Buying a new car is never cheap. Yet, if you tick too many boxes you can double the price of many cars with pricey optional extras. Do you think some optional extras shouldn’t be extras at all?
£9,924. That’s the average amount a Porsche Cayenne buyer spends on optional extras for their car. Hardly surprising when Porsche will charge you £587 for a spare wheel, £1,004 for a sunroof and £121 for floor mats…
Essentials like leather air vents are £1,206, coloured seat belts are £316, while an aluminium-look fuel cap is £89. Should you fancy 21-inch alloy wheels, that’ll be £3,699, while ‘special’ red paint is £1,619 and mahogany trim £1,906.
Porsche is hardly the only company playing this game though, with other big spending motorists including BMW X5 owners (£7,996 on extras) and Mercedes SLK owners (£6,290 on extras). Even the more affordable Vauxhall Insignia has an average option spend of £1,400…
Paying for your favourite car colour
Should you want a whole car for your £10k, you can pick up a top spec MG 3 and in return you get a standard digital radio, plus an entire car with an engine and five seats.
However, don’t think that MG buyers are free from a ludicrous range of paid-for extras. Metallic paint will set you back £395, you can pay £199 for a Mini-style roof motif, bonnet stripes will add another £59 to the total and having a different colour finish on your alloy wheels is £349. ‘Shocking pink’ wing mirrors are another £39, while MG wants £99 for shiny interior trim.
Tick every option on the list and your MG 3 can jump from £9,999 to nearly £13,000. And that’s nothing compared to the level of customisation you can get on a Mini or Vauxhall Adam. Vauxhall claims that the Adam has over a million different combinations of trim levels, colours, alloy wheels, engines, interior fabrics, graphics and other accessories.
But do you care? Do you really want to have the choice of lime green alloy wheels, pink wing mirrors and RAF style roundels on the roof. Do you have to have technology to help you park, keep you in your lane, and maintain a safe distance behind the car in front – and crucially are you willing to pay big money for it?
Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t see the point of delving deeper into my wallet for these toys.
What's most important to you when you're buying a car? Pick three options:
Reliability (25%, 943 Votes)
Purchase price (18%, 669 Votes)
Fuel economy (17%, 647 Votes)
Practicality (8%, 289 Votes)
Comfort (7%, 278 Votes)
Servicing/maintenance costs (5%, 204 Votes)
Depreciation (4%, 152 Votes)
Handling (4%, 140 Votes)
Performance (3%, 102 Votes)
Insurance (2%, 94 Votes)
Car tax (VED) (2%, 85 Votes)
Equipment/kit (2%, 80 Votes)
Styling (2%, 80 Votes)
Being seen in the right car (0%, 17 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,360
