When does the price of second hand car drop?

hotnuts21

I have been looking for a second hand car, I have identified what car I want, and from the reviews I have read and the depreciation values. Its a 2005 car, so I was wondering when do cars drop to their 2008 depreciation value?

I mean when in the year?

Looking at a graph on what car it shows that depreciation is a lot in the first year, and it keeps dropping by about 2k a year until the third year (2008) so i am wondering, when does this in reality come about? Do dealers drop their prices near the beggining of the year or is it something which happens gradually over time?

My budget is about 1-4k less than what cars are currently selling at, depending on where you look!! So I am in no rush I can hang on until next year when the model will be 3yrs old.

Any thoughts?

If your wondering I am looking for a
Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi Zetec

apk1

most cars will tend to depreciate fairly evenly (lessening as value reduces) however around new registration times they will tend to dip as people part ex cars for new ones, so the market will be awash with used cars. Some cars such as convertibles will tend to drop more in the autumn/winter as demand drops.

Wig

I think they dip twice a year around March and September, but don't rely on me for that being true. You could just regularly check parkers.co.uk for your cars value and see when it dips.

Or you could buy privately looking on autotrader.co.uk, to find the cheapest ones available

blue_haddock

Every month a new CAP and Glasses guide are compiled and issued to the trade so each month the figures change slightly but as people have already said the biggest drops are just after the new reg coming out when the market is awash with PX motors. It also happens new years day when technically the car becomes another year older.

Generally as the car hits 3 years old it comes out of warranty so it does tend to take a bit of a dip there too but also at this age you start to see more at smaller garages rather than main dealers so prices drop again.

fatblokexl

13th March, 13th September.

Used car roadshow did a calculation that as new number plates come out in these months, and sales team have targets to meet, and even small things like the number of sales people in on a given day led to this conclusion.

hotnuts21

Excellent thanks for all the Feedback.

Providing my escort lasts that long, then I may well look at buying one at the end of March next year. That actually works out well with Tax, insurance and MOT on my current lump of metal too.

Does anyone know if all 05 Focus are the new shape, I believe it was introduced in January but cant get any definite prooof. I want to make sure if I buy an 05 model thats its the newer model because that one had the better Ncap results and after living on the edge driving around an escort I need to feel safe

harveybobbles

Car prices drop the minute they leave the showroom...

However, as pointed out already, CAP and Glasses guides are used by us scum of the earth traders.
These are exactly that - a guide, to what we base a car value on. But we use experience over a guide.
They are printed each month and generally reflect the current market trends.

you will find that if you hold off buying a new shape Focus til mid next year, you will start to see some serious price drops.

The BMW 1 Series is a good example. 12 months ago a humdrum model qith decent mileage on it was making well over what it says in both the trade guides, but now they have been out for just over 12 months, they have dropped in value by about 2000 quid.

I'd wait a bit longer, but ball's in your court etc...

HB

blue_haddock

The new shape focus actually came out late 2004 and so soon they will be coming out of warranty period which normally sees them take a bit of a drop in residuals as the move out of the main dealer network

goldspanners

hotnuts21 wrote: »

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Does anyone know if all 05 Focus are the new shape, I believe it was introduced in January but cant get any definite prooof. I want to make sure if I buy an 05 model thats its the newer model because that one had the better Ncap results and after living on the edge driving around an escort I need to feel safe

you can find very late models of the old shape focus on 54 and 05 plates.
i have an 04 plate old shape.

molerat

You can get 05 old focus (I have seen one 55 plate, I had to do a double take) and 54 plate new focus. My 54 old shape was manufactured Jan 05. The Spanish factory was still making the old shape when the German factory went into production of the new shape. Good thing really because there was a hiccup and new shapes were in short supply for a while but they could still supply the old one.

And to answer the op question ..... usually just after you have bought one

blue_haddock

Basically the new focus was launched 3rd quarter 04 and the old focus was run out untill the middle of 05. Ford often do this - the original focus came out in late 98 and the escort which it replaced was still available untill 2001.