High mileage depreciation

[bropa09]

Hi,

I've got a question about depreciation on a car because of high mileage. What is the considered view?

I ask because when getting a trade price from the dealer, the guy pulls the bible (Glass' Guide) out and looks at the standard price, then based on the mileage over and above average (which is what these days? 15000 or 12000?) looks down a column and can tell exactly how much the car would be at trade.

I'm wondering whether there is some sort of rough guideline that says, for example, car depreciates £1000 per 10,000 miles over average, or something like that. Hopefully you can see where I'm coming from. I'm not sure whether there is an exact science to it, but I could be wrong...

Cheers

Paul

 

[mercmanuk]

i just sold a clk 200 to a stealer in part ex for a new c class.i got £3000 less than book value due to high milage ,it had 95000 at 6 years old....

 

[PJH]

Second hand car guides like Parkers or WhatCar have got a table printed
in them as a guide to how much should be deducted per thousand miles.
It varies with class of car and age.

Mercmanuk
WhatCar says a 1998 CLK200 is a D rating = £60 per thousand miles.

I bet the stealer didn't sell your old car £3,000 under list !!

 

[Flip]

I know it's not quite the line of your thread, but I have found high mileage Mercedes at finance auctions go for well below book.

I saw a 3 year old E320 with 130k miles go for '000s below an average mileage car - the buyer was the guy who had run it on the lease scheme (not sure why he didn't buy it direct at the end of lease?).

I've happily bought leggy, well maintained Mercs - with no probs.

:bannana:

 

[bropa09]

Thanks for the answers. Mind you, I wouldn't call 15,000 miles high. I would say more like average, but I guess if the dealers can get away with paying then they will! In these days of high commuting miles it's interesting to note that average miles for depreciation doesn't seem to change!

 

[Will]

The reason that there are no hard and fast rules as to how many miles are average, and how much less/more a car is worth is because different types of cars are meant for different sorts of use.
For example, a large Mercedes, at say 5 years old with circa 70-120K would not be unusual, and would still be a very much usable car for years to come.
You wouldn't want to buy a smart car with those sorts of miles though - they would probably be expected to do less than 10K a year.
And if a £3000 used smart had done say 30K miles over and £1000 per 10K miles were deducted, you would get nothing (literally!) for it.
The other thing is of course that at the end of the day some "low mileage" cars have not been looked after as well as "well used" cars (ie, if a 3 year old car has done 100K miles, it will have most likely be used on nice long journeys, and driven by a company professional who does not have to worry about service costs and it would probably be in similar if not better nick than say a 5 year old car with 60K that has been driven around town all day, kids in the back, shopping trolly dents, fag burns, air con not used in winter, parking scrapes, power steering overworked, speed bumps, short journeys, cat not warmed up, missed services etc etc!)
And the rule also goes that with age, mileage becomes less of an issue. You wouldn't buy a 15 year old car with high or low mileage if it was tatty now would you, regardless of what was considered "average". And a tatty 10 year old car is not going to be worth more than a tidy 12 year old one is it?
Well just my opinion!
Will

 

[DrNick]

The guides that give the mileage adjustment charts also say that the starting figure you should use are the 'good' or A1 category prices. Cars that already meet the criteria for 'fair' (ie the cheapest category) should not have the mileage adjustment applied to them, ie the 'fair' price is the lowest it goes regardless of mileage, as far as the book is concerned, otherwise you run ino the problem of a high mileage car being worth less than zero according to the book, which is plainly ridiculous.

Once mileages get outside what is 'reasonable' it becomes much more difficult to apply a set value, as most things have been replaced and may even be on the second replacement. Then the age and general condition of the car become more important. Then its supply and demand. A desirable car is going to be sold whatever its mileage because there is no choice! (Assuming its obviously not a complete wreck!)

My thoughts

Nick