New vs Used?

[motorbiking]

Looking to buy a new car.. Its quite a bit of cash. Currently a 2 year old model with 20-30k on is 75% of the new price. I prefer not to buy new, because of the initial loss and the fact that my family tend to trash stuff anyway.

As a rough guide - how much would you expect a luxury car to drop in 2 years (dealer/manufacturer retail price)?

 

[Bonni]

The new car obviously has VAT added so as soon as you drive away, it can have lost 20% straight away.

Normally through accounts, 25% yearly reducing balance is applied as depreciation against vehicles.

Yr 1 - £20,000 - 25% = £15,000
Yr 2 - £15,000 - 25% = £11,250
Yr 3 - £11,250 - 25% = £8,437.50.....
....and so on

 

[DaveHerns]

Look on Autotrader for examples of what you fancy. Generally used cars are 50% of the new price at 3 years old. Some more,some less.

 

[JohnD]

As a rough guide - how much would you expect a luxury car to drop in 2 years (dealer/manufacturer retail price)?

Luxury cars can drop a lot more than the average. Servicing costs can be high due to complexity, expensive parts, and scarcity of independent specialists. A supercharged 5-litre car will always have expensive brakes and tyres. If you have a brand in mind, look for an independent specialist near you.

They tend to be either company cars (maintained regardless of expense) or owned by prosperous old men, some of whom do low mileage and cosset their motors in air-conditioned garages.

 

[motorbiking]

I'm just not seeing those kind of drops on this particular brand/model.. Its putting me off a bit as I'm wondering if the big drop has yet to come. I've been burned before buying a car that has a great reputation only to find a major issue a couple of years later which makes the value plummet.

I had a Nissan X-trail a few years ago.. all the reviews raved about them, then the fuel pump issues emerged and nobody would touch them. Mine went at 45,000 miles - Nissan repair bill £5k (pump, turbo, cooler etc), value of car at the time about £8k.

 

[mointainwalker]

I'm just not seeing those kind of drops on this particular brand/model.. Its putting me off a bit as I'm wondering if the big drop has yet to come. I've been burned before buying a car that has a great reputation only to find a major issue a couple of years later which makes the value plummet.

I had a Nissan X-trail a few years ago.. all the reviews raved about them, then the fuel pump issues emerged and nobody would touch them. Mine went at 45,000 miles - Nissan repair bill £5k (pump, turbo, cooler etc), value of car at the time about £8k.

I'm obviously unsure which make you are looking at, but have read that some premium makes - MB and BMW at least, probably Porsche too - run some kind of schemes with their dealers whereby they seek to keep second-hand values high, for a few years at least, to protect the brand image and values . In respect of your Nissan comment, I try to seek out vehicles with the least amount of sophisticated fripperies possible, as I don't really believe that any dealership is always going to be capable of dealing with electric-hoods, head-up displays and possible software conflicts between systems. I recall reading a few years back that MB had to delay the introduction of a new model ( S Series ? ) just because they didn't have enough software engineers to integrate and de-bug the HUD and Night Vision (infra-red )headlight systems. I would also think it likely that the spares cost for this kind of unique equipment is going to be staggering. This philosophy clearly really rules out the type of car you are considering.

 

[motorbiking]

Its a Tesla Model S 75D, that I'm considering.. I want the face lift version so it has to be a 2016 or newer. Its that or a Jaguar iPace, but they are a bit new for me to risk and I'm not sure about delivery times.

 

[mointainwalker]

That's interesting and certainly explains why you are uncertain about s/h prices. Since you are seriously interested ,I imagine you have been going through forums for owners' experiences. What do they say about reliability, servicing etc ? I am only moderately informed about electric motors, but I'm certain that you are going to be much less exposed to the type of fault that could crop up at - say - 50K with a traditional clutch or gearbox and I'm sure you've done research on what is said about battery-life etc.

Do all the guarantees carry over to new owners ?

 

[Ian H]

Could you get a used, pre registered car?

I just bought a BMW, 18reg with 14miles on the clock. The dealership registered it so they are the first owner and i’m the second. If you made the car on the BMW website it would be £35025, I paid £23000 and hope to get £18000 for it in 3 years.

 

[motorbiking]

That's interesting and certainly explains why you are uncertain about s/h prices. Since you are seriously interested ,I imagine you have been going through forums for owners' experiences. What do they say about reliability, servicing etc ? I am only moderately informed about electric motors, but I'm certain that you are going to be much less exposed to the type of fault that could crop up at - say - 50K with a traditional clutch or gearbox and I'm sure you've done research on what is said about battery-life etc.

Do all the guarantees carry over to new owners ?

People seem to love them. There are build quality issues (as with any car) and parts are hard to get if you have a crash. The warranty is certainly better than normal cars 8 years on the expensive bits and 4 years on the rest, servicing costs are high for the type of car. I think I'm over paying about 15% taking in to account fuel costs.

I have a suspicion that battery and motor issues/reliability if any are being silent recalled, so for example the cars showing 100k on the clock might have replacement motors, you'd never know if Tesla did it as a service item (e.g. Trigger's broom). Generally people are claiming 90% capacity between 100-200k miles. By comparison, I've never had a laptop pack last 4-5 years. I suspect Tesla are calculating that they can replace the battery at much reduced cost in 5-6 years time.

Could you get a used, pre registered car?

I just bought a BMW, 18reg with 14miles on the clock. The dealership registered it so they are the first owner and i’m the second. If you made the car on the BMW website it would be £35025, I paid £23000 and hope to get £18000 for it in 3 years.

No they are like Apple and Porsche for pricing - take it or leave it

Some manufacturers will discount a lot, I got 10k off my Volvo and the forums say this is normal.

 

[JohnD]

Elon Musk is getting increasingly eccentric (a common hazard for billionaire bosses) and his business has never turned a profit. So far it is gushing money at the top about as fast as hopeful investors push it in into the bottom of the pyramid.

He claimed to have secured the funding to buy out the investors and take it private, but this appears to have been a fantasy.

There is a view that when electric car technology becomes good business, the large scale car makers (who know how to make cars by the million, profitably, and have huge research, manufacturing, sales and service organisations) will swoop in and push out all but a few niche makers in the Aston Martin mould.

It is reported today that that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has sent subpoenas to Tesla about its privatisation plans and chief executive Elon Musk's statement "funding secured", because this had the effect, possibly unintentional, of manipulating the share price on false rumour.

 

[mointainwalker]

chief executive Elon Musk's statement "funding secured", because this had the effect, possibly unintentional, of manipulating the share price on false rumour.

Ha Ha - Musk is completely convinced of his own invincibility: I believe it's 70/30 against

 

[DaveHerns]

I wouldn't sink my own money into a used Tesla. Too many uncertanties. Fine if it's leased or through a company. Current residuals may be high because they're rare but future residuals low because of reliability or repair costs. However having said that, look at how many old Priuses are running around as minicabs.

 

[motorbiking]

Yes - these are all reasons why I haven't yet parted with any money. That and the alternative ICE cars that can be had for similar cash. e.g. F-type, M, RS, AMG

 

[DaveHerns]

The term ICE would include diesels, surely? If you're considering M's RS's and AMG's , then environmental considerations aren't your first concern?