Car Prices

fiatman

I've just had a look on Autotrader for the first time in 17 years and nearly had a heart attack.

My first car was a 7 year old Fiat Uno which I bought for £1,650 at the end of 1999. Then in mid 2005 I bought a 3.5 year old Fiat Punto for £3,000 and sold my Fiat Uno for £400.

I made the decision some years ago that I would keep my Fiat Punto until it dies and that time is almost here. As they don't make the Fiat Punto anymore I thought I'd buy one of the newer 4 - 5 year old Fiat Punto's for £3k and hope it will last me 17 years again.

On Autotrader though you need to go much older to find a Fiat Punto for that price.

When I sold my Fiat Uno it was 12 years old and I was told by some people that £400 was a rip off. The 12 year old Grand Punto's (the newer equivalent of the Uno) on Autotrader mostly cost £2k+. A 7 year old Punto (same age as my Uno was when I bought it) is costing around £4.5k, at the time I bought my Uno a friend bought a 7 year old Volkswagen Polo for £4.5k and the general consensus was he'd been ripped off.

As for the newer cars, currently 2 18 reg listed at £7.8k and £9.2k. I cannot justify paying that much for a car.

Why are the prices so high? How can a 12 year old car cost £2k+ when £400 was previously seen as a rip off?

Is Autotrader just a rip off but gets away with it because it's well known? Where can I go to get more reasonable prices?

DanDare999

fiatman said:

I've just had a look on Autotrader for the first time in 17 years and nearly had a heart attack.

My first car was a 7 year old Fiat Uno which I bought for £1,650 at the end of 1999. Then in mid 2005 I bought a 3.5 year old Fiat Punto for £3,000 and sold my Fiat Uno for £400.

I made the decision some years ago that I would keep my Fiat Punto until it dies and that time is almost here. As they don't make the Fiat Punto anymore I thought I'd buy one of the newer 4 - 5 year old Fiat Punto's for £3k and hope it will last me 17 years again.

On Autotrader though you need to go much older to find a Fiat Punto for that price.

When I sold my Fiat Uno it was 12 years old and I was told by some people that £400 was a rip off. The 12 year old Grand Punto's (the newer equivalent of the Uno) on Autotrader mostly cost £2k+. A 7 year old Punto (same age as my Uno was when I bought it) is costing around £4.5k, at the time I bought my Uno a friend bought a 7 year old Volkswagen Polo for £4.5k and the general consensus was he'd been ripped off.

As for the newer cars, currently 2 18 reg listed at £7.8k and £9.2k. I cannot justify paying that much for a car.

Why are the prices so high? How can a 12 year old car cost £2k+ when £400 was previously seen as a rip off?

Is Autotrader just a rip off but gets away with it because it's well known? Where can I go to get more reasonable prices?

Supply and demand. 

mkcomper2022

Second hand prices are going up because of difficulty in accessing car parts and people are not refinancing.

Example, my peugot 108 is 6 years old, a 2016  in dec 2019 it cost me 5.5k and honest john site says now its 6 to 7k.

Make sure if you are trading in that you aren't expecting less than you paid for your part ex, depending on age mileage and condition obviously.

Nebulous2

fiatman said:

I've just had a look on Autotrader for the first time in 17 years and nearly had a heart attack.

My first car was a 7 year old Fiat Uno which I bought for £1,650 at the end of 1999. Then in mid 2005 I bought a 3.5 year old Fiat Punto for £3,000 and sold my Fiat Uno for £400.

I made the decision some years ago that I would keep my Fiat Punto until it dies and that time is almost here. As they don't make the Fiat Punto anymore I thought I'd buy one of the newer 4 - 5 year old Fiat Punto's for £3k and hope it will last me 17 years again.

On Autotrader though you need to go much older to find a Fiat Punto for that price.

When I sold my Fiat Uno it was 12 years old and I was told by some people that £400 was a rip off. The 12 year old Grand Punto's (the newer equivalent of the Uno) on Autotrader mostly cost £2k+. A 7 year old Punto (same age as my Uno was when I bought it) is costing around £4.5k, at the time I bought my Uno a friend bought a 7 year old Volkswagen Polo for £4.5k and the general consensus was he'd been ripped off.

