Used car depreciation.

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Wed 4 Feb 2015 17:49
Used car depreciation. - lucasledge

Hello,

I think I am in need of a new used car and I have narrowed my options down to either buying a used car somewhere in the region of about £8000 or waiting a year for my ideal car the updated Mazda 3 to come down in price enough for me to be able to afford it.

The problem with the first option is the cars that I like have to have quite high mileage to fit my budget and I feel that's always a bit of a risk.

The problem with the second option is that I don't know if it is a viable one or not. What price will the used updated Mazda 3's be in about a year's time. If it's much more than £10,000 then I may as well just try to get a decent car now.



So my question is how much do you think used 2014 Mazda 3s will be in about a year's time bearing in mind the cheapest now are around £14,000 with very low mileage?

www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/cars/mazda/mazda3...t

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Wed 4 Feb 2015 17:57
Used car depreciation. - RT

In a year's time, a 2014 Mazda 3 will worth about the same as a 2013 Mazda 3 is now, plus a year's inflation.

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Wed 4 Feb 2015 17:58
Used car depreciation. - Avant

Roughly the same as what a 2013 Mazda 3 would cost now. Out of interest I looked on your link and changed the age choice to 'up to 2 years': most are over £9,000.

So if you wait a year, with luck you'll have saved a bit more and can get the car you want.

If you need a car now, you may find that something like a Focus is cheaper as there are more of them around: but I'd guess that for £8,000 you're looking at cars of this size that are 2 years old or more.

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Wed 4 Feb 2015 19:25
Used car depreciation. - lucasledge

Thanks for the replies. The answer of course seems obvious but I just wanted to see what kind of difference the new model would play in the price.

The new, refreshed model came out last year (it might have actually been right at the end of 2013). So a 2014 Mazda3 'old model' I'd imagine would be around a grand or so cheaper than the newer model with roughly the same spec and milage.

But I'm only guessing. So do you think I would more likely be looking at £10,000-£11,000 at a bare minimum?

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Wed 4 Feb 2015 22:52
Used car depreciation. - confusedbuyer

I would guess that they will hold at around £11k. Higher mileages obviously command less, but until the fleets start releasing volumes at 3-ish years into a model's history values tend to be stronger - I learnt that with the Focus II and Megane coupe III, I bought both at 2 years into their model life and both devalued like a stone within a year as supply eased onto the used market and newer models came out...

If you're in the market for that size of car I would personally consider a 3 year Focus at present value for your £8k, but that's just me. My other half has a Volvo V40 which is built on the Focus and I think its better than my Audi A3 - certainly in terms of ride, engine, spec and comfort.

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