, etc. "Value plummets" is not technically correct for EVs since many EVs, like mine, provide the owner with a $7500 tax credit and potentially an additional $2000 to $5000 in rebates. With all of these incentives, a $35,000 MSRP car can "suddenly" be worth $20,000 because the owner is willing to part with it for much less than MSRP since he has pocketed a large sum of money. If you take this into account, you will find depreciation on many EVs is not much different than ICE cars. I think $20,000 is excessive for a 5 year old car, even though it has so few miles. I think it should be more like $15,000, partly due to its 24 kWh (smallish) gross capacity battery pack.

I bought my 2017 e-Golf LE because I got $7500 "cash on the hood" from the VW dealer and also go the $7500 USA federal tax credit. After taxes, I paid about $22,500 for the car, put $0 down and got a 5 year 0% interest loan. The range is perfect for me and I plan to keep it for at least 150,000 miles. I could not have found a lease deal anywhere near this good.

 

[JoulesThief]

F1geek is correct on the good lease deals. They have pretty much evaporated into thin air from VW of America. Leasing is now exceedingly expensive for these cars, the incentives are poor.

 

[SunnySoCal]

Hello everyone,,
Almost all of the sources I have consulted state that for the time being it's best to lease EVs only. Do not purchase as their value plummets. I tend to agree and when I look at used EVs it seems very evident that this is the case. Now, I just saw this '15 eGolf SEL with 7k miles for 20K on CarMax. An attractive price for an SEL pounds to dollars. Would you consider this deal? The problem is that in a few years this vehicle will be worth probably half the purchase price. Is that a problem...maybe not if I am keeping it for the long term.

How many of you have purchased your eGolf?

I purchased a new 2019 SE w/DAP last July.

Dealer knocked off $10k off MRSP.
Fed/State/utility credit& rebates made it:

$15k total out of pocket price including tax.

Many people got an even better deal/ more incentives.

It’d be interesting to see if 2020 e-Golf gets discounted as much as 2019. Then you might have more reason to buy one new w a bigger battery than 2015.

$15k for a brand new car (my first) is not bad.

I plan on driving it until it doesn’t work anymore.

 

[f1geek]

There will be no 2020 e-Golf.

https://media.vw.com/en-us/releases/1186

Get your 2019 while they are still being produced. VW will stop production soon to shift to MEB EVs.

 

[eGolfJoe]

I purchased a new 2019 SE w/DAP last July.

Dealer knocked off $10k off MRSP.
Fed/State/utility credit& rebates made it:

$15k total out of pocket price including tax.

Same here, same deal. Love the car, wish it had more range or at least a solid, dependable range on the freeway (it's quite variable depending on traffic and elevations changes)