As for the newer cars, currently 2 18 reg listed at £7.8k and £9.2k. I cannot justify paying that much for a car.

Why are the prices so high? How can a 12 year old car cost £2k+ when £400 was previously seen as a rip off?

Is Autotrader just a rip off but gets away with it because it's well known? Where can I go to get more reasonable prices?

Where have you been for the last two years? 

Cars have been unobtainable - new ones have year long waiting lists and second-hand ones are snapped up by dealers as soon as they have a whiff of them. Dealers who used to see their business as selling cars now seem more interested in buying them. 

The world is full of stories about people selling cars for more than they paid for them. I'm not in that position, but I bought a van almost 3 years ago and after 30,000 miles I'm still being offered about £1500 less than I paid for it. At one point I was offered more. I've spent far too much on cars in the past, and find it hard to credit what is happening. 

A relative bought one of the cheapest new cars available in 2016, at just under £8k. My daughter is looking for a car once she passes her test and thinking the same model would be cheap, has been pricing them. A 6 year old car with 40-50,000 miles on the clock is coming in at around £6500. I'd normally have expected a 3 year old one to half in value. 

So unfortunately I don't think you will get cheaper prices at the moment. A glimmer of hope might be that the forecast recession hits car sales and prices fall back, but that would involve waiting.  

SavingThosePennies

Car prices are through the roof at the moment whether new or old. Not enough new cars being produced to meet demand, more people purchasing second hand but newish and then that forces everyone to step down a level from what they normally buy, sending up prices. Plus public transport still hasn't recovered from the pandemic and car journeys seem to have come back in force.

Not sure it's going to get better for a while, unless lots of people start defaulting on pcps and it floods the second hand market, which is possible. 

400ixl

You have over a decade of inflation to add to your prices. A 1999 base Punto would cost £6k and a 2018 base model £11k

The £7.8k is the top end price for a top of the range low mileage 2018 Punto so the £9.2k one is over priced even with the current market.

Secondhand prices are inflated at the moment due to new cars being limited through supply issues driving up the secondhand market as well. There is probably another year or so of supply constraints, so secondhand prices will be higher for a while yet unfortunately.

There are cheaper options out there, maybe look at something like a Dacia which is a Renault sub brand and of similar build quality to the Fiat Punto.

Grumpy_chap

The OP might wish to peruse this thread
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6287638/car-prices-what-the/p34#latest

ontheroad1970

I'd say that the OP's expectations of a 4-5 year old car at £3k are wildly unrealistic, even in normal times.  I doubt you'd even get a 4 year old Dacia for that.  

Goudy

New cars are more expensive.
They are up by around 20% or more from a few years ago.

Also, as already mentioned new cars have limited availibility and demand for cars is high which has had an effect on depreciation of used cars.

So as an example, you can't buy a new car for £8995 anymore that loses 60% in the first three years and made it a £3595 used car.

Your new car now costs £10995 and due to demand only loses 35% in three years, so it's now a £7150 used car.

Unfortunately it's not just Autotrader mathematics, it's industry wide.
There are signs used prices are starting to level off at auction, though nobody knows when the forecourt prices will start to reflect that.

fiatman

OK that doesn't sound good. Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of being able to wait. I'm looking at over £1k worth of welding to get through the MOT every year so need to get something before the MOT is due.

My Uno was on it's last legs when I sold it and I think it was in the scrapyard a year or so later. I'm concerned that if I buy a 12 year old car for £2k I'll have to scrap it after a year and lose that £2k. When I'm spending several thousand on a car I want it to last me many years like my current car has done.

Would I be better off buying the cheapest Punto I can find with 12 months MOT and then scrap it after a year in the hope the prices will have come down by then?

400ixl

What is the fascination with Punto's? Personally I have always liked the Fiat / Alfa brands, but the Punto wasn't really a reliable car from the offset, especially body wise.

There are plenty of other cars from that era which will last a lot longer body wise than a Punto in similar price brackets.