Anyone bothered/obsessed about depreciation.

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I've got a Fun Manager as well , she also doubles up as a speed restrictor . :(


Mine also has radar, it tells me where to go......
 
The only car I would have ever bought brand new would have been an Aston Martin DB9 convertible as I would have kept it until I died. I buy mine after the initial chunk of depreciation has happened. We bought a 4 year old Range Rover supercharged V8 7 years ago with just 30,000 miles on it for £30,000, the first owner from Kensington London paid £98,000. We still have the mud plugger, which has only cost me a suspension sensor £120, a coolant bottle £150, and a £2000 lpg conversion which paid for itself in the first year, in 54,000 miles. Therefore its good un and a keeper.

My 1999 R129 is allegedly worth more than I paid for it 10 years ago and i've added 40,000 miles to that. An old neighbour of mine in the 80's always bought SL's, kept them for 2 years and because demand was so high would sell them back to the dealer for the same money.

My mate part exchanged his 2 year old F-Type with 5,000 miles on it for £50,000 less than he paid for it but got £40,000 off the 1 year old 911 Carerra S with just 2,000 miles.

In other words I would hate the extortionate depreciation which to me suggests that new cars must be overpriced to begin with. It makes me laugh when people cry over £10k lost on the stock market but accept a £20k,£30k,£40k loss on a car in a short period of time.
 
Am I bovvered? Well yes and no!
Being of Scottish decent I certainly don't do throwing money away, but I am more controlled by my love of car technology. It's been my business for the past 40 years and I've been privileged to sample some great examples of it.
Earlier this year I got to sample the latest Bentley Flying Spur and Conti GT. I was deeply impressed the strides forward made in the 5 years since I retired from there.
Now, I'm never going to be in a position to buy a new one of those, however I've worked out a cunning way to enjoy the vast majority of that progress in a car costing about 25% of a Bentley.
It won't be new, it was born at Christmas making it 6 months and 3k miles old and will cost me 50% of its RRP with still 30 months of manufacturer warranty.
I have fallen in love with the refinement it offers. After spending most of my life at race tracks, the last thing I want is a noisy exhaust and rigid ride.
Don't mind a good turn of speed though.
I'll pick it up on Monday.
 
In other words I would hate the extortionate depreciation which to me suggests that new cars must be overpriced to begin with. It makes me laugh when people cry over £10k lost on the stock market but accept a £20k,£30k,£40k loss on a car in a short period of time.

Cars are over priced ...enter CarWow. When I ordered my SL, I specified it from a base price of 72K to about 86k with my "nice to haves" and put it on CarWow. Dealers came back at around 62k . Bearing in mind that this was the first of the facelift and a factory order - dealers were not trying to clear stock as they did not have what I wanted (I had to wait 6 months for it to be built in Sindelfingen). My local dealer offered me 10k off which I refused and they then matched the CarWow offers I'd received. So not a cheap car but getting ~25% discount really makes me feel very little concern about depreciation.

I've had my years of losing on depreciation but I've also had good years. e.g. When I moved to OZ and the 2008 financial crash happened, I ordered a Landcruiser 200 from the factory and then had it refitted as a proper off-roader, (nitrogen shocks, bigger springs(lift), off-road tyres, ARB bullbar, spot lights, interior storage drawers, auxiliary battery systems, 2way radio etc) ~AUD$100k all in. Paid for it (weak AU$) with my forex (US$ / GBP) and when I sold it (4 years later) I effectively got my money back (again using exchange rates on a AU$ that had strengthened & the car had cost me nothing).4F287A56-EF03-4EA0-9696-E946D774827B_4_5005_c.jpeg
 
................................ It makes me laugh when people cry over £10k lost on the stock market but accept a £20k,£30k,£40k loss on a car in a short period of time.

Those guys are usually the people that think they can play the markets (so it is their failure when they lose). If you buy a new car depreciation is a fact of life and they can live with it.

I wish I could afford to buy a car that could be considered an asset in my lifetime.
 
Personally when I buy a car it's because that's the car I really want at that time, I'll like modding the car and keep it well maintained and super clean. To be honest depreciation doesn't even enter my mind. If you become obsessed about a car losing money you'd never get one, certainly not the car, you REALLY want. :)
As one of the sages on this forum suggested to me some months ago "When you're buying, depreciation is your friend but your enemy when you are selling"
Days before lockdown I bought an R231 SL400 privately, having been tempted by a very attractive, close to trade price. Depreciation was a great friend. However, yesterday I sold my R230 SL350 for £3K less than I paid for it 12 months ago. This was more or less twice as much depreciation as I had expected. It did hurt but was a pure reflection of the state of the market and the country.
We often buy on impulse and then rationalize at our leisure. I am rationalizing my loss through the savings on the SL400 and a crisis over which I have no influence! This is also what I'm telling she who believes herself to be my Senior Management.
 
