Car Prices... what the...

AdrianC

gord115 said:

Ibrahim5 said:

molerat said:

Strange times, the first time ever that I have had a car where the dealer will give me more than I paid them for it !

Not for me. I paid over £16K and they offer me £245. Disgusting.

Yeah, more info please.

It's Fred. The total lack of any verifiable service history will be one reason they don't want it.

Grumpy_chap

Ibrahim5 said:

I have only had it 16 years.

Do you know Fred?

Slinky

Given all the talk about cars in short supply I was quite surprised to be able buy a new Fiat 500 today which was pre-registered in June and has 5 miles on the clock, and got £4100 off the list price. I was happy to buy what they had in stock rather than wait 4 months for something to be ordered in.

ontheroad1970

Ibrahim5 said:

I have only had it 16 years.

See if Youtube will give you a service record for it...

gord115

Ibrahim5 said:

I have only had it 16 years.

Brilliant ROFL

Grumpy_chap

motorguy said:

Grumpy_chap said:

I wonder whether anyone can explain something for me on this?

There is clear indication that used car prices are currently strong.  This is a fundamental outcome of supply and demand.

The supply (or otherwise) of used cars cascades down from the supply of new cars, which there are reported constraints arising from component availability and labour availability impacted because of COVID.  Low supply of news cars.  That joins in a a perfect storm with Osborne Effect because of the promises of great advances in EV plus economic uncertainty so the big fleets are delaying replacements in some cases.  

I understand that immediately after the first lockdown there was a spike in demand as people wished to use a car where they may have used public transport but concerned about social distancing and such like on trains / buses.  I would assume that demand is past.

There is also a localised demand in some areas to avoid ULEZ charges.

However, there must be a massive number of people that simply do not need a car in anything like the way they previously did because of WFH.  So this must result in a reduction of demand for cars that I would expect to far outweigh the public transport and ULEZ demand drivers.

So, the thing I'd like explained is where is the high demand for cars, that creates the demand side of the supply-demand equation resulting in the strong used car values?

I dont think there are that many people in the grand scheme of things who have went from having a car to no car.  Even if you're WFH you're not sitting in the house permanently so you still need a car.

There were millions of transactions that didnt happen which has created a backlog as it were, plus there are issues with new car supply.

Many people are in the cycle of PCPing / leasing a car every three years and they'll likely continue to do so.  

I agree not many people will have gone from car to no car because of WFH.

But, surely, people that may have changed their car because of needing the commute mileage will have just not bothered to change as WFH is so much less mileage?

I was doing 30k miles or more per year.  Car was due for renewal in 2020.  Since January less than 2k miles.  Fortunately I didn't get round to buying the new car pre-COVID and with such a low mileage now, a new car would be folly.

Am I in a small minority thinking like that?

Slinky

Grumpy_chap said:

motorguy said:

Grumpy_chap said:

I wonder whether anyone can explain something for me on this?

There is clear indication that used car prices are currently strong.  This is a fundamental outcome of supply and demand.

The supply (or otherwise) of used cars cascades down from the supply of new cars, which there are reported constraints arising from component availability and labour availability impacted because of COVID.  Low supply of news cars.  That joins in a a perfect storm with Osborne Effect because of the promises of great advances in EV plus economic uncertainty so the big fleets are delaying replacements in some cases.  

I understand that immediately after the first lockdown there was a spike in demand as people wished to use a car where they may have used public transport but concerned about social distancing and such like on trains / buses.  I would assume that demand is past.

There is also a localised demand in some areas to avoid ULEZ charges.

However, there must be a massive number of people that simply do not need a car in anything like the way they previously did because of WFH.  So this must result in a reduction of demand for cars that I would expect to far outweigh the public transport and ULEZ demand drivers.

So, the thing I'd like explained is where is the high demand for cars, that creates the demand side of the supply-demand equation resulting in the strong used car values?

I dont think there are that many people in the grand scheme of things who have went from having a car to no car.  Even if you're WFH you're not sitting in the house permanently so you still need a car.

There were millions of transactions that didnt happen which has created a backlog as it were, plus there are issues with new car supply.

Many people are in the cycle of PCPing / leasing a car every three years and they'll likely continue to do so.  

I agree not many people will have gone from car to no car because of WFH.

But, surely, people that may have changed their car because of needing the commute mileage will have just not bothered to change as WFH is so much less mileage?

I was doing 30k miles or more per year.  Car was due for renewal in 2020.  Since January less than 2k miles.  Fortunately I didn't get round to buying the new car pre-COVID and with such a low mileage now, a new car would be folly.

Am I in a small minority thinking like that?

Some people are locked in/addicted to changing their car every 3 years. Others like us buy a car and run it into the ground. I've just bought a new car because my old car has just passed its MOT with advisories which will cost more than the car is worth to repair. The garage offered me £650 which is about £610 more than it's worth, and the £40 of value is the 3/4 tank of fuel I won't unfortunately use up before it's final journey to trade in.

My old neighbour is somebody who would never drive an old(er) car despite being in his 80s and only doing limited mileage now. But he can't take it with him, so he's not likely to be bothered about saving the money.

Petriix

Bachelorplace said:

4. As nobody wants electric cars, maybe what we are seeing is the start of a cult retained value on petrol and desiel?

Electric car sales are increasing exponentially while the rest of the new car market is dropping off. People increasingly *do* want electric cars, especially those who enjoy driving at 1.5p per mile.

Grumpy_chap

Hi guess that the numbers speak for themselves.  Normally, when you open the Autotrader site it says 'search 500k cars'.  Today it says 'search 400k cars'

Stubod

.....my latest WBAC "offer"  has gone up £1k in the last week! It now stands at almost £4k more than it was just pre covid...