2nd hand car market

[andycap]

Knowing that many on here are quite car savvy i thought i'd ask what your thoughts are . Prices of 2nd hand cars are really strong at the moment , i have a 67 plate Mercedes that i have owned less than a year .Dealership is offering 2K more than i paid for it , Cazoo etc are offering quite a bit more , obviously any thing i buy at the moment will be expensive and if the market settles back down then value will plummet on anything i buy now .My thoughts are keep what i've got or sell it for a good price , buy a cheap run around and not buy again until prices drop .
I do like my Merc but this is the first Merc i've had that keeps having niggling problems .(owned Mercs for 25+ yrs ) . The latest is a nox sensor ,warranty covered , been waiting 3 months for the part ,MOT has now expired and will not pass because engine management light is on , so dealership has given me a courtesy car until mine is fixed , which may not be this year !

 

[RichA]

Can't your dealership px it for something you'd like?
Nobody knows what's going to happen to the used car market or when. If you downgrade you'll probably end up driving a car you don't like for several years.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

It all levels out, you get more for yours but you pay more for the replacement. I sort of did what you are thinking, but not quite. Sold my 4yr old car for close to what I paid for it the year before and then bought a nicer, but older car for roughly the same amount. I only thought about it because the offer on mine was high but once the wheels in your mind start turning............

If you are thinking about it then I suspect you will do it. A car with niggles gets under your skin so maybe it is a good time to move it on. Whether you will win is another matter so ultimately only get what you actually want to be driving.

 

[andycap]

Thanks , my worry is that anything i buy now is fetching top money , i believe this is all to do with new cars not being available , if the industry gets going again , used car values will plummet and i'm left with a car that is worth a lot less than i paid for it , i appreciate that i am trying to , lets say ' have my cake and eat it '

 

[PNWokingham]

Knowing that many on here are quite car savvy i thought i'd ask what your thoughts are . Prices of 2nd hand cars are really strong at the moment , i have a 67 plate Mercedes that i have owned less than a year .Dealership is offering 2K more than i paid for it , Cazoo etc are offering quite a bit more , obviously any thing i buy at the moment will be expensive and if the market settles back down then value will plummet on anything i buy now .My thoughts are keep what i've got or sell it for a good price , buy a cheap run around and not buy again until prices drop .
I do like my Merc but this is the first Merc i've had that keeps having niggling problems .(owned Mercs for 25+ yrs ) . The latest is a nox sensor ,warranty covered , been waiting 3 months for the part ,MOT has now expired and will not pass because engine management light is on , so dealership has given me a courtesy car until mine is fixed , which may not be this year !

i did exactly this - sold my BMW and bought a skoda for less than half the price. I was seriously tempted to buy something 10 years older for 1 tebnth of the price. I keep updateing the value of the BM on WBAC and it went up 2k on what i sold it for - but i got nearly 2k more than WBAC on Motorway - so maybe i am circa a grand down on peak - but the Skoda looks like it was a bargain and the guy said it was pre lockdown price and they had only just opened up - and looking now, it could easily be 3k+ dearer.

Anyway, if i hadn't have found this bargain, i would have bought a v cheap runaround and used it until the supply issues are sorted and the market was flooded with second-hand cars and prices tank - it may take a year but i think a good option

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Thanks , my worry is that anything i buy now is fetching top money , i believe this is all to do with new cars not being available , if the industry gets going again , used car values will plummet and i'm left with a car that is worth a lot less than i paid for it , i appreciate that i am trying to , lets say ' have my cake and eat it '

If you sell at the top and buy at the top then does one not cancel out the other? The problem only really occurs when you have nothing to sell and are buying at the top only. I might not have thought this through properly, Friday brain, but that makes sense to me.

 

[GreiginFife]

I read an article yesterday that suggests that the major chip manufacturers (plus Sony and a few other multis) are pushing heavily to return to "normality". However, the car industry is waaaayyy down on that list of priorities as it makes up such a small demand and could remain in supply crisis until Q3/4 2022.
TSMC are really pushing full steam to get supply to the big demand areas and these should see normality return Q1.

The thing with the car market is that there will eventually be an oversupply of cars and even with the chip shortages in play, prices will start to fall as the number of buyers declines (can't find a "good" deal or have already bought).

I have made off like a bandit out of this, PX my M340i for £5k more than my finance value (unheard of after 20 months on a new BMW) and buy in to a new 840i whilst taking advantage of the contribution deals they had on before the shortage really bit. So I will walk away with a new 8 series with a purchase price lower than that of the M340i when I bought it last February. Without that additional equity caused by the shortage it would be too expensive (monthly).

I agree with Tyrion's take, it's pretty much status quo if you sell inflated and buy inflated. Either way the value of the current car and the potential new car will plummet at some point.

 

[fundy]

ignore the mkt imo, you need to own 1 car. sounds to me like the car is a wrong un, chop it in and find a good one. if you want to gamble on buying a cheaper car now then trading up in a year or two if/when the mkt falls that really depends on the sort of mileage you do and how reliant you are on the car

 

[Wabinez]

Did similar to above really….got £4.5k over finance settlement as a part-ex, so bought a car 1 year older with 11k less miles and saved myself £100/120 a month.

Just a shame fuel costs are now rising exponentially!

 

[Hobbit]

Knowing that many on here are quite car savvy i thought i'd ask what your thoughts are . Prices of 2nd hand cars are really strong at the moment , i have a 67 plate Mercedes that i have owned less than a year .Dealership is offering 2K more than i paid for it , Cazoo etc are offering quite a bit more , obviously any thing i buy at the moment will be expensive and if the market settles back down then value will plummet on anything i buy now .My thoughts are keep what i've got or sell it for a good price , buy a cheap run around and not buy again until prices drop .
I do like my Merc but this is the first Merc i've had that keeps having niggling problems .(owned Mercs for 25+ yrs ) . The latest is a nox sensor ,warranty covered , been waiting 3 months for the part ,MOT has now expired and will not pass because engine management light is on , so dealership has given me a courtesy car until mine is fixed , which may not be this year !

Irrespective of market prices get rid of that piece of junk before it breaks you. HID had a Merc several years ago. Of the 13 months she had it, it spent 7 months in the dealership getting various niggling faults fixed.

 

[road2ruin]

Thanks , my worry is that anything i buy now is fetching top money , i believe this is all to do with new cars not being available , if the industry gets going again , used car values will plummet and i'm left with a car that is worth a lot less than i paid for it , i appreciate that i am trying to , lets say ' have my cake and eat it '

I’ve ordered a new lease car, it was meant to be a January delivery it that’s already been pushed back to March and could be delayed further. This lack of new cars is helping keep the prices in the used car market strong. Anyway, as part of the new car I am selling my Audi, I was speaking to a garage who are interested and they told me not to worry about my car price going down in the meantime, they expect this continue well in 2023.