... continue to amaze.
Case in point: A guy near me selling an average looking 12 year old jap pickup truck. He wants $3,800 for it. Later the same day I passed what looked like a late 1980s relic with rot on the doors and they wanted $1,000!
Yet looking on the austin rover forum there's a guy wondering about putting a new 200 quid clutch in his 12 year old Primera which he says still has many many more miles in it, because this is more than the car is worth.
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A friend of mine bought a 10+yr old Honda Civic recently for $5000.
But you don't need to count your pence during re-fuelling :)
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All the more remarkable because ISTR that there is no MoT in most/all states? A banger with 12 months MoT, but no tax is worth £250-£300.
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So what's the explanation for such gradual depreciation?
I've noticed it on Merc's. A $60K new E500 (eat your heart out!) is still $40K at 3 yrs old. Considering the astonishingly cheap lease deals that are availble, it impossible to understand why there's any used demand at all.
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So what's the explanation for such gradual depreciation? I've noticed it on Merc's. A $60K new E500 (eat your heart out!) is still $40K at 3 yrs old. Considering the astonishingly cheap lease deals that are availble it impossible to understand why there's any used demand at all.
I was hoping somebody here could enlighten me!
I first thought I was just seeing a bunch of hopelessly over optimistic people, but it seems standard here.
And it's not as though new cars are staggeringly expensive. A new Corolla starts at about fifteen and a half grand!
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Maybe its us in the UK with the skewed perception? We're used to car values dropping like a stone so we think thats normal. UK cars now depreciate faster than before the introduction of the new reg system with twice yearly reg change, just as the Govt intended, dont they?
Maybe the 'need to have a brand new car' culture is not as strong over there as here, and I dont know how popular lease deals are? Is there a cultural thing for/against leasing cars?
If thats the case then taking the E500 example, why buy a new one when you can save $20k and buy a 3 year old one, which is no different apart from it may have different headlights. Its still a well built German luxury car with many many years life in it (especially if it lives in a dry climate and has spent most of its time cruising sedately along straight roads).
I may be wide of the mark here, I know nothing about the US car market, just mulling it over!.
;o)
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I have discussed this with my CA friends on my occasions. They buy their new Subarus at about 2/3rds UK prices (if not less) and continue to have amazingly strong residuals. The 2 main factors are (in my opinion) continued cheap gas prices and the marque is much more widespread than here in the UK.
I sold my last Legacy GLS estate for only £1900 and it was immaculate....2 pevious owners, FSH, no accidents, new tyres, long T & T. In CA you can ask, and get, double that for tatty examples...my friend had a very well used example and sold it on 'Greggs List' within days..people were beating her door down. Then she got a new model 2.5 Outback for $24,800 some 18 months ago. Amazed me.
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Maybe the 'need to have a brand new car' culture is not as strong over there as here and I dont know how popular lease deals are? Is there a cultural thing for/against leasing cars?
In the six county area round Chicago the average car is apparently 9 years old (and something like 65% of them are American models.)
Leases are pretty popular, I leased a car here, but wouldn't do it again for all the reasons you'd expect. I think you could lease a 2008 328i for about $350 a month.
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I've noticed it on Merc's. A $60K new E500 (eat your heart out!) is still $40K at 3 yrs old.
How do the prices in UK compare for that car ? ( I don't mean the £ vs $ figures - because the currency differences is a different issue all together, but I am interested to know just the depreciation over 3 years for the same car in the UK ).
Edited by jbif on 07/03/2008 at 14:53
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>> I've noticed it on Merc's. A $60K new E500 (eat your heart out!) is still $40K at 3 yrs old. How do the prices in UK compare for that car ?
£48K new (and I'm not going to check item by item, but from experiece I would expect the US model to be better equipped).
One significant thing is that the US prices are always quoted tax free - their sales tax and other charges would add maybe $5000. Of course our price include VAT at 17.5%. Still a very big difference though, even allowing for those difference.
There's only one 2005 E500 on MB Approved Used search, with 25K miles it's up for £23850, and that's with some options.
Edited by Bill Payer on 07/03/2008 at 16:36
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it's a bit of a mystery to me as I'd imagine with such accessible new vehs and aggressive leasing deals alot of American friends of mine never seem to be in anything other than almost new cars (at least once college years are over).
Also I think in the US there is more over production than here so imagine there is alot of offloading of vehs at mad cheap prices new...
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