Recently, we featured a road test of the new Audi S5, and the process of writing it gave me an excuse to engage in an underrated pastime: playing with car configurators.
All in the name of research, you understand. Not time-wasting. Not at all.
The thing with cars like the S5 is that you don’t just have to restrict yourself to the pedestrian UK version; you can indulge in the much fuller-featured German one.
Who needs Duolingo when audi.de can teach you useful words like ‘Außengeräuschdämmung’ and ‘Kopfstützenlautsprecher’? Once you can make sense of the endless compound words, what’s striking is how much more choice of options and customisation buyers get on the mainland.
Mercedes-Benz is probably an even better example of this than Audi. Take the C-Class. Over here, you get a handful of trim levels (mostly AMG Lines of some description), you can choose a paint colour and an interior colour and that’s it.
In Germany, if you want a C180 that looks like poverty spec on the outside but has every conceivable option inside, with brown nappa leather and adaptive dampers? Good luck trying to resell it later, but it’s your depreciation: go for it.
It’s the same at BMW, which won’t sell you a diesel 5 Series at all in the UK but still offers a 540d (with a straight six) in Germany. This isn’t a new development. Choice has been restricted in the UK for years.
I’ve been told this is largely due to the UK market being driven very strongly by monthly rates and therefore residual values. As such, it’s easier to determine (and maximise) the values for a couple of select trim levels and a handful of option packs rather than a million different individual configurations.
Although there may be some chicken or egg going on here, British buyers generally seem to be more cautious and fashion-driven than European buyers, gravitating towards restrained interior colours but big wheels and some sort of sporty exterior styling.
Complain all you want that cars are getting too expensive: posh trims are what people are buying, even on Dacias.
There’s also clearly more of a trend to buy cars from stock here rather than custom order, which shows in the size of dealerships: they tend to be a lot bigger.
