Been trawling Autotrader just to browse sone of the more older models of common cars.
I'm amazed at the prices of some old cars like a 27 year old Ford Granada with 146k for £6,500.
I'm curious as to which point in a cars life will it start to appreciate in value.
Is it down to make and model, age and mileage, condition or rarity value or a combination of all these things. How does one value a car when there is little to compare it with?
For example my Pug 406 has 88k and is still going strong. I intend now to keep it until something big and scary goes wrong. It can only be worth £1800 or thereabouts in its current condition and spec. If I fast forward to 2025 can I expect to sell in on Autotrader for £5000?
Perhaps I ought to mothball it now and just wait. It may just provide me with a pension too!
|
If you happen to own a rare model such as the 406 coupe and maintain it impeccably but most importantly make sure as little rust as possible gets to it you just might have a car that makes classic status, but the mileage must be low for any real value.
IMO 406 coupe will make a classic in due course, classic beauty usually does.
Whether the computers on modern cars will allow them to still be runnable at 30 or 40 years old remains to be seen, it might well cost £5k to service the electrics if even possible every 10 years on a car worth that amount.
|
|
I think cars either have become, or soon will be a disposable domestic appliance. The sealed for life components, electronics and soon batteries or fuel cells which will cost more than the rest of the car to replace will render them to crusher fodder status.
|
|
Not necessarily a bad thing. If I could be guaranteed a new car having 10 year of total reliability and problem free motoring I would happily accept the car requiring replacement and having no value after 10 years
|
...If I could be guaranteed a new car having 10 year of total reliability and problem free motoring I would happily accept the car requiring replacement and having no value after 10 years...
Buy a Ford and be happy.
It will still be worth a few quid after 10 years.
|
Buy a Ford and be happy.
Tried that - in fact had a number of Fords. The C-Max put me off them, possibly for life. The fourth year of ownership cost me over £2,000 in repairs
|
>> Buy a Ford and be happy.
>>
>> Tried that - in fact had a number of Fords. The C-Max put me off
>> them, possibly for life. The fourth year of ownership cost me over £2,000 in repairs
>>
£2k @ 4 years old?
That's not bad.. Do you mean TOTAL spend that year, or one large repair?
|
>> £2k @ 4 years old?
>> That's not bad.. Do you mean TOTAL spend that year, or one large repair?
>>
Sounds pretty bad to me! We've only kept a few cars for 4 years, but none have needed anything other that servicing and consumables. No Fords though... In fact even my 22 year old BMW never needed anything like £2k spending on repairs in a year (or, for that matter, over the 3 years we owned it).
|
|
The most I've spent in a year keeping a leggy bangernomics Vauxhall running is around 600 quid, I would be seriously unimpressed by 2K in bills on a 4 year old car.
|
>> The most I've spent in a year keeping a leggy bangernomics Vauxhall running is around
>> 600 quid,
The most I've spent in a year on my 8 year old Focus was £940 in its 7th year. This was for a 7 year service, renew brake fluid, MOT, rear discs and pads because the discs were rusty, front tyres, rear springs because they were broken, and auxilliary drive belt and tensioner purely because they were noisy and I didn't want to risk a breakdown.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Fri 27 Jan 12 at 12:48
|
|
One of the Omegas I bought had every receipt from day1 in the glovebox, a nice little pile covering 10 years / 110K miles, I think the grand total was about 2800 quid, which sounded a lot until I averaged it out per annum. I spent another 800 quid over the next 2 years/ 60K miles - head gasket, cambelt, brake pads, Lambda sensor - before MoT emissions failure led to it being pensioned off.
|
>> One of the Omegas I bought had every receipt from day1 in the glovebox,
Same situation with a 11 year old (i think) MB E320 W124 estate of 95 vintage bought for £2300 ISTR.
Not only did this car cost £50k new, (£19k's worth of extras, gulp), the full folder of services and running repairs was staggering, the lowest bill was £500 and the average bill was around a grand, some bills around £3k when the aircon failed for the nth time or the rear self levellers needed replacement (apparently they don't fail but theres another tale)...previous owner never missed a service, the MB dealer at Bath never failed to charge him for every single washer or screw and even stung him for washer fluid at every single service.
Owning that car and studying the SH reinforced and permacised.;) my aversion to 'fully loaded' cars for ever unless Japanese.
The aircon never did work and it only stayed with us about 2 years as its need for constant attention never faltered, went like hell though.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Fri 27 Jan 12 at 15:06
|
you aint going to get much pension off an old Ford Granada.
Have to say, I have a soft spot for late 60s to late 70's ford, I guess a lot of other folks of my generation and background do as well. But now they are as rare as hens teeth, so fetch appropriate money for those who now have a wad free and want to recapture some lost youth.
|
|
The old Ford Mustang very nice.
|
Interesting question.
My BMW Z3 2.2 is 10 years old now: it's only used for fun and I don't normnally take it out for short journeys. So if properly looked after I would hope it won't lose much more value, although I think it'll have to be a bit older (and rarer through others being scrapped) if it's to gain anything.
Am I right? If I'm wrong and it's still going to depreciate I probably ought to flog it.
|
|
You might be right Avant keep the car and look after it.
|
>> Am I right? If I'm wrong and it's still going to depreciate I probably ought
>> to flog it.
