Something has to be done with all those cars and there is only so much that compounds or airfields can take, which is why dealers are persuaded to register some of their allocation and rental fleets are asked to take them on. These, ladies and gentlemen, are nearly new cars (NNC). As new, but with a filled-in V5 log book and often a fairly marginal mileage. So the asking price for what is either a dealer demonstrator or pre-reg car will be rather less than full retail price. New in all but name. What’s not to like? We say: buy while stocks last.As we all know and accept, the MX-5 is the single greatest roadster ever invented. The simple fact is that more people buy these when it is sunny, but an RF is the obvious all-year-round option. They are a tad better value of the current crop of pre-registered ‘demonstrators’. Pop along to your local dealer and see what they have on the forecourt.Under the dictionary definition of ‘nearly new car’, surely there would be a picture of a traditional family Ford, be it a Cortina, or the very latest Mondeo. That’s how they roll, making lots of cars, which are not the top fleet choice any more, so they have to be priced attractively. There are a lot of 2.0 TDCi 180 ST-Lines around at £20k. We got a little distracted by a top-of-the-line Vignale on 11 miles with kitchen-sink specification.Volvo can do no wrong. When it comes to SUVs, it dominates the school run and company car park, but saloons are a bit more sticky these days and not on-trend. The S90 is still a handsome old thing, but it does require some dealer contribution to move off the forecourt. If you go for their PCP offers, they will take £3511.20 off the full price, so that’s a discount right there. However, a preregistered car with under 10 miles helps buyers to save about £10,000.I suppose not everyone is really that keen on a four-cylinder sporting Jaguar. Not only that, but most are not sold on the F-Type. Combine that with a bit of a downturn and an awful lot of recent Fs are in circulation. Most are dealer demonstrators, so they have 5000-6000 miles under the wheels. We found a convertible at coupé prices and a lot were loaded with £10,000 of extra spec.I suppose there comes a point when the world really is overstuffed with compact SUVs. The C3 is actually rather good, even though it looks like an overinflated balloon interpretation of an SUV. Right now, there are a lot of Feel-specification models being pre-registered and most have just a few miles on the clock. The others are demonstrators, but do look around because we found that Start/Stop examples and automatics are around £1000 more.I doubt I’m the only one who is now truly baffled by BMW’s model naming and whole niche policy. That certainly explains why many buyers just take the simple way out with a 3 or 5 Series if they want a saloon with decent rear head room. GTs are pre-registered at the main dealers and the interesting thing is that if you can find the more expensive and better-equipped M Sport, it can be picked up for the same money as the standard example.
Renault Twingo 0.9 TCe Energy Dynamique SSThe Twingo is going to disappear from our showrooms and already the purge of this cute city runabout is happening. You can get it in only Play and Iconic trim as a new car now but we chanced across a higher-specification Dynamique Start Stop. Well, it would have been more than £12k. They have filtered out beyond dealers to car supermarkets. The mileage can be well below 1000 miles to a fairly marginal 44 and up to 5000.Surely, Volkswagen doesn’t need to offer deals on what is its cash cow, does it? Again, oversupply is always an issue and there’s a Mk8 Golf on its way so dealers need to make room for their new demos. As a result, it is possible to come across an SE with all the clever infotainment services that buyers want. This one is fashionably petrol, but the 1.6 TDI diesel is also entry-level priced.
