Just to add to previous articles we have written referring to that lovely topic of depreciation, I recently came across a situation where it hit home how bad some cars are being de-valued as a result of current market conditions and pressures from this car hating government. A friend asked me if I could help an old chap who lived down the road from him who had recently bought himself a lovely retirement present a brand new Land Rover Discovery v6 TDI SE automatic, at the princely sum of nearly £40k, including some extras. He has had the car less than 6 months and has only covered 6,000 miles. Unfortunately he has developed an injury which means he can no longer drive and the Disco is way too big for his wife so they wish to downsize to something a lot more manageable for them to keep mobile.
Now there are 2 sides to this story, the first being that through my extensive range of contacts and dealers I tried to obtain the best price, so I attracted bids in the trade from Oxford to Bristol and the midlands and London and the east, because I have always found that regional likes and dislikes can vary quite wildly, anyway the upshot was that the prices to buy this lovely nearly new car were between £21,000 (47%) loss from new right up to £26,000 (35%) and I got to thinking that although this old chap will lose a staggering £14,000 in under 6 months imagine how it could have been if he had just visited his local dealer? Well it could have been a lot worse (if that’s possible)
The advice therefore is that if you have to buy a big expensive 4wd, take heed and buy a used one! And if you are selling one; shop around as one dealers meat is another ones poison.
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