Just looked at the pricing for a Mk7 Golf GT TDI, managed to get my ideal spec to £26,840. Not that many options selected. Looked at the finance options, with a moderate deposit adn 20k miles per year it was £511 p/m, and that was on solutions (PCP) not hire purchase. So imagine the balloon payment after 3 years on top of that.
Now, unfortunately BMW have removed their finance offer of 3.9% APR, but when it was in place you could spec up a 120d 3dr Hatch to the same price and with the dealer deposit contribution and working out what BMW discount would be on top, you could get the payments somewhere around £300 p/m. Also on PCP.
Move to Vauxhall and they are offering ridiculouse discounts and 0% APR (until 7th Jan). You can buy an Astra GTC 2.0 SRi CDTi for about £18000 with a load of options added, and can buy it on hire purchase outright for less than the BMW on PCP. With a 1st owner lifetime warranty to 100k miles.
I know depreciation counts for a lot, but if you just want a car to commute in for 5 years and cover a lot of miles, how are VW selling so many cars? Are the figures skewed? Is this the reason there are so many Insignias and Astras out there? Obviously, some people can afford to buy new cars outright. I wish i was one of them, but to be honest, you lose out more taking the whole hit on depreciation.