I paid £14k for mine and expect it to be worth about £5 to 6k in three years time if I'm lucky.
I paid £16.5k for my 'will hold its value' VW Passat and was offered less than £3k for it at 4.5 years old by the selling VW garage. FSH immaculate with less than 40k on the clock. So much for bothering to look after it properly.
Cars seem to fall in value more than ever nowadays but that's life.
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'What is it?' was a comment I heard from one trader.
The motor trade is conservative and generally doesn't like anything a bit different, which suggests to me the Qashqai will be depreciated at least as much as anything else in the sector.
Aerodynamics of a brick, the diesel will barely do 40mpg.
Buy it if you like it, but I reckon you will need a decent discount to avoid taking a big hit at trade-in time.
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Some interesting comments and good advice. Thanks.
If all cars seem to depreciate rapidly as Halmer suggests, it must be that they're too expensive in the first place. I know someone who's just bought a 14 month old 1.8 Zetec Mondeo hatch for £9400. Theoretically at least, that car cost £17k so how can it only be worth £9k 14 months later?
I've looked at PCP and the figure is pretty horrific, but isn't that the case on all cars? At least in this country. Ifithelps is probably right on the view of the trade, though if you go to an auction it's interesting to see what the trade is after and what they'll pay.
I'm not sure it's the aerodynamics that drink the fuel. They're probably as good as the Almera (if that's a recommendation). It's a heavy car.
Decent discount is a good idea but Nissan have just gone to three shifts in Sunderland to make the things so people must be buying them.
Thanks again.
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If all cars seem to depreciate rapidly as Halmer suggests it must be that they're too expensive in the first place.
I believe that to be true.
I've looked at PCP and the figure is pretty horrific but isn't that the case on all cars?
Yes - but the scary thing is, there's a good reason for that. It's because that's all the car will be worth.
At least in this country.
It is baffling why we seem to have such high depreciation in the UK - we have such high new car prices and low used car values.
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A few years ago it seemed that car prices in "rip-off Britain" would fall with the possibility of imports from Europe. Some prices have fallen, particularly for smaller cars like Citroens, Peugots and Ford KAs but medium and larger list prices seem to hold up.
If BP is right and the three year price is all a car is worth, it must be too expensive as listed. And when a dealer in some brands supplies a broker, the manufacturer can threaten to take away the franchise, I'm told.
I can't see what the poor punter can do!
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IMHO PCP's are bad news. It is my opinion that all you actually do is finance (and pay interest) on depreciation. Coupled with any potential lost deposit then it makes it a pretty dumb way to buy a car. Been there, bought the tee shirt and can wear it now the scars have healed ;->
With regard to the lowering of new car prices a few years ago - all that in reality happened was that even though new prices did come down, used prices dropped further so as a consequence the gap to change became even wider than it was before. Another lose-lose situation for the UK motorist then. We are seeing the same thing happening in the property market too- the gap to change has become too great for many (myself included)
Back to the Cashcow - I am told that the trade can't get enough of them at the moment so depreciation is held in check. I am led to believe that they are holding mid fifties % after 3 years. Not my mug of pi$h, but a work colleague has one and it is a nice place to be.
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IMHO PCP's are bad news. It is my opinion that all you actually do is finance (and pay interest) on depreciation. Coupled with any potential lost deposit then it makes it a pretty dumb way to buy a car.
If you buy a car for cash then arguably it's even worse as you're financing the depreciation in advance.
I don't like PCP's either, but mainly because I think they're a trap. They're designed so that most people will get to the end of one PCP and then have little sensible option but to start another, so continuing the manufacturers desire to have everybody change their car every 3yrs.
I do think, though, that they can be a good deal, especially on cars that have a risky depreciation outlook (large 4x4's would be a good example right now). As interest rates are relatively low, they do offer a chance to lock in a known final value, which could well be higher than the car ends up being actually worth.
Now and again there are deals where the final value is set stupidly high - Citroen had a deal on C1's recently where the final value was about £4500. Together with no deposit, that meant you could effectively hire a C1 for £99/mth for 3yrs. If you're starting off with nothing, then that's not a bad deal.
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That is exactly what they are scott - you are doing nothing more than buying depreciation and paying a healthy interest rate for the privilige.
It was a tool to satisfy the "I want it NOW - at all costs" brigade and sums up today's economy in the UK.
The example people are set by the government is debt, debt, debt.
Mind you we are all going to be paying for it now that it has caught up with everyone in this so-called credit crunch.
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