Golf R Observations and Questions

[SilvrFoxX]

Cool... so that quote is really about the same amount as your other one, just with the "rebate" to the dealer (and thus you) from VGA for the dealer delivery.

As for ACC and Dynaudio - do NOT take the dealers word for it. I've found that most people, including several sales people, simply do not understand what ACC is and what it does. Many think that ACC set to "normal" is the same as a car not fitted with ACC - this is rubbish. The ACC measures the suspension 1000 times per second, and then based on 3 profiles (sport, normal, comfort), dynamically adjusts the dampers to keep the car in an optimal travel position. This includes greatly reducing body roll in hard cornering. If you plan to spend $5k on aftermarket suspension and sway bars, then fine... but if you aren't, the ACC is a bargain, and also less of a compromise in ride quality than an aftermarket setup.

As for the Dynaudio, as with any audio topic, it's very subjective and the only right opinion is yours. Listen to both systems with a few of your CDs and make the decision for yourself. For the $1000 difference that the Dynaudio costs in combination with the Sat Nav, I'm of the opinion that there is no way you could install an aftermarket system which comes close to its quality for the price. So if sound quality is important to you, then it may be worth it for you.

I agree 100% with this statement.. though I was wondering if Danny was referring to both ACC and the DynoAudio upgrade or just the Audio.. as I do think that is not a good bang for buck investment

[Fab_R]

Both ACC and the Dynaudio upgrade in my opinion are certainly worth it.
Time over again, i would tick both boxes for sure.

[AdamD]

As for ACC and Dynaudio - do NOT take the dealers word for it.

+1 more. I didn't option ACC because my dealer told me it wasn't worthwhile, and that's really my only regret with my order.

As for the Dynaudio Excite (not DynoAudio, people...), if you're fussy about your audio, listen to higher-quality input sources (CD, high bitrate digital copies, etc) and like your mids and highs, I would strongly recommend it. Personally, I think it's a vast improvement over the stock setup and represents great value for money considering its performance and when compared to alternatives. (I have spent many hours listening to both systems to compare.)

[Danny]

Cool, thanks guys. Looks like I might do the ACC and Dynaudio afterall (SFox, the dynaudio im referring to is the $1k upgrade from the Nav unit). I will see what the price comes to with those installed. Its very hard, as I want to keep it under the LCT Threshold.

Just had another dealer come in at $57k flat. The spreadsheet is showing a 12.23% discount on list price.

-Dan

[simonm]

Don't forget that the LCT threshold does NOT include stamp duty or rego, but does include GST and dealer delivery.

So at $57k on road, you probably have $2-3k (LCT threshold is $57,460; stamp duty at 3% on $50k is $1,500; rego is probably at least $500) to play with, which should be enough to bargain in the DynAudio upgrade to you nav and the ACC without paying LCT.

[SilvrFoxX]

Cool, thanks guys. Looks like I might do the ACC and Dynaudio afterall (SFox, the dynaudio im referring to is the $1k upgrade from the Nav unit). I will see what the price comes to with those installed. Its very hard, as I want to keep it under the LCT Threshold.

Just had another dealer come in at $57k flat. The spreadsheet is showing a 12.23% discount on list price.

-Dan

OK.. I thought you were referring to the 3 k upgrade

[Danny]

Don't forget that the LCT threshold does NOT include stamp duty or rego, but does include GST and dealer delivery.

So at $57k on road, you probably have $2-3k (LCT threshold is $57,460; stamp duty at 3% on $50k is $1,500; rego is probably at least $500) to play with, which should be enough to bargain in the DynAudio upgrade to you nav and the ACC without paying LCT.

Now that is great to hear Simon. Cheers buddy.

[Corey_R]

Don't forget that the LCT threshold does NOT include stamp duty or rego, but does include GST and dealer delivery.

So at $57k on road, you probably have $2-3k (LCT threshold is $57,460; stamp duty at 3% on $50k is $1,500; rego is probably at least $500) to play with, which should be enough to bargain in the DynAudio upgrade to you nav and the ACC without paying LCT.

Now that is great to hear Simon. Cheers buddy.

Yeah, but stamp duty is payable on the LCT
In any case, Danny is using the spreadsheet, and it worries about all that stuff for you, so you don't have to spend hours researching the intricacies for your state (cause I already have!).

Edit: Oh, and forgot to mention, simonm's figures are all wrong for you, since you're in VIC and your tax laws are different to the rest of the country (ACT is similar but slightly diff to NSW too))

[Dyldo]

WHEELS magazine got 14.6 secs for a 3 door manual R in their current issue. As a comparison, the Evo got 13.96 and the manual STI 14.06 (or thereabouts).

A good question this one mate, was never able to break 14 secs in either of my WRX's while in stock form so hoping the Golf R will be well into the 13's.

did you have a classic or bugeye wrx? Cause i had a peanut-eye WRX wagon and got 13.9, but a mate launched hard and got 13.7.

[Prodigy]

did you have a classic or bugeye wrx? Cause i had a peanut-eye WRX wagon and got 13.9, but a mate launched hard and got 13.7.

