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Is it normal for my Volkswagen Golf to depreciate by £6500 a year?

In September 2011, I purchased a Volkswagen Golf SE Cabriolet Blue Motion Tech 1.6 TDI with a high specification including leather seats, front and rear parking sensors, tracker device, Bluetooth, MP3 connect and cruise control for £25,500. I approached the original Volkswagen dealer with a view to buying a new Beetle Cabriolet and the most the dealer offered in part exchange was £13,000. That is a 50 per cent loss over two years, which I think is a rip-off considering the specification involved. Your website and other car guides are showing average trade in prices of £14,680 with a private sale of £16,500 for the specification as listed on this model. Having seen the value of this car drop by £6500 per year, should I take the loss and trade in at this price or sell privately before the value drops again and then purchase a different make or model?

Asked on 5 October 2013 by NO, Solihull

Answered by Honest John
On 20th September average asking prices were £14,870 - £16,480 and we rated private sale transaction prices at £13,200 to £14,600. Obviously you don’t get back the money you spent on some of the extras. Put it though www.sure-sell.info/ on a sunny day or offer it to Marc at www.mpmlimited.co.uk/ and you will get a fair trade price for it. Obviously if a trader buys it he will need to build a profit into it. But July when you wrote was the best time of year to sell a convertible. And, of course, the worst time of year to buy one. If you can’t get a sensible offer for it, keep it because though it will be worth less still next year, the rate of depreciation will have slowed down.
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