The rise of the used car market

rockits

Member
Messages
9,167
Also bear in mind the crazy inflated prices of most EV's has helped to push the price of ICE cars up to mask their otherwise also inflated prices.

It will come crashing down when all these asset bubbles start to deflate and the subsequent liquidity crisis ensues. I guess it will tie in at the time interest rates start to move north as well. As long as you are not over leveraged or over extended with no distressed sales most will be fine. Also with some cash to one side it will be shopping time to hoover up bargain distressed sales. I think we go from too many buyers and not enough cars to flip the other way around. Then it will be harder to sell and a buyer's market again.

I always try to search out value plays anyway to protect against over inflated prices regardless of market/economic conditions. You can still find value plays if you look or work hard enough. The Chimaera I bought 6 months ago I feel is a steal and completely depreciation proof IMHO.
 

safrane

Member
Messages
16,748
Just out of interest I ran my XC90 through WBAC. Owned it since the end October and even they offered more than I paid a London dealer for it with 4k less miles...mad!
 

Felonious Crud

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
21,013
Out of interest, I just did the same. My Vantage would lose me 10k in the 4 years and 10k miles of driving since I bought it. OK, I've spent on maintenance etc, but that's irrelevant. Not bad depreciation.
 

bigbob

Member
Messages
8,952
Out of interest, I just did the same. My Vantage would lose me 10k in the 4 years and 10k miles of driving since I bought it. OK, I've spent on maintenance etc, but that's irrelevant. Not bad depreciation.
Yep, strange times. It’s easy to understand the various factors behind it but it’s bad news if any of us want to upgrade at the moment as the cost to change has gone up.

On a side subject have you looked at the two current range AM coupes? I had a peek as they were getting cheap 6-12 months ago but there were a few styling issues - in and out - that I was not keen on and I hated (small thing I know) the people carrier wiper design where both wipers come from the middle to the sides. Seemed strange for a sports/GT car.
 

conaero

Forum Owner
Messages
34,593
2 Maserati V8’s and a Busso 3.2V6...life is complete...or will be when I complete my ‘Special’ project in 2 years
 

Felonious Crud

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
21,013
On a side subject have you looked at the two current range AM coupes? I had a peek as they were getting cheap 6-12 months ago but there were a few styling issues - in and out - that I was not keen on and I hated (small thing I know) the people carrier wiper design where both wipers come from the middle to the sides. Seemed strange for a sports/GT car.

They have three now - Vantage, DB11 or DBSS. None of them have a good dash layout. Nasty old-gen Merc which the Vantage exacerbates by having a Darth Vader helmet layout on the centre console stack thing. I had a new Vantage for a couple of weeks and didn't bond with it. It was a great drive, but I didn't like the aesthetics or the sound it made. The DB11 is apparently as good as the DBSS but half the price. The DBSS on the outside, though, is stunning. Just needs its inside doing properly.
 

bigbob

Member
Messages
8,952
They have three now - Vantage, DB11 or DBSS. None of them have a good dash layout. Nasty old-gen Merc which the Vantage exacerbates by having a Darth Vader helmet layout on the centre console stack thing. I had a new Vantage for a couple of weeks and didn't bond with it. It was a great drive, but I didn't like the aesthetics or the sound it made. The DB11 is apparently as good as the DBSS but half the price. The DBSS on the outside, though, is stunning. Just needs its inside doing properly.
Thanks, the button layout came from the Merc AMG GT IIRC. Looked ok nearly a decade ago but the world has moved on now.

They also seem very colour sensitive as well which the older cars did not. I actually liked the sound of the AMG 4 litre and it did cross my mind buying a C63 Coupe as a cheap way into the engine whilst maintaining the GranTurismo’s four seater capability.
 

Felonious Crud

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
21,013
Thanks, the button layout came from the Merc AMG GT IIRC. Looked ok nearly a decade ago but the world has moved on now.

They also seem very colour sensitive as well which the older cars did not. I actually liked the sound of the AMG 4 litre and it did cross my mind buying a C63 Coupe as a cheap way into the engine whilst maintaining the GranTurismo’s four seater capability.
The Merc engine does sound great... in a Merc.
 

midlifecrisis

Member
Messages
16,102
I quite like the sound of a Ferrari engine in a Maser.
Saw JayEmm review the Ferrari California 4.3 V8 this morning, and it starts off with the engine sounds and the flat plane crank doesn't sound as good as a cross plane engine thats in the Maserati 4200 or GT.


Maybe this particular one needs a better exhaust!
 

woody1144

Member
Messages
108
Saw JayEmm review the Ferrari California 4.3 V8 this morning, and it starts off with the engine sounds and the flat plane crank doesn't sound as good as a cross plane engine thats in the Maserati 4200 or GT.


Maybe this particular one needs a better exhaust!

Speaking of exhaust, this doesn't sound great at low revs but at WOT on the flybys it sounds like an F1 car

 

woody1144

Member
Messages
108
On the note of car prices, I think this still has a way to go. I think sports cars will tail off soon but run of the mill daily drivers I think will inflate even more. As we know the big issues is the semiconductors used for the electronics. I work in IT and we didn't shut off manufacturing at all during lockdown 1.0 so managed to keep our lines going or at least be at the front of the queue for when they went back to work. Car manufacturers panicked and cancelled orders so they are at the back of the queue now. Even we are seeing issues going into December in terms of stock so I can't imagine it being until mid-2022 that new cars start to have reasonable supply again which will surely just mean that used cars go up in value.
The Audi dealership near to me is hilarious, only a 1/3 of the car park has cars in it, it's like a ghost town.
 

dickygrace

www.richardgracecars.co.uk
Messages
7,309
Young Mr Grace seems to be going old school, with three 3200's ( 2 x AC's) and a GS MC-V, nice to see.
Not an intentional change of business model, but just a coincidence how the cars all arrived at the same time. The 2 AC’s are outstanding and the 3200 GT a cracking car for the money. MCV and QP GTS are more our usual thing, and the GT Sport. We’ve another GT Sport coming too.