Check the motoring mags for the current price of the car you want and the one you’re cashing in
Check the motoring mags for the current price of the car you want, and the one you’re cashing in. Here are some ground rules for getting the best August bargains.RESEARCH: The crucial starting point; boring, if you’d sooner have your teeth pulled than spend an evening reading car magazines. This is the only time of year when there’s anything like a seller’s market, and the traders are there with a host of cut-price offers, financing deals and other incentives. If you don’t like them, hundreds of others might.
The good news is that manufacturers often put off raising prices until autumn – so now is the time to buy. And there are some attractive deals around registration day: a year’s free insurance, for example, is offered on some Fords. The value of August sales this year is estimated at pounds 4.5bn for the industry as a whole. In this late-summer sales offensive, offensive is perhaps the operative word.
The tour costs pounds 507 including flights, half board, bike hire, transfers and the service of a representative. Departures are every other day from thebeginning of August onwards.Headwater Holidays 01606 48699NEXT WEEK: holidays in the UK. FIRST, the bad news. Next Tuesday is 1 August, the day when the new N-reg plates arrive and the motor trade goes into a feeding frenzy. Sales of new cars in the month of August account for about a quarter of the annual figure, which last year meant 452,000 vehicles out of a total of two million.
Cycling on every other day, which allows the opportunity to relax, you visit pretty medieval villages and can sample some of the local wines on the way. Any wine you buy (and don’t drink) is moved along with your luggage. You travel independently, at your own pace, with maps provided for a route that includes abbeys and vineyards near the historic town of Auxerre. Departing late August, the three-night break to Rome costs pounds 357, including return flights, b&b accommodation and half a day’s guided walk.Citalia 0181-686 5533BURGUNDY BY BIKEFresh air, gentle exercise and wonderful scenery are the attractions of Headwater’s six-night cycling tour in Burgundy. The tour guide, David, an entertaining raconteur, is an authority on the lives of the saints. But the crypts, where Romans have been entombed over the centuries, are the main focus.