Why has our BMW X3 lost £20,000 in value in less than two years?

We bought a BMW F25 X3 X-Drive 2.0D SE 8-speed automatic 21 months ago. The total price including extras and a spare set of alloy wheels with cold weather tyres was £41,000. We recently asked the BMW dealer from whom we bought the car to value it when it was in for service - mileage at 31,000, in excellent condition. He quoted £20,000. I queried this with him and am still waiting for a reply. I understand depreciation is a big factor but this seems a very low price for a quality car that we had to wait eight months for from date of order. We thought that X3s held their value better than most. Do you think this is correct?

Asked on 14 December 2013 by TC, Elgin

Answered by Honest John
The simple answer is keep the car and don't sell it to him for this price. At auction in last month a 2012/61 BMW F25 X3 3.0 xDrive SE auto with 10,000 miles sold for £31,800, which was £1000 above trade book at the time. Trade book for a 2011/11 X3 2.0dSE auto with 31,000 miles (actually book mileage) is £24,750, and that's without all the extra kit. But it assumes that the car is not in any way damaged, nor has been smoked in or been carrying dogs.
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