>>
I think you're right. I don't know how old yours is, but older BMWs in decent condition do seem to plateau in value. I guess like all cars the ones in really good condition end up being worth more to their current keeper than they'd realise on the open market, but it takes a lot longer than 10 years for them to start appreciating on the whole.
Taking the 3 series as an example, E21s are to all intents and purposes 'classsics' now, and decent condition E30s are definitely going up in value, whereas the E36 is still at the plateau stage think. The E46 on the other hand still has further to fall; there's everything from 'chavved-up' 316is to decent 330i Convertibles still around in large numbers, so a lot further for them to fall. BMW have just launched the F30, so six generations of 3 series on I think its only the first two or three that have stopped depreciating, and only the first two that show any signs of appreciating. The last few iterations are also just another mass market car in voluem terms - earlier ones were never sold in such large numbers, which must also have an impact going forward I guess?
Just my thoughts though!
|
I don't know how old yours is,
>>
My BMW Z3 2.2 is 10 years old now
|
|
The longer you keep any car the more its value will increase when you fill it with fuel.
|
The answer is:
When somebody wants to pay more for one!
The vintage car was insured for £16000 in 2004, and valued last year at £34000 so insured appropriately. But another car I have is worth about £10000, and was worth the same in 1989 (so I've lost on that one).
Classic/vintage market is a fickle thing. Generally speaking it's cars that were produced in small numbers, but are now desirable that make the big money.
|
It will probably depend on lots of factors.
Most modern cars' electric will die faster than their mechanical bits. So very few of today's cars will make it to the level of classic cars in future.
Older cars had no or minimal electrics and that's why they made it to the classic stage.
You also need deep pocket to afford a classic car. Obviously it can't be your daily run around. So you need to maintain a spare car with immaculate details otherwise it won't fetch a good value later.
There also need to be buyers to appreciate those cars. With businesses going bust every now and then, not many people have the spare cash to buy/maintain those cars.
So it may not be a good investment idea :-)
|
>> Obviously it can't be your
>> daily run around.
>>
I've always had a classic car as my daily run around.
Classic is defined by insurance companies as over 20, or even 15, years old. I commute 40 miles to work each day in a Volvo 240, and have done for 15 years. Not always the same one, they begin to show their age a bit after 400,000 miles.
As a second family car we used a Triumph 2000 daily for 10 years. Now replaced with a nicer specimen, which will be treated more kindly as it's 45 years old.
For towing a horsebox etc I have a 1968 Series II LandRover.
Classic cars can make ideal daily drivers if you like old-style maintenance and simplicity.
|
|
Volvo 240 build like a tank.400,000 miles proper engineering.
|
When its distinctiveness begins to outweigh its age, and that happens at different rates for different cars, and often not at all.
When we discuss buying used, we agree we should 'buy on age and condition', and we wouldn't usually buy a 58 if we could afford a 59. While supply is plentiful, and especially while that model is still in production, that's how it continues. Once production ceases, the car either trickles down the economic cascade, gaining spurious accessories as it goes, or is regarded as junk and forgotten altogether - which is when Stu buys one.
For some that's where it ends. Some, like old Volvo and Mercedes estates, achieve a kind of classless respectability and plateau as Peter (I think) described. Others are preserved immobile in the garages of pensioners who fully intend to use them again, but never do.
Eventually, the point is reached where the car is sufficiently rare to appeal to someone - I think we discovered a while ago that there were only two serviceable Chrysler 2000s left, and one was for sale. Those two are presumably worth more than when there were three, but probably not very much. Jaguar Mk 2s and E-types presumably followed the same curve, but didn't have to wait so long for it to bottom out.
I suspect for most of the true answer to the question is 'Not while I still have it'. It's precisely because most of us would rather have a new thing than an old one that any of this happens at all. But while so much depends on the perception of 'value to me', it seems quite likely that you could buy one of the 'plateau' cars and sell it for more than you paid for it, if you happened to find a buyer who needed it more than you.
|
i have a j plate 1991 mercedes 190e 2.0 auto that ive had from new and now 130k miles.
i wonder wther that would go up in value as its mint inside and out and all services have been stamped in book.
my sister uses it mostly but she loves it and wouldnt like me to sell it
|
>> i have a j plate 1991 mercedes 190e 2.0 auto that ive had from new
>> and now 130k miles.
Don't even think of selling that, probably the most durable car MB ever made.
Keep it well fettled and it should see another 20 years without too much bother.
|
|
it was pretty expensive when new but has been totaly reliable and has NEVER needed any repairs.
|
|
I think if it a 1980s three box Granada in good condition it will make money. There is a big 1980s nostaglia thing going on at the moment.
|
>> Don't even think of selling that, probably the most durable car MB ever made.
Agreed. The extent of the rustproofing in a 190 is amazing. The W124 was actually a step backwards. A neighbour has a 1990 190E 2.6 with 280,000km on the clock which he's owned since new. The condition is amazing, and he's never going to sell it. Biggest problem is the 7 litres or so of oil needed to fill the engine up - expensive these days.
|
the engine sounds just as smooth as when it was new.
nothing has been replaced except a brake light bulb and one set of headlight bulbs in 20yrs.
it was bought for me by a very nice and wealthy friend becuase i helped his dad through a bad illness as someone to complain to. very nice 21st birrthday present it was too.
|
When does my car's value increase? - -