As one of the sages on this forum suggested to me some months ago "When you're buying, depreciation is your friend but your enemy when you are selling"
Days before lockdown I bought an R231 SL400 privately, having been tempted by a very attractive, close to trade price. Depreciation was a great friend. However, yesterday I sold my R230 SL350 for £3K less than I paid for it 12 months ago. This was more or less twice as much depreciation as I had expected. It did hurt but was a pure reflection of the state of the market and the country.
We often buy on impulse and then rationalize at our leisure. I am rationalizing my loss through the savings on the SL400 and a crisis over which I have no influence! This is also what I'm telling she who believes herself to be my Senior Management.
Yep, but did you enjoy the
R230 SL350 in the 12 months you had it, I'm presuming you did, so don't worry about the depreciation, because we can't do nothing about it, certainly in most cases.
:) 👍
 
Yep, but did you enjoy the
R230 SL350 in the 12 months you had it, I'm presuming you did, so don't worry about the depreciation, because we can't do nothing about it, certainly in most cases.
:) 👍
Hi, yes of course I enjoyed the 350, the 400 is my third SL in three years. I have really got the bug and am so frustrated that it has not been driven a mile since I got it home. Wales is still in travel lockdown and it's been SORNed since April 1. Hey ho.
 
Hi, yes of course I enjoyed the 350, the 400 is my third SL in three years. I have really got the bug and am so frustrated that it has not been driven a mile since I got it home. Wales is still in travel lockdown and it's been SORNed since April 1. Hey ho.
Hopefully you'll be driving it very soon. :) 👍
 
One of my work colleagues bought an X5 a while ago. It depreciated a grand a month while he had it.

Needless to say he wasn’t that impressed.

But surely that is what people know beforehand right ? Actually to be honest, I only really learned about depreciation when it came to PCPs - they give you a good idea how much a particular car is worth after three years or so ...
 
The only car I would have ever bought brand new would have been an Aston Martin DB9 convertible as I would have kept it until I died. I buy mine after the initial chunk of depreciation has happened. We bought a 4 year old Range Rover supercharged V8 7 years ago with just 30,000 miles on it for £30,000, the first owner from Kensington London paid £98,000. We still have the mud plugger, which has only cost me a suspension sensor £120, a coolant bottle £150, and a £2000 lpg conversion which paid for itself in the first year, in 54,000 miles. Therefore its good un and a keeper.

My 1999 R129 is allegedly worth more than I paid for it 10 years ago and i've added 40,000 miles to that. An old neighbour of mine in the 80's always bought SL's, kept them for 2 years and because demand was so high would sell them back to the dealer for the same money.

My mate part exchanged his 2 year old F-Type with 5,000 miles on it for £50,000 less than he paid for it but got £40,000 off the 1 year old 911 Carerra S with just 2,000 miles.

In other words I would hate the extortionate depreciation which to me suggests that new cars must be overpriced to begin with. It makes me laugh when people cry over £10k lost on the stock market but accept a £20k,£30k,£40k loss on a car in a short period of time.

@swithin The only thing that puts me off buying a 4yr old car is warranty to be honest. But see the e63s - dropped 30k in 4 months (4k miles) so still got (almost) full warranty. Speaking of DB9 - I put a deposit down for a 4yr old one a few years back and chickened out.

Basically I ended up being sensible - whilst I had the means to buy the car - the no-warranty works scared me. So I thought - given I need to think about it and be scared about unknown costs, I am clearly not rich enough to afford one .... so ended up with an Audi A6 back then ....
 
@swithin The only thing that puts me off buying a 4yr old car is warranty to be honest. But see the e63s - dropped 30k in 4 months (4k miles) so still got (almost) full warranty. Speaking of DB9 - I put a deposit down for a 4yr old one a few years back and chickened out.

Basically I ended up being sensible - whilst I had the means to buy the car - the no-warranty works scared me. So I thought - given I need to think about it and be scared about unknown costs, I am clearly not rich enough to afford one .... so ended up with an Audi A6 back then ....

aftermarket warranties are available...as are manufacturers warranties...

the warranty on your E63 wasn’t free...
 
One of my work colleagues bought an X5 a while ago. It depreciated a grand a month while he had it.

Needless to say he wasn’t that impressed.
Is he a numpy? ;)
 
I suppose depreciation only concerns those that cannot afford it.

Or don't wish to spend money in that way...

There's cars I could afford to buy but wouldn't want to spend the money in depreciation on.

It’s all rock and roll in your house!! ;)

Lol.

If you need to spend money on those things I listed to have fun, you don't have much imagination. ;)
 
Whether you are bothered by depreciation or not, one thing for sure it's it's getting worse which is odd when cars are getting better at least in some respects.

I can't really believe these figures but if they even approach the truth then a retained value of 30% after 3 years is appalling. I defy anyone to pretend to be unconcerned at such a figure.

The 10 fastest-depreciating cars 2020

Persevere through the inevitable Citroens until you get to the MB's

For completeness the 10 slowest depreciating cars.

The 10 slowest-depreciating cars 2020
 
I'm not saying anyone is skint (apart from me) but I run old interesting (to me) cars that I enjoy, and generally I can sell them for somewhere near what they owe me.

However, I am sure that if a massive lottery win came my way and I was rich, I would buy cars brand new and give a jot about future residuals, therefore my comment made perfect sense to me.
 
Whether you are bothered by depreciation or not, one thing for sure it's it's getting worse which is odd when cars are getting better at least in some respects.

I can't really believe these figures but if they even approach the truth then a retained value of 30% after 3 years is appalling. I defy anyone to pretend to be unconcerned at such a figure.

The 10 fastest-depreciating cars 2020

Persevere through the inevitable Citroens until you get to the MB's

For completeness the 10 slowest depreciating cars.

The 10 slowest-depreciating cars 2020
I'll have one of those 3 year old £18k E53s please, ta!
 

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