Car Prices... what the...

Herzlos

k6chris said:

Herzlos said:

I'm kicking myself hard because I went to view a car at £13k in February last year and the same car (a year older) is now £19k. It's mental. I could get a new one for £25k which is pretty tempting.

When would the new one be delivered?

12 weeks apparently, if I couldn't find one in stock. But it's a good point, a lot of new factory orders are taking over a year at this point.

Grumpy_chap

Prices seem to be maintaining at very inflated rates.

On Friday, the local garage along my road put a 2005 Mitsubishi L200 pick up on the forecourt with a sticker price £4.5k.
Seems absurd to me for a 17 yo vehicle.
No idea what the mileage was, but these types of vehicles are usually "used".
Also unsure whether it is petrol or diesel, though assume the latter so it won't be ULEZ-compliant.

By Saturday morning, it was gone.

Unbelievable!

[Deleted User]

Business will pay whatever, they need the vehicle. Same with people who need a car to get to work.

Grumpy_chap

OK - so that makes sense I guess.
A tradesman finds themselves without the van, maybe from an accident.
No vehicle = no work = no income
That vehicle that is available immediately means straight back to work.  The whole vehicle is paid for through the first month of work.

Herzlos

There's a shortage across the board so lots of the 'cheaper' stuff is disappearing pretty quickly.

I've got alerts set up with Arnold Clark for a car I'm looking for. Got an email on Sunday and it was sold by Monday. Even looking at the site the cheapest few of pretty much anything I've looked at have been reserved.

It doesn't even apply to tradespeople, just anyone who needs a vehicle to get to work, etc, will be forced to snap up something quickly.

[Deleted User]

Grumpy_chap said:

I can't believe that the current used car prices can be sustained.

When my Niece was 17, my BiL purchased her a brand new Citigo at £7.3k.  She will be 21 this year (2022) so that makes the car 4 yo.  A week before Christmas WBAC offered her £7k.  That means only £300 in depreciation.  

At some point, there has to be a market correction...

Prices will definitely fall at some point. It's a supply shortage caused by a very specific problem (the chip shortage) that can be solved. Car manufacturers have every reason to ramp up production at the earliest opportunity when they have people sitting on six-month waiting lists to buy.

As soon as production catches up there will be new cars available again and nobody will be wanting to throw huge sums of money at used cars in desperation. It's just a question of whether people can wait it out or not. Personally I'm going to need a new car in August so I'm hoping there's some progress by then. Wouldn't say I'm that optimistic but let's see what happens.

Grumpy_chap

The craziness continues.

The week before the end of September, the local Lexus dealer sent me an offer for new ES at £32k.  I was quite tempted by virtue of whenever we go back to the office I will need a new car and this was a nice car at a good price.  I decided against going ahead because there was no clarity on when we will return to the office.

The latest thing from work is that they will announce the return to the office details for us to go back after 4th April.  Won't be immediately after, obviously, as we have no details yet if what they want.  Either way, I just looked on the website and Lexus are listing a 2020 ES (apparently only 2k miles, worryingly low) but ticket price £42k. 

That's £10k more for a 2yo car than I could have grabbed the brand new car 6 months back

Absurd!

facade

The bubble seems to have burst, or to at least have a slow puncture.

WBAC offered me £28,000 for my car in January, last week it was down to £23,000. Still £4k more than I paid 3 years ago mind, but 17% loss in 3 months.

dipsomaniac

£42k £32k £28k £23k LOL. Fingers crossed for a 5 x rollover win tonight.  Why would I spend a year's salary on a box on 4 wheels?  This is MSE where most can't afford those numbers.  This site is not about trying to buy a R8 at the best price🙂

Thrugelmir

VW are quoting 12 months on new orders.  Depending on spec possibly 15.

Ford are quoting 5 months currently. Taking no further new orders on the Focus,

Seems as if war in Ukraine is now having an impact. Woes will continue.