I had a classic and a pignose. I'm sure my pignose would have been into the 13's when i sold it as i had it mildy tuned but never got around to taking it back to the track.

[simonm]

Yeah, but stamp duty is payable on the LCT
Edit: Oh, and forgot to mention, simonm's figures are all wrong for you, since you're in VIC and your tax laws are different to the rest of the country (ACT is similar but slightly diff to NSW too))

Not by much - LCT is Federal, so that's going to be the same, I've looked up Vic stamp duty and it's $5 per $200 value of the car if the car is under the LCT threshold of $57,466 (so effectively 2.5%).

So if it's currently $57k on road, subtract ~$500 rego (haven't looked it up, but I figure that $500 is pretty conservative), multiply $56k by 2.5/102.5 = ~$1,300 for stamp duty, so of the 57K on road, you're looking at ~$55,200 for car cost not including rego or stamp duty. $57,466 - $55,200 = $2,266 to play with. Given I've used conservative figures in there, and that there's some discount available on options, I reckon that the DynAudio upgrade ($1000) and ACC ($1500) is certainly achievable without hitting the LCT threshold.

[Corey_R]

Simon, whilst I'm glad that you're wanting to help people, putting un-specific information just leads people to make more assumptions and mistakes.... which is why we have gone to the effort of collecting ALL the information from the individual states and placing it into a spreadsheet which does the calculations for you.

It's in the first post of the Golf R Specifications and Prices thread.

This takes away generalistic comments like "subtract ~$500 rego" and all the other information that comes after that comment of yours. For NSW and QLD and VIC, the spreadsheet has calculated within 1c of the quotes that dealers have provided (where the dealers give you the breakdown, and members have shared with me for testing). There is currently a discrepency between what dealers are quoting for stamp duty in ACT which I'm trying to resolve (although by discrepency I mean the dealers are quoting as per the spreadsheet, but not necessarily what the ACT State Revenue office is saying since they updated the green car guide site).

In any case, the point of this post is not to criticise you. It's to hopefully enlighten you to the existence of the spreadsheet and explain why there is no need to generalise. Cheers

[simonm]

I realise that there is different registration costs - I even went to the Vic Roads sites (as linked from your spreadsheet). Because it's dependent on registered postcode, I can't give exact registration costs, and neither can your spreadsheet (since it just accepts 'Vic', not postcode (and the entire calculation behind that postcode aspect)).

Admittedly the difference is minimal, but someone in postcode 3000 is going to be paying $98 more for rego than someone in postcode 3100, for the EXACT same car, purely on rego costs. So, this also introduces a margin for error into your spreadsheet.

I appreciate the work you've put into it, and it was very helpful to me when I was looking for a price on my Golf R (and it's part of the reason I've contributed to this site - I figured the donation was more than offset by the saving I made as a result). However, it is only an approximation - some states have simple systems that can be matched easily, others like Vic that are postcode dependent can only be approximated without adding huge complexity (such as backend queries into the Vic systems to get exact rego based on postcode).

The lowest Vic rego for new cars that I found was $526. So again, taking a conservative estimate approach, using $500 is going to point to a minimum amount available to play with, and in all likelihood it will be better. Sure, there's a margin for error, but it will be in Danny's favour.

An alternate method Danny could use is to put in all his figures into your spreadsheet, including the dealer discount required to get to $57k on road. Then either add in the ACC and DynAudio options to see if the LCT value becomes non-zero, and if it does, work out what additional discount is required to get back below. I reckon it will be less than $250 (based on my calculations above) if it requires any discount at all.

[Mr_Bob]

Is it necessary to avoid LCT completely?
Isn't it only on the portion which is over the threshold?

If it's only $250 over, that's $75 + stamp duty?

[Corey_R]

Yeah Mr_Bob. That's basically how it works. However, VIC also have a "Stamp Duty" threshhold at the LCT figure too. You go from 2.5% to 5% stamp duty, and unlike NSW/ACT where the larger % is from the threshhold value, in VIC it's on the ENTIRE value, effectively meaning a $1 difference in the pre-tax price will cause a $1400 difference in post-tax price if you're at the threshold.

In any case, this is all represented in the in the calculator.

simonm - in relation to your post. It is not an approximation! If the prospective purchaser uses the spreadsheet and for the "complex states" goes to the links and enters their details to get the figures and places them back in the spreadsheet, then it is accurate data. As I've said, if used properly the spreadsheet will give you accuracy of +/-1c. This is why I am discouraging the use of generalistic posts of "how to calculate".

Sure, when someone posts here and says "I got this quote, what do you think", for those complex states I can only give an approximation back (such as using the postcode of 3000 for VIC), but the spreadsheet means the approximations in those situations are as close to possible and no mistakes are being made in which figures to calculate the various taxes on when replying to those quotes too.

Trust me, between this thread, the R prices thread, the GTI prices thread, the MK6 dealer prices thread (all much longer than this thread!), and other odds and ends, I've personally replied to more of these requests than all other members combined. Although there are exceptions, more often then not, members responding without using the spreadsheet are often $1000's of dollars out. Such as in the series of posts which caused you to start